On this page you’ll find all of the stories from our Pastors & Planes series.
Three biggest users of private aircraft remain same as recent months—again
MinistryWatch each month publishes a list of private planes owned by pastors and Christian ministries, along with basic information about their usage. Here’s the data for August.
Liberty University, Samaritan’s Purse continue to be biggest users of private aircraft
EDITOR’S NOTE: Barry Bowen of The Trinity Foundation compiled the flight information for this project. This month’s spreadsheet contains flights by Christian ministries during the month of April. MinistryWatch, in collaboration with the Trinity Foundation, each month publishes a list of the private planes belonging to pastors and Christian ministries. The list also includes basic information about their usage by pastors and ministries. This month’s list is below. Here are a few highlights: The Trinity…
Liberty University, Assemblies of God, Samaritan’s Purse the biggest users of private aircraft
EDITOR’S NOTE: Barry Bowen of The Trinity Foundation compiled the flight information for this project. This month’s spreadsheet contains flights by Christian ministries during the month of March. MinistryWatch, in collaboration with the Trinity Foundation, each month publishes a list of the private planes belonging to pastors and Christian ministries. The list also includes basic information about their usage by pastors and ministries. This month’s list is below. Here are a few highlights: The Trinity…
EDITOR’S NOTE: From time to time we will publish letters and emails we get from readers, sometimes with a response, sometimes without comment. If you would like to share your thoughts about any of our stories or podcasts, please email us: [email protected] Samaritan’s Purse unfairly labeled an ‘abuser’ of expensive private planes Your recent article on ministries’ use of private planes appears to harbor an unwarranted, indeed highly suspicious, prejudice. You go far to highlight…
Liberty University, Warrior Notes (Kevin Zadia), and Scott Lamb are top users of private aircraft
MinistryWatch, in collaboration with the Trinity Foundation, each month publishes a list of the private planes belonging to pastors and Christian ministries.
Christian ministries took more than 440 flights on private aircraft in May
EDITOR’S NOTE: Barry Bowen of The Trinity Foundation compiled the flight information for this project. In February 2023, MinistryWatch launched a collaboration with the Trinity Foundation to publish a list of all the private planes belonging to pastors and Christian ministries. For several months we updated that list, but – as things sometimes do – the monthly publication of that list went on hiatus. But we’re back! Beginning last month, we will publish a list…
“Pastors and Planes” is Back
Beginning this month, we plan to publish a list of planes and some basic information about their usage by pastors and ministries.
The IRS’s recent tax changes impact personal flights on aircraft owned by churches and ministries, including those of televangelists
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued an updated bulletin governing “fringe benefits” under the income tax code, which values non-commercial flights on employer-owned aircraft.
MinistryWatch and Trinity Foundation Release “Pastors and Planes” Data for March
March was a busy month for pastors and their planes. Pastors and ministry leaders made 371.5 flights, significantly exceeding February’s total of 323.5 flights.
February is the shortest month of the year, but pastors and ministry leaders still managed to get in 323.5 flights during the month – down from January’s total of 387 flights.
The following 10 stories received the most page views during the month of July. The first few sentences of each story is reprinted below.
Televangelists’ astronomical travel expenses are receiving a fresh dose of scrutiny through Pastor Planes, a new aircraft-tracking project from the Trinity Foundation.
