Mega Church Money

tonight an i-team exclusive a mega house from mega church pastor NBC Charlotte I team has confirmed that elevation Church pastor Steven Furtick is building a 16,000 square foot home in wedington new to the multi-million dollar mansion prompted NBC Charlotte i-team reporter Stewart Watson to do what investigative reporters do best follow the money now elevation Church is the largest mega Church in North Carolina and there's no question that elevation and its pastors Steven Furtick have done a lot of good the church has just passed the ten million dollar mark in gifts to charities like Samaritan's Purse and crisis assistance ministry full disclosure members of our staff attend elevation and the church is paid to air its services on NBC Charlotte and it's banner ads on W CNC comm but when the i-team learned that Furtick was building a 1.7 million dollar home we started asking hard questions this is the story of the house of Steve let's be a generation known for what we stand for be a generation known for what we love in the beginning Steven Furtick created elevation church he's a rock and roll star his followers are called elevators these elevators only went up donation from 14 people to 14,000 in less than eight years learning I'd walk out with even bigger plans for the future and the Lord's gonna enable us to be one of the first churches in the United States to have a hundred thousand people he's one part preacher one part celebrity Steve a burner headlining all over the world don't you ever let anyone talk you out of what God put in you he's not a club band anymore he's a stadium band his church giving more than 10 million dollars to charity and hundreds of thousands of hours of volunteer work pastor Steven Furtick I want to tell you thank you now the man who just calls himself Pastor Steven is more popular than the church he built with four times more followers on Twitter than elevation Church itself the book is called greater and it's about dreaming bigger steven Furtick is his own brand profiting from book sales and paid personal appearances around the world and people are asking me like are you really going back to Australia again so the pastor keeps making more money and more money and more money now Steven Furtick is spending a lot of that money on a sixteen thousand square foot house it has seven and a half bathrooms building permits put the contract value of the house alone just shy of 1.4 million dollars the land cost another three hundred twenty-five thousand dollars for a total cost of more than 1.7 million you can't see the house from the street it's behind a no trespassing sign off lockhaven road in Weddington hidden by 19 and a quarter acres of dense woods verdicts name is nowhere on the deed instead the property is in the name of the jumper Drive trust the pastor should be the servant of his people and he should be the the one that's the most transparent Olli Anthony of the Trinity foundation in Dallas Texas belongs to a small church blessed art Thou O Lord our God King of the universe he believes preachers should give up their big houses it saddens me to see what the church is becoming and get back to the Christian churches humble beginnings there the the pastor's lived as the poorest of the poor not the richest of the rich for seven weeks we've tried to talk to Steven Furtick about his multi-million dollar home we've sent emails made phone calls sent a registered letter even made one face to face personal appeal he's always declined until one Sunday he brought me up in his sermon it's other things sorry from lately because they told me this news reporter is trying to do this story where he wants to make our church look bad then he described his multi-million dollar home is quote not that great well me and Holly this year we are building a house we've been looking for piece of land to build a house for our family for a long time so I'm like building this house and I'm we're excited about it and everything but then I found out this is crazy the news try to fly this chopper over our house the people that are building at told us at Blount fly the chopper over your house I'm thinking to myself first of all it's not that great of a house I mean I'm sure there's better houses if you just got to fly a chopper over somebody's house but it started to mess with me a little bit and then I started to get a little self pity cuz I was like that and this thing right because I didn't even build that house with money from the church I built it with money from my books and I gave money to the church from the books and you start getting real defensive and being like this saying right there saying right I I'm sorry but there's something wrong with that Cris Roseboro runs pirate Christian radio from his home in suburban Indianapolis it's kind of protest podcast against preacher profiteers there's no distinction between Elevation Church and Stevens books the the to get meshed together in a way that oftentimes creates a real conflict because the job of a pastor is not to preach his book the primary place that let's just say advertises the message of the book is elev church elevation church paid for full-page ads promoting the book elevation church paid to air sermons featuring the book on TV stations including WC n see you're gonna give something away for every person that purchases greater elevation church packed up swag to sell the book child gets a backpack for every copy of greater somebody called this a gimmick the