Transcription
[Music] I have had criticism before about the way that some of these pastors go about getting money from the congregation. And recently, there was a video that went pretty viral of Pastor Marvin Wynens basically telling a woman that the money that she is offering isn't enough, uh, in so many ways to speak.
Now, we already covered on this show about a year ago when it was, uh, Pastor Marvin Shap, who said, "Close the doors," and wouldn't allow the congregation to leave until they donated money. Now, we have a different Marvin, but this time the person is donating money, but he doesn't think it's enough. So, he has a problem with it. And I have some things to say. Marvin Wynens, who does come from a prominent gospel family, the Winans. He has a net worth of over $5 million. Let's get into this.
Marvin Wynan's net worth revealed after he scoffed at his church members' donation. The pastor went viral for telling the member, he asked the congregation to give a thousand plus 1,000. This is Pastor Marvin Winens. Let's continue on.
So, Marvin Wynins is a member of one of the most notable families in gospel music, the Winsans. The chart-topping family used their notoriety to spread music and later ministry to the world. After decades of singing, Marvin branched out and created his place of worship, Perfecting Church, in the family's hometown of Detroit, Michigan. I'm going to pause right there. The Winsans, like, they, they sang like there was a brother-sister duo, BB and CC Winans. Uh, they sang, they, they put out albums like, and I'm talking about like, not like they just made some local songs here and there, but like, no, they put out chart-topping albums. Uh, they are very well known in the black gospel community, so people know about the Winans. This ain't no broke family, okay?
Now, Marvin's church sparked controversy in October 2025 when a video obtained by Baller Alert captured him scolding one of his members, Robera McCoy, for offering the church $1,000 plus an additional $235, which totals $1,235. I'll get to the video and I'll, you'll get to see what he said yourself. The request from Marvin to his church members peaked interest into his own pockets, including his net worth. Here's a look at his finances. Dun dun.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Marvin's net worth is estimated at $5 million. His impressive net worth stems from his musical prominence, which he began when he and his brothers formed their gospel singing group, The Testimonial Singers. According to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the group changed its name to the Winans after they were discovered by gospel artist Andre Crouch, who signed them to Light Records in the early '80s. In 1981, the Win-ins debuted their first record, Introducing the Winans. Throughout the '80s and the '90s, the Winans became successful by sticking to their gospel roots while also being unafraid to delve into the R&B genre, which eventually put them on Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Anita Baker, and Michael McDonald's radar. Yeah, Michael McDonald. You guys know Michael McDonald? You know, the guy that sings like, what's, what's the song? The one, the, the guy that came from, I think he's from the Doobie Brothers or something like that. Um, Warren G remade his song, you know the song "Regulators." "Regulators." He sampled that from that song, um, "I Can't Forget There's No Love Anymore." My parents used to play that song. "Can't Forget Things Will Never Be the Same Again." You guys know what I'm talking about. Okay. So, some of you guys do know. Yeah. Okay. So, you know Michael McDonald. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Cool. So, they got on the radar of Michael McDonald, like Anita Baker, Vanessa Armstrong, at that time, you know, really big singers in the secular music industry. Quincy Jones even signed the group to his label, Quest Studios, in the early '90s. Marvin's work with the Winans earned him a Grammy in 1985 for best male soul gospel performance for the song "Bring Back the Days of Yea and Nay." Okay. All right. So, that's important because when you see this video, I mean, I have things to say.
This is Marvin Winens here. He goes viral after criticizing a woman and her son in front of the entire church for donating $1,200 instead of $2,000 during a fundraiser. Let's see. I'll put the caption on here so you can see.
"Here we I, Robera McCoy, given faith and stand in unity with the vision of Perfected Church of sewing this seed of $1,000 plus $235 and receiving the blessings to come to all that participated."
>> Now, that, that's >> pause. Now, this donation is going towards, I guess they're trying to build a new faith center. Okay. So, they're trying to build a new faith center. Now, that's 1,000 plus 200 something. Okay, now we're going to listen to this again because I'm going to go off about this because I really do not like when people look down on, you know, how much you have to give.
"I, Robera McCoy, given faith and stand in unity with the vision of perfecting churches, sewing this seed of $1,000 plus $235 and receiving the blessings to come to all that participated."
