Weekly Review
ECFA Membership Changes, MinistryWatch Database Changes, What’s on the Podcast? On This Date at MinistryWatch
A Guide To Giving For Disaster Relief. When disaster hits, Christians give. But where they give can make a big difference? Which organizations are most effective in these post-disaster situations? MinistryWatch has published a list of organizations that are doing relief work and which have an “A” Transparency Grade and a 3-, 4-, or 5-star rating for Financial Efficiency. It’s a list of about 30 ministries, and you can find it on the front page of our website. I’ll also include a link in the show notes to this program. Link to list HERE. 
Ukraine Giving. If you want to give specifically to ministries working in and near Ukraine, click here. We posted this link before, but we’ve added a few new ministries recently.
ECFA Changes. The following organizations have had membership status changes in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. ADDITIONS: NONE REMOVALS: First Christian Church (Phoenix, Ariz.)
On This Date at MinistryWatch. ONE YEAR AGO: The Signatry, a Christian foundation, launches the “He Gets Us” campaign. The campaign included advertising in the 2023 Super Bowl earlier this year. Read more here. NINE YEARS AGO: On April 1, 2014, MinistryWatch published its first warnings about St. Matthews Churches, which uses direct mail campaigns to prey on the elderly. You can read that article here. Last year, I was interviewed by the WSOC-TV here in Charlotte about this organization. You can watch that segment here.
On the Podcast: The King’s College, Johnny Hunt Sues the SBC, and the Richest Preacher in Nigeria Comes To The U.S. On today’s program, we take a look at a Nigerian Prosperity Gospel preacher whose church, called the Winner’s Chapel, now has locations in 30 US cities. We also have new information about The King’s College, the Manhattan Christian college facing a financial crisis. And a well known Christian filmmaker has pled guilty to felony sex charges. We’ll have details.
We begin today with two stories about the Southern Baptist Convention. The first one is about former SBC President Johnny Hunt, and the second one is about Karen Swallow Prior.
You can hear the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and other podcast apps, or you can simply click here.
MinistryWatch Database Changes. MinistryWatch now has more than 1,000 ministries in its database. These ministries represent more than $38-billion in total revenue, most of that donor revenue from evangelicals. The following ministries have their profiles updated with the most recent year’s financial data. The Financial Efficiency rating of each ministry is in parenthesis. If this rating represents a change from the previous year, that change is noted: Central Union Mission (2 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 100), Biglife International Inc. (Down 2 to 1 Star, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: Down 92 to 88), Center for Mission Mobilization (3 Stars, Transparency Grade: C, DCS: Up 96 to 100), Free the Oppressed dba Free Burma Rangers (Up 4 to 5 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 92), HopeKids (Down 4 to 3 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 96), Lutheran World Relief (2 Stars, Transparency Grade: C, DCS: Down 73 to 69), MentorKids USA (Down 3 to 2 Stars, Transparency Grade: C, DCS: 87), OneHope, Inc. (Up 2 to 3 Stars, Transparency Grade: C, DCS: 82), Phoenix Rescue Mission (Down 3 to 2 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 100), Teen Challenge of Southern California (Down 5 to 4 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A), United World Mission / UWM (Down 3 to 2 Stars, Transparency Grade: C, DCS: 67). The following ministry has been added to the MinistryWatch database with the most recent year’s financial data: Center for Arizona Policy (N/A Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A), College Golf Fellowship (N/A Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A), Crossfire Ministries (N/A Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A), House of Providence (5 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A), Metro Christian Academy Foundation (5 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A), Network of International Christian School (N/A Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A), Paz International (N/A Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A), Portland Christian Schools (N/A Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A), Seattle Christian School (3 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A), The City School (N/A Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A), Tupelo Christian Preparatory School (N/A Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A)
MinistryWatch and Sex Crimes. We’ve written a larger than normal number of stories this week about pastors and ministry leaders involved in sex crimes. That’s why I thought it might be a good time to re-post this story, which explains why we think covering these crimes are necessary: Why MinistryWatch Reports on Sex Crimes. As always, your feedback is welcome.
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Drop A Dime On Us. Do you have a story idea for MinistryWatch? If so, send us an email. A lot of the stories we do originate from our readers and listeners. They send us news tips, press releases, emails, questions, and links. So, if you have a story you’d like us to cover, or a ministry that you think needs a closer look, please email us. Our email is [email protected]. That will come directly to my desk, and we’ll take it from there.
Salary Data Now In MinistryWatch Database. We now have salary information for 4,000 executives in our database posted in our profiles. So check out this new addition by clicking on the red button at the top of this page, or here. That takes you to our database. The search engine is right there, and you can type in the name of a ministry you’re interested in and our profile will pop right up – now, with compensation information for the top executives.
If you’d like to see who the highest paid executives are, take a look at our recently published lists of Highly Paid Ministry Executives and Highly Paid Christian College and University Executives.
Audio Version of Faith-Based Fraud Now Available. Thanks to those of you who made my new book Faith-Based Fraud a best-seller in several Amazon categories this week. It’s now available in paperback and e-book versions. To get your copy, click here. This week, the new audio version released. You can get that from Audible by clicking here.
MinistryWatch Video. In closing, a reminder that we have created a new, short (3.5 minutes) video that explains what we do here at MinistryWatch, and why. If you’re new to MinistryWatch, I hope you’ll check it out. To find it, click here.
