Sovereign Grace Ministries, now Sovereign Grace Churches, Incorporated (SGCI), recently released their Audited Financial Statements for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2014.
I’ve taken the 2014 figures and compared them to the 2011 figures. The contrast highlights the financial downfall that has followed the ethical downfall over the past four years. Here is a simple summary.
Total Assets
2011 - $6,234,757
2014 - $2,827,050
A loss in total assets of 3.4 million.
Operating Budget
2011 - $6,623,168
2014 - $2,910,648
A reduction in the operating budget of 3.7 million.
Savings
2011 - $2,542,367
2014 - $741,873
A loss in savings of 1.8 million.
Giving
2011 - $4,819,801
2014 - $1,590,800
A reduction in giving of 3.3 million.
Sovereign Grace Churches, Inc. forecasts a budget deficit of $190,000 in 2015. This despite the fact that employee compensation and benefits have been cut by 61% over the past three years.
The auditor notes that “SGCI has been adversely affected by the economic downturn, negative publicity from litigation, and the departure of over 30 member churches from the association.” (Note 10, p. 19)
On the other hand, Mark Prater, the Executive Director for SGCI, posted about “all the faithful works of God in our family of churches this past year.” That included a “clean audit.”
“Because of Tommy Hill’s and Mark Donovan’s faithful work, we have received another clean audit for the last fiscal year, which is important in maintaining the trust of our donors.”
The audit may be clean but SGCI is not. If Prater were honest, he’d talk about losing the trust of donors by the thousands which has resulted in the near financial collapse of SGCI. Giving was down again in 2014. And yet there is no repentance.
Lost trust must be regained, not maintained. That will not happened under Prater who is the highest ranking denominational officer. He continues to use spin and hype to mislead those that remain in SGCI. That’s why you will never hear an honest overview of the Audited Financial Statements. You have to go look for them and study them and compare them.
SGCI is all about cover up even though the Lord Jesus Christ has exposed them time after time. He has done his own spiritual audit and declared its deceptive leaders unclean. Christ’s dealings will continue in 2015 and may actually increase. More uncleanness will be revealed in the coming year.
Psalm 24:3-4 Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.