Picture yourself as a board member of the National Religious Broadcasters, an association of 1,100 member organizations that attempts to “communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world,” according to its website.
Important work. Potentially life-changing work. With headquarters located blocks from the U.S. Capitol, NRB has marketed itself as being to the First Amendment what the National Rifle Association is to the Second. U.S. presidents have spoken at NRB’s annual convention.
Last Dec. 7 you receive the NRB’s latest audited financial report. Your reaction might be like NRB Treasurer Frank Wright’s, revealed in an email legally obtained by radio host and independent journalist Julie Roys, who sent it to WORLD’s editor in chief last month. Wright wrote, “The fact that [the report] arrived 11 months after the close of the fiscal year was an immediate red flag for me, and the substance of the Audit Report and the Management Letter more than verified my concerns.”
In March Wright tells you that after receiving the audit report, he reviewed reports going back to 2014: “The results of this analysis are deeply troubling.” NRB had suffered operating losses of $873,000 since 2014 and had been “financially insolvent for each of the last three fiscal years.” As of Dec. 31, 2018, NRB’s deficit in unrestricted net assets was $613,000. Its cash reserves were virtually depleted. The independent auditor, Wright says, “had flagged NRB as being at-risk as a ‘going concern’—the worst language you can ever see in an audit.”
On April 10 you receive another email from Wright: “NRB needs $750,000 to pay all its convention obligations AND carry it through the summer slump until September 1. To date, we have received $164,500 in pledges. … Let me be candid here. Without your full financial support in raising this $750,000, NRB will have no option but bankruptcy reorganization.”
Wright’s emails were not the only signs of trouble. In February the organization announced Jerry Johnson was resigning after six years as president. Neither Johnson nor NRB cited a reason. Two other high-level NRB staffers also left. Roys said other emails leaked to her showed Johnson, after his resignation, was pushing the NRB board to increase his healthcare benefits and severance pay.
Johnson and several other NRB board members refused to answer my questions about the split-up. NRB general counsel Craig Parshall—husband of NRB board chair and popular Moody Radio host Janet Parshall—told me in July NRB “is firmly established on solid ground.”
But as Wright’s communications to the board show, that financial ground has been anything but solid since 2005. Only twice in those 13 years—in 2007 and 2009—has NRB ended the year with operating surpluses. Many nonprofits have years in which they spend more money than they make, but those 11 years total more than $1.5 million ($1,531,205) in combined deficits.
As Wright indicated, NRB’s net assets have also tanked. In 2015, tax returns showed net assets of $320,089. The next year’s tax returns showed net assets at −$165,811, and NRB’s profile page on the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) website shows its 2017 net assets at −$220,900, leading up to the deficit of more than $600,000 at the end of 2018 (according to Wright’s email).
So how did NRB get into its current financial trouble? Stuart Epperson, founder of Salem Media Group, sits on the NRB board along with more than 100 other people. He downplayed NRB’s financial troubles: “It appears to be much, much worse than it is.” But he admitted the organization overspent.
“Jerry had plans to cover any expenses, but some of those plans to cover all expenses didn’t work out as he anticipated,” Epperson said. In his view, Johnson “wanted to take us beyond—this is where the added expenses likely came in—take us beyond where people thought NRB wanted to go.”
As it lobbied for Christian broadcasters in the nation’s halls of power, in 2016 the organization got a new hall of power of its own. In June that year, the NRB moved its headquarters from Manassas, Va., to a suite in the National Guard Memorial Museum building on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., blocks away from the U.S. Capitol. NRB lost $170,000 on the sale of the Manassas headquarters and the move to Washington. In February 2019—about the time NRB announced Johnson was leaving—the organization moved again, this time into an office suite in a smaller building, next to the National Guard Museum building.
DURING THIS ENTIRE TIME, the NRB remained accredited and in good standing with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a financial accreditor whose stated mission is “Enhancing Trust in Christ-Centered Churches and Ministries.” The ECFA emerged in the late 1970s as an attempt to restore trust in the finances of Christian nonprofits. Back then a series of scandals involving religious ministries woke up regulators in Washington and ministry heads across the country. As Congress threatened new laws to rein in nonprofits, evangelical leaders met to hash out plans for a new organization to prevent such scandals. In 1979, they met in Chicago to announce formation of the ECFA.