other day and I thought it was just like always a good thing to do to give a poor child who can't afford a backpack backpack full of supplies I was like didn't know that that fell under the category of gimmick elevation lead pastor chunks Corbett tells me the books helped the church tremendously in three ways first Furtick arranges for the publisher to sell books by the thousands to Elevation Church at his authors discount so elevation Church makes money on the book but no one will say how much second Furtick donate some of his own advance money to Elevation Church Corbett says he's very generous but no one will say how much third the publisher pays Elevation Church outright to produce slick videos marketing the book but no one will say how much all this makes Elevation Church sound like just one more private business I mean is he not doing the exact same thing that the money changes were doing in the temple basically using God's house to make a profit I mean this is exactly the same behavior you know what Jesus did he made a court of whips and drove those damn people out of his out of God's house that the church does not exist for this while the nonprofit tax-exempt Church paid for the promotion the profits from the book paid Furtick himself profits that he says bought the multi-million dollar home I would also argue that it's not exactly suffering for Jesus warren Col Smith is a charlotte author and editor at the world Christian magazine that's sort of the dirty little secret of mega church pastors is that they they they use this church as a platform and then they sell books and then they make a lot of money on the side yet Elevation Church has asked volunteers and employees alike to sign this confidentiality agreement the agreement threatens to sue volunteers and members if they disclose Church finances if Steven Furtick followers in the congregation at elevation want to pay him these out rain outlandish salaries want to allow him to live in multi-million dollar homes that's up to them they're the ones that are contributing the money but they should know that and many churches believe that the congregation the people the followers should get a say in the pastor's salary and his housing allowance though through these elected elders or deacons in the church but at elevation Church this is a closely guarded secret and tomorrow night the i-team will report on the men who set Steven Furtick salary they are not elected and none of them are even members of elevation Church now at six our i-team broke the story of the megachurch pastor 16,000 square foot mansion tonight the question is who sets his salary and who holds him accountable the i-team stuart watson found elevation isn't run like most churches raising questions of accountability so maybe you've been feeling sorry for your scars a little bit lately pastor Steven Furtick has made generous giving a cornerstone at elevation church it's crazy we just passed the mark of 10 million dollars given in the lifetime of this church to organizations outside of the church but pastor Stephen will not tell you how much he gets pay so when I started asking about it he preached about me there's investigative reporter he's been calling around and people been calling us verdict and his top lieutenants refused to tell the people who pay his salary the congregation at elevation Church just how much he makes we don't know and the reason we don't know is because they won't say Warren Cole Smith writes books about the evangelical church from his home in Charlotte the real problem is that there's a lack of transparency Steven Furtick recruited a so-called Board of Overseers to set his salary well that board of overseers looked to me to be a paper tiger the Board of Overseers is made up entirely of other megachurch pastors just like steven Furtick the financial well-being of all of these guys are intimately intertwined that means steven Furtick agrees to pay them to preach at elevation and they pay him to preach at their conferences or mega churches they attend each other's conferences and are compensated for that regularly elevation executive pastor chunks Corbett told me yes pastors get paid for Church appearances but he said the pay is quote small in scope and no he will not disclose the amounts so when Steven Furtick held his code orange revival last year three of the headliners pastor Stovall Weems of Jacksonville Perry noble of Anderson South Carolina and Kevin Gerald of Seattle were all board members at elevation that's three of five votes that set verdicts salary yeah they scratch each other's backs it's not accountability Chris Roseboro runs pirate Christian radio from his home near Indianapolis all of the accountability in fur texture CH goes from the top down elevation Church was founded by Southern Baptists got loans through Southern Baptist still gives missionary money through Southern Baptists but unlike many Baptist churches there are no elected deacons or elders here overseeing the church none of these guys are actually living in Charlotte North Carolina there is one leader living in the Charlotte area chunks Corbett and if you want to understand elevation Church you need to understand his role chunks Corbett is the center of fir DEQ's organization in 2005 he incorporated elevation Church in 2007 Corbin properties southeast a for-profit company in 2008 he signed on as trustee for the jumper drive truss that held the FIR DEQ's home and in 2009 he incorporated Sun standstill ministries another