A Church Split from 10,000 feet

June 19 2015
By: Donald L. Sandusky

Recently, I was considering filing a lawsuit against a surgeon, for a case of blatant
malpractice. I arranged a meeting with my lawyer, who has given me expert advice
for decades. After listening to my brief overview of the situation, he asked the name
of the physician. He then sighed and said Oh him!
My lawyer explained that he had been involved in an ugly lawsuit ten years earlier,
between two physicians. One was an older Doctor and the other much younger. He
referred to it as a Classic Case of Professional Client Theft.
The older Doctor wanted to expand the practice he had built over three decades, so
he hired a young physician, just out of medical school. He provided access to his
offices and turned over some of his existing and new patients to the young Doctor,
providing him a salary, benefits and a percentage of fees. This arrangement worked
well for about three years, until the young Doctor leased an office literally across
the street. When all was ready, he quit and with access to the patient files, he stole
a large portion of the older Doctors long established clientele.
My lawyer represented the older physician, but admitted, he lost the case because
the young physician was not bound by confidentiality or non-compete agreements.
So in the end, the young Doctor walked away with part of the practice the older
Doctor had spent his life building.
Now I am observing from afar, another situation in a different area of business - the
Christian Church business. You may say that Christianity is not a business, but a
Church must be incorporated to receive 501c3 nonprofit status from the IRS. A
Church provides a service, has a Customer base, has assets on a balance sheet and
revenue on an income statement. We say we want to save lost souls, edify the body
of Christ, feed the poor, the orphans and the widows, but bottom line, a Church is a
business.
But oh, a Church is a nonprofit organization so it is different, right? Yes it is very
different. With a nonprofit, no individual owns the assets and income, minus
expenses, or what we evil business types worship, known as profit, is not taxed.
But any accountant will tell you that a nonprofit can be as profitable as a for profit
business. Big salaries, fringe benefits, expense accounts, auto allowances etc. can
total more for Leaders of a nonprofit, without putting personal assets at risk.
Here is a second story, which is strikingly similar to the story of the two Doctors
above. A Pastor started a small church with three original members. Over the years,
the church grew in excess of 2,000 members, with a beautiful campus including a
large sanctuary, fellowship hall, a gym and other buildings. Because of the unique
Bible teachings of the Founder, both spoken and in print, the once tiny church
expanded, over half a century, adding staff to meet the increasing demands of the
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ministry and commercial affairs. The Founder was the President and CEO, with a
younger Vice President, a Chief Financial Officer and an International Director, all
four Officers serving at the pleasure of a Board of Directors.
I am not so foolish to claim that I understand motives in the hearts of other men.
Understanding my own motives is at times too much of a challenge. But, after a
business career spanning four decades, doing deals all over the globe, I have
learned that there are only three prime movers in the collective carnal heart of
mankind; pride, sex and greed. But in business, when you peel off layers of the
onion, the core is almost always greed.
What do we have here - a classic case of Christian Congregation Theft? But this is
not just one young Doctor defecting to split and conquer, but a Cabal of Officers
resigning en masse. Within two weeks of their departure, a new Church was formed
that we will call The Love Church (TLC). The former VP promoted himself to Senior
Pastor of TLC and had in his back pocket a well prepared collection of accusations
against the Founder of the old organization. These talking points included supposed
moral failings, corruption, misuse of funds, payoffs and even cover-ups of child
abuse.
The first goal of the talking points was to frighten Board Members. All Christian
Churches must have Boards and in most cases respected individuals of the
congregation are recruited. But sadly, many Board members of Christian Churches
in this hyper-litigious era do not understand the liability membership brings to their
door. Like the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Board Members of
Christian Churches today pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.
Most congregations as a whole do not understand or appreciate what Board
members risk in order to serve.
Let me bring this closer to my home. If I am on the Board of a Church and my pastor
becomes a Joe Paterno of Penn State, by covering up the child abuse of a Jerry
Sandusky (Unknown kin to the writer), who is ultimately responsible? It is the Board
