I’ve been going to church for as long as I can remember. Back in the day we would head for church every Sunday morning where my brother and I would curl up on the wood pews with baby blue fabric and take ourselves a nice 1 hour nap. As I got older, I got very involved with a church that we had been members of from Day 1. I was proud to have been a “founding member” and I wanted to do all I could to help out at the church. Years later I no longer attend that church and have hopped around looking for a place that I wanted to call home.

One of those places my family and I tried out was Eagle’s Nest Christian Fellowship. A story broke yesterday morning on the front page of the local paper citing a whole laundry list of expenditures that the Pastor and his family have been taking advantage of all in the name of service. I always wanted to like Rick Godwin, the paster of ENCF, but my wife and other family members never could bring themselves to that point. There was just something about him that they couldn’t get over. It turns out they were right. Here are a few quotes from the article.

Pastor Rick Godwin constantly presses his flock at Eagle’s Nest Christian Fellowship to give generously for a new $36 million megachurch under construction on the North Side at the same time he spends tens of thousands of dollars of church money on luxury items for himself.

When he flies, it’s first class or private chartered plane. He stays in high-end hotels and buys expensive gifts for some of his church associates. He can watch the Spurs from an AT&T Center luxury suite and play golf at the exclusive Club at Sonterra.

In 2005, an independent audit done at the church’s request questioned similar expenditures, such as spa services massages and vitamins for Godwin, and warned that changes were needed to bring the church into compliance with tax rules for religious nonprofits.

Another one

In September, Godwin’s wife took a private plane to California — along with an unknown number of other church women — to attend a women’s conference that was training for Chosen, a women’s event put on at Eagle’s Nest. The cost of the chartered flight was more than $17,394, according to another journal entry.

I find the whole situation to be completely appalling and I am very glad I no longer attend this church. This is exactly why people stop trusting churches and can’t bring themselves to be involved with organized religion.

Source: MySA.com