Mac Hammond’s Living Word Christian Center facing foreclosure
Monday, August 23, 2010 at 1:15 pm
- 25 Comments
Mac and Lynne Hammond. Photo: LWCC.org
Updated: Property owned by Living Word Christian Center has gone into foreclosure, according to the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office. On July 28, four parcels of land owned by the Brooklyn Park mega-church was bought at a sheriff’s sale for $5.1 million. Pastor Mac Hammond, who preaches a “prosperity gospel,” has been plagued by financial problems over the last few years. The church took millions from a man who was later convicted of fraud, and the IRS opened an investigation into the church’s finances stemming from favorable financial dealings between the church and Hammond.
County records show that TCF National Bank, which is also the mortgage lender to LWCC, bought the property. Per Minnesota law, Living Word has until July 28, 2011, to redeem the property by securing new financing. The church bought property in 1995 for $3.5 million. It’s unclear from county records whether the foreclosed property is the land on which the church itself sits; Living Word has not responded to the Minnesota Independent’s request for comment on the foreclosure or the church’s financial future.
Update: LWCC told the Minnesota Independent on Tuesday that they sold the property in 2006 and that Hennepin County records are misleading. Said Amy Rotenberg, “Living Word Christian Center actually sold that property to another entity and has had no continuing interest in it since 2006.” We’ll update this story should those records be modified.
Also, according to Rotenberg, “The church is not currently facing any financial issues.” She said, “We won our battle with the IRS” and that the church’s defense of the $2.2 million donated before Gerard Cellette was convicted of fraud should not be seen as a “financial problem.”
In early 2008, the church began to fall behind on its budget by $40,000 to $70,000, prompting Hammond to sell off his jet and forcing the church to cut its hour-long television broadcast to a half hour.
In May, the church was served with papers demanding the return of $2.2 million in money it received from Gerard Cellette, who had been convicted of fraud. Cellette ran a Ponzi scheme and lawyers for the victims were attempting to collect the money from Living Word for remuneration.
The church said in a statement in May that it felt it shouldn’t have to give the money back to the victims because of its status as a church. “This lawsuit, on behalf of Mr. Cellette’s investors, to take back the funds from LWCC and repay the investors is unfair. Our church is essentially being asked to be the guarantor to principally out-of-state, sophisticated investors that made bad investments with Mr. Cellette.”
It’s not the first time the church has invoked religious privilege following questions about its finances.
In 2007, the Minnesota Independent reported that Living Word had arranged favorable loans for Hammond and that Hammond had bought a stunt plane from the church and then leased it back to the church. That reporting led to an IRS investigation, and in 2008 the church sued to block the IRS from investigating.
The IRS wanted a look at Hammond’s and Living Word’s financial books, but Hammond invoked religious privilege.
“This case is about the First Amendment, the free exercise of religion and separation of church and state,” Walter Pickhardt, attorney for the church, said at the time. “Living Word did cooperate but the IRS didn’t follow correct procedures. It was an overbroad request.”
A judge ruled that the IRS did not follow the proper procedures in its investigation and the agency dropped its investigation.
In 2006, the church gained notoriety when Hammond took to the pulpit to endorse Rep. Michele Bachmann for her first election to Congress. Hammond’s backing prompted complaints to the IRS and raised eyebrows, since Hammond didn’t live in Bachmann’s district.
Hammond’s financial troubles come after years of financial growth for the church and for Hammond personally. The “prosperity gospel” Hammond preaches asserts that financial gain is a sign of God’s love. The church has several prayers about becoming debt-free.
“We, the body of Believers of Living Word Christian Center, declare we have been carved out for an end-time expression of El Shaddai, the God of abundance and no lack,” reads one such prayer on the church’s website. “We are taught how to live independent of this world system and how to have dominion over it, therefore, in Jesus’ name, we declare we are debt-free! The spirit of debt is destroyed over our lives and over this local church because of the anointing. We are the lender and not the borrower, the head and not the tail.”
Hammond isn’t the only prosperity preacher to have faced money troubles. As Christianity Today reporter Bobby Ross, Jr., notes, more than a few such figures are now struggling financially.
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter25 Comments
Comment posted August 23, 2010 @ 1:45 pm
Their faith must be wanting ’cause the bible says that god will supply ALL your need and not to worry and yadda yadda, etc. etc.
He/she/it must not be pleased to pull his/her/it’s support like that.
Best repent guys.
Pingback posted August 23, 2010 @ 1:55 pm
[...] Minnesota Independent reports today that a key Exodus affiliate, Living Word Christian Church in Minnesota, has gone into [...]
Comment posted August 23, 2010 @ 2:30 pm
Nice research – you guys are really trying hard to bad mouth Living Word. LWCC sold that property over 10 years ago. FYI – LWCC is thriving! GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT! An apology is in order here.
Comment posted August 23, 2010 @ 3:49 pm
Hi John: What’s your concern? Hennepin County documents (linked above and here) clearly show that four parcels owned by LWCC were sold in a sheriff’s sale last month. If you have evidence that the land was actually sold 10 years ago and that the sheriff’s office is incorrect, please let us know.
Pingback posted August 23, 2010 @ 3:59 pm
[...] Minnesota Independent [...]
Comment posted August 23, 2010 @ 5:27 pm
LWCC sold this parcel for 10 million dollars to Hoyt properties in 2005 – so 6 years ago not 10 – obviously they must have been having processing issues and left the title transfer in limbo as they filed for bankrupcy. A retraction of this story will be necessary.
