Michigan Church Buys $8.3 Million Tampa Mansion
A Michigan church has paid $8.3 million for a Tampa-area estate in Florida that formerly belonged to Tampa Bay Buccaneers co-owner Darcie Glazer Kassewitz and her husband, according to a deed filed in Hillsborough County.
The Kingdom of God Global Church of Taylor secured a $4.9 million mortgage to purchase the 28,893-square-foot main house and a 2,620-square-foot guest house in Avila, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported. The church’s address is listed on the mortgage as a Chesterfield, Missouri, residence that was sold in March, per TBBJ.
Kingdom of God, based in the Detroit suburb of Taylor, Michigan, is led by pastor David E. Taylor, who is also the head of Joshua Media Ministries International (JMMI), described as a global outreach movement “committed to establishing God’s Kingdom through the proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel” in Taylor’s biography.
Taylor also leads a daily broadcast called Miracles Today, which the ministry says is broadcast to more than 190 countries to minister “the healing, delivering, saving, and resurrecting power of Jesus to millions of souls throughout the globe.”
Along with products, from books and worship CDs to T-shirts and beverage cups, the ministry offers dream interpretation by Taylor through its website.
Taylor’s biography says Jesus Christ appeared to him in a dream when he was 17, leading to his “radical conversion” from a Memphis gang member to a man of God.
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“God has been speaking through dreams since the beginning of time! Apostle David E. Taylor is a master dream interpreter and dream officer. He has established a 24/7/365 Dream interpretation phone line to help you understand the dreams you dream!” the site says.
He has also written a book describing his face-to-face “visitations from Jesus” and claiming that he can teach readers how to experience the same thing.
In 2019, the News Herald, a newspaper serving the Detroit suburb of Southgate, printed an expose in which former church members said Taylor ran JMMI like “a slave labor cult” using “intimidation, manipulation and greed.”
Kassewitz, who owned the property prior to the sale, is co-owner of the Buccaneers and president of the Buccaneers Foundation and Glazer Vision Foundation. She joined the Buccaneers staff in 1995 after her father Malcolm Glazer purchased the team. Glazer died in 2014, and Kassewitz now owns the team, currently valued at more than $2.9 billion, along with her five brothers.
Neither the church, Kassewitz’s representatives, nor representatives of the community where the house is located have commented on the sale.