nonprofit all for lists the same principle address one one four one six east independent suite in the location of the Matthews elevation church chunks Corbett refuses to speak on camera but he spent ninety minutes with me answering some questions he praises Steven Furtick for his generosity to Elevation Church but he refuses to release the church's audited financial statement or its bylaws which govern the church that's in stark contrast to another local mega church Forest Hill Church Forest Hill spells out how its elders are elected right on its website we then screen them we interview them look at their experience here in the church and their commitment to Christ and Forest Hill releases its audited financial statement we want to be beyond reproach we want people to see exactly what this congregation is giving many other evangelical groups like the Billy Graham evangelical Association and Samaritan's Purse released their tax returns by law so if you give you might not completely approve of what Franklin Graham gets paid but at least you know and you get a say the Baptist state convention of North Carolina puts salary chart for preachers right on its website you can look up what Baptist preachers get paid depending on the size of their congregations the highest pay for churches over a thousand members is 231 thousand dollars a year but mega churches like elevation are in a category all their own they higher compensation consultants to look at other mega churches and no one is releasing those numbers Stuart Watson NBC Charlotte and thank you for staying with us I'm Dave Wagner and I'm Dion blim you don't build a house without a blueprint Steven Furtick built elevation Church in to North Carolina's largest mega church and a major player in community giving but who helped him with that blueprint the i-team stuart watson keeps following the money would you to the elevation stage Steven Furtick looks to Texas megachurch pastor edy young is a mentor and young admires verdict the man of the hour too sweet to be sour the tower the preaching power Steven Furtick edy young promotes big conferences around the world for pastors who want to build their own mega churches it's an age when Young and his wife Lisa climbed in bed on the roof of their Fellowship Church to encourage couples to have sex every night I just basically suggested to the church for all married couples to have sex for seven days Steven Furtick was one of the many pastors to Skype in well rather than a book about the evils of sex to say this is the way God intended it to be a verdict credit said young and his c3 conference with showing him a blueprint for growing elevation no conference has had a greater impact on my life and the life of our church than c3 it was at c3 before we started our church that I sat in the back of the room and saw for the first time what the local church is capable of it was through ed and Lisa Young's leadership that I saw the creative potential of the church and Ed Young invited Furtick himself to speak at c3 Steve Aberdeen the conference's are one part organization one part motivation do you really think that you're special and unique and gifted to do what God's called you to do I guess a good way to compare to would be like a big hoorah Amway meeting Kris Roseboro runs pirate Christian radio from his home in Indianapolis edy Young was one of the guys who very early on he was an early adopter of these this new way of doing Church and Furtick patterned himself on young in more ways than one young bought a 10,000 square foot home verdict bought a 16,000 square foot home Young's home is worth 1.5 million dollars verdicts home costs 1.7 million young put his home in the name of the Palomita revocable trust verdict put his home in the name of the jumper Drive revocable trust it sounds like fur tech is copying almost to the letter what ed Jung is has done here in Dallas Oh Lee Anthony is a church watchdog at the Trinity Foundation in Dallas Texas it's a job to them it's a business it's a way they make money and here's the most important connection between ed Young and Steven Furtick Edie Young served on Steven Furtick Board of Overseers that sets verdicts salary and our sister station in Dallas Texas reports ed young gets a housing allowance worth $250,000 a year a quarter-million dollars tax-free just for housing so how much does Elevation Church pay Steven Furtick for his housing allowance no one will say executive pastor chunks Corbett told me 24 pastors at elevation are paid a tax-free housing allowance as part of their compensation he confirms that Furtick took out a construction loan to build his new house but as to how much elevation pays furred 'ok for his housing allowance no one will say stuart watson NBC charlotte i don't call this an attack i dont pastor steven Furtick told the congregation at elevation church he was sorry if questions about his 1.7 million dollar home had caused them to have difficult conversations and having to have those conversations that really bother me and it made me sad and I am sorry that you had to have those conversations this week I have always endeavored with everything within me to make this a church that you can always be very proud of verdict first referred to the house is not that great but in this message he changed his tone Holly and I made a decision to build a house it's a big house verdict told his followers they could always have copies of audited financial statements of the church but he is yet to