PASTOR JOE SMAHA’S RESPONSE TO DANIEL WETZEL, VP, C&MA CHARGES AGAINST PASTOR JOE SMAHA AND COMMUNITY CHURCH OF PARAMUS, NEW JERSEY:
January 5, 2012
Here are my answers that I sent to Dave Tombers regarding the C&MA Response to the WND article.
Most of their statements are untrue. First, Rev. Fred Henry, Assistant D.S. told us during a January 2010 at our church, attended by about20 of our Church Body) that they were shutting down our Church & that our people could go to other Alliance Churches. He told us they would either sell the church property & put the money into church planting, or let another Alliance Church move into the building. He said if we decided to stay together as a group that the C&MA would not recognize us as a Church but that this would be our choice. He also told us that if we decided to stay together as an unrecognized group that the C&MA would remove my credentials as a licensed Pastor & reduce it to a Chaplains license, due to my position & work with the Fire Dept. He also told us that if they didn’t sell the church, we could ask the new group & maybe they would allow us to meet there if & when it was convenient for them. But he added that he couldn’t promise us anything for certain. They state that they offered for us to stay in the church as an “Associated Church” to grow while the new congregation moved in & assumed responsibility for the property. The C&MA does not have an “Associated Church” status. [though C&MA Manual does have “Associated Enterprise”]. According to their constitution a church is either, “Affiliated” “Accredited” or “Developmental” in status. So, why would they offer us a status that they do not even have or recognize.
Second, they did not mention mediation to us until after they filed the law suite against us & it was ordered by Judge Carrol, not before. We did agree to mediation but did not want them to pick who we went to. We asked if we could consider several options & agree between us who to use. We picked a mediator, former Bergen County Judge, Dan Mecca, in Paramus & had a scheduled meeting date set for Monday, October 31, 2011 at 9:00 AM. On Saturday, October 29th we had that surprise snow storm hit this area & knocked out the electricity for 90% of Paramus for 3-5 days. We asked to reschedule but they didn’t agree to that. Also, Judge Mecca told Peter that in speaking with their lawyer, Mr. Hopkins, that they were not really interested in mediating anyway, telling him there was nothing to mediate.
Third, we did consult an attorney after Rev. Henry informed me just before Thanksgiving, that the Dex Com had voted to shut us down in their November 10, 2009 meeting. I offered to have another Alliance Church share the building with us. He told me, “No, that is not an option.” I also told him that if Dex Com thought that I was the problem that I would be willing to resign, if they would bring in another pastor to give our church a chance to grow. He told me that the district had already made up their mind & therefore that was also not an option. In reaction to this information we held a Church meeting & voted unanimously to move ahead as an independent church & our lawyer did file new incorporation papers in January.
Fourth, after they had filed the law suit against us for the property our attorney did tell me not to have any conversations with the district leaders without him present or have them talk to him. So, I followed Allen’s legal advice.
They also say on their web page that the Community Church of Paramus was affiliated with the C&MA since the 1960′s but fail to mention that the Church also unaffiliated with the Alliance in the late 1960′s & did not re-affiliate with them until October of 1994 under Rev. David Shepson. So, there were over 25 years of no affiliation with the C&MA not counting the 35 years that the Church existed before the affiliation of 1965. It’s amazing how they tell half truths & accuse everyone else of lying. I could tell you about many other lies & half truths that they wrote in the court papers they submitted.
Thank you again for all of your work on this matter. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, & the truth shall set you free.” John 8:32 I’m standing upon this promise. God Bless you brother!
Here is the facts of the embezzlement issue & other issues that they present.
Embezzlement of Funds Accusation:
In January of 2007 my wife, Pam, & I purchased the parsonage for $325,000.00 because both the Church building & parsonage were falling apart & in dire need of repair & our Church could not afford to fix up one of them let alone both of them. We figured with the proceeds of the sale of the parsonage we could renovate most, if not all, of the Church. The Church used the money to pay off some bills & in late June we began renovations on the Church, over 210,000.00 worth of work. Their renovation projects went on through September of 2009. We later discovered that beginning about January of 2008 that the Treasurer began helping herself to small amounts of Church funds to assist herself financially. Over time these small amounts increased in size. During this same period of time we had large amounts of money being spent on our renovation projects in addition our regular expenses & income. So, the small amounts missing went unnoticed. Over time the smaller amounts grew & by November of 2008 she began to take larger amounts. By the spring of 2009 I began to have my suspicions & asked my board to get some other signers on our checking account, this was not done until the fall of that year. Once this was done we were able to get information about our account & discovered the extent of the problem. We discovered that she had taken between $65,000.00 & $75,000.00 from our Church. We confronted our treasurer & had her removed from the account & her positions. We notified the district office, not for financial help, but for advice on this matter. They instructed for us to press legal charges on her but this is also what put our Church on their radar a began the process of them shutting down & taking over our Church. We notified them to help us & this was what we received from them.