>> Now, that, that's only $1,200. Yes.
>> Y'all not listening to what I'm saying. If you have a thousand plus a thousand.
>> Okay. But I'm going to work on the other 800.
>> Well, that ain't what I asked you to do.
>> So, [Laughter] she said she's going to work on the other 800. He said, "That's not what I asked you to do." Ashur says, "Bougie pastor." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Now, here's the problem that I have with this. Okay. Now, some people have said, "Well, you know, that line was only supposed to be for the people who were given at least 2,000 and da da da." I don't care. My problem is, you have someone standing there who has a net worth of $5 million. Why is he asking the congregation, and apparently from what I understand, donations were coming in from all over the world? Why is he asking them for all this money to build this new faith center? Anybody? The way that money has been used in these spaces, in my opinion, is absolutely ridiculous. Two, this woman is willing to donate $1,200. So, she's like, "This is what I have. $1,000 plus another $200. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. I, I, most of you don't have $1,000 just to give away like that." Like, it's a lot of money. And to me, I feel like that money should have been put somewhere else. We can get into that. But the way that he spoke to her, "Y'all not listening." And she got her son with her, in front of the kid.
>> Now, that, that's only $1,200.
>> Yes.
>> Y'all not listening to what I'm saying. If you have a thousand plus a thousand.
>> Okay. Well, I'm going to work on the other 800.
>> Well, that ain't what I asked you to do.
>> It's arrogant. And, and also, why does he need to say that in front of the entire congregation? That's also embarrassing. Tip critique says, "The black church is failing black people." We're going to get to that in just a second, cuz see, here, here, here's the thing, man. Here's the thing, okay? You have a net worth of $5 million. Some of these pastors that are asking people to donate all this money so they can get a second building or another church or another faith center are millionaires. They're living in fancy, big fancy homes, driving fancy cars, expensive cars. Some of them have private jets. Hello, T.D. Jakes, Joel Osteen. Some of them have private jets, but they coming to you every Sunday asking you for money. Sunday, Wednesday on Bible study night, and any other activity services that you go throughout the week. Now, don't get it twisted. I understand that buildings have to be maintained. I do understand that if you have a building, you have a church, whatever facility you have, there are repairs that need to be made. These things have to be maintained. I get it. Okay. What I'm saying is though, when the pastor is living large, and he had all these, these platinum albums that I just told you about, he's a Winans. This isn't Pastor, you know, Joe that just started a church at a, at a shopping center two years ago. He's a Winans. He's loaded. He could take his own damn money and build a new faith center. You see what I'm saying? That's the problem. That's the problem. He's a millionaire. A lot of these people ain't millionaires. A lot of people in the congregation, a lot of times, you know, they're doing the best that they can do. But I remember seeing people donating money to pastors in the church when they didn't have, they didn't have it to pay their bills. "I got to pay the light bill, but I need to pay tithes." So, it just, now, and I, I look at things. I pay attention to things, especially over the years. When I was little and when I grew up, I paid attention to things and I'm like, "Wait a minute. Now the pastor is driving a fancy car, Jaguar, Rolls-Royce, got blinged-out rims, expensive suits, lives in a big old house with a pool, and some of the people in the congregation are struggling to pay their rent." That don't seem right. That isn't what the church is supposed to be about. And some of these mega churches have been getting over for years, getting over on people. To me, it comes across as a scam. So, I, I have the same type of feeling I did towards Marvin, uh, Marvin Shap, when he told the people that they couldn't leave the church until they donated money. You're loaded. Loaded. People talked about it before, they talked about pimps in the pulpit. And when I look at someone again like Marvin, we talk about pimps in the pulpit or these con artists, etc. You came from a family that, dude, you're famous. You recorded with Quincy Jones. You sold multiple albums. Again, you're not just a pastor that started preaching yesterday. But you're asking them for money for a new center for what? You could buy that building. That's what really, really bothers me.
So, you see a lot of people are talking about this because even there's a number of articles about it. We'll go into a little bit more here. Even BET News covered it, you guys. They're like, "Uh oh. Bishop Marvin Weinens faces backlash after confronting a church member over a fundraising gift." So, we'll go into a little bit here. There he is again. Like I said, dude is loaded. Loaded. Let's go on a little bit here. Okay. Um, just want to get past this clip part. This part.
