It's Wall Street Not Sesame Street!

Talk about incompetence.  Recently, our church has been engaged in a legal battle against a predatory lending company which has ravaged several churches over our region of the country.  This story is just another Maddoff story that has bilked churches out of millions of dollars, brought down two major banks, stolen minister retirement funds and has 14 people and 4 different companies involved in the criminal activity and subsequent cover up.  How we ever uncovered this mess is still an act of God to me.  However, this case has given me real insight to major corrupt financial structures built in our country's economic and legal systems.  You can blame the President, you can blame the House or Senate, but the real criminals are the banks and Wall St. who have yet been brought to justice.  Our country is in a crisis.  It not only needs prayer but we need Godly leadership.  Our problem in the Christian Community is that we have failed to educate and raise up young people with the educational background, tools and resources needed to enter into the financial field to fix this mess. All the American Church World has done is raised up more crooks like Maddoff rather than bring about Godly change in the workplace. Why?  Because our churches have spent years teaching escapism, short cuts, and church politics all the while when they should have been engaged in becoming salt and light within our culture.  You can preach all you want on purpose, power, dominionism, and the seven mountains and lead millions into delusion if you want. But without educating and raising up a generation who can compete in the global market place- all this preaching is a joke.  Try pastoring a church in this legal and business environment and then tell me how well we're doing as a nation. However, not to worry it's all catching up and will create a major leadership shift in our world because of incompetence.  Here's why...

       Ezekiel 34 explains "The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, ² “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy to these shepherds. Tell them, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: How horrible it will be for the shepherds of Israel who have been taking care of only themselves. Shouldn’t shepherds take care of the sheep? ³ You eat the best parts of the sheep, dress in the wool, and butcher the finest sheep. Yet, you don’t take care of the sheep. ⁴ You have not strengthened those that were weak, healed those that were sick, or bandaged those that were injured. You have not brought back those that strayed away or ow looked for those that were lost. You have ruled them harshly and violently. ⁵ So they were scattered because there was no shepherd. When they were scattered, they became food for every wild animal."  God has called Leaders to Lead... this means to equip the body thoroughly for service. But how can you do that if you haven't gotten the equipping you needed to do your job?  Can't ask someone else to do what you're unwilling to do yourself!

           Here's what the American Church has been producing.  According to several major news outlets, The SEC has filed legal complaints against Ephren Taylor of running a fraud through his company, City Capital Corp. with a ponzi schemes targeting churches like New Birth Baptist Church in Atlanta and Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. The SEC alleges that Taylor told people he invested in economically disadvantaged businesses such as laundromats, but he was actually spending the money on marketing himself and his wife’s singing career.  South Florida's Liberty City Church of Christ was a victim to his scheme and lost $100,000 in investments from church members."  

         A former usher of a Mercer Island church pleaded guilty, recently, to securities fraud for stealing more than $3 million from church members and others, according to the King County, WA. Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Stephen J. Klos, 86, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of securities fraud for running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded elderly victims, the prosecutor’s office said today. Prosecutors say Klos and another man, Robert Justice, paid later investors in the scheme with money from new clients, pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars along the way. The scheme, according to the state Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), dated to 2004 when Klos began soliciting investments from members of his gym as well as members of the Mercer Island Covenant Church, where Klos served as an usher. The Securities Division of DFI began its investigation in 2007. The charges, filed in April 2011, arose from losses suffered by 10 people, although charging documents indicate Klos took money from at least 23 families.  Klos had been barred from securities and financial dealings in 1992 for running another Ponzi scheme that raised more than $3.4 million, according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) records. No criminal charges were filed in the case, although SEC records indicate he had to pay back more than $380,000.

         Huffington Post reported a few days ago, "After years of etching their name into gospel music history, the Winans' family legacy has taken a slight detour with allegations surfacing that Michael Winans Jr. has been involved in a Ponzi scheme.  CBS Detroit reports that Michael Winans Jr. pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal charges that he defrauded more than 1,000 investors out of $8 million in crude oil bonds over the course of 30 years. According to a press statement obtained by the local news affiliate, Winans promoted the fraudulent investment operation as if the Winans Foundation Trust were investing in Saudi Arabian oil bonds."  And the list goes on.  Why are people scammed?  Because our churches are being led into incompetency... within the clergy, legal and justice systems, and especially the financial sector. We need quality, competent, educated leadership to avert this stuff.

        We need people to be discipled in their faith and teach them how to apply it in every field of life. We need to teach thieves to stop stealing! (See Eph. 4)  The world is groaning for Christian integrity.   Do you know what a derivative is?  Do you understand the principles underlying capitolism?  Is it biblical?  Most don't know or care.  Banks are no longer banks - they're stores where you are led to purchase products at $35. a pop. Bank bailouts were supposed to be followed by financial reform to limit the banks’ destructive power. Instead, bailed-out banks are bigger than ever and have resisted reforms to limit their size and complexity.  Why?  Because banks are still doing "Speculative Banking."  They are interested in enriching themselves and their investors which is why churches are getting scammed and people everywhere are finding their personal economy threatened.  The bank failure is coming.  It's going to cost all of us and it could have been stopped if we were not blinded by our own moral incompetence.