Vineyard Church Co-Founder Sues Pastor for $62M Alleging Fraud and Shenanigans
The wife of the late Vineyard leader, Carol Wimber-Wong, is suing the flagship church of the denomination for $62M dollars after the pastors suddenly up and left the denomination, taking millions in property and assets with them.
In 2018, Alan and Kathryn Scott became the lead pastors at Vineyard Church in Anaheim, the flagship church which began the Vineyard movement in 1977 under the leadership of John Wimber. Vineyard now boasts 2500 congregations worldwide.
The Scotts led the church until 2021, when the couple suddenly announced that the Holy Spirit told them to split from the denomination, taking with them over $7M in the bank and a $55M property that is debt-free and paid off.
The Scotts never told the denomination why they did what they did or offered a sufficient reason, giving them the silent treatment as they renamed the church Dwelling Place Anaheim and began making it in their own image.
In response, Wimber-Wong and eight former members have launched a lawsuit against the Scotts, accusing them of fraud for taking the lead pastor role all the while planning to spin it off to their own benefit once they gained control. They attest that if they knew the Scotts were going to take the money and run, they never would have hired them. According to the lawsuit:
…(the takeover) was planned and maneuvered for several years…they had no intention of applying for the vacant senior pastor position[s] until learning of the Anaheim Vineyard’s substantial assets and knew that keeping Anaheim Vineyard in the worldwide Vineyard Movement was a material term of being hired as the senior pastors…they misled the Anaheim Vineyard Search Committee and board of directors.”
The first hearing in scheduled for late April.
About Author
When the church behaves like the world. Only a fool would look to these men for spiritual guidance.
The thing is, these Vineyard ‘churches’ are not churches at all. Just a counterfeit not unlike the catholic ‘church’.
The true church can only take care of its own image, it cannot help what the false churches do.
God never said to turn the body of Christ into a business, with assets, bills, income, and employees. But no one even questions this — it is done everywhere. But this opens the door for these kinds of problems.