NJ Congregation May Lose Church if Christian Alliance Seizes Property

By Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The Community Church of Paramus, N.J., is facing the possibility of being closed down on New Year's Day, with a flat-screen T.V. and other possessions worth more than $27,000 being taken away by its parent organization.

The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), based in Colorado Springs, Colo., which has more than 2,000 churches nationwide, has been trying to close down the Paramus church for some time. After it filed a lawsuit a year ago and changed the church’s status from “accredited” to “developing,” the C&MA cited that it was retaking the house of worship because of poor leadership and too small of a membership. After a judge ruled in favor of the the C&MA last month, the Community Church's doors were padlocked, which threatened to leave the congregation with no place to celebrate Christmas Eve.

The judge later revised his decisions and allowed the church to keep the property through Jan. 1, but Pastor Joseph Smaha from the Community Church shared with NorthJersey.com that congregants were already making arrangements to welcome the New Year at neighboring Maranatha Church of the Nazarene if they do not get a further extension.

“Honestly, if I looked at the language today, I would have hesitated and told them not to sign it,” the pastor said, referring to the agreement signed by church members in 1996 allowing them to join the C&MA. According to Smaha, members had been assured that only in certain scenarios would they lose the property – if the doctrine preached was contrary to the C&MA, if the church was divided or was no longer able to function.

In a video interview with ABC 7, Smaha revealed that there were 35 people present at the church for the Christmas Eve service, but did not mention how many members in total belong to the church.

After opposing the lawsuit last year and being stripped of his C&MA credentials, Smaha accused the Alliance of shifting its focus over the years from being a central church to a business.

Both the phone line and email of the Community Church of Paramus had already been disconnected when The Christian Post reached out for further comments Wednesday.

Interim vice president of church ministries for the C&MA, Daniel Wetzel, shared with NorthJersey.com that the property being taken is not the prime consideration in such cases, and said that it was uncommon for the Alliance to have to take such measures. He also insisted that the clause is never enforced “without some consideration to what the local circumstances are and what brought about the event in the local church.”

No senior members from the C&MA were available for comment at the time of press.