Its mission was to protect donors: “Every Christian charity must be fully accountable to its giving public,” ECFA’s first executive director, Baptist minister Olan Hendrix, said later that year. “Each dollar must be regarded as a sacred trust. ECFA will seek to insure that it does.”
The brewing scandal facing NRB board members earlier this year was just the sort of situation ECFA’s existence was supposed to prevent. Forty years after its creation, it’s time for a report card. How has ECFA performed? What does its seal on websites and marketing material mean? Does ECFA accreditation ensure responsible use of donor dollars?
ECFA boasts more than 2,400 members, representing more than $29 billion in annual revenue, including charter members like Compassion International, Dallas Theological Seminary, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, along with more recent additions such as Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund), Prison Fellowship Ministries, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Samaritan’s Purse.
‘We were just paying for a membership that really didn’t mean anything.’ —Cheryl Johnston, Geneva College
NRB earned ECFA accreditation in 1981. Other than showing three recent years of NRB’s financial information on the ECFA website, the only warning ECFA has offered to donors is a footnote on its NRB profile page saying, ‘A going concern is noted in the 2017 financials.’”
ECFA President Dan Busby refused an interview with me, but Guardian, an Atlanta public relations agency, answered my questions with written responses that it attributed to Busby: “ECFA has been in consistent communication with NRB concerning their finances over the last few years and NRB has been fully cooperative and transparent in responding to our requests for information.”
The Guardian response acknowledged NRB’s financial problems but said the organization’s debt campaign and payroll reduction have contributed to “an annualized financial turnaround of over $1 million.”
But NRB donors and the general public would not have known of the 13-year downturn unless they had known what “going concern” meant or had examined NRB’s financial documents themselves. “ECFA does not intervene in the financial decisions for its members; however, we closely monitor financial viability,” the written statement says.
NRB isn’t the only example of problems with an ECFA-accredited ministry.
Comments
Matt1344
Posted: Fri, 09/13/2019 10:33 pmI know judgment begins with the household of God. And it appears that there are real problems with NRB and perhaps ECFA. But I have an uneasiness that has nothing to do with them. My unsettled feeling has to do with Julie Roys. I don't know the first thing about her and I may be completely off the mark. First she's at the center of a controversy with Moody. Ok, that seemed to land in her lap. But even then something felt "off." Then Harvest, and as I read the article...there was Julie Roys again. Well, it's all in Chicagoland, I told myself. But more uneasiness. And now this...and Julie Roys. WORLD has earned my trust, but these articles run the risk of collateral damage. Perhaps my thoughts are doing the same. But I couldn't not comment on a continuing uneasiness I feel.
Matt1344
Posted: Sat, 09/14/2019 05:52 amI decided maybe I should find out something about Julie Roys, so I googled her name. Among the first things to appear are her recent Tweets. They all dealt with highlighting problems in the Church. ECFA, former Harvest church, students protesting at Liberty U. It's not that I don't share some of her concerns, but is this her specialty? It appears from the header of her column to which this article links that this is her specialty.
Her article includes some additional facts that would have cast a somewhat different light on this report. Namely, Janet Parshall is the newly-elected NRB Board chair and that her husband is serving pro bono as NRB general counsel.
JH
Posted: Sat, 09/14/2019 11:20 amHi Matt. For the past two years, Julie Roys (an independent journalist and radio show host) has been investigating & reporting on topics & issues in Evangelicalism before other Christian and secular media do. This includes theological shifts at Moody, corruption at Harvest Bible Chapel, and the meaninglessness of ECFA. Chicago newspapers like the Daily Herlad and the Chicago Tribune have largely reported on issues related to the Harvest debacle AFTER she does. She is well-sourced, factually accurate, and genuinely cares about the holiness of God's people & kingdom. You are correct to observe that Julie's stories on ECFA include facts that WORLD's story does not. FYI, it was only after Julie reported in March on hard evidence of ungodly spending at Harvest that ECFA pulled their "seal."
You should also know that in the aftermath of her reporting on Moody, sources from other organizations started to approach Julie in hopes that she would bring her skills to investigations they knew needed to be conducted & reported. It was a trickle of folks, initially, but from talking with Julie I know that she's facing a steady stream of people who give her credible leads. Why? Well, corruption in a sinful world abounds, even in the church. And people know that Julie will do her homework and "tell it like it is," without sensationalism. An advantage of being independent in her work is that she's not beholden to many of the interests in the Evangelical "machine".