Financial Desperation causing church to make decisions that would encumber Church & District. The facts behind this are that we were considering running a Christian Daycare as part of our Church ministries. We planned to charge for children’s care & to have this be a self-supporting ministry but the C&MA thought it was a bad idea. So, we did not proceed with our plans. At this time we still had over $20,000.00 in our Church checking account & our weekly giving has increased so we were not in financial desperation & we were meeting all of our expenses. Once again this accusation is not true either.
We are now a healthy & growing Church. We run 20-35 in our Sunday morning service & 35-60 in our Sunday evening service. We have 15-25 who attend our mid-week Prayer & Bible Study Service, & 10-18 who come to our Friday night Bible Study group. We also have ministries to children & youth. Since September of 2010 we have had 69 people accept Christ as their Savior. Our weekly giving has grown, our Church has purchased a whole new sound system as well as other items to help with our ministries. Over $16,000.00 worth of ministry tools all together. We had also given around $5,000.00 to needy families from our Church. At the time of our take over by the C&MA we also had over $27,000.00 in our Church checking account.
Pastor Joe Smaha
Community Church of Paramus, New Jersey
Member of Association of Christian Firefighters International
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DANIEL WETZEL, VP, C&MA CHARGES AGAINST PASTOR JOE SMAHA AND COMMUNITY CHURCH OF PARAMUS:
News & Stories
A Message from Dan Wetzel Regarding the Closure of the Community Church of Paramus (NJ)
January 3, 2012
Over the past few weeks, numerous stories have surfaced through both printed and Internet media channels regarding the closing of the Community Church of Paramus (NJ). However, many of the statements published are simply untrue. One story that appeared in WND online gave significant voice to those disgruntled with the The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) and the Metropolitan District and slanted the story in a way that seemed to justify the angry, unfounded accusations of these individuals. The WND story has been reposted to Facebook and other social media outlets, causing some alarm within the C&MA and the greater body of Christ. The purpose of this release is to clarify the facts surrounding the closure of the Community Church of Paramus.
According to Bruce Terpstra, superintendent of the Metropolitan District, the District Executive Committee made a decision to close the Community Church of Paramus more than two years ago. The events precipitating the closure included
1. the embezzlement of church funds;
2. the absence of constitutional leadership;
3. deficient spiritual and administrative oversight; and
4. the assessment of the District leadership team that the church was no longer viable based on the church’s own bylaws.
The Community Church of Paramus had been affiliated with The Christian and Missionary Alliance since the mid-1960s. In 1996 the church voted unanimously to become an accredited church in The Alliance. In the years that followed, the church enjoyed a fruitful relationship with the Metropolitan District and the C&MA. By 2009, however, the church had suffered a significant decline in attendance and was experiencing financial difficulties. Over a two-month observation period, church attendance ranged from 10 to 16, including the pastor and his family. The financial desperation of the church was causing its leaders to make decisions that would encumber both the church and the District, forcing the District to close the church and thus invoke the reversion clause in accordance with constitutional procedures and regulations.
The district had offered to allow the few remaining members of the church body to continue meeting in the building as an associated church (with no direct oversight by the District) while a growing new congregation would take responsibility for the building and its cost of operations. The church refused, attempted to revise its articles to remove the reversion clause, and voted to leave The Alliance. It retained legal counsel, which advised the church’s leadership to cut all communications with The Alliance. The District also attempted to resolve the dispute by seeking binding arbitration with Christian conciliators. The church again refused. The District, still liable for the ministry and the property, had no choice but to turn to the legal system to resolve this conflict.
It is sad that the remnant of the congregation has sought to malign brothers and sisters in Christ in hopes of winning public sympathy. The truth is that the Community Church of Paramus made a conscious decision to become an accredited C&MA church, to adopt the reversion clause, to agree to the governing documents of the C&MA, and to reap the benefits of denominational community, accountability, and resourcing. When the time came that the church was no longer viable, the remnant decided it did not want to honor the previous commitment. It is even more regrettable that others have chosen to exploit this situation to make disparaging accusations against the C&MA and the Metropolitan District with neither full knowledge of the facts nor evidence to support their claims.
