Last September, Pastors Matthew and Caroline Barnett began a sabbatical from leading Angelus Temple, a Foursquare megachurch with a Sunday attendance of about 8,200 worshipers at its historic Los Angeles campus.
Former Angelus Temple Pastor Matthew Barnett in May 2020 video / Video screenshot
Five months later, the sabbatical became a permanent separation.
During a Feb. 15 service, Western District Supervisor Mark Slomka announced that interim pastors Brad and Stella Reed would be installed as the new executive pastors for Angelus Temple, becoming the latest ministers to fill the pulpit originally helmed by Pentecostal evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. Founded in 1923, Angelus Temple was the birthplace of The Foursquare Church and is considered the first U.S. megachurch.
“Your next pastors love you, and they have a wonderful plan for your life,” Slomka said. “I have reviewed their two-year vision for Angelus Temple. As they step into this role as your pastors, they have pastored well, but now the charge on them … is to lead well.”
The news revealed a shift since Foursquare President Randy Remington’s Sept. 21 announcement that the Barnetts had been asked to “step away for a season.”
“The reality of a sabbatical is it’s an intentional time away to focus on areas of rest and well-being and health, and so we’re walking with them in that,” Remington said. “But we’re thinking it’ll probably be around four to six months as the window of time that that would take.”
The Barnetts released a video acknowledging their departure, which also marks the end of a 25-year partnership between Angelus Center and the Barnetts’ other Los Angeles ministry, the Dream Center. According to Matthew Barnett, he was asked to choose between leading Angelus Temple or the Dream Center, and the Barnetts opted for the latter.
Mark Slomka announcing new executive pastors, Brad and Stella Reed
“My time with Angelus Temple and working with the Dream Center together will be years I’ll never forget,” Barnett said. “I realized that I was always trying to carry that equal value between both of them together, but the Dream Center just kept growing and growing and growing, and as time went on, the Foursquare denomination wanted their own identity in a church, a heart beat of, maybe Angelus Temple needs to have its own distinct identity, and the decision was to pastor Angelus Temple—a Foursquare church—or choose the Dream Center.”
Matthew Barnett, along with his father, Tommy Barnett, founded the Dream Center in 1994 as an Assemblies of God-affiliated ministry to the homeless and vulnerable. In 2001, Barnett left the Assemblies of God to become Angelus’ senior pastor, bringing the Dream Center with him as a partnering ministry. Since then, a network of Dream Centers has spread throughout the U.S. and even internationally, providing services such as food banks, disaster relief and foster care intervention.
Outside of Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, Calif. / Photo via Google Earth
The Dream Center stirred controversy with the 2017 purchase of multiple for-profit higher ed schools by a subsidiary, Dream Center Education Holdings. The move was mired in financial and legal troubles as many of the schools faced closures and accreditation revocations. A Congressional investigation was launched over the sudden closures, and the Department of Education forgave the loans of affected students, putting taxpayers on the hook for millions. Then in Feb. 2025, the National Student Legal Defense Network announced federal approval of a $4.5 million settlement agreement with former executives of Dream Center Education Holdings, the Dream Center Foundation (also founded by Barnett) and the Illinois Institute of Art for allegedly concealing the school’s accreditation status from students.
The Dream Center Foundation, the funding entity for the LA Dream Center, has 3 Stars for financial efficiency and a D Transparency Grade in the MinistryWatch database. Its Donor Confidence Score is 54—an “Exercise Caution” designation.
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