Kansas City Star: Lax financial oversight riles some church followers
The Kansas City Star did a lengthy article yesterday about Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Jerry Johnston, here in the Kansas City area. Johnston sees himself as the next Jerry Falwell. Here are some excerpts.
As hundreds of new worshipers flock into his First Family Church, hundreds of others have bailed out, complaining that the pastor they once held in high esteem appears more intent on building his own kingdom than God’s.
“What he preaches from the pulpit, he doesn’t put into action,” said Bruce Shalberg, who was co-chairman of a fundraiser that he said raised millions of dollars several years ago to pay off the new church building. “You would have to call someone like that a hypocrite.”
What’s more, an examination by The Kansas City Star found that the church is structured in a way that provides little financial oversight.
Johnston dismisses such complaints, maintaining that they are merely attempts by his enemies to discredit him because of his church’s success and his uncompromising stances on social issues. In a Feb. 18 sermon, he told followers that strong leaders should expect opposition.
“Whenever God’s work is being built, Satan sends opponents, and he energizes opponents,” Johnston said. “Beware of Satan as he speaks through different people.”
The newspaper did not examine Johnston’s religious doctrine or his positions on social issues, only the church’s finances. Among the findings:
Broken promise. Johnston raised millions of dollars in late 2005 for a new children’s building that was to include a Christian academy. But last August, despite completion of the building, he told church members that the launch of the academy was being postponed and that First Family instead would build a bigger, 5,000- to 7,000-seat sanctuary. Financial experts said that raised ethical and possible legal questions.
Delayed spending. In October 2000 the church launched the “Cornerstone Campaign” for its sanctuary, promising donors their names would be engraved on a large monument near the church entrance. Though $750,000 was raised, the monument wasn’t erected until six years later, after The Star began examining church finances. And it was scaled down considerably from what was proposed in 2000.
Unexplained land deal. In 2005, Johnston told followers that God had answered their prayers — someone had donated more than 200 acres for a new youth camp. But real estate records show that Johnston’s 25-year-old son, Jeremy, actually signed a $400,000 mortgage on the property in the church’s name.
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But Tim Dollar, a lawyer listed in church corporation papers as a board member until January, acknowledged he hadn’t been to a meeting in years. Dollar said he didn’t even know who was on the board and hadn’t ever attended the church.
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Johnston said only the church’s board members were entitled to his salary information, and Ulrich agreed.
“Most industry and most churches do not publish that because of the privacy of the employee, among other reasons,” Ulrich said. “But I can say that the board has approved everything, and the board represents the congregation.”
Officials at several other large churches in the metropolitan area, however, said they provided their pastors’ salaries to members who asked for it.
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“Guess what?” he asked his congregation after rattling off the names of evangelists such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson in a 2005 sermon. “Those men are getting old. Really old.
“See, God’s calling us to step up to the plate. And there are national Christian leaders all over this nation that are looking to First Family Church to do the job.”
Perhaps the biggest criticism of Johnston’s church is that members aren’t allowed to see detailed financial information.
“We became very concerned financially about the fact that there was never a vote on anything,” Balmer said. “You never get an accounting for how your money is being spent.”
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Vicki Murray, another building committee member, said the group repeatedly asked Johnston for financial records. Murray said Johnston called her after Simmons quit, telling her he was broken-hearted and asking her to stay.
“I just said: ‘Well, can I pick up where he left off? Am I ever going to get to see your actual books?’ And he said that just wasn’t important to him. The ministry and the fundraising and everything else was. And if that was the way I felt, then perhaps I should go, too.”
Within weeks, the entire committee quit.
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But First Family’s current $17 million budget is hefty considering its 4,200 membership. By comparison, the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood has nearly 12,000 members and a budget of $12 million. College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe, with 3,200 members, has a $7 million budget.
The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability also stresses the importance of an informed board. Johnston at first said First Family’s board consisted of 10 or 11 members, including himself and his wife, but later provided The Star seven names.
Still, it remains unclear how board members are selected. Johnston said members appointed other members. Ulrich, the chairman, said he was elected by the congregation. When asked whether church members still elected board members, he said, “Well, the bylaws have changed.”
The church denied The Star’s request for a copy of the bylaws.
