October 23, 2025
Pastor Marvin Winans is responding to the viral moment involving a church member’s $1,200 donation that drew widespread backlash.
Bishop Marvin Winans and a member of Detroit’s Perfecting Church are addressing their interaction in a viral video that drew widespread backlash.
Winans has been under fire after a clip from Perfecting Church’s “Day of Giving” appeared to show him scolding a woman who donated less than the $2,000 he requested from the congregation. However, according to Winans and Roberta McCoy—the woman who gave $1,235—donations were intended to help complete the church’s new sanctuary and support community programs.
Winans asked those giving $2,000 or more to come to the front first, followed by others in descending order of donation amounts, down to as little as $1.62. McCoy’s donation fell below the $2,000 threshold, and she reportedly ended up in the wrong line to present her contribution to the pastor.
“He absolutely did not rebuke me. Now there’s a difference. There was a correction because let me clearly state that the pastor gave instructions on the lines to get into,” McCoy told WXYZ.
Winans says his actions during the event were intended to maintain order and prevent elderly members from standing for long periods.
“I was calling because the whole church was giving, and it was our day of giving, and the whole church was coming, and we didn’t want people standing, the mothers and all that, so I was calling them by increments,” Winans said. “And we had someone who had given out before, and I corrected it, and I told everybody to listen and come when you call, and that’s all that was.”
In the now-viral clip, Bishop Winans is seen interrupting McCoy as she offered her $1,235 donation, noting that he had requested $2,000, not the amount she contributed.
“Now that is only $1,200,” Winans said. “Y’all not listening to what I’m saying.
“If you have a thousand plus a thousand,” he began to say as McCoy argued she was going to “work on getting” the other $800.
“That ain’t what I asked you to do,” Winans said as the congregation murmured.
McCoy said Bishop Winans personally apologized to her after the incident. A member of Perfecting Church since 2013, she says, despite the exchange being misinterpreted, she has been a consistent donor over the years and plans to continue her support.
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