Grammy-winning gospel singer and Detroit pastor Marvin Winans Sr. is facing serious questions after an investigation by The Center Square revealed he was paid $538,955 in 2025 — for a half-time job — by a taxpayer-funded nonprofit he leads.

According to federal records reviewed by The Center Square's Jared Strong, Winans' salary as president of the Perfecting Community Development Corporation consumed roughly 61 percent of what the nonprofit spent on its stated mission of “community development.” Listed as a half-time position, the pay works out to about $518 an hour.

The numbers tell a troubling story. In 2020, when the nonprofit first began paying Winans, his salary was about $205,000. It has since ballooned to nearly $540,000. In every year since 2020, his pay was the organization's single-largest program expense, eating up between 39 and 65 percent of mission spending. During that same period, the nonprofit went from having 11 paid employees to having none — only Winans on the payroll, supported by 15 volunteers.

The salary increases coincided with a flood of government money. In 2024, Michigan awarded the nonprofit a $500,000 Community Center Grant — announced by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and funded with federal pandemic relief dollars. In the past two years, government grants to the nonprofit totaled about $867,000, while Winans' total compensation over those two years came to just shy of $1 million.

James Hohman, director of fiscal policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, put it plainly: “I don't know whether there were better recipients for this cash, but it doesn't look like it was supposed to go to pay for the salaries of an organization's director.”

To be fair, the state Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity says its records show the grant money was spent appropriately and that it has no evidence Winans misused funds. And Winans himself has not responded to The Center Square's repeated requests for comment — including a visit to his church and a detailed email of the findings. No formal legal accusation has been made.

But the questions compound. The salary is set by a four-person oversight board that includes Winans himself. His secretary declined to say whether the other board members are affiliated with his church.

This report lands less than a year after Winans drew national criticism for publicly rebuking a church member during Perfecting Church's October 2025 “Day of Giving” — telling a woman who brought $1,235 instead of the requested $2,000, “Well, that ain't what I asked you to do.”

The Bible has much to say about shepherds and money. “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). The prophet Ezekiel pronounced woe upon shepherds who feed themselves rather than the flock (Ezekiel 34:2). A nonprofit that exists to serve Detroit's struggling east side — providing food, clothing, and emergency support — should be pouring its resources into the people, not into the president's paycheck.

Marvin Winans is innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the law. But in the court of Christian stewardship, the numbers preach their own sermon — and something is not adding up.