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Exclusive: These Pastors and Churches Took Millions in PPP Loans

Joel Osteen landed in hot water when the Houston Chronicle broke the story that Lakewood Church had indeed accepted Payroll Payment Protection loans under the Small Business Administration’s allocation for non-profit organizations to benefit from this lockdown relief program, which he previously denied. But Joel Osteen was far from the only pastor and Lakewood Church was far from the only church to have received these forgivable loans. In fact, Lakewood Church’s $4.4 million haul was not even the largest.

Methodology

The Evangelical Dark Web analyzed the data released by the Small Business Administration of all organizations that were approved of loan amounts greater than $150,000. We searched and selected several prominent Evangelical organizations found to have been granted a loan. Catholic Dioceses and mainline denominations are excluded from these findings. It is possible that some of the churches under non-denominational are affiliated organizationally or ideologically with established denominations. The exact loans amounts were not disclosed in the SBA metadata. The selected examples are not exhaustive, but they are meant to contain the largest churches and America’s most influential pastors, particularly those who are in and represent Big Eva, and teachers and churches that readers have requested more research on. These results contain churches, seminaries, faith-based media outlets, and ministries. Blatant heretical movements are labeled but this categorization is not universally applied to organizations theologically aligned to these movements for the brevity of research.

Results

The organizations synonymous with Big Eva such as The Gospel Coalition, 9Marks, and programs under the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention all have forgivable loans. Tim Keller’s The Gospel Coalition received up to $1 million while his church, Redeemer Presbyterian Church of New York City, received up to $5 million. Mark Dever’s 9Marks and his church, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, received up to $350,000. The SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, helmed by Russell Moore, received up to $1 million. Five of the six Southern Baptist Seminaries (SBTS being the outlier) received loans ranging from $1 million to $5 million.

Southern Baptists were very partial to accepting forgivable loans. The SBC President JD Greear’s Summit Church accepted between $2-5 million. Greear is certainly not alone. Receiving between $2-5 million dollars includes Harvest Christian Fellowship (Greg Laurie); Shadow Mountain Community Church (David Jeremiah); Elevation Church (Steven Furtick), First Baptist Church Houston (Greg Matte), New Spring Church. Receiving between $1-2 million were Green Acres Baptist Church (David Dykes); McClean Bible Church (David Platt); First Baptist Church Orlando (David Uth); Fellowship Church (Ed Young Jr.); Thomas Road Baptist Church (Jonathan Falwell).

The biggest hauls range between $5-10 million. Life Dot Church (Craig Groeschel), Willow Creek Community Church (David Dummitt), Joyce Meyer Ministries all hauled in over $5 million each, and the separate Willow Creek Association received an addition $1-2 million.

One would think the Prosperity Gospel would be all over forgivable loans. However, Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyers are outliers. Hillsong’s various LLCs all received somewhere between $150,000 and $1 million. VOUS Church (Rich Wilkerson Jr) and Transformation Church (Mike Todd) both  received under $1 million. This could be that several Prosperity Churches were not thoroughly identified, but people like Creflo Dollar, Paula White, John Gray, obvious figures, were conspicuously absent.

Other notable absences include Rick Warren who is the only SBC church of comparable size to not take the money and Andy Stanley. Church of the Highlands, one of the largest churches in the country did not directly take money; however, the Association of Related Churches (ARC) formed by its pastor Chris Hodges did take somewhere between $350,000 and $1 million.

Beloved celebrity pastors were quick to get this money. John MacArthur double dipped with Grace Community Church received between $1-2 million, while Master’s Seminary received $5-10 million. Master’s Seminary received their approval on August 8, a late outlier. John Piper’s Bethlehem College and Seminary received up to $1 million. Churchome featuring Judah Smith received up to $2 million. Levi Lusko’s Fresh Life Church received up to $1 million. Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship (Tony Evans) received between $2-5 million. Max Lucado’s Oak Hills Church received $1-2 million. The Potter’s House (TD Jakes) received up to $1 million.

One consistent finding was charismatic churches were far less likely to take out loans than Southern Baptists. Bethel Redding did not take out a loan but Bethel Music and Bethel School of Technology each took up to $350,000. Other New Apostolic Reformation churches received money.

For the data on the most relevant churches, download here.

For the complete set of data to search your own church, download here. (Note: File renamed and delineated since download from SBA.)

