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Quiet Wyatt

Is there a CoG policy of having churches pay back assistance?

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 12817 **4/25/23 12:44 pm**

Is there a CoG policy requiring that churches pay back assistance given from state office funds? If there is a policy, could someone please direct me to where I can find it? My guess is it’s an unwritten rule, but I would really like to know what the rule might be, and what is the rationale behind it.

Cojak

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24285 **4/25/23 7:10 pm**

I will be watching for factual responses. It would be good if a church volunteered to return the assistance $ if they recovered that well. But I would hope it would not be another debt added like a dark cloud. Shocked

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Quiet Wyatt

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 12817 **4/25/23 7:45 pm**

Personally, I’m fine with a local church being assisted by the denomination without having to pay it back, since we are centrally organized, and not a bunch of independently owned and operated churches. I recently learned that in some cases, churches aren’t required to pay back assistance from the state office, and in other cases, they are. I’m just wondering what the rule is, if any, or if it’s an arbitrary thing decided by the AB from case to case.

FLRon

Acts-celerater Posts: 787 **4/25/23 8:58 pm**

I don’t have a clue as to a rule governing the payback of assistance funds. I do know of a church near me that just repaid nearly 20k. A previous pastor ran through over 100k before leaving for another state, leaving his church unable to even pay their electric bill. Fortunately a new pastor came who made it a point to repay all state monies owed. Having a few very generous members proved to be a godsend.
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Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **4/29/23 12:35 pm**

Darrell Garrett

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 5330 **5/3/23 4:20 pm**

I can't tell you if it is "policy" or not, but I can tell you that when a church was closed on my former district and the money was supposed to be going toward a new plant in that same area, almost all of the money was pulled into the state fund because the AB said that they went back over the churches history and recouped any funds disbursed to that church. They literally went back to the 60s and took funds back that had been used to help plant the church, to buy a furnace, to assist the pastor, and so on for 50 years. End result was that there was no money left to help plant the new church.

caviator

Hey, DOC Posts: 58 **5/16/23 7:29 am**

Assistance was with 13% interest at one time before the moratorium. In another instance, the AB simply gave the interim/future pastor $1,500 from state funds to renovate fellowship hall in 2 weeks’ time, so he could get the votes.

Quiet Wyatt

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 12817 **5/18/23 3:00 pm**

One thing I heard from an AB once was that the state office would not require money to be paid back if it went to renovation of the church parsonage while the pastor was living in it, but it would have to be paid back if the pastor wasn’t living in the parsonage and it was being rented out even to a staff member. Didnt really make sense to me, since the property being renovated in either case was still owned by the CoG, but anyway that’s one scenario I heard.

Rick Metzgar Jr

Not surprising Darrell

Golf Cart Mafia Associate Posts: 2003 **5/27/23 5:19 pm**

That story is not surprising. it's happened quite a bit here in this Delmarva DC region.

Darrell Garrett

Re: Not surprising Darrell

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 5330 **6/7/23 12:22 pm**

georgiapath

Acts-dicted Posts: 7604 **6/7/23 1:28 pm**

Sounds like the rule is, there is no rule. Like where I work. lol