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Members of the Pure Light Missionary Baptist Church of Houston, Texas, are doing everything they can to keep the ministry afloat after their pastor sold the church, reportedly without their knowledge, and took off with the money.
Pastor Rory Murphy allegedly violated the church’s constitutional laws when he sold the church property for $125,000 without the congregation's permission.
As Pure Light's new pastor, Anthony Moten, told The Christian Post Wednesday, Murphy needed a 75 percent approval from the congregation and the church board in order to sell the church property. He received neither.
Many current church members have relatives who helped build the church in 1963, and view the sale as especially painful because they had paid off the church’s debts years ago, according to Pastor Moten.
As Moten told Fox News Houston, the 100-member congregation has already spent $40,000 in legal fees over the case.
The congregation is allowed to remain in the church while it contests the sale.
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The Pure Light congregation has tried everything from weekly fish dinners to every-other-Friday car washes to pull in the needed money.
This weekend, church members will be holding multiple fundraisers for their cause, including a fish fry on Friday and a carnival on Saturday.
Moten contends that the congregation now acts as a community church serving as an "intricate part of the community," and he continues to maintain an optimistic outlook in light of the lawsuit.
"I think God does everything for a reason, good and bad," Moten told CP, adding that the lawsuit has taught the congregation that things can always get worse.
Moten also affirmed that this tribulation is teaching the congregation "how to forgive."
A Florida-based company is currently in possession of the church as congregants continue to fight the lawsuit.
While there are many lawsuits regarding immoral or unethical practices in churches, there is rarely any regarding the actual sale of a church without the congregation’s knowledge.
Pastor Rickey Reed of First Free Methodist Church in Smyrna, Ga., was charged in 2011 with aggravated burglary after a church member filmed him allegedly breaking into her house to steal her pain medication.
In 2009, the Rev. E. Joshua Sims of Double Rock Baptist Church in Compton, Calif., was arrested for allegedly stealing $800,000 from his church.
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