make those public I have always promised that this ministry would be a ministry of integrity and while he once said reporters were trying to make the church look bad he now says the media has every right to ask questions this is a news story and the media is not our enemy they have the right to run any story they choose to run and people have the right to have any opinion that they choose to have and he concluded the response with a promise he's not going away for the next 50 years I plan on being right here verdict statement lasted about eight minutes we'll put the whole thing on our website what he did not do and will not do is answer questions and there are many of them about his salary as housing allowance how much he makes from books and outside speaking fees all of those promoted by the tax-exempt elevation church and how elevation Church is governed not by an elected Board of Elders but by a group of fellow megachurch pastors school watson NBC Charlotte the document is marked confidential it's important because the church has kept these kinds of numbers secret even from donors who give elevation money and taxpayers who give it numerous tax breaks in fact elevation ask staff to sign a confidentiality agreement acknowledging the church could sue them if they disclose church finances we're not going to show you all the numbers to minimize any harm to Elevation Church so for instance we won't report on pending real estate deals but we want to share enough numbers that you'll see just how big and how powerful elevation is becoming I'm Chris and I'm number 222 I'm number eight thousand 683 number 7038 elevation church is all about the numbers it says so right in its founding principles called the code get to Jesus and be baptized too so elevation counts salvations 37 85 this year baptisms 35 19 and it religiously counts the number of people at each of its 8 locations now regularly totalling more than 14,000 a week and this confidential report obtained by the NBC Charlotte i-team shows that the church counts money lots of money it's collecting more than half a million dollars a week and Furtick says he discloses all that through the external audit that we voluntarily go through as well as through the audited income statement and balance sheets that we make available to everyone who's a part of elevation Church that's not even close to full disclosure rusty Leonard founded ministry watch and nonprofit watchdog for donors first of all it's not the full audit of financial statements it's just some pretty pictures as you said the portion of the audit of financial statements this is what a full audited financial statement looks like and it contains not just numbers but notes from the auditors in the back this shows for instance if the pastor's wife gets money from a non-profit that's run by the church now this doesn't mean that they've done anything wrong it just means there's full disclosure and Forest Hill Church another mega Church in town puts this audited financial statement right on their website elevation church won't show you an audited financial statement with those notes even if you remember instead it releases a glossy full-color annual report that'll tell you the numbers of breath mints campus pastor eats how many minutes of ac/dc songs played and whether the pastor wears a v-neck shirt but not how much money he made I promised that this would always be a ministry of integrity unfortunately that's just not backed up by the facts if he was to be truly full of integrity he would reveal all this information rusty Leonard is willing to publicly question Steven Furtick Centegra T you shall overcome while at the same time admiring him and wishing him well it's sad it's a great church the pastor verdicts a great preacher he's brought lessons too many and unfortunately it's a situation where he allowed this one situation to get out of control right from the get-go of the of the organization the church no one asked verdict many hard questions about money until he bought a 1.7 million dollar home on 19 and a quarter acres near wedington if Pastor FERC had bought a house that was four or five hundred thousand dollars we wouldn't be having this conversation right now you know and that's a big house that's a lot of house and but there wouldn't be a big uproar about it unfortunately he went way over the top elevation Church keeps Furtick salary tax-free housing allowance contracts book deals speaking fees and any other for-profit work all a secret a church doesn't have to tell you anything about anything they are not required by law to tell you a one beam of information and rusty Leonard says that secrecy doesn't just hurt elevation it hurts other churches to non-christians could say well why are we giving these guys these breaks these tax breaks and in the end it could be detrimental to the whole church community this confidential planning document shows just how big the tax-free church is getting without disclosing individual real estate deals we can report elevation plans to spend eighty six million dollars on five new locations including three the churches not yet reported Rock Hill University and Matthews that's 86 million dollars to build a bigger platform for Steven Furtick it includes more than nine million dollars just for audio video and lights elevation chief financial officer chunks Corbett emailed us a statement saying while the numbers are accurate they represent far more than our church is undertaking other projects identified