John Gray’s ugly legal battle with the former pastors of his church is getting messier by the day, with news that Gray was to pay Ron Carpenter a $6.25 million ($250,000 a year over 25 years) retirement package.
According to Greenville News, the two parties are locked in court over the handover of the church. The Carpenters believe Gray is behind on the bills. Gray denies this. However, now new news has surfaced that the Grays agreed to pay Carpenter an annual package over 25 years to make his retirement a little easier.
Gray now claims the church needed $500,00 in repairs completed. Gray moved to the megachurch after being Joel Osteen’s associate pastor at Lakewood Church in Houston.
The church was recently sued by a former employee over unpaid wages, and it was also announced that Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network will not renew “The Book of John Gray”, Gray’s TV show.
Confused and annoyed that this is all playing out in front of Christians who attend church faithfully and tithe, let alone the non-Christians watching on, thinking the church is a money grab? You’re not alone.
“While the documents filed today show Relentless Church’s consistent payments under the written lease agreement, I always intended for our congregation to have a permanent place of worship,” Gray said in a statement, according to Greenville Online. “After a year of being led to believe the properties would be transferred to Relentless, there were consistent excuses as to why the transfer could not occur, even amid investing more than $500,000 of Relentless Church funds on much needed repairs and maintenance to the site.”
It is reported that the church’s mortgage stands at $12 million.
Greenville News states that according to documents filed by Ron Carpenter’s Redemption Church state that Relentless failed to make mortgage payments to lenders, failed to pay Redemption when a lease agreement was made and has failed to vacate the property as a tenant in default.
However, documents filed by Relentless Church show a history of monthly payments being made on the mortgages.
It is alleged that upwards of 100 documents were filed in the case including “lease agreements, affidavits from both churches’ chief financial officers, bank statements, financial ledgers, utility bills, lender letters and email correspondence over payment obligations and eviction dates.”
It has also been reported that Gray had past due payments on at least three vehicles. Sadly, the saga continues and it’s anyone’s guess as to what the financial outcome may be. One things is for certain: a whole bunch of people will correctly be even more disillusioned with the modern American church.
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