Also see:
Pastor, church have been delinquent in paying tax bills
Lavish lifestyles at odds with pastor’s calls for the faithful to sacrifice
I went to First Family Church. JERRY FALWELL IS A CLOSE PERSONAL FRIEND OF JERRY JOHNSTON'S AND IN FACT IS HIS MENTOR.
And everything you have read is true. The members who were there when I went to FFC (I was there when Simmons was) saw what was happening and left. We were fooled for a long time just as there are a lot of people attending his church now who are in denial and are defending Jerry now.
I know that not all churches are like FFC and not all pastors are like Jerry. But now I am an ex churchgoer.
Posted by: Beth | Mar 14, 2007 at 07:10 PM
Beth, thank you for your take. I don't have any firsthand information about Johnston or the church but lots of stories of negative interactions. I read that earlier this week Bott Broadcasting (Christian radio) has dropped Johnston's worship service from their radio stations because they found out, in doing their own fact checking, that First Family does not subscribe to the ECFA (Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability) and that is mandatory for their broadcast partners.
Things like raising money for a Christian school and then using it for other purposes is a patent violation of designated funds. I don't know the people involved so I have no ability to evaluate motives but this (among a host of other things revealed in the article) are deeply wrong for ANY organization that receives contributions. There is very strong evidence of no financial control.
On a more important note, I am saddened that you have not found a new Church community to be with. I will pray that God will lead you to a new community with a more healthly environment.
Posted by: Michael W. Kruse | Mar 14, 2007 at 07:46 PM
Some points about FFC, the KC Star story and questions I've seen about:
1. Unnamed sources in article: Many couldn't leave their names for Judy, I didn't. Why? We were employed by FFC and the have a contract which specifically makes us liable if we ever speak about FFC in a negative way which causes FFC harm. We've already been abused by Jerry and Jeremy - massive time away from our families, at the beck and call of Jerry, even in the middle of the night (2am your phone goes off and you're to answer, jump and go - or else) - last thing many of us want (and, yes, we do talk about what happened there) is to be brought in to a lawsuit with a church that has a budget of 17 million...
2. Just a character assassination of Jerry: Character assassinations only work if the character being assassinated is flawed. If Jerry is a man of God, he has nothing to fear. However, Jerry's god is money. It is evident in his business practices, evident in his spending, evident in his material possessions. It is even evident in his preaching. He preaches a prosperity gospel - give and you will be blessed... Tithe your first fruits or you're stealing from God (have you even read that scripture in context? It was directed to the Levi's) - he makes not giving a sin *a man made tradition*. Then he mocks people who object saying he doesn't know of anyone tithing who has a problem preaching on the tithe. Well, I know he lied about this as I gave more then 10% (more then a tithe) and had a problem with his teaching, even addressed it directly with him and got "those are good questions, I'll get back with you" - it has been years, still no answer.
If you want to see genuine character assassination, work for the Johnstons and then quit, behind your back, Jerry or Jeremy will totally stab you in the back. I saw this done with my own eyes. Heck, I once mentioned a pastor should have been able to fix a problem in less time and, without even a second thought, they offered me his job - seeing the insane hours he worked, I was like, no way - but they said "if he can't do the job we'll remove him" - without any concern to his family, his kids or his sacrifice to work in a ministry position at lower (crappy) pay.
3. Jerry's funding to start the church: Do you recall that Jerry said he liquidated his prior ministry, against the recommendation of his board? Well he said it was in the $200k-$300k (I forget the exact number) range, official documents put the value of his prior ministry at over $400k, he lied to you about his sacrifice.
4. Jerry's a man of God who preaches the word and he doesn't buy other people's sermons: He lied to you about 1 hour of study per minute on the pulpit. That is totally a lie and EVERYONE who works with him knows this. Perhaps, if you take everyone who works on his sermon (oh, what, you thought HE was doing the work!) and those who edit the video afterwards and post up the stream on the net and the DVDs and CDs, perhaps then it is 1 hour of work per minute of preaching from the pulpit. And if you were in his class on preaching, you would see it really takes a significant amount of time less then what he claims - I still have the notes from that class and his formula for speaking, you would totally lose all respect for him if you knew how his notes are designed to "work" you and move you - not moved by the Spirit, moved by crafty speaking techniques.