of Directors collectively and individually, assuming a member has knowledge of the
cover-up. If you chose to be on the Board of Church today, as our society becomes
more litigious and the media increases its lust for the virtual scalps of Christian
Leaders, you had better know what is going on in the Organization you serve. If you
see anything amiss, protest to correct it, or resign in protest and keep your paper
trail close to your vest.
So the first thing the VP did with his talking points was to scare the bejeebers out of
Board Members who heretofore had not understood that they could be hauled into
court for such misdeeds and ultimately lose everything they own, while being
smeared in the media for their involvement in a cover-up of the next (fictional) Jerry
Sandusky. Once the Board was in a sufficient uproar, and a super majority joined the
Cabal, the talking points and additional information normally confidential to a Board
was shared with groups of the congregation in secret meetings held in homes and
other private venues.
The environment today is far different than it was when I was a child. Back in the
1950s and 60s if there was a moral problem in a school, church or a family, if it
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could be covered up, it was covered up. If my teenage sister got pregnant and the
father of the child fled the altar, and my father didnt shoot him, my sister would
have been sent to live with Aunt Bess in Ohio for the winter and when she came
home with a baby, only whispers were heard. Today, unwed teen mothers take their
fatherless babies to high school classes like a badges of honor. In times gone by,
moral problems from pregnancy out of wedlock, to child abuse, were all dealt with in
schools, churches and families, but in a much different, private way and some would
say a more effective way.
In this day, every sordid detail must be spread abroad via the Internet and Social
Media. The media hounds cash in big time, if they uncover the misdeeds of a
Christian Leader. The only thing worth more to a reporter than a child abuser is a
Christian pastor that covers up child abuse.
The talking points were crafted upon this modern day backdrop of hyper exposure
and they found fertile ground in the hearts of many sincere members of the old
Congregation. They just couldnt abide the corruption any longer. Their tithes and
offerings could not be used to support abuse and cover-ups. They were told
confidentially that something new was afoot and they should hold their tithes and
offerings in separate accounts for a few months until they could dump the filthy
lucre into clean offering plates.
The Board and many of the long term members who were privy to the secret talking
points expected the ax to fall at any moment. They had to flee the wrath to come.
The wrath of the IRS, the wrath of child protective services, the wrath of the police.
Rumors swirled that computers were confiscated on the campus grounds by the
police, and employees were forced to make depositions. All wild accusations with no
basis in fact. Many sincere souls felt they had no choice but to flee the
contaminated and sinking ship, but where could they go?
During the first TLC service, the sequestered tithes and offerings filled the offering
plates and now many months later church growth at TLC is still fuel by spreading
the talking points to vulnerable members of the old Church, still clinging to their life
rafts.
But, months on, no lawsuits, no media reports, no IRS investigation, no police, no
problems at the old Church! There can only be two explanations, a miracle has
occurred, or the taking points were, lets say, less than accurate. But now, months
after fleeing the sinking ship, the pending lawsuits and cover-ups have been
expunged from the talking points and swept under the rug. The Senior Pastor of TLC
prefers not to remind his new congregation why they left their former church and
why Gods wrath hasnt fallen on it yet. Now all they know is that at TLC they are all
Free and Love is all around. Love is just oozing out of the windows and doors of their
rented building, like in the intersection of Haight & Asbury streets, during the
Summer of Love in 1969.
If I am seeing things in error and the Founder is really a criminal and the talking
points are true, God will correct me and my words. But, what concerns me, in the
here and now, is that if all the non-Christian business people I have negotiated deals
with around the world, get on a 747 together for a fly-over from 10,000 feet, what
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will they see? A new Church born of Hyper-Grace and Love, or will they see a Cancer
made up of Betrayal, Lies and Grand Larceny on the Body of Christ? If my lawyer, a
good man, but not a Christian, were with them all on that plane, he may thank his
lucky stars he did not choose the cut throat life of a Physician or Christian Pastor.

2015 Donald L. Sandusky U.S.A.

donaldlsandusky@gmail.com
Cell: 1-812-989-4448