Broadcaster and leader of the Free Nation Online Church, Ifedayo Olarinde, aka Daddy Freeze, was recently criticized for collecting a phone gift from members of his church, an act for he attacks popular pastors.
In an interview with Punch Newspaper, Daddy Freeze spoke on why he is justified to collect such gifts, “I’ve never been against collecting gifts and I tell my congregation that, especially if the gifts aren’t as ridiculous as private jets. We don’t take tithes or offerings; we don’t sow seeds and any of the monetary compensations the regular churches have, such as pastor’s appreciation fund and the likes. There is nowhere in the Bible that gifts were turned down; so, we can’t turn gifts down. What’s important is that a preacher must tell his congregation that the blessing of giving is in giving to the poor, not to the church or the preacher. I tell my congregation that whatever gifts they give me are gifts of love. I have needs too. That doesn’t make me a hypocrite.”
On why he started the church, Freeze said, “When I started preaching, people started following what I preached and started believing in it just because I could back up what I was saying. By this time, people had stopped going to church. If you listen to four of my teachings, you’ll stop going to church. So, one of my egbons (big brother) asked me what I had planned for the people who had pulled out of church and had started following me since somehow, they had to have their spiritual lives catered for. Since they had left the church to come with me, I had to cater to their spiritual needs. That’s when it was ministered to me that I had to open a centre, and because of the issues the church and I had, not wanting to seem defiant or combatant, it was again ministered to me to start an online church. All you need to be a part of our church is data on your phone.”