in the report you've come into possession of represent potential opportunities we are looking at in the future furthermore to total these projects assuming they're all going to happen would be categorically false as many are options for the same project and some may never materialize and win elevation buys property like the old Palace Theatre near like Norman that property no longer generates taxes to the county so it's a fair question not just for donors to Elevation but also for the rest of us is taxpayers what are we getting in exchange for these tax breaks and what is pastor Stephen getting he doesn't have to tell you and he's not going to school to Watson NBC Charlotte when we first reported how elevation pastor Steven Furtick was building a 16,000 square foot home we got a lot of complaints from his supporters Ashley Todd pretty much summed it up writing so what if he builds a huge house how is that any concern of yours or anyone elses well the answer is if you're a taxpayer it is your concern because pastors don't pay income taxes on the salary they get for housing it's called a parsonage allowance and when preachers are exempt from paying a big chunk of income taxes guess who does pay this ain't right this ain't right pastor Steven Furtick will not reveal how much elevation church pays him as a tax-free parsonage allowance it's not that great of a house but his mentor pastor ed Young Jr in Dallas it's about a quarter million dollars a year tax-free just for housing elevation church pays 24 ordained pastors parsonage allowances yet no one will say how much it's a big house it's a beautiful house but my question about the parsonage allowance doesn't start or end with Pastor Steven in his big house I believe God called me to be here 17 years ago as a young reporter at WRAL in Raleigh I wanted to know why the CEO of Goodwill Industries of eastern North Carolina a man named Dennis mcclain got fifty four thousand dollars a year just for expenses the Methodist minister assigned to Goodwill Industries I get a parsonage allowance of fifty four thousand dollars and whatever it is but that's a parsonage allowance that correct is that fair the fair has nothing to do with it mcclain declined to speak to me again fair or not just because he's ordained mcclain gets a tax break for a parsonage even though he doesn't pastor a church he works at Goodwill now the Raleigh News and Observer reports McClain and his wife also at Goodwill earned nearly eight hundred thousand dollars a year and thanks in large part to the parsonage allowance more than one hundred forty seven thousand dollars of that is tax-free we think that's unfair dan barker is a co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation a national group of atheists and agnostics I was an ordained minister after 19 years of believing really believing in preaching the gospel I changed my mind when Dan was a preacher he got a tax break for housing you don't even have to report it it was nice I mean who wouldn't want that advantage you know I mean if you're paying your taxes you want every break you can get but as atheist Barker and his wife and co-president Andy Laurie Gaylor sued the IRS over the parsonage exemption and the rest of us pay more because clergy pay less they need to pay their fair share the Atheist sued in federal court in Madison Wisconsin where their headquarters is and we are seeking an end to the parsonage exemption which we think is unconstitutional they claim the parsonage allowance violates the so-called Establishment Clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution because Congress gave a tax break to clergy but not to all nonprofits and sometimes we're seeing stupendous housing allowances overpaid ministers the bigger the house the bigger the tax break because the parsonage allowance is limited only by the fair market rental value of the pastor's home so if you choose to live in the Sistine Chapel or a mansion you can't claim more than the fair rental value but that could be astronomical building this house and I'm excited about it and everything dan and Annie Laurie couldn't care less what elevation Church pays Steven Furtick they do care about the tax break if they want to pay the pastor 50 million dollars a year we're not complaining about that that's freedom but if they are excluding housing from taxation tact tax liability then that's hurting all of us and thanks to the secrecy Congress of forged churches taxpayers have no idea how much the parsonage allowance is even worth it's shielded from public scrutiny and yet the public are subsidizing churches you see most nonprofits have to make their tax forms public you can go online right now and you can see my salary you can see our organization's income and is down to the penny we have to be accountable we know what goodwill pays Dennis and Linda McLain because the nonprofit makes its tax forms public if you are a tax-exempt organization then your business is everybody's business but think about it when it comes to being accountable the atheists are now more forthcoming than some Christians we hear that churches everything they do is good and they've been given this tax exemption to do good and yet why keep it secret what do they have to hide only last week a federal judge in Wisconsin handed the atheists a first-round victory the judge ruled the tax break for the parsonage allowance is unconstitutional and should be thrown out the decision will almost certainly be appealed Stewart Watson NBC