Pastor Rich Wilkerson has made a very unique offer to the group of criminals who stole his car last week.
In a video posted to Instagram, the prominent megachurch pastor insisted that he held no hard feelings against the group, who stole the vehicle from the driveway outside his Miami home.
“If you hadn’t heard, about two days ago, our car was stolen from our driveway,” Wilkerson explained. “It was a little scary and felt a little invasive, but the good news is that they found the car now.”
Wilkerson added: “Whoever you are that took our car, we think there’s about three of you, I want to let you know — we love you, we’re for you and thank you for leaving it somewhere that we could find it.”
Imploring the thieves to change the trajectory of their lives before it is too late, the “Vous Church” leader (and Kanye West’s pastoral confidante) said he’d be willing to sign the miscreants up to a three-month, unpaid internship at his church.
“I want to give you a better strategy toward success,” Wilkerson explained. “This Sunday I want you to come to Vous Church. Come up to the front afterwards and say, ‘hey, I was the one that Rich was challenging.. I was a part of that incident.'”
“We want to give you an opportunity, and the opportunity is this: I’m going to let you be an intern at Vous Church for three months.”
Wilkerson assured that this was a wonderful chance for the criminals to forge a better path in life.
“Now listen, I will not pay you, you did steal my car. But for three months, I’m going to intern you and mentor you and I actually believe if you give us three months of your life, your life will be changed, you’ll be on a much better path. I think you can take this really bad thing that happened and turn it into a good thing,” he said.
Wilkerson also insisted he was “not gonna prosecute or press charges.”
“I actually want to love you and give you an opportunity,” he concluded.
Many responded to the Facebook post — some with jokes and others with serious offers of help and support. “I stole your car see you Sunday,” replied Christian hip hop artist Andy Mineo, much to the amusement of many.
“I’ll add to that. If you do the internship I’ll help you find legal money,” added Christian rapper, Lecrae.
“This is awesome Pastor Rich!” another user replied. “Such a good example of using a bad situation and turning it into spreading God’s love.”