A North Carolina church and school might soon be out of business because of declining revenues. Not only has the mortgage-holder filed a foreclosure action, the IRS would like to know why the school hasn’t been keeping-up with its payroll taxes.
Although Grace Chapel Church faces the possibility of foreclosure from its mortgage holder, the church’s leaders are confident they will find a solution that will allow them to continue serving their congregation and their community.
Grace Christian School Headmaster Bill Carver said the church’s mortgage holder, California-based Sabal Financial Group, filed with the clerk of court in Lee County to have a foreclosure hearing concerning the church’s property on Jefferson Davis Highway about two weeks ago, but the company has since agreed to give the church a 60-day extension before further pursuing the matter.
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Sabal said also that the church was working on what he called an “Offer in Compromise” with the Internal Revenue Service over unpaid payroll taxes.
Churches have famously loose financial controls, and it seems that the problem might be embezzlement.
In February 2014, a few months after former Senior Pastor Rudy Holland left the church, Carver filed a report with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office alleging $200,000 had been embezzled from the church over the past six years. The State Bureau of Investigation is still investigating the theft and as of yet no charges have been filed.
But maybe that’s not the problem; maybe the problem is that the church has lousy attendance.
Grace learned of the possibility of foreclosure, Carver said on the same weekend it unveiled changes to its Sunday services meant to increase attendance and forge a new direction for the church in light of the hardships of the past few years.
Yeah, well — ho-hum. This story is played out every day somewhere in America; the SBC estimates that it, alone, loses somewhere between 700-1000 churches per year, which aggressive church ‘planting’ comes nowhere close to offsetting, and which is before you take into account the churches they kick out for theological offenses like being too gay-friendly or treating women respectfully.
One more thing: The likelihood of these morons ever figuring-out that it is their own primitive, nonsensical worldview that is killing them is close to zero. So, good riddance. As Oliver Cromwell so famously said to England’s Parliament: “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”