Charlotte now to an exclusive I team investigation focused on houses of the holy multi-million dollar homes for clergy some of them right here in the Charlotte area some folks might say that's up to the congregation nobody's business but theirs but new tonight our steward Watson found preachers can get a big housing allowance tax-free and keep it secret preachers really all clergy don't have to pay income taxes on whatever they're paid for housing no matter how much that is they don't even have to tell you about it we talked to a CPA who broke it down for us he says it all started once upon a time when the preacher the pastor the parish priest lived in modest houses called parsonage 'iz when I was growing up Monsignor O'Brien and father Pat Rocchi and father McTigue they lived in the rectory and they you know had a little tunnel almost to walk over to the church but nowadays some Charlotte preachers live in million-dollar homes and here's where you come in they get tax breaks to do it clergy housing allowances can be in the hundreds of thousands when you let go the uncommon seat of $1,000 the windows of heaven is going to open up on your life Todd Coons preaches the gospel of prosperity on TV that God wants you to be rich if you just send Todd some money God gave me a home that I paid cash for Todd's church rock wealth international owns a million-dollar condo where he lives here at the rosewood on the corner of Providence and Sharon Amity but here's the thing he doesn't even have to tell you if he gets a tax-free housing allowance he didn't return our phone call and letter last week so we really don't know you don't have transparency with churches that's probably to me one of the biggest problems with churches compared to other not-for-profits Peter J Riley is a CPA from Massachusetts who's written on forbes.com about the parsonage benefit of the clergy why special tax treatment needs to go church is a kind of a kind of a black Hall Philip and Cheryl Jackson of the Grace Christian Center live in this two million dollar home in Ballentine that's between them and their congregation they didn't return our phone call email and letter last week so we don't know whether they get a tax break and if so how much under the law the only limit to the size of the tax break is the fair market rental value of the home how much it would rent for so the bigger the house the bigger the tax break there is no limit bishop cm bailey of the united house of prayer for all people stays in this house when he's in charlotte it's not even his full-time residence the United House of Prayer owns the three million dollar estate with its 16 thousand square foot home on West Sugar Creek near DeRita because the church owns the home it pays no property taxes but the bishop also owns his own private home in the Washington DC area he didn't return our call to his attorney or our letter so we don't know if he gets a housing allowance for his private home but he's still eligible for one just not for more than one home the rule is is one house it can be a really big house but only one you feel like you're trapped david Cerullo the inspirational TV network lives in this 1.7 million dollar home near 51 and Ray Road because mr. Cerullo works for a ministry and not a church we can look up his non-taxable benefits you ready three hundred seventy two thousand three hundred eleven dollars per year most of that for housing but for most of us in the Carolinas that's not a housing allowance that's a whole house the clergy are very influential on on both sides of on both sides of the aisle so while Congress sides with the preachers Lobby Peter O'Reilly has a suggestion to reform the loophole cap the tax break limit it the same way the US military does that would be a reasonable way to weed out much of the abuse if you said have as many houses you want but you're only going to get 3,000 or 4,000 a month tax-free but that would take an act of Congress and Congress has not been inclined to act there are lots of lobbyists in Washington but few more powerful than the church school watson NBC Charlotte tonight at 5:30 the results of a six-month investigation into a mega church that treats its leader like a king that grows an elderly woman our onto the street hello everybody I'm bill McGinty our NBC Charlotte i-team is back again investigating a megachurch and the mega money it collects stuart watson is of course following the money and finds one of the leading contributors to the church stole the money she put in the collection plate they call him sweet daddy Bailey the Bishop of the United house of prayer for all people a denomination with tens of thousands of followers and deep roots in the Carolinas sweet daddy's followers treat him like a king our hidden cameras show followers showering him with cash money he rides an ultra luxury and lives in mansions one of them right here in Charlotte sweet daddy Bailey celebrates big donors but the NBC Charlotte I team found some of those contributions came from millions of dollars in stolen money but if you owe the church money it will put you out quite literally on the street somebody can be a witness with God second witness wrong nuts Ronald Belton preached his whole life with the United House of Prayer I was born and raised in the church he was the church's National evangelist to Brandi so when he got prostate cancer he asked Bishop Bailey for help his words were you knew this day was coming you should save you some money I was deeply hurt