A Brief History. (The beginning of the end)

I used to attend a church they( Ron Stewart and his wife Colleen) were the pastors of before going to Florida. He is now the senior pastor at Abundant Life Church of God in Lakeland, FL,

They were there for 10 years and in that time the put 2 of their 3 sons on the pastoral staff doubling all of their salaries.,to well above what they should've been for the size of the church (actual members and well above the tithe and offering that were brought into the church.)

The pastor would bring in his twin brother to have him preach, and give him a fee of $3000 per Sunday when he spoke. He did that with all of his guest speakers (generally people who were previously associated with him).

He then hired on Sister Shiver to do the accounting for the church...after they left (the Stewarts...) There were a lot of accounting irregularities found in the books at the church. (if this had been a public corporation Pastor Stewart would be on trial for raiding corporate funds). For example, the had on the books over $30,000 in miscellaneous office supplies but no receipts for any of these items.

The Shivers have since moved on to Abundant life in Florida...

The former clerk at the church was told by 'Pastor' Stewart to write out a check for something that he thought should be done. When the clerk questioned him about it, (and the legality of it) he told the clerk "I'm the pastor here and what I say goes, if you don't like it too bad". Shortly thereafter the clerk resigned and went to another church. (He, the clerk, is one of the most honest people you'd ever meet)

To put it bluntly they're crooks.

When Pastor Stewart left Victorious Life Church of God in Ypsilanti, MI they left it over $2 million dollars in the hole.

When they first got there, the church had money in the bank and had paid its mortgage off. Pastor Stewart and the council decided to build a new building which was financed, but even at that, the payments were manageable based on the number of tithing members. It was the 'Pastors' doubling of his salary, and hiring 2 of his 3 sons on staff and doubling their salaries, and using the church coffers as their own personal bank that really screwed the current pastor and left the church with a $2million debt that they will now have to pay off over the next 30 years.

He'll do almost anything to protect his or his families reputation so that it doesn't tarnish their 'ministry'. Rather then having them step down temporarily to work out the problem/situation, he wants them in their 'ministry'. Its only a matter of time before 'what was done in the darkness, will be brought into the light"

His favorite phrase to try and defend his and his family's transgressions is 'dont mess with God's annointed' . What the turd doesn't realize is that all Christians are God's annointed .

Stay blessed Tampa and Abundant Life COG run those crooks out of town before its too late.