Megachurch Purchase Falls Through

wise seeker · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2003 8:32 pm Post subject: Megachurch Purchase Falls Through

Calling it "very disappointing," officials of a large Pentecostal church in Tampa, Fla., said they have failed to reach a deal to buy what was once one of the largest churches in the world, reported Charisma News Services.

Without Walls International Church (WWIC), a 14,000-strong, nondenominational urban congregation, concluded a 10-month arrangement May 31 with Carpenter's Home Church (CHC), ending its Saturday night worship services and closing off negotiations to buy the 10,000-seat sanctuary, "The Lakeland Ledger" reported.

Located in suburban Lakeland, about 45 minutes east of Tampa, CHC is affiliated with the Assemblies of God. Failure to agree on a price nixed the sale. WWIC associate pastor Jennifer Mallan said the figures were confidential, but the two sides were "a couple of million dollars" apart, the newspaper reported.

"Everyone involved really tried to make it work," she said. "We don't fault anyone ... They had a price and they weren't going to lower it. We respect that ... but we are very disappointed. We felt it was a God thing."

Mallan added WWIC would continue its outreach ministry in Lakeland, distributing food in public-housing complexes and conducting mobile children's Sunday schools. She said the church would consider co-sponsoring conferences with Carpenter's Home.

CHC officials could not be reached for comment. Carpenter's Home, formerly First Assembly of God in Lakeland, was built in 1985 at a cost of $12 million. Despite the sanctuary's size, the congregation never grew larger than about 5,000.

When the two churches announced their innovative partnership last summer, the arrangement was not called a merger and both congregations intended to keep their own identities. Leaders said the "Coalition of Compassion" plan allowed the two congregations to "share facilities and pool their outreach and mission efforts to reap a greater harvest."

But what should anybody be surprised at the thieves who run Carpenter's Home Church including Senior Pastor Karl Strader, Assistant Senior Pastor Stephen Strader and Shane Simmons, Karl Strader's son-in-law. It's a fact that Karl Strader stole the first Assembly of God in 1988 after the big split and with the help of Joe Perez and made it to be Carpenter’s Home Church incorporated with Karl Strader President for life. So why should any body be surprised that Senior Pastor Karl Strader helped his thieving son Dan, a replica of Karl, by telling him whom to rob or not to rob?

Dan Strader in his speech given from the pulpit of Carpenter’s Home Church dated January 29, 1995 stated:

I want to say that I’m sorry to the investors that have experienced financial loss. There was never any scam or scheme to defraud anyone. That intent never even entered my mind. Unfortunately, we judge ourselves by our motives and intents and others by their actions.

Finally, there was the airship deal. One of the individuals who participated directly with the owner of our company on this transaction was from our church. My father had cautioned me on doing business with this individual. I didn’t listen.

The State prosecutors proved their case and convinced the jurors that Dan Strader devised an elaborate scheme to attract cash in the real-estate and mortgage investments. He was selling the securities without a license and that the securities were unregistered. This was done in an organized method amounting to Racketeer-Influence and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO Act.

As a result Daniel Strader, 37, was sentenced to 45 years in prison in August 1995. He was convicted of 238 felony counts for bilking 57 mostly elderly investors, some members of the church, out of $2.3 million by selling investments in properties that didn't exist or already had liens against them.

Roy and Patricia Aldrich of Lakeland, a wonderful couple, were among the elderly who were members of the Assembly of God and Carpenter's Home Church, Lakeland, Florida who were deeply hurt. Roy had written to important and influential people at AG, including District Superintendent Don Lunsford and General Superintendent Thomas Trask, requesting their help concerning Pastor Karl Strader. But they didn't get true justice!

The leadership of the Assembly of God denomination both in Lakeland and Missouri would not accept the testimony of Roy Aldrich that he was robbed and raped by money changers and wolves in sheep's clothing in the house of God. But the State of Florida who cared about justice, righteousness and truth accepted the words and testimony of Roy Aldrich about the Straders.

Dan cannot accept the fact of his guilt in real crimes of praying with and preying on the members of his father's church with the help of his father. Deceived Dan doesn't understand that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble for Roy Aldrich, a retired school teacher, died prematurely at the age 65, as a direct result of the stress and betrayal by his friend and pastor, Karl Strader, and the deeds and actions of his son, Daniel Strader. Roy wrote the following:

Dan Strader was convicted of stealing our life savings of $ 100,000.00 by using lies and deceit and since your question about the effect on our lives is probably the must important factor to you and the Parole Commission, let me simply repeat the words of Jerry Hill, state attorney of Polk County: "The crimes of Dan Strader have done more damage to more elderly people than any homicide that I have prosecuted "

Dan's thefts have forced us to sell our house and most of our personal possessions and move into a trailer. He has shown absolutely no remorse and Judge Robert Doyel who presided over this case stated: "The first step toward rehabilitation is admission of wrong doing, and therefore I feel that Dan Strader will never be rehabilitated."