deeply great the bishop lives in wealth our hidden cameras documented that when Bishop Bailey enters a church members crowd the aisles to press cash money into his hands he reaches out to pick the green bills they're handing him cash money cash man how much and it varies it may be from a dollar 200 we saw some choirs process up the aisle of the church with cash money held up in front of them as offerings to sweet daddy Bailey so from the moment he comes in to the moment he exits it's one long stream of cash money yes it's written right into the church's supreme laws that free will love offerings will be collected for the bishop whenever east present this bishop Bailey he's put on a program which he called daddy's club and which he somewhat requires every member to try to push to have $2,000 every time he he retired Reverend Belton says daddy's club is a church building fun but it's hard to say exactly where all that money goes okay you get an audited financial statement of where all of that money goes no you didn't know where the money went no and our generous an additional five trustee but you can see some of the church's wealth in real estate sweet daddy Bailey stays in this 16,000 square foot mansion in the DeRuyter neighborhood whenever he's in Charlotte owned by the church for the use of the bishop bylaw the three million dollar estate pays no property taxes but the bishop visits here less than a month each year in during the other 11 months of the year who stays in that house no one nobody nobody sweet daddy Bailey travels with a uniformed entourage he rides on a throne and a parade in Washington DC each Memorial Day he arrived at the church on beatty's Ford Road in Charlotte earlier this year in a custom German made may Bach automobile that's one of the most expensive cars in the world and his trustee of the United House of Prayer the bishop is also a landlord managing apartments in Charlotte and Washington two years ago a retired DC bus driver had cancer got behind on her rent to the church I knew I should have paid rent because my mother always say baby pay your rent if you don't pay nothing else that's arable where Owens she's 79 years old evicted today from her home at the McCullough Canaan land apartments the United House a prayer put her out stacking all her worldly possessions on the street her record player her television set even her records Ray Charles Sam Cooke Dinah washing let's get to strike the bishop leaves a three million dollar mansion empty most of the year in Charlotte of putting a 79 year old woman on the streets of DC is that right I don't think so this church should provide assistance for their members after Ronald Belton clash with Bishop Bailey the bishops stripped him of his church credentials according to a lawsuit filed by Belton I was excommunicated why he says it was because he let a woman walk too close to the bishops throne a kind of holy of Holy's called daddy's mountain some memories became emotional that she's on Daddy's Mountain win Belton tried to visit a United House of Prayer earlier this year the visiting preacher one of Bailey's men called him a clown right from the pulpit the myth is so uncomfortable because there are a lot of statements that have been made by the bishop that I was the evil one while Ronald Belton has been kicked out of the United House of Prayer and mocked as a clown another member has been praised in the church but she had something Ronald Belton didn't have millions of dollars the only problem was that she stole it Marilyn woman admits stealing millions from DC nonprofit that's the headline straight from the Washington Post to the tune of get this five point 1 million dollars if phony agreen pled guilty to stealing five million dollars from the nonprofit where she worked the feds say she spent that money on her bridal gown business her home's her cars and wait for it her church that church the United House of Prayer where Reverend Belton says she was praised as one of the top 10 contributors chain still got a church she still goes to church she still has her seat and she still recognizes top ten and she's welcome and she's welcome you're not welcome no the phony agreen is waiting to be sentenced in the federal court in DC Ronald Belton sued Bishop Bailey in Charlotte claiming sweet daddy Bailey wrongfully terminated him and even encouraged Belton's wife to leave him the judge here tossed the suit I've given my whole life and just like when you don't have nothing to give we threw with you I called the United House of Prayer in DC last week twice and when I mentioned the name of phony agreeing the receptionist hung up on me twice I called the Charlotte lawyer who represented the bishop in Ronald Elton's lawsuit and sent a letter FedEx to the bishop and got no respond months Ronald Belton says he has no hard feelings but he'd like to refile his lawsuit possibly in federal court but he has limited funds to do it within the church the bishop is like the Pope there is no appeal it's called the United house of prayer for all people but daddy's club is just for those with the money Stuart Watson NBC Charlotte

Channel: Wcnc Newsroom

Views: 1,133,926

Rating: 4.3258991 out of 5

Keywords: WCNC, NBC Charlotte, Elevation Church, Elevation, Steven Furtick, Stuart Watson, Furtick, United House of Prayer for all People, United House of Prayer, Sweet Daddy Bailey, Mega Church

Id: Q3CuauPpjqo

Length: 41min 46sec (2506 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 25 2014