4. First Family Church spending. I know for a fact, on several occasions when I asked for people in the church, any assistance was denied (we don't do that, is the answer). I know of the heater mentioned in the article and I know eye witnesses to it. I know of the missionaries, who begged to be left out of the story, and eye witnesses of that too. I've seen many instances where others had to sacrifice for the needs of the people to be fulfilled when FFC had millions and Jerry making over $250k and Jeremy over $100k (yeah, a 22-yr old punk kid making more then over 60% of the flock in the church) - and not a dime from them personally to help. People on less then $35k had to pony up the funds. And, for the record, according to documents I saw, the staff's pay was abysmal - we're talking about full time workers (which, at FFC is 60 hours) making $28k, the highest non-blood pay I saw was $54k for a person who worked 70 hours a week regularly and peaked over 90 hours some weeks. These people didn't go on the six trips a year like the Johnstons.
5. The children's building we were sold was not the children's building we got. We were promised that it would have the touch of the animatronics from the creator of the Rain forest cafe. Sadly, what we got was an idol of a dead man with his name plastered on the outside of the building. We were promised a school to rival Rockhurst (oh, and the funny thing was only the rich of the church where invited to put their children in the school - if you didn't tithe enough money or they knew you weren't rich, you didn't get the personal letter from Jerry about how important it was to enroll your kids) and no school exists. The staff was lied to about why (because, some teachers who were promised jobs had quit to work at FFC and when they found out it wasn't profitable enough, they canned it and had to make an excuse - some lie about the building not being up to spec for a school - something the county denies, the building is fine) - do you recall him bragging about the county calling to check with him to see how many students the school will be so they can adjust the county's plans? I do.
6. Stat lies: Crusades - I don't know if you were there when he did these, but I know this, the people who received those making decisions for Christ would tally up those numbers and then hand it off to Jerry, often, Jerry would triple those numbers, usually at least double them. He mocked the work of the Holy Spirit. The person solely responsible for the tally and handed the document to Jerry is where that comes from. Likewise, Jerry's comments on the summer's vacation bible school was grossly exaggerated, the real numbers were 25% less or 35% less.
If you want to see the genuine character of Jerry and Jeremy, merely demand to see the books.
Even so much as last week, when a person questioned Christian about the books, they were told to leave.
No, given the knowledge I have about the Johnstons, the information I passed to Judy, the scripture which totally undermines Jerry, the article was a softball without teeth, I didn't think it went as far as it should.
Relevant scripture:
2 Timothy 3:1-5
1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
1 Timothy 6:9-10
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
1 Timothy 3
Qualifications of Overseers
1 This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop,[a] he desires a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money,[b] but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence 5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); 6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
Luke 12:15
And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness,[a] for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
Titus 1:5-9
Qualified Elders
5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you— 6 if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. 7 For a bishop[b] must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, 8 but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, 9 holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
Posted by: Unknown Person | Mar 20, 2007 at 01:17 PM
Unknown, I sorry to hear of your struggles and the difficulties you have been through. What you are describing is why I shy away from churches that don't have any higher accountability than the pastor. That is exceedingly dangerous. I hope you will find some peace in the days ahead.
Posted by: Michael W. Kruse | Mar 20, 2007 at 02:22 PM
Trust me, I'm not hurting.
I am wanting to see GED Jerry taken to task for his actions as I would anyone else. He is a cancer in the body which must be removed (or cured, whatever). The fact his behaviors are being exposed is all that matters.
I moved on, my foundation of faith unmoved, in fact, confirmed as I need to cling to the cross and not a man. However, with any person bringing a bad name to Christ, he must be dealt with. He also must be dealt with in light of scripture.
It isn't personal, it is a matter of the Church cleaning itself. We will 'suffer' for the infighting, but with all change or conflict, comes issues. The scriptural approach for conflict and sin was used (in private, with a brother and now to the church). It is all up to GED Jerry how this will end and what will become of him, suffice to say, enough people have been impacted by Jerry that it isn't going away.
I'm torn, however, on church structure as I see church organizations with a hierarchy and I see the evil they brought to this world "in the name of Christ" and the doctrinal positions inconsistent with the bible.
I can say, for fact, that Jesus has given me internal peace for almost a decade now, even this event, while I was going through it, I was at peace. This isn't "the end of the world", just a man's behavior being exposed.
I do appreciate the concern and thank you for it :)
Posted by: Unknown Person | Mar 20, 2007 at 09:17 PM