As a former member of Harvest Bible Chapel, I am grateful for that a dedicated journalist like Julie took on the story. The sad truth is, unless there's a blazing headline or very high-profile figure involved, secular media turn down these church/Evangelical world scandals. WORLD is braver that Christianity Today and some other publications, but a complex web of interests -- and general misguided sentiment that exposing corruption in Evangelical organziations is divisive or unChristlike -- is a too-often a barrier to hard-hitting, dedicated investigative journalism (the good kind) like we see in the secular media, e.g., The Boston Globe Spotlight investigative uni). (WORLD often does a solid job on that score.)
We need MORE Julies in Christian media, not fewer. In the meantime, I pray that Julie will continue to do the work God has given her to do, for His glory, toward purifying His Church. - Jessica Hockett
SAWGUNNER
Posted: Sat, 09/14/2019 01:46 pmAs far as accreditation and accountability goes, for my money (literally) things like Charity Navigator do a better job. The Salvation Army has for many years had a great documented record of getting nearly all donated money or other goods to those it purports to serve and ministry to. For instance the Army was on the ground at the Pentagon on 9/11 well in advance of the American Red Cross. (Though to be fair, as Dr Bernardine Healy noted, the organizational structure and autonomy of local Red Cross limited its flexibility and speed).
On a related topic, the concept of an undisclosed salary is troubling. When I was in the army an older guy told me to never under any circumstances go tour rental properties in uniform. The landlord community around all bases know full well the rank and pay grade structure. Anyone can google the net pay of any member of our uniformed services. It is hard to imagine any church not making the salary and compensation package of pastoral team fully available to anyone. At least elder boards deacons and finance committee folks should know how much any pastor is paid.
JerryM
Posted: Sun, 09/15/2019 09:13 amI have been a member in more than one church where salaries are disclosed as a total sum for all staff. I once asked (kindly) if a breakdown could be provided and was rebuffed. In fact, I weirdly felt my question made me a bit of an outcast as I was not displaying trust or loyalty to the leadership.
Some may recall the 2009 World article on Franklin Graham's pay package, which happened while his ministry was an ECFA member. I am curious if the pay package of the head of the NRB and ECFA are publicly available?
I think it is true these articles (and questions) can be divisive, but I also think Jessica Hockett's arguments are well-taken. We have a responsibility before God (and each other) to act with honesty and integrity. Are there any strong arguments against this kind of investigation or transparency?
Ernest C Beisner
Posted: Sun, 09/15/2019 10:52 amThe news is sad, but it could be an early step toward reform.
MJ
Posted: Sat, 09/21/2019 07:45 pmPer ECFA’s website:
1. “The ECFA seal is tangible evidence to donors…[of]…the highest standards of….Christian ethics.”
2. “ECFA enhances trust in Christ-centered churches and ministries by establishing and applying Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship™ to accredited organizations.” (emphasis mine)
3. ECFA Standard 1 is Doctrinal Issues. “Every organization…shall operate in accordance with biblical truths and practices.”
4. “ECFA’s best work is done in biblical confrontation behind closed doors.”
ECFA claims to examine a member’s teachings and to confront a member who is in error. As a donor, we then assume that the ECFA seal means the member’s teachings are orthodox.
An example of ECFA’s shortcoming in this arena is Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP). By 2014, both Christian and secular press provided coverage of allegations of sexual harassment against Gothard, and that coverage pointed to a plethora of IBLP’s false teachings and misuse of authority. He was removed from ministry that year. ECFA was informed of these events. Not until 2016 did ECFA quietly terminate IBLP’s membership under Standard 2 for “failure to comply” with their governance standards. Here is a related article: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2016/march/bill-gothard-iblp-loses-ecfa-accreditation-governance.html .
Thus, ECFA implied that IBLP’s teachings were (and are) orthodox. If ECFA did meet with Gothard privately, then they fell prey to one of the things that all false teachers love. Closed doors. Such dialogue should have been held out in the open, as the teachings and failure to repent were already public. The termination deserved to be a loud warning as well.
Considering the other Standards under which IBLP and Gothard could have been disciplined, it’s not obvious that ECFA enforces their Standards at all. Quite disappointing.
Brendan Bossard
Posted: Mon, 09/23/2019 01:50 pmArticles like this do not cause divisions, but reveal pre-existing ones. Thank you for publishing them.