Paula White used to pastor Without Walls International Church, a non-denominational megachurch she co-founded with her husband Randy White. At its peak, it had 22,000 members across two campuses, but then things went sideways.
The couple divorced in 2007, causing a rift in the church. Around the time, a U.S. Senate Finance Committee launched an investigation into their finances, causing more consternation. (Where we also learned the couple was paying themselves 5 million dollars a year in compensation)
As a result of the split, Randy left the church and Paula became the pastor. Soon it was revealed that the church had accumulated a $29 million debt it could not pay, resulting in the sale of assets and ultimate bankruptcy.
Paula went on to take the helm of New Destiny Christian Center in 2011, after its founder, Zachary Tims, died of a cocaine and heroin overdose.
At the time, the church had 8000 members. By 2017, it had dipped to fewer than 500.
In 2019, she handed over the reins to her son, Bradley Knight, then the church’s associate pastor, and renamed it ‘City of Destiny.’
Rather than pastor full-time, White would remain one of the teaching/overseer pastors.
The church later became StoryLife Church, and it continues to shrink despite White preaching on occasion. A year ago, they had rows of chairs filling the sanctuary, even if most of them were empty, and the band played on stage.
Now, congregants sit around tables, and the band is on ground level, with screenshots from yesterday’s Sunday service showing the decline.
There is nothing wrong wrong with having a small church, of course, but gone are her megachurch days. Now, she’s lucky if they can get 80 people attending her congregation.
Based on her theology, that about 79 too many.
We last wrote about her after she insisted that Christians must not convert Jews, made an obscene pitch for $100,000, giggled while her husband recommended that Christian couples watch pornography together, and repeated praised and endorsed the cult leader of the Moonies here, here and here,
