An announcement made by the delighted Evangelical pastor Rick Warren on Saturday during a church sermon confirmed that the plea he had sent out for donations to fill a $900,000 deficit at his Southern California mega-church has managed to collect a whopping $2.4 Million.

The appeal was posted online on Wednesday, and Mr. Warren has shared that the amount raised was inclusive only of the money parishioners had brought in person to the church by New Year's Eve. Even more donations are currently arriving through mail and hand.

"This is pretty amazing. I don't think any church has gotten a cash offering like that off a letter", Mr. Warren said. The announcement was made by bringing out 24 volunteers, each of who held a sign for $100,000.

The pastor has now shared that he plans to talk about, what he describes as his church's "radical generosity", all throughout the weekend's sermon.

"With 10 percent of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated", read the appeal that was posted online.