What Mr. Strader did was calculated and carefully planned with a willful disregard for the lives of others to such an unbelievable degree of extremity that my wife and I still cannot understand why anyone would try to destroy us in this fashion, especially since we had given faithful service to the Carpenter's Church in Lakeland pastored by Karl Strader, Dan's Father.

The evil and wicked deeds of Dan Strader and his 238 counts of theft, fraud and racketeering will continue to haunt Carpenter's Home Church in Lakeland. Although Dan appealed his conviction the 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld the conviction and sentence in 1996. In 1999, Strader began a new appeal, contending he didn't get adequate representation from his lawyer, Jack Edmund of Bartow, during the 1995 trial. Strader alleged that his accomplice Pernice lied in his testimony during the trial at the prompting of prosecutors.

On April 1, 2002 Attorneys for Dan Strader have taken their case to federal court. They filed a motion in the Middle District of Florida in Tampa to have the court review the process of the state proceedings in the trial against Strader. Attorneys had appealed the case to the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland after Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen turned down their post-conviction relief petition. Jacobsen was not the judge at Strader's trial, but in 2001 he ruled against Strader's request for a new trial. A three-judge panel from the appeal court upheld Jacobsen's ruling without comment in a decision released March 11, 2002.

The Lakeland Ledger reported that April was a bittersweet month for Strader. On Easter Sunday, he marked his 35th anniversary as pastor of Carpenter's Home Church. A week earlier, the latest appeal by his convicted son, Daniel, was denied. In the twilight of his career, Karl David Strader is a living alloy of tradition and progress, success and loss.

In one generation, he has seen his Pentecostal tradition grow in numbers and in acceptance. And by most accounts, he has been an innovator, freely associating with faith groups outside Pentecostalism and borrowing ideas from them. He built an empire at Carpenter's Home in North Lakeland that has at times included a 10,000-seat sanctuary, a national TV audience, a private school and a retirement home. But his innovations were not appreciated by everyone, and 11 years ago, strife decimated Carpenter's Home. Today, the cavernous sanctuary is perhaps a quarter full on Sundays, and the TV broadcasts have been cut way back.

Strader bears an even deeper wound. Those who know him say the scandal surrounding his son's arrest and 1995 conviction on fraud charges have affected him more deeply than any other setback. Yet at 72, Strader soldiers on, preaching and laying hands on people who come forward in hopes of a healing touch. He says he will remain as pastor of Carpenter's Home as long as his health is good. He tells his congregation, "I'm past the age scripture tells me is given to us of three score and 10. But God has given me a wonderful life of health and strength. I'm shooting for 100."

But the Ledger also reported recently that the Carpenter's Home Church, under the leadership of Karl Strader, will be sold. It doesn't profit to be a thief and to raise up a thief! Yes, crime doesn't pay.

Dan was not an entrepreneur, he was a first class con artist who used religious words, quoted the Bible, prayed with and preyed on his victims. He modeled himself after his protégé and hero-his Dad, and did the things that the Senior Pastor and the Strader family did in Carpenter's Home Church continually. Unfortunately, there are others in the Assembly of God who do the same things, even pastors and superintendents.

The facts would later show the Straders for what they are and how they:
• Ignored the plight of the elderly victims and raise tens of thousands of dollars for Dan.
• Ignored moral discrepancies in Dan's multiple admission of lying and guilt, and declare victory over their enemies, which never came.
• Identified the forces of darkness as anyone who would question their views and positions on matters, especially in regards to Dan's crimes.
• Ridiculed and lampooned Dan's victims, by deriding them for testifying against Dan.
• Arrogantly refused to admit doing any significant wrong and say it was the fault of others a conspiracy out to get them, because of who they are, high profile Christians.
• Repeatedly used the pulpit of Carpenter's Home church to issue misleading statements about Dan and others such as "we are being crucified by the press" and using lies and deceptions.
• Issued unbelievable hate and slander from a public pulpit, on three investors or victims, who were embezzled by a con artist.
• Used people and things in Carpenter's Home Church for their own hidden agendas. Jim, who was used by the Straders for his considerable talent, and to do the punishing work of building Carpenter's Home Church, then threw him out like a gum wrapper. Jim believed in checks and balances, and this was something that Karl and Dan Strader didn't do or practice. Therefore, they hated Jim for loving the truth, and sought a means, at all costs, even at the price of splitting the church, to see him removed from his position.
• Denied members and staff members access to elected deacons, and used others on staff as Roy Aldrich had written to work them over with "a rubber hose" for not submitting to their demands and wishes.
• Ensured that their salaries were confidential and their positions were maintained at all costs, while others less fortunate and more talented had to leave, even though they had given their best and expected a degree of respect for their loyalty and hard work. It wasn't what you did but who you know, and the same is true in churches today.

So it safe to assume that Dan Strader is not getting out of prison soon because the God who put him there is not stupid and neither are others? And the Straders will not prosper because God is not stupid and He sees and knows their crimes and greed!

Wally Duncaster

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