Implications

The overwhelming majority of these forgivable loans were processed in April, which means that these organizations were quick to apply for bailouts. This could signify panic and a lack of faith. Dave Ramsey pointed out in April that churches should steer clear of these forgivable loans from the government because the terms and conditions of these loans is subject to change, especially in an election year. Taking government money has long been feared to have impacted the ministry of churches, particularly, that they will become more palatable to the masses. Dave Ramsey made this point as well.

Very few of the influential churches, seminaries, and pastors have pushed back on lockdowns, Critical Race Theory, and almost all are not gathering for in-person worship or have severely restricted it. John MacArthur is an outlier in this regard, but he had changed positions on this issue in August. Perhaps The American Family Association and The Christian Post are the other notable exceptions to this observation. However, most churches listed here have peddled panic porn. The Gospel Coalition, 9Marks, and Christianity Today peddled panic porn as well. David Platt organized a pseudo Black Lives Matter March while keeping his church shut down. JD Greear announce no in person gatherings indefinitely. The ERLC has been nowhere defending religious liberty.

It is also clear that churches did not consider taking this money to be a substantial hit on their witness. Should these loans end up being forgiven, they will essentially be a tax payer bailout for churches who chose to lock down. Should the churches fail to qualify for forgiveness, their congregants will be strapped with the debt. It is conceivable that churches are maintaining their docile nature because they want to qualify got more bailouts in the future or that not abiding by lockdowns could disqualify their loan forgiveness.

While the amount of money taken from taxpayers can be quantified, the damage of churches accepting conditional bailouts from the state to lock down is perhaps immeasurable.

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20 Responses

  1. The program was designed and approved by President Trump, at the height of the quarantine, to minimize the financial impact on the Faith Community’s staffing, payroll and outreach ministry budgets. I am surprised that more churches and faith-based organizations, especailly small and medium sized congregations, failed to take advantage of the generous program. I understood that these were GRANTS, not loans administered by SBA, under the president’s directives. Once again, President Trump put himself out there and took a real hit by the liberal, anti-religious crowd, in order to assist the faith-based community. The pastors who suffered massive financial loss (bankruptcy, foreclosure, etc) and those who struggled to meet staff payroll,etc due to closure at the height of the quarantine, could have and should have taken advantage of the unprecedented program. President Trump has demonstrated his unwavering commitment and loyalty to “the religious community” since he took office in 2017. I wonder exactly how many of the “recipients” supported and voted for him at election time. Seems that many of the prominent names mentioned in your article opposed the President’s re-election efforts and supported Biden. Now the full disclosure of THAT information would make for a real scandal and an interesting story that SHOULD be discussed. There is a phrase to describe the subsequent actions by many of the ministers and ministries mentioned in your blog. It’s called “biting the hand that feeds you”.

    1. These are forgivable loans. They could turn into grants but this is conditional.

      I understand that you are crediting Trump for helping the religious community. However, I am not to sure that no other administration would have had this. Government dependent churches is good for Democrats.

      1. I could be wrong but I understood provision was made for churches (and I’m thinking particularly smaller churches) under the stimulus package, to receive forgivable funds, in order to prevent foreclosure, bankruptcy, etc and to assist in meeting payroll for church staff. I remember reading this in alternative news sources (I don’t read or listen to mainline media at all), during the early stages of the Covid quarantine. I also remember, Pres Trump receiving a lot of flak from the “left” for even suggesting the idea of targeted financial relief for religious organizations. The President fully expected the country, and the churches, to re-open after Easter. The “left” had an agenda to close the churches …permanently! I don’tknow what terms were stipulated in the final draft of the stimulus package but I do know that many smaller churches suffered tremendous financial setbacks and permanently closed their doors. I’m sure most pastors and administrative staff were totally unaware of the financial assistance available to them. Thank you for your response.

        1. This article was a launching pad by showing the data, and it’s implications have far more to do with large organizations. At the larger level these organizations tend to act like businesses. “Christian media” saw impending ad revenue drop so they jumped on it, but these organizations are probably playing for the upcoming round 2 of relief. At the local level there are problems. I have more to write on this, but it can serve a far more legitimate function of subsidizing church plants or in the red churches. Keep in mind, not every organization large or small took money for the wrong purposes. It’s understandable that seminaries and state conventions would seek money to keep campus employees paid or to keep church planters paid. There’s more to say on this because I am aware of this issue on a local level, and these situations are a little shady.

