Arizona Church Accumulating Land, Building Luxury Cabins For Leaders’ Use

Faith Christian Church in Tucson is the subject of controversy for its land purchases and its on-campus recruiting practices.

Faith Christian Church in Tucson, Arizona, has been accumulating plots of land in Summerhaven, a residential community on nearby Mount Lemmon, according to an investigative report by the Arizona Daily Star.

According to county assessment records, the 14 plots of land are currently worth a combined value of $1.7 million. Former members of the church said the congregation was never informed about the purchases.

The church purchased the properties between 2000 and 2022. Most of the land is currently vacant, but the church built two multi-level log homes in 2013 that constitute $1.4 million of the total tax value of the land. However, Faith Christian pays no property tax on the log homes because it has a tax exemption based on “regular use for church retreats and activities.”

Former member John Bierman told the Star he helped move contents into the log homes in 2013. He described them as “top of the line” with a chef-worthy kitchen, outdoor hot tub, luxury bathrooms, and fine leather sofas.

According to accounts by former church members, the log homes are “off-limits” to the congregation and are only available to the church pastors, its board members, and their families.

Several Arizona attorneys said, if the allegations are true, that is a red flag for violation of an IRS non-profit rule against inurement, which prohibits the entity’s property from benefiting only certain individuals.

“Only allowing particular people to participate in the retreats makes it seem that it’s not administered in a way that’s objective and nondiscriminatory. That starts to look like inurement,” attorney Ellis Carter of Phoenix said.

According to tax attorney Scott Carpenter, if the church were audited by the IRS, leaders who used the property for personal recreation would need to prove they reimbursed the church from their personal funds.

When former member Andrew Winslow discovered the church was spending money on vacation homes, he approached church officials. The financial reports he received were general in nature, listing the total assets, but nothing about where investments were held. Unsatisfied, he continued pressing.

Winslow said eventually Senior Pastor Steve Hall told him to leave. “After 24 years, I was kicked out of church on a Sunday,” he said.

According to former members, the church has fewer than 200 members now, down from about 400 in 2015.

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Involvement at University of Arizona

The church’s presence at the University of Arizona (UA), where it recruits members, has been another source of controversy surrounding Faith Christian.

The non-denominational church website states that its mission is “to reach college students at the University of Arizona with the Gospel and to disciple them according to the Word of God under the authority of the local church.”

Faith Christian has three student clubs at UA, allowing them to use a 300-seat campus auditorium every Saturday night at no charge. The same auditorium rents for $190 an hour to outside groups. By having student clubs book the space, the church saves more than $30,000 each year.

Lisa Phillips, who formerly worked as a Faith Christian campus minister, said the church strategy was to “form a student club [to] get free space on campus.”

Campus clubs are supposed to be “student-controlled,” according to UA rules. Five former club presidents and a former club advisor told the Arizona Daily Star that Faith Christian is really in charge of the club.

Ryan Tucker, who led the Wildcats for Christ club in 2019, said the church hand-picks the club officers and makes all the decisions for the clubs.

Parents and students have filed complaints about the church’s on-campus recruiting practices. According to former UA student Josephine Robindeau, church employees are paid to find new recruits on campus by engaging with students in high-traffic areas.

Ethan Snapp said he complained to the dean of students’ office about campus ministers who slipped into his freshman dorm, unaccompanied by a student, in order to recruit students. Non-residents are not allowed in a dorm without a resident.

UA spokesperson Pam Scott told the Arizona Daily Star the university has not received complaints about the three student clubs, adding that the school has no jurisdiction over the church.

As a public university, UA can’t close its campus to anyone unless they’ve committed a crime or violated the school’s code of conduct, Dean of Students Washington White told the Star.

Before he started Faith Christian in Tucson, Senior Pastor Steve Hall preached at another campus-based church affiliated with the controversial Maranatha Christian Ministries in Gainesville, Florida.

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) recently suspended Faith Christian’s membership. NAE’s spokesperson Sarah Kropp Brown said the group had received “a number of complaints” related to issues raised by the Star’s investigation, although she shared no details.