Comment posted August 23, 2010 @ 6:23 pm
If LWCC sold the property to Hoyt Properties 5 years ago and the transfer was never recorded but TCF continued to hold a mortgage against the property that was not paid off in the closing, there’s a lot more wrong here than just “processing issues.” I agree this story needs more development but I’d say it’s a bit hasty to demand a retraction. LWCC has some ‘splainin’ to do.
Pingback posted August 24, 2010 @ 12:23 pm
[...] The Minnesota Independent reported on Monday that a key Exodus affiliate, Living Word Christian Church in Minnesota, has gone [...]
Comment posted August 24, 2010 @ 1:51 pm
Poor Hammond had to sell his jet :( poor guy.
Jesus had to be smirking when LWCC went down in a ball of flames.
Comment posted August 24, 2010 @ 5:36 pm
Wasn’t it part of Jesus’ ministry that people give away their material possessions and join him?
How does that reconcile with Rev. Hammond’s “prosperity” preaching as a Christian leader?
Very confusing.
Comment posted August 24, 2010 @ 6:58 pm
Yeah, something about a rich man, a camel, and a needle
Comment posted August 24, 2010 @ 8:16 pm
“How does that reconcile with Rev. Hammond’s “prosperity” preaching as a Christian leader?”
It doesn’t. If I remember my bible correctly, Jesus really only talked about rendering onto Ceasar and possibly something about living debt free.
Comment posted August 25, 2010 @ 11:42 am
When you put in the address (9201 75th Ave N.) in the Hennepin County Tax Information database, you will see that Living Word Christian Center is the owner and the property was purchased in 1995 for $3.5 Million – just as the article states. If there was indeed some sort of sale six years ago that didn’t get recorded, that would raise a whole host of other questions. Mr. (NOT Reverend) Hammond has never been particularly forthcoming in sharing financial information with his members – one of the many reasons I left a few years ago.
Comment posted August 25, 2010 @ 2:12 pm
John, are you saying that the asset managers at the highly profitable, and financially prudent TCF cannot keep track of a property that they were willing to pay over $5 million dollars for at a public auction?
If this church no longer has an airplane why do they own a parcel of land at Anoka County Airport with a taxable value list over $900,000?
Comment posted August 25, 2010 @ 4:10 pm
Chris- Yes Living Word owns the land associated with 9201 75th ave n, that is where the church is located. The dispute is about the 10 acres of land which Living Word sold and now is falsely advertised.
Comment posted August 26, 2010 @ 9:13 pm
In its generic sense, dominionism is a very broad political tendency within the Christian Right. It ranges from soft to hard versions in terms of its theocratic impulse.
Soft Dominionists are Christian nationalists. They believe that Biblically-defined immorality and sin breed chaos and anarchy. They fear that America’s greatness as God’s chosen land has been undermined by liberal secular humanists, feminists, and homosexuals. Purists want litmus tests for issues of abortion, tolerance of gays and lesbians, and prayer in schools. Their vision has elements of theocracy, but they stop short of calling for supplanting the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Hard Dominionists believe all of this, but they want the United States to be a Christian theocracy. For them the Constitution and Bill of Rights are merely addendums to Old Testament Biblical law. They claim that Christian men with specific theological beliefs are ordained by God to run society. Christians and others who do not accept their theological beliefs would be second-class citizens. This sector includes Christian Reconstructionists, but it has a growing number of adherents in the leadership of the Christian Right.
http://www.theocracywatch.org/
Comment posted August 31, 2010 @ 9:45 pm
It seems that the link to the prayer is actually not LWCC in MN. Kind of makes your other journalistic “facts” suspect???
Pingback posted September 2, 2010 @ 8:16 pm
[...] If that’s the sort of thing you think your representatives should be doing, help Tarryl Clark take Michele Bachmann’s seat and send Crazy Bachmann back to Mac Hammond and what’s left of his megachurch. [...]
Comment posted September 4, 2010 @ 7:52 am
SO SIMPLE
go here
http://www16.co.hennepin.mn.us/pins/addrsrch.jsp
in BUILDING #
TYPE IN
9201
in STREET NAME
75th Ave N
CLICK the SEARCH BUTTON
then
CLICK the VIEW MAP BUTTON
then
CLICK the ENTER WEBSITE BUTTON
then
CLICK the 2) CLICK FOR BIRDSEYE
not much to argue about after that
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=45.08885~-93.39841&style=b#
Comment posted September 12, 2010 @ 10:56 pm
I believe this is the property in question.
http://finance-commerce.com/2010/09/hoyt-property-in-foreclosure/
Comment posted September 13, 2010 @ 1:42 pm
The answers to everyone’s question about LWCC is here in this article here. I believe LWCC and the Hammonds are owed an apology letter from the Independant for not doing its due diligence on the story, and getting all the facts before publishing such a story.
http://finance-commerce.com/2010/09/hoyt-property-in-foreclosure/
Comment posted September 20, 2010 @ 9:22 am
I see no one is talking now…
what’s amazing is that all of you people believe the newspapers, t.v., (televised gossip), and some “used to be attenders”. And your still allowed to vote and have opinions…scary! Didn’t we learn in grade school gossip gets you know where. If the IRS really felt they had probable cause to go into Hammond or LWCC’s financials, they would have re-attempted, but they DIDN’T!! Everybody is always looking for someone to blame or point a finger at someone else’s issues, only to avoid their own problems! Besides if he was the most crooked preacher in all the world, what would you care? it’s not your money or your problem!
Comment posted September 20, 2010 @ 2:46 pm
I feel that all preachers should take the lead of the most famous pastor of all times: Wally Cox. Riding from town to town on his mule. He had an impecable record of clean finances! Check it out: Wally’sClean.com. Forget the jets! Wally is the example to fulfill the Great Commission: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel…” (“those who do not believe…”)
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