Do you look like a pastor/preacher? When police first questioned 51-year-old Lara Lynn Ford about why she stole nearly $1.4 million from Ed Youngs Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, the congregations former business managers initial response was Umm stupid.. Please click here to learn how. With the unity of the Holy Spirit and a divine purpose, we must all put our shoulders to the plow until Gods plan is complete. To donate, Megachurches Receive Second Round of PPP Loans, Fellowship Church Surprises Miami Congregation with News Church Has Been Sold, More than $78.6 Million in PPP Funds Go to Televangelists, Megachurches, & Large Media Ministries, Why Businessman Peter Chung Matters for the Future of The Kings College. The first fact concerns the meaning of the Greek root. In 2009 he took the lead pastor role at The Fellowship in Round Rock, TX. It hurt the integrity of the work environment and the reputation of the ministry we were involved in. Chad grew up in Round Rock, Texas and has been attending The Fellowship Church since he was five years old. He was born in Greentown Indiana and raised by two wonderful missionary parents that raised him to know and love Jesus, people, and ministry. Specialties: Every weekend we have exciting, casual, and relaxing services. Why the heck would she need her own housing allowance? Fellowship Academy - Executive Preschool Director. You mean someone cant question him because his daugher died? 6400 Ardleigh St, Philadelphia, PA 19119, USA. Because of the importance of fellowship, no one has the right to amputate themselves from the functioning body of Christ, the local church. She was smart enough, however, to avoid being caught stealing from the church for more than a decade to support a bad spending habit which she sometimes indulged to help people, according to an April 2019 Grapevine Police Department report and court records reviewed by The Christian Post. So lets pull together. No One Knows. Its senior pastor is Ed Young Jr., a televangelist infamous for staging publicity stunts. I work in the finance department of my church as Administrative Support. Here's how. Then help where you can make not just yourself, but the church as a whole, to be the most fruitful. Some of their better known clients are Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, Mark Driscoll Ministries and LeSEA Global Feed the Hungry. He and his wife Amy have been happily married for 12 years, and have two wonderful children. By January 2019, she increased the payments to an extra $500 every two weeks, also from the housing allowance account. Donnie is an expository Bible teacher that uses history, humor and story to bring the scriptures to life. Koinonia is used nineteen times in the New Testament and in addition to being translated as fellowship it is also translated by the words, contribution, sharing, and participation. A close study of the usage of this word shows that action is always included in its meaning. We care deeply about what we do, while also having a lot of fun. Only by a full orchestra playing together can the beautiful harmony be fully captured. Brewer told police that Ford was once the finance manager in the accounting department at the church but had been demoted in the summer of 2018 after he began noticing shortages in the churchs Bank of America account. Two different CPAs commenting on the Roys Report article suggested that Stanfield + ODell, P.C. But the stupid squander what they have been given. Fellowship Churchs donors wishing to change church policies are left with few options. Heather is a servant leader respected by direct reports, peers, and parents. Megan is the Preschool Coordinator at the Fellowship Round Rock Campus. She increased her own housing allowance and made automated clearing house payments to her own bank account. How To Survive A Shipwreck. He added, I think that (the fraud going undetected) is a real indicator that this church did not have a healthy financial policy and procedure system in place.. He was born and raised in Texas. Rev.Bob and Terryl (Tenny)have been married for 35 yrs; have two children and two grandchildren. You cant have a system check itself, Clark-Hoyos said. Chrissi is the Elementary Coordinator at the Fellowship Round Rock campus. Ron had been in education for 31 years prior to coming to the F.C.A. Elders are extremely important to the health of the Fellowship. Fellowship, you see, is not just being together, it is doing together! Dont under-estimate her ability to hit a target. Fellowship Churchs Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Dennis Brewer Jr. is an attorney, not an accountant, following the path his father paved. 14363 Hwy 73. Ann was born and raised in Kansas and has been married since 1983 to her husband Craig. Is the auditing failure at Fellowship Church the tip of the iceberg? Our English word, fellowship is the translation of the Greek word, koinonia. This Greek word is derived from the root, koinos, which was a prefix in ancient Greek. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, . Brewer told police that Ford should not have had access to the two accounts she stole money from and that the accounts were not as closely monitored as the churchs primary bank accounts. Ford then admitted she didnt have the money in an account, and she would buy things she doesnt need and would help people, Officer T. Karfs wrote. She is profoundly grateful for God's faithfulness to her, despite herself. However, the fact that the second audit, by the firm Stanfield and ODell, didnt catch it sounds like a case of malpractice. There are only four legionnaires left alive in the post. Jennie is the KiDS Coordinator at the Taylor campus. We desire to reach people with the gospel while also pursuing discipleship and fellowship to help people grow in their relationship with Christ. The suspect moved around the parking lot by vehicle and entered several unlocked vehicle in addition to breaking out the drivers side window of a vehicle. Fellowship Church Grapevine | With Pastor Ed Young Grapevine Plan A Visit Make plans to visit us this Sunday. According to the Texas Secretary of State website, Fellowship Churchs board of directors is composed of the following men: Ed Young Jr. Senior Pastor, President and Board Member, Mac Richard Board Member (pastor of Lake Hills Church in Austin, Texas), John Cross Board Member (pastor of First Baptist Church in Sarasota, Florida), Richard White Board Member (pastor of The Gathering Church at Tampa Bay), Dennis Brewer Jr. Secretary and Chief Financial Officer (attorney at Brewer, Lang & Veach). 2.5.23. Matt has helped to lead Mens Ministry, Marriage Ministry and was an elder for 7 years before coming on staff. Watch a Service. The former staffer told police that she worked at Fellowship Church from March 2012 to 2015 and Ford, who was her supervisor, was suspected of committing fraud even then. This is why fellowship is indispensable to the church. Ford said this occurred once every few weeks for less than a year, he wrote. Is the clergy housing allowance being abused? Christian Rocker Posts Stunning Response to Recent Apostasy of Christian Leaders, Chicago Radio Host & a Former Bodyguard Say James MacDonald Asked Them to Arrange Murders, James MacDonald Took Millions from Harvest & Now Demands Broadcast Ministry, Mancow Airs Shocking Comments By James MacDonald: My Response. Comics Read Perry Bible Fellowship from the Beginning. I asked [the former staffer] if she witnessed any of this occurring, and [the former staffer] stated no, but she heard it via third party from someone close to Ford, who Ford allegedly confessed to, wrote Karfs. Wresha is the Administrative Assistant for The Fellowship Adult Ministries. It is an interdependent relationship. They get a break but we dont even if the circumstances are the same. performed an independent audit for the church. So, then, we see that the practice of fellowship, the outward exercise of our inner unity in doing Gods will, is not only natural but indispensable in accomplishing Gods purpose for the church. Leeza, Ditto from another CPA and auditor of nonprofit organizations. 1 star. We would honored for you to come and experience the love of Christ here! Every Sunday, and throughout all of our events, we study and teach straight from the Bible. Troy served as the Student pastor at the church for 8 years and have been utilized as a teaching pastor and elder since 2013. By noon, he had dug down over his head and felt all alone at his work. Latest Tweet. This is the plan of many churches today. Recognizing Shame & Dealing With It. Troy is a small town Texas boy; born and raised in Rockdale, Texas. Ben is also a chicken farmer that enjoys food, football, and his family. The Roys Report reached out to Fellowship Church for comment, but no one responded. This is a list of the largest megachurches in the United States with an attendance of more than 10,000 weekly, sometimes also termed a gigachurch. The Foundation Group reports, One of the primary responsibilities of any nonprofit board member is to maintain the financial integrity of the organization they serve. Breaking The Cycle Of Shame Through Forgiveness. She has been married to her husband, Trevin, since 2019, and they have two mini goldendoodles. Despite the massive amount of missing cash, there appears to be no mention of Fords theft on the churchs website. What Happens Now? 44. Jesus loved us so much that He overthrew sin and death so that we could know Him. We are here to reach people for Christ and help believers grow to be like Him. Earlier this month, on April 16, Ford found out that her actions with the megachurchs money would cost her dearly. This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Officer Karfs said in April 2019 he was contacted by Pete Evans, a private investigator with the Trinity Foundation, which monitors religious fraud. Hes responsible overall, but hes Eds right hand man and attorney. Easter is celebrating the joy and freedom we have in Jesus. So, we have seen that fellowship in its New Testament sense is an inner unity expressed outwardly. However, 1 Corinthians 12 makes it clear that every single member of the body is necessary for its proper functioning. Further investigation showed that the total loss from Fords actions was $1,377,144.76. In high school his family was called to love and minister to the homeless of Hawaii, a place that would challenge and grow his faith in God and where he would meet his wife, Corinne. She hopes to press that luck even further in the coming months by seeking to avoid spending a decade in prison for stealing from her former church when she applies for shock probation. And this is what the Church is, Gods orchestra! Steve Kelly. Melissa is the Preschool Coordinator at the Hutto Campus. In Hawai'i, her faith was challenged and refined, her passion for ministry was sparked. Gwen Shamblin Lara (February 18, 1955 - May 29, 2021) was an American author, founder of the Christian diet program The Weigh Down Workshop and founder of the Remnant Fellowship. When she gained access to the churchs bank accounts as part of her job in the finance department, an electronic token she received allowed her to approve ACH transactions to herself. She remained in the accounting department, however, and maintained access to the payroll account. She retired in 2021 after teaching elementary school for 32 years and has loved being part of the Fellowship family since 1997! The same source also lists more than 1,300 such Protestant and Evangelical churches in the United States with a . The other was conducted by Stanfield and ODell, an independent firm specializing in church audits. