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Earlier this week, we reported about John Gray and his wife Aventer renewing their vows for their eight year anniversary. As a gift for his wife, Gray purchased his wife a Lamborghini truck. The car retails for around $200,000. I don’t have to tell you that churches and their handling of finances can be tricky and controversial. There have been more than a few examples of pastors and churches who’ve used money, the church’s money, irresponsibility and for their own personal gain.
So there are lot of people who get touchy when pastors spend exorbitant amounJohn Gray Says Not A Cent Of Church Money Went To Buy His Wife’s Cars of money and criticized Gray for the lavish gift. After the comments and concerns, Pastor Gray decided to address all of them during a live stream.
“I never saw a good marriage growing up. None of the men in my family have done right by their wives. Except my uncle. But the men that were born in my family, my father, my uncle, my mother’s brothers, they’ve never done marriage successfully. And one of the things that I was always afraid of was is that I wouldn’t have what it took to be a good husband, to be a good father because I never saw that…
The reason why my wife and I wanted to have an eight year wedding celebration because eight is the number of new beginnings. And I needed a new beginning. I didn’t know what I didn’t know about marriage until I got in it…
There’s a lot of stories going around about the gift that I gave my wife. I’ve tried to not listen to it. But one of them is ‘Pastor buys his wife this expensive car.’ First of all, it wasn’t a pastor that bought the car. It was a husband that bought the car. Get that in your spirit. I’m a husband first. Don’t confuse what I do with who I am. What I do is I pastor God’s people. Who I am is a husband and a father and I’ll do anything to honor them. And I won’t ask permission from anybody to do it. No man should.
When I was going up, [Reverend Reginald Lyons] was one of the foremost examples of what a husband should be. He bought his wife the best car. I forget what kind of Cadillac, it was just fly. I forgot what it was but it was so fly. I can’t remember what kind of car he had but whatever the wife always drove better than the husband. Her car would go in the driveway first and he parked behind her. I don’t know why that made me cry. It meant he was covering –he was protecting his wife. He was like babe you go in first, I got you.
The men that I seen growing up, their wives always had a nice car. If they worked hard, their wives always had a nice car. The wife drove the Sedan, the husband drove the truck. I say that to say, in my life, I never saw a man do right by his wife. My father didn’t do right by my mom. My uncle didn’t do right by theirs. I feel the weight of an entire family on me. So when I think about what my wife has sacrificed for me. She’s given me two kids, she’s gone through a thyroidectomy, they had precancerous cells on there. People don’t know what we’ve gone through. It’s nothing to me, to bless her.
What should concern people, who are actually genuinely concerned is: “Did this man use any money from the church to do this?’ And the answer is no. Absolutely not. And God take my life on this live feed if I did. For those who don’t know, me and my wife have a show on the Oprah Winfrey Network. We’re working on season 4. And I’m not an actor on it. I’m a producer of it. Get that straight. Oh by the way, I just signed my second book deal. Win From Within is out now. Go buy it. But the book deal comes with resources. The tv deal comes with resources. And I also have other streams and I’ve also been wise with my savings and investments. I’m not going into details but the point is this, I have created and been patient my whole life for this moment. I’m 45. I’m supposed to wait until I’m 70 to live my best life. I want my wife to be happy. And every man should be able to do what is in his ability to do.
…And here’s the other thing. My babe just – I was getting ready to say it, when we got here, we came here on faith. And let me tell you what faith is, faith is not knowing where you’re going to lay your head. We were staying in hotels: me, my wife, my kids. We were staying in different hotels, for months, preaching the gospel. So that everybody else could get established, because we believed in the vision. We made sure, our whole staff had places to stay, while we were sitting in hotels double rooms…when I would travel and go out of town. I had to pack a bag, go to the airport, come back and forth. And when we werent in a hotel, we were finally able to get an AirBNB. Up until a month ago – hear me – a month ago when we were able to get a home…Nobody knows the sacrifices that go with ministry.
I saw my wife eye’s light up. She was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This would be a dream.’ That’s all she had to say to me. Now I didn’t have the money, I said, ‘Babe, make one up in the computer like you like it. And then, she did, I took that printout. Little did she know, God was blessing me with another deal; so I took some of that money, put a deposit down, but the car is a lot. And I was just like, just because you put a deposit down don’t mean you’re gonna get approved. But from February, until last Saturday, I was walking on faith. And by the grace of God, wise investments, savings, wonderful opportunities, and book deals that the LORD DID; THE LORD DID; THE LORD DID. I was able to be a blessing to my wife. And naw, for those who are asking, ‘Well is it paid off?’ First of all, that’s none of your business, but no. So I’m not gonna tell you. The point is, I was able to bless my wife. Nobody sees the sacrifice. nobody knows this is a one off thing, I been working on that for 10 MONTHS, hoping that God would show up, and He did… I’m a 45-year-old man and I should be able to bless my wife.”
You can watch his comments in their entirety in the video below.
See what other people have to say about Gray and this purchase on the following pages.
