The Meeting – Part II

The Vice-Chair of Finance then called the main organization to ask about this ministry and they claimed to have no knowledge of any such ministry.  He then went to the IRS website and searched the newly compiled lists for any record of them as a not for profit organization because after 911, the IRS compiled a list of every NFP org in the country.  There was no listing for them.  After that he went to the state office to look for a record of this ministry.  There was none.  He also went to the state office of the state in which our main church organization is held. No listing there.

 

At that point he followed up on an address he had for this organization.  It turned out to be a house titled to our pastor, personally.  Not to any ministry name whatsoever.  At that point a board meeting was held and the board asked pastor for an explanation.  He was unable to give one so they asked for documents from the checking account belonging to that ministry.  These were provided and, after reviewing them, these documents were turned over to the state board of our church organization.  “These were the events,” the Chairman and Vice-Chair of Finance said, “that led to pastor’s leave/suspension.”

 

I have to interject here that the documents of the checking account that pastor held were only turned over because he was told he could either turn them over to us or we would have to turn this issue over to the authorities.  I, unfortunately, happen to know this because my husband is still on the board even if I am not.  My husband is good about not sharing board information with me.  As a matter of fact, after that first board meeting where they confronted pastor, he didn’t even tell me all of this was coming down until two weeks later right before a second board meeting when he knew it would begin coming out.  THAT’S how good he is about keep confidences entrusted to him.  I would venture a real good guess that no other spouse kept that information to themselves.

 

I, additionally, have to interject that I ended up having to Xerox these documents when they were turned over to the state board.  What I saw there was a debit card used for a hotel in Miami, dinners at Red Lobster, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Burlington Coat Factory, Radio Shack, some cable company (can’t remember which one).  Pastor had noted on each of the bank statements which funds were used for legitimate ministries and which funds were used for our church.  When I added together in my head the total $$ deposited into this account then subtracted out the total $$ indicated that went to the legitimate ministry and the church, there was $300,000.00 left unaccounted for.  (We only tithes $124,000.00 over that period of time so who knows what other donations he received from misled donors during that time.)

 

The pastor’s wife told the board she would only hand over the documents if the board agreed not to make them public.  Consequently the board did not/could not bring up the above information last night. 

 

And the issue of pastor charging over $80,000.00 to the church credit card for personal items was also not brought up.  Again, I don’t know why.

 

Anyway, the board chairman spoke, then turned over the floor to the Vice-Chair of Finance who covered the dollar amounts and said basically the same thing, then opened up the floor for questions.

 

Immediately a very loud woman who I haven’t seen at church for sometime rose to her feet and charged down to the front of the sanctuary yelling that the church is a corporation and she works in a corporation and this would never happen in a real corporation because the board would have checks and balances in place.  Our pastor is a wonderful man of God, she claimed, and basically she shouted that it was the fault of the board for allowing him to do this.  I was floored.  And she yelled and yelled and went on and on for a very long time.  Some of the crowd roared their support.  Others stood up and began yelling about how pastor has admitted his sin and we should forgive him, etc. etc.  It was truly appalling.

 

The Vice-Chair of Finance quietly answered that, unfortunately, this DOES happen in corporations.  Also that, since tithing is a spiritual endeavor, he had been adamant that pastor select where we tithe.  He didn’t point out that we thought we could TRUST pastor.

 

The pastor then got up and spoke and said he realized he had done wrong but he had only used these monies to help others.  He said there were some people that weren’t being h

elped by the church organization that he felt needed help and that he had helped them and housed them.  He said that he wouldn’t give names to protect the innocent, but many people had come back to him and thanked him saying, “Pastor, you really helped me.”  He said that he and some other people (and, again, he wouldn’t name names to presumably protect the innocent ((although, to the board, he gave two names – both gentlemen had passed away over the past year or two))… some other people had joined him in this endeavor and they had collected over $500,000.00 for this effort.

 

(Five hundred thousand dollars!!! I knew it was bad… but THAT bad… that’s half a million dollars.)

 

But, he said, that still wasn’t enough, there were just too many needy people.  He realized then, he said, that he was just going to have to stop.  He wrought his magic over his disciples and, in a horrifying display of  idolatry, they cheered him then took the microphone saying things like, “If it weren’t for this man, I wouldn’t be saved.  He turned my life around..” (Not Jesus, not God… the Lord was not noted here or given any credit for that!)  “I love my church, I LOVE MY CHURCH, if we didn’t have this church, we wouldn’t have anywhere else to go… we’d be out on the streets, y’all.”  (The church is NOT the building.  Did we all forget that?)