An American televangelist is appealing for donations to fund the purchase of a $US54 million ($AUD71 million) business jet, saying that if Jesus was still preaching he "wouldn't be riding a donkey".
Jesse Duplantis, 68, whose Christian ministry is based in Louisiana, made the appeal for a Dassault Falcon 7X jet in a video for his followers.
Jesse Duplantis Ministries has already gone through three private planes, "burning them up for the Lord Jesus Christ," he said.
He said God told him he needed the plane "in one of the 'greatest statements the Lord ever told me.'"
"Now some people believe that preachers shouldn't have jets," he said in the video.
"I really believe that preachers oughta have and go on every available voice, every available outlet to get this gospel preached to the world."
Mr Duplantis said he needs the jet "so we can go anywhere in the world one stop".
Mr Duplantis recounted a conversation he said he had with God about needing the plane.
"He said, 'Jesse, you wanna come up where I'm at? ... And I said, 'What do you mean?'
"He said, 'I want you to believe in me for a Falcon 7X,'" Mr Duplantis said.
"I can't live long enough to travel by car, or by ship, or by train, but I can do it by an airplane," he said.
"I really believe that if Jesus was physically on the Earth today he wouldn't be riding a donkey ... He'd be in an airplane preaching the gospel all over the world."
The eight-passenger Falcon 7X can fly from Paris to Tokyo or Shanghai to Seattle on a single tank of fuel.
But Mr Duplantis is not the first preacher asking his followers to help fund a jet.
In 2015, Creflo Dollar faced a backlash after asking devotees for $60 million for a Gulfstream G650.
Also in 2015, Kenneth Copeland acquired a Gulfstream V jet, paid for by his followers.
