The founder and leader of a controversial Atlanta-based megachurch has appealed online for 200,000 people to each donate ‘$300 or more’ so that he can buy a $65 million private jet favored by high-flying billionaires.

Reverend Creflo Dollar, 53, is the head of the World Changers Church International, a Christian ministry centered around the prosperity gospel, which preaches that God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches.

The televangelist, who is one of the most prominent African-American preachers in the United States, this week put a five-minute video up on his website pledging for donations for a Gulfstream G650 – which claims to be the fastest plane ever built in civilian aviation – so that ‘World Changers Church International can continue to blanket the globe with the Gospel of grace’.

Dollar – who is known to own two Rolls Royce’s and multi-million dollar homes in Atlanta and New Jersey – last hit headlines in 2012, after being arrested for allegedly attacking his 15-year-old daughter. 

There is a long waiting list for the aircraft, with the next round of planes not due until 2017.

According to the Creflo Dollar Ministry’s website: ‘The ministry’s current airplane, was built in 1984, purchased by the ministry in 1999 and has since logged four million miles.

‘Recently on an overseas trip to a global conference, one of the engines failed.

The Christian Post first reported that Dollar insisted that he needs the jet to continue sharing the word of Jesus.

He preaches all over the world, but primarily works out of a 8,500-seat amphitheater in Atlanta called the ‘World Dome’, satelliting the sermons to churches all over the country.

The website pledge continued: ‘Believe it or not, there are still millions of people on this planet who have never heard of Jesus Christ and know nothing of His greatness.’

‘Our hearts desire to see precious lives changed and snatched out of darkness and thrust into His marvelous light!

‘We need your help to continue reaching a lost and dying world for the Lord Jesus Christ,” the appeal continued before asking supporters of the ministry to sow a $300 seed into the airplane fund, billed Project G650.’

However, according to Financial Juneteenth, a Report of the Senate Finance Committee, Minority Staff Review of WCCI, found that Dollar’s current jet had also been used for a variety of vacation flights, including stops in Las Vegas, Nevada, Miami, Florida and Hawaii, citing Federal Aviation Administration figures.

Dollar has refused over the years to disclose his salary, but has an estimated net worth of $27 million.

He has five children to his wife, Taffi, who he married in 1985.

The teenager also said it wasn’t the first time something like that had happened and that she felt threatened living in the house.

Dollar was arrested and charged with family brutality and juvenile cruelty.

The charges were later dropped, but he was required to complete a three-month anger management program.

At his next sermon, two days following the arrest, Dollar spent several minutes addressing the incident, starting with: ‘I will say this emphatically: I should have never been arrested.’

Dollar has strenuously denied the accusations, saying it was a family argument with ‘heightened emotions’.

During her address, she claims Dollar comes ‘face to face with God, like Moses’.

She also includes an admonition saying that ‘every tongue that rises up against’ (Dollar) ‘will be struck down’, Financial Juneteenth reported.

The World Changers Church International (WCCI) has about 30,000 constituents.