        2. Doesn’t matter what Trump or anyone else did by unconstitutional executive orders these loans just like George W. Bush’s “Faith Based Charities” violated The Establishment Clause and Virginia Bill #82 funding if religion. This is nothing short of theft and the “Harlot” mounting the 8th Beast system.

        3. The bottom line is Christians were called out but not Jewish, Hebrew, Islam or Buddhist faiths were not called out as much. Jewish organizations received $500 million dollars PPP but laid off employees anyway. Next big issue is unconstitutional violating establishment clause and Separation between church and state. Many of these religious-race cults have used Establishment Clause to root out America’s Protestant foundations while jumping to get PPP loans from taxpayers. Pharisee and Hypocrite are synonymous together. This 8th beast and it’s Harlot regardless of party is on borrowed time. https://jweekly.com/2020/07/08/1000-jewish-groups-received-at-least-500-million-in-government-loans-some-laid-off-staff-anyway/

    2. President Trump was the reason for the spread of the virus. President Trump disbanded the pandemic response team.

    3. Really?? Churches aren’t supposed to be businesses; neither said by the govt or by the Bible.

      1. If a body becomes a business doesn’t that make it a prostitute? Unconstitutional and theft by religious tax. American’s have been burdened with religious tax since George Bush faith-based charities executive order. This 8th beast and it’s Harlot will meet their reward for their labors sooner than they think.

      2. The Bible doesn’t say that churches are businesses?? Maybe because the true church is the body of Christ, and it doesn’t need to be said.

  2. If you take Caesar’s gold you become Caesar’s man. It’s disappointing but not necessarily surprising that these churches who haven’t spoken out at all against mask mandates, lockdowns, quarantines and government overreach would be quick to take the money. Grant, loan whatever. Bottom line is that the church shouldn’t be looking to the taxpayers to bail them out.

    1. There is a deadly virus that is airborne. What should have been done to protect the people? When God released the death angel in Egypt He told the children of Israel to protect themselves by putting the blood on the door post. God gave man wisdom to protect themselves in this fallen world. Donald Trump was judgement on America not a blessing.

  3. I’m on the Board of a relatively small mission board that wanted to take the loan of about $38,000. I plead with the other board members to trust God. He would act and boy did he. We took more in than ever before. 1 man who only gave a small amount over the previous couple years gave $150,000. Another couple $100,000. Many other gifts of people who wanted to help gave 100’s of thousands of dollars. I believe God blessed us because we decided to trust God rather than man, especially government.

  4. Thank you- very interesting. I agree with the comment- trust God! Why are we asking the government- both sides are outside the kingdom of God.

    I’ve been encouraged by John MacArthur stand. Why has he changed his position? He’s said ‘ we’ve been played’ there is no pandemic!

    1. If he said there was and is no pandemic the devil has tricked him. You people worship man and not God that;s why you have been given over to a reprobate mind. There is a pandemic usre your head and stop folliowing men who don’t follow God.

  5. There is a deadly virus that is airborne. What should have been done to protect the people? When God released the death angel in Egypt He told the children of Israel to protect themselves by putting the blood on the door post. God gave man wisdom to protect themselves in this fallen world. Donald Trump was judgement on America not a blessing.

  6. I read very early … even before Covid … that some mentioned above were “close” to Trump … visiting him at his Trump Tower in NYC. Their names are public info. And early on, I also read about CASH gifts and PPP’s … in the THOUSANDS … yes, MILLIONS given to pastors, churches and orgs, with THOUSANDS … yes, MiLLIONS of members and/or affiliates. COVID, though hard among commoners, exacerbated its “known freebies” among the Religious upper echelon … in particular, among the EVANGELICAL mix. Surely THEY had/have heavy contributors.

    Obviously, that is difficult to explain when visiting college campuses. Young people are smart. The questions also are: Integrity? Truth? Morals? Trust? Character? vs. their common sense.

    Each one accepting any amount … thousands … particularly millions … were paid for their vote.

    Ask a simple question to each: Who are you voting for? Listen to the answers. You will be taken down, so they can minister to you. However, I am ashamed of them … because the students are smart, and are asking the right questions.

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