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by CP on Thursday. You can practice Fellowship by recognizing our goal and taking an active part where you can best help. 4. For this reason we must quit thinking of Christian fellowship as primarily doing things such as having pot luck dinners or watching football or playing basketball with other believers. What is important to see here is that no individual working alone could ever fulfill this plan of showing every perfection of God for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They lived in seven different cities before settling in the great state of Texas and making Round Rock their home in the late nineties. Here at The Fellowship, baptism is a celebration and an image of what Christ has done to transform us. We can sometimes be misunderstood because of mispronunciations as when Howard Hendricks child told a friend that his father taught in a cemetery. Sometimes sound-alike phrases are misunderstood as with the child in a Christian school who was asked to draw a picture depicting the hymn Gladly the Cross Id Bear and instead drew a picture of Gladly, the cross-eyed bear. The 2 articles by Bob Smietana posted on The Roys Report this week have been instructive about such deceptions. In her free time she enjoys camping, paddle boarding and journaling. We believe the Scriptures are true, authoritative and sufficient. They belong to the club and we dont. When I was in junior high, I had a pastor who had spent a summer on a pipeline crew. They are a home-school family who loves living in the country and they enjoy any activity where they get to be together. He was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas and lived there until halfway through middle school, when his family moved to Collinsville, Texas, where he has spent the majority of his life. Most of the time, external audits dont find fraud because they dont look at internal systems, said Clark-Hoyos. Searches for Lara Ford, theft, and embezzlement on the website reveal no results. While trying to quantify death he found life. If you have made a decision for Christ, we believe this is your next step and is an act of obedience. I guess the fact that his lifestyle and wealth are far beyond reasonable for a pastor does not matter. It was the first racially integrated, intercultural church in the United States. This may sound simplistic, but maybe this lady was well-liked and trusted so her activities werent looked into closely. By the middle of the afternoon he was pretty discouraged as he thought of the miles of line still to be dug. Brewer Jr. serves as Youngs personal attorney. They think the church can make it without them. Or maybe his enormous salary is the reason the church had such poor controls in place. In, Several weeks ago, congregants showed up for what they thought was a regular Sunday service at Fellowship Church Miamia campus of Pastor, The federal government issued more than $78.6 million in Paycheck Program Protection (PPP) funds to televangelists, megachurches, and large media ministries this. If you were to add this prefix to words meaning living, owning a purse, a dispute, and mother, you would get words meaning living in community together, owning a purse in common, a public dispute, and having a mother in common. So we see that the root of the word, fellowship, means to hold something in common.. We want to meet people right where they are. Johnson told The Roys Report that the actual amount Ford embezzled is far more than court documents indicate. Also, any comments with profanity, name-calling, and/or a nasty tone will be deleted. After graduating from the University of North Texas and starting his master's degree at Dallas Theological Seminary, Chad came on board the Fellowship team as Media Associate in September of 2021. The Waffle Shop at Calvary is open for lunch every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday through March 31, serving up Southern specialties like . Years ago in the 1990s the treasurer for the church I used to attend embezzled over $350,000 this eventually led to the closure of the school connected to the church. Each of these words denotes a unity which is expressed outwardly. Our Church PURPOSELY INSTALLED non profit accounting software that tracks every single keystroke DIRECTY back to mewith a dedicated username and password assigned. Help keep The Christian Post free for everyone by making a one-time donation today. Wow. He and his wife Vicki enjoy being with their children and grandchildren on Saturday morning coffee get-togethers. This morning, I hope each of you will learn that biblical fellowship is Gods method for the outworking of His will through the church. Menu; Search for: Wednesday Night Praise & Worship. Police noted that Hartford Insurance reported that they paid out a $250,000 claim to Fellowship Church in connection to the theft. We truly are a family and we would love for you to be a part. Our Sunday sermons, music selections, baptisms, and more are available to watch right here. Your email address will not be published. It serves to remind us that Je$u$, Inc., is Big Business. She is married to Dean Geske, and they have four children. Pam is the Elementary Coordinator at the Fellowship Hutto campus. Ford has, through the testimony of others, demonstrated that she is willing to work hard at changing her life, Lex Johnston, Fords attorney, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Thursday. Giving Commit to giving and lets change lives together. 5 stars. 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