Comments on: ECFA Removes Harvest Bible Chapel from Membership

By: mirele

mirele — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 10:48:16 +0000

Blergh. If the prosperity gospel megachurch near my house can get an ECFA certification, it’s worthless. Seriously, the senior pastor has promoted himself as a great money manager, but he’s also filed for bankruptcy. These stories about the various churches ECFA has certified don’t gove me any sort of condidence. Givers should be demanding to see the books.

By: Warren Throckmorton

Warren Throckmorton — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 08:29:26 +0000

In reply to Tacitus. Exactly. Obviously there is no teeth here. If churches which bring in over $1 million had to disclose detailed financials on publicly available 990s with real penalties for lying, better compliance would be likely. Of course, some would still try to cheat but if the law was enforced, I think there would be less fraud.

By: Tacitus

Tacitus — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 02:25:16 +0000

So what use is the ECFA if all they do is close the stable door after the horse has long since vanished over the horizon?The financial abuses at Harvest had been going on for years, and as Julie reports, included a “black budget” of up to 20% of the church revenue which was essentially James MacDonald’s slush fund to be used at his sole discretion.

If you can keep 20% of a megachurch’s $40+ million budget buried where the ECFA can’t find it, then their accreditation is completely worthless. They couldn’t find anything wrong even after serious allegations of financial misconducted had been leveled at the ministry, which one could argue makes them complicit in the ongoing cover-up. Why should potential donors and tithers put their trust in the ECFA’s seal of approval anymore?

(Note, I’m not saying the black budget money was missing from the budget, just that it was disguised as ministry expenses and/or other line items in the annual budget report.)