The Metropolitan District of the C&MA is a growing church movement that has started more than 60 churches over the past 10 years. Its mission is to make fully-devoted disciples of Christ in the metropolitan areas of New York and New Jersey, in the United States, and around the world. When a church within the district must close, its remaining resources are used for that mission alone.
The Christian and Missionary Alliance in the United States is part of a worldwide family of Christians mobilized to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) by living out the fullness of Jesus Christ in personal experience, building His Church, and carrying His light to the darkest parts of our neighborhoods and the nations (Acts 1:8).
For more information, contact Rev. Dan Wetzel, interim vice president for Church Ministries, at [email protected]
SOURCE: http://www.cmalliance.org/news/topics/press/
REPUDIATION DANIEL WETZEL, ASSISTANT VP, C&MA CHARGES
AGAINST JAMES SUNDQUIST IN 2008:
[Note that this proves that Dan Wetzel’s accusations against Community Church of Paramus was not the first time that Wetzel did not tell the truth and slandered and defamed a brother in Christ.]
UPDATE FEBRUARY 22, 2008:
Rev. Wayne Spriggs, Eastern PA District Director, and Rev. Daniel R. Wetzel, Assistant Vice-President of C&MA Church Ministries has written the pastors of the Eastern Pennslyvania C&MA District, either directly or indirectly renouncing the press release I sent out from the Chinese Church in Colorado Springs, CO, above. Since Mr. Wetzel has already written one C&MA District Superintendent, he will likely have written them all.
Contrary to what C&MA leaders would have you do, and that is hear the victims side of the story vs. just the perpetrators, as good Christians and good Bereans, you should want to read the other side of the story for yourselves. Therefore, Mr. Wetzel accuses me that “it is unlikely that any reputable media outlet will give serious attention to Sundquist’ assertions.” Mr. Wetzel has committed libel and defamation of character against me. First of all this is not my press release but was issued by the Chinese Church, with the contact person named as Keith Wong, who is also one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Furthermore, it is primarily a summary of the contents of the extensive affidavit filed at the Colorado Springs Courthouse. Mr. Wetzel knows this as a top executive at C&MA Headquarters, because they too were served with the same papers filed by the attorneys. So Mr. Wetzel knows he is not telling you the truth. You ought to be able to obtain a copy yourself from the courthouse. If not, I will email you a photocopy. I have also informed the District Attorney in Colorado Springs who makes the final determination in who is criminally prosecuted that Mr. Wetzel has lied and published it. The C&MA is in deep enough trouble already. This letter from Mr. Wetzel will strike a crippling blow to his own credibility (and therefore C&MA) before both the upcoming civil trial as well as any criminal trial should the DA decide to prosecute. The local media in Colorado as well as the national media will also be apprised of Mr. Wetzel’s letter. Well my “assertions” are direct citations from both parties. As to Mr. Wetzel postulation that any reputable media outlet giving me serious attention, I invite you to read my bio on my website to see if that is true, such as Southwest Radio Church, VYC America, and many others. The Wall Street Journal ran a front page story, based on my assertions and exposed Rick Warren, in which I was a principal consultant for them. As to this story, one major media outlet has already requested running the story. Even if the media were to trash the press release as Mr. Wetzel has done, the media will do their own due diligence and read the file court papers as proof that the press release reflects the court filing. And they won’t be afraid to tell the community and their readers what they discover!
Don’t let Mr. Wetzel prevent you from doing your own due diligence on this story which is about to explode nationally in both secular and the Christian media. Mr. Spriggs has told you that what I wrote in the above commentary about him is “troubling.” But what should trouble you is not what I said, but his own threats…read it for yourselves. You do not need to be aware of me or be warned about me. But you better take heed what the C&MA leaders can do to you, if what is cited in the full report is any indication. You should also be warned about C&MA pastors who chose to retaliate against me vs. extending a life preserver to the SOS calls from the drowning Chinese Christians in Colorado. Then do what your conscience tells you to do and Scripture, not simply what C&MA leaders dictate!
SOURCE: http://laiglesforum.com/churchians-rob-christians-of-land-and-bibles/200.htm
[Note this site also documents the C&MA Hijacking of the Chinese Church in Colorado Springs.]
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INVESTIGATION OF JOHN SOPER AND BRUCE TERPSTRA:
http://www.theperfectpeaceplan.com/post/christian-and-missionary-alliance-john-soper-formal-investigation-and-coverup-1999/
Global Peace Plan in Chinese
Who is Driving Purpose Driven
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