Phoenix campus of Mexican megachurch building $1.13M 'clergy home'

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Thursday, July 30, 2026

The Phoenix campus of Mexico’s largest Evangelical church, La Luz Del Mundo (The Light Of The World), is building a massive “clergy home” worth more than $1 million as its embattled global leader, Naason Joaquin Garcia, continues to lead the organization from prison while serving a 17-year sentence for sexually assaulting three minor girls from his flock.

La Luz Del Mundo confirmed with The Arizona Republic that the new $1.13 million, three-story, six-bedroom, 5.5-bathroom, two-car garage “clergy home” will also serve as “meeting spaces for the continued development of our religious and charitable activities as a growing Christian church.” The building is located next to the downtown campus. 

Construction of the home began in late January after the church’s building permit was approved to develop the 9,692 square feet of land on which the home is being built.

The church has continued to expand globally despite García pleading guilty in 2022 to two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15 years old. 

Last August, Garcia, his mother, and four other church associates were hit with new federal charges alleging a wide-ranging racketeering and child exploitation enterprise that exploited the church and victimized its members.

He pleaded not guilty in New York's Southern District Court last September and is seeking to have the charges dismissed. A hearing in that case is scheduled for Sept. 27, while a jury trial is set for March 2027.

La Luz Del Mundo, which is headquartered in Guadalajara, Mexico, was founded in 1926. The church claims to have between 1 million and 5 million adherents over 2,000 locations in nearly 60 countries. For decades, however, Garcia, 57, and his family, including his late father, Samuel Joaquín Flores, and late grandfather, Aarón Joaquin Gonzalez, have been dogged by allegations of sexually abusing women and children and religious manipulation.

On the church’s website, however, Garcia is revered as a biblical apostle.

“The Apostle of Jesus Christ Naasón Joaquin García is the spiritual guide and teacher of our faith,” the church notes. “According to Christian doctrine, the Apostles of Jesus Christ preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to every person, advancing the work of salvation to the ends of the earth.”

At his sentencing in 2022, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen called Garcia a "sexual predator.”

"I've been a judge for a long time," he said. "I'll never cease to be amazed at what some people do [in the name of] religion."

In a statement to The Christian Post at the time, church officials, who continue to support their leader, said García was forced to accept an agreement with the California Attorney General’s Office primarily because he did not believe he could get a fair trial.

"Since his arrest in 2019, [García] has been subjected to a prosecution in which evidence was suppressed, withheld, doctored and altered," the church said in the statement. "After the defense finally obtained this evidence, the Court ruled that the defense would not be permitted to use the materials at trial, preventing the defense from effectively cross-examining the complaining witnesses and challenging their allegations."