Perfecting Church has been raising funds for years to complete a massive worship center. The construction began two decades ago, but stalled after the 2008 recession halted financing. So, they've been building this for two decades. You know what I'm saying? City officials sued in 2023, calling the unfinished building a public eyesore. A new agreement later revised the design with completion expected by 2025. Well, we ain't got that long to go in this year. But the point is, they started building this two decades ago. Okay.
Now, let's see. Uh, Eric, can you Google this Perfecting Church? I want to find out the location because I'm going to make a point. The situation has also drawn comparisons to other church controversies. Controversies when gospel singer Marvin Sap faced criticism in August 2024 when footage resurfaced of him requesting $40,000 in donations at a convention and instructing ushers to close the doors. Many of you remember, I went through that video. So, that was this one here. And Sap had commented and he said that the order was meant to ensure safety, explaining the mo, the movement during collection periods can expose finance teams to risk. Yeah. Okay. Whatever. This, this what he said.
>> And they understand the cost that is involved. There's 1,000 of you. I said, "Close them doors." Ushers, close the doors. Close the doors. Close the doors. It's a thousand that's watching online. This is a small seed. If I get a thousand online to give this, if I get a thousand in the sanctuary to give this, that's $40,000 tonight. Now, everyone up here, we've all sold and seated. But I need everyone standing up here with us, with me, to plant a seed of $100 because again, it costs to sit up here. And this is what I need you to do. If you're giving electronically or even if you're giving tangibly, I'm going to have y'all come to the altar and give it, 'cause I need to see a thousand people moving. Bring them baskets. Bring, I want the baskets up here. I want to see the folk. Y'all start moving. Y'all can bring it right now. Come, come, come, come, come. A thousand people need to give $20. A thousand people need to give $20. A thousand people online need to give $20. This is >>
So, that was Marvin Sap. That's the other Marvin. So, Perfecting Church is in Detroit, right? So, that was the other Marvin. You see how they, they be trying to get money out of people, right? So, this church that Marvin Weinens, this worship center that he has been building for two decades is in Detroit, one of the poorest cities in the country. Detroit, Michigan, which has closed over 40 schools. As my comrade Rome from RBN said, he watched them close 40 schools in Detroit, Michigan. You in Detroit, Michigan asking people for $2,000? You've got to be kidding me. 20 years is a scam. And people got to wake up to it. Just because someone is a pastor, that doesn't mean they're telling you to do the right thing. Put the title aside. Use your brain.
And you'll see here, this woman, she came to his defense. "There's always one. That service was 2.5 hours long and people donated from all over the world. That woman got in line for people who sold 2,000 for the building of the new church. That's what he was talking about. But it was a huge success. So we knew the devil would be busy lying." Yeah, I'm sure he probably told you to say that. You know what I'm saying? Who gives a damn? I don't care if she got in the wrong line. I don't care what line she got in. The point is, how are you asking people for $2,000? You've been building the same building for two decades and there's no building. This is like Dr. Umar with no school. I, I just, I, I don't, I don't understand. Sabi confused.
Phil Scott also talked about this and he gave a tip. I think people need to listen to this about where that money should go. Listen to this.
>> But we as black people, you know, we're talking about delineating and all that. We need to delineate our money, remove our money from this black church and put our money in our local communities, helping out, you know, building homes for our people, feeding our people, educating our kids. What if you took that 12 to 13 billion dollars a year and invested into building schools for our children so they don't have to worry about Connor going over there airing out anything 'cause he's mad today.
The point that Phil Scott is making here, it makes so much sense. All that money that's been poured into this new building for over two decades, that is money that should have been put in the community in Detroit. All that money that's being used for that new worship center could have been used to build a new school in Detroit. Could have been used to build housing for people in Detroit. You have a worship center. You were in it right now in the video. People got to think, is too much money being spent going to these churches? "Oh, new this, new that. Pastor got a new big house." You still broke instead of putting that in the community. Now, people say, "Well, church is something that serves the community." No, not really, because everybody don't go to church. Stop it. Kids have to go to school. People need a roof over their head. That money should be put into the community for the people. Homes, schools, recreation centers. Why not use the money to build Detroit? To build up Detroit with your own money so that investors don't keep coming in taking things out.
