Virginia Pastor Ministers with an Iron Hand—and Hot Cars

Leading the same congregation for over 30 years, Pastor Star R. Scott left the Assemblies of God, dismissed the church board, and brooks no dissent among his shrunken but still substantial fellowship.

The Washington Post offered an in-depth report on the Calvary Temple congregation in suburban Sterling, Virginia ("In Va., a Powerful and Polarizing Pastor," Michelle Boorstein, November 16, 2008, p.A01).  The report described a number of instances where Pastor Star R. Scott had called for the shunning of recalcitrant members, including teenagers and spouses. 

What caught my interest, though, was the description of the church's governance.  Originally a congregation of the Assemblies of God, which claims to be the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world, Pastor Scott took the church out of the denomination in 1986 to become an independent ministry.  Then in 1996 he eliminated all church boards, making himself sole trustee in a church constitution that also specified that he would control all church property were the church to close. 

I have on several occasions noted that long tenure of charity leadership is often problematic, most recently in discussing the executive leadership crisis at Acorn.  In this case, one of the main symptoms of executive overreaching was the church's automotive outreach, called Finish the Race, which was a fleet of high-performance cars, trucks, and motorcycles that the pastor toured with using church funds.  Pastor Scott told the reporter that he has no set salary and that his possessions belong to the congregation. 

On a more personal level, the pastor married a member of the congregation just a month after his first wife died in 2002—a 20-year old.  Pastor Scott was 55 at the time.   

Worth noting is that the church once enjoyed a membership of 2,000 but in recent years it has dwindled to 400 or so.  What is noteworthy is not so much that the membership has declined by 80%, but that 400 willing congregants remain.  By enforcing a strict tithing requirement, the church is still able to thrive.  The dynamics of congregations are such that a pastor can continue to go on even after alienating a large share of the congregation.  So a governance structure is needed—is it not enough to rely on people voting with their feet to keep a leader on the right path. 

The article points out that US tax law for charities does not put any requirements on church governance, and churches are exempt from financial disclosure requirements applied to other charities.  There are broad guidelines that limit compensation to key employees, but it is not clear that the pastor could be successfully challenged for receiving excess compensation.  The IRS is severely limited in its audit powers where churches are concerned. 

It seems to me that the primary need is for more scrutiny of charity governance structures for all charities, religious or otherwise.  There should be a requirement that any charity organization have a governance structure that precludes a single individual from making decisions without review or oversight.  One aspect of such a structure, I think, is a reasonable balance in tenure between board members and management.  Anytime the top dog is in charge for decades, there is high risk that organizational resources will be diverted to serve personal ends. 

Comments

[FrankL]

Just a quick comment....if all of the race cars were owned by "the church" how come Star Scott was the only one who could drive them? He wouldn't let any of us congregants drive any of the cars that we owned? Yeah doesn't seem very right or fair does it. BTW, that's why I left, because I wasn't allowed to race any of the cars myself :-(

[scooter]

I have not been a member of Calvary Temple, but sadly, I have personally witnessed the same sort of cult dynamics at work in other churches. I have nothing against believers assembling themselves together, but we would all be better off in getting our affirmation from seeing our own reflections in the scriptures, rather than in conforming to the (weird) social constructs that ususally manifest in religious organizations. The 400 "faithful" saps that remain at Calvary Temple have surrendered their freedom in Christ for a very conditional acceptance from an imperfect man - not a good trade. Most of this remaining 20% of the original 2000 represent the die-hard cases of ignorance or borderline neurosis that have a special affinity to cult indoctrination. 20% of the population. Yeah, that's about right.

[Marc Stinebaugh]

I attended the church too, but left/got kicked out. Basically, everything they said about the place is true, but even worse. It's a cult in the truest sense. The power structure, the financial structure, the neuro-linguistic programming, the property control, the false sense of ownership by the sheeple, everything. I can attest that Star Scott is a fraud. There are many witnesses to that fact, and I would just say, stay away from that place and any place like it. Thanks for reading.
- Marc Stinebaugh
(Aka. Gzuz the Man Child)

[LeoTheLion]

Marc Stinebaugh,

I've read several of your postings and you seem to criticise CT and Pastor Scott alot. So I ask you what has your own life become? Are you honoring the God of the Bible with your life? I don't agree with everything CT and Pastor Scott do and say yet blasting them won't help either. You seem big on reading the "Word" for your self and coming to your own conclusions but honestly that's like a 3 year old who wants to read a college text book. You need someone to teach and mentor you in the faith. Don't throw away your relationship with the Lord because your disgruntled with CT and them embarrassing you from the pulpit. The Lord is so much bigger than one church. You've been through a lot in your life, you clearly know what happens when you take the reigns of your own life, so make sure you are walking worthy of what Father has entrusted to you. If your not, then repent, ask for forgiveness, and start over.

LeoTheLion