It was very painful to me to see that woman with $1,000. The fact that she had that to give and with the little nasty little attitude that he had. See, y'all not listening. First of all, look, I don't care how many damn albums you sold, okay? All right. I don't care how many albums you sold. When you're asking people for money, you come with some tact first. And then two, you should be happy for what people can give. I don't care if she got in the wrong line. I can't even believe it's been a while. I can't even believe some of these mega churches are now asking for $2,000 donations. What is going on? You don't need a big fancy house to worship. You can worship and praise anywhere. I have watched churches open in these plazas down south where they had the vacant buildings and it was just one room. I've watched people worship in one room. You don't need a big, big massive mega church. Some of these pastors get greedy and they're living really large and people in the community are struggling.
Now, I'm going to take it another step, 'cause Phil Scott was right about that. But someone else was also right. That was Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." A lot of people are familiar with this. It is very long. We are not going to read the whole damn letter. There's this one part I need to highlight. There are many things that are highlighted from this letter that Dr. King wrote, but the part that I'm going to show you, I don't think I've ever seen highlighted. So, let me go over here. Eric, can we do control find on, um, tight VNC? It'll help me just go straight to it. If we can do that, that'd be great. Thank you. 'Cause we're just going to jump right in. Um, Arch Defender. All right. Um, let me go down here. Let me put this in here. Here we go. Arch Defender. Because in this letter, Martin Luther King gave another warning. He gave a warning about the church.
"So often the contemporary church is weak. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arc defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are. By the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 20th century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."
Martin Luther King warned people in his letter from a Birmingham jail that if the church, and at that point, I'm assuming he was talking about the black church because that's what he was a part of, if they did not change that, they would basically become known as an irrelevant social club. That's what you have today. He goes on to highlight something else here when he says, "Perhaps, perhaps I have been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church. But again, I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks in the struggle, excuse me, some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia with us. They have gone down the highways of the South on torturous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jail with us. But some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers, but they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."
The point that MLK makes here is that the church, I guess even back then in his time, was starting to lose its purpose. It was starting to lose its presence within the activist community, within the organizing community. And to his point, if they didn't change the way they were doing things, they would just end up becoming a social club. That's what you see today. These pastors asking for $2,000 here and there so they can build a new worship center when you already got one that you're in and you're worth $5 million. These pastors flying on these private jets while the congregation is reaching through their purses trying to make sure that they can make their their weekly tithe even if their money at home is tight. Now, I don't know about you guys, but that's not equality. That's not godly. And in fact, what you really have is that one person, that pastor at that mega church who's sitting and living at the tippity-tippity top and everybody else in there in the congregation at the bottom. How is that any different from the capitalist system that we live in today outside of the church? Some of these preachers became capitalists and they're just like, "Oh, I can make money doing this." And to prove that it has become more of a relevant, um, social club, there was the article I forgot to post it, but there was the article that I said before too, where the young people, black churches are using, are losing the youth. That the numbers are declining. And for a reason. You know, some of that has to deal with like the whole Israel thing. That's some of it, but another part of it has to deal with the fact that a lot of these churches, in particular, the mega churches, they just become like capitalist ventures. All you hear is, "Give me money. Give me money. Give me money. Give me money." And you're living in a fancy house, drive a nice car. So, you can't, I mean, it's just a number of things. And then you can't even trust what's said. You know, you still have to, you know, you know, these pastors just be saying anything nowadays. Some of them just want to get on TV. "When can I write my next book?" T.D. Jakes is a good example. Joel Osteen is a good example. They found ways to make that profitable. Let me just sell books. Let me have this mega church. You keep giving me money. I keep getting richer and you guys still at the bottom. What's Christian about that? So, I think MLK had a point and I think that's what happened. Whereas churches at one point used to be like this beacon of, they used to help out the community. Churches were a vessel for mutual aid. Some churches actually have been able to save people out of poverty. Like, that's kind of what they were known for back in the day. But now it has just become another business model and here we are.
So, Marvin, that, that was, that was, oh my gosh, that's bad. That was bad. And, um, I can think of a number of different ways where that money could be put to use in Detroit instead of building your new worship center that you've been working on for two decades.
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