JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The senior pastor of Celebration Church, one of many largest church buildings in Jacksonville, took a second throughout Sunday morning service to deal with a authorized dispute between the church and its founding pastors.
Tim Timberlake, who was put in as Celebration Church’s senior pastor in September 2021 to succeed Stovall Weems, acknowledged the civil court docket case that entails allegations of monetary misconduct and fraud.
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“I may have by no means imagined as we transitioned, me and Jen, into management that issues would unfold the best way that they’ve,” mentioned Timberlake to the congregation. “To be trustworthy with you, it’s our board of trustees and our church’s attorneys’ need to maintain these issues personal that at the moment are public. To not cover something, however simply because we care in regards to the former leaders. Sadly, different events concerned didn’t need to do these issues.”
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Stovall and Kerri Weems, who based Celebration Church in 1998, filed a lawsuit for injunctive aid towards the church in late February. The injunction mentioned a Celebration Church trustee was improperly billing the church for construction-type providers at its Honey Lake Farms property in Madison County and turned the opposite trustees towards Stovall Weems, resulting in his suspension.
The Weemses mentioned they’ve been threatened with arrest in the event that they enter church property.
MORE: I-TEAM: Celebration Church pastors deny misuse of PPP cash
Celebration Church filed a movement to dismiss the injunction. The movement mentioned that is the “newest chapter in a marketing campaign of deception, manipulation, distraction, and abuse of energy by Stovall and Kerri Weems towards Celebration.”
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Celebration Church’s movement mentioned the trustees requested an investigation into the founding pastors once they found the Weemses “engaged in a sequence of questionable monetary transactions with out board data or authorization” in early 2021.
Timberlake mentioned as a result of this authorized dispute is now public, he needed to deal with a couple of issues to the congregation.
“The primary one is that this: Your church is okay. Your church is okay,” mentioned Timberlake. “I don’t like seeing Celebration Church within the information, on the entrance of the paper, and though I like our native information and I’m grateful for each anchor that calls Celebration Church dwelling, I don’t like seeing that.”
Timberlake mentioned the church’s bylaws and board of trustees are put into place “for occasions and seasons as this, to guard the church” and the board and church’s attorneys are dealing with this critical matter.
“The second factor I need you to know is me and Jen aren’t going wherever,” Timberlake mentioned. “We’re right here to climate this storm with you, child. It’s our need to proceed to shepherd, to proceed to steer with integrity, godly character, love, honor and excellence.”
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Timberlake mentioned in his 18 years in management he’s realized “adversity all the time comes earlier than development.”
“Take heed to me, I imagine we’re getting into the best days this church has ever seen,” mentioned Timberlake on Sunday. “The adversity we’re seeing proper now ought to come as no shock. I imagine there are nonetheless souls that must be saved. I imagine there are marriages that must be restored. I imagine there are households that must be mended. I imagine we nonetheless obtained work to do, amen?”
Celebration’s movement to dismiss the injunction outlines 4 areas of concern:
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A number of giant transfers to new for-profit entities that the Weemses meant to handle going ahead
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Church’s buy of a parsonage (by which Stovall and Kerri Weems had been to dwell rent-free) for $1,286,863.30 that an organization solely owned by Stovall Weems had purchased 4 months earlier for $855,000
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Development of 9 months’ wage to Kerri Weems and 7 months’ wage to Stovall Weems in violation of Florida statute and the church’s personal inside insurance policies, regardless of neither Stovall nor Kerri Weems performing the duties of the places of work that purportedly justified these salaries
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Improper use of over $1,000,000 in PPP mortgage proceeds to fund the Weems-managed entity Honey Lake Farms, LLC and to buy TurnCoin, an illiquid, speculative digital foreign money
The Weemses deny misuse of PPP cash. A spokesperson for the couple launched a prolonged assertion to the News4JAX I-TEAM on Thursday: “No PPP funds went to Honey Lake Farms, LLC. Honey Lake Farms, LLC (which is completely different than the non-profit Honey Lake Farms, Inc.) is a for revenue entity that was fashioned on the recommendation of the Church’s attorneys at Holland and Knight. It’s a non-operational entity to which no cash was ever transferred and actually, has by no means had a checking account.
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No PPP funds had been utilized within the Turncoin funding. The Church’s 2020 audited financials certifies that the Church utilized the PPP funds in accordance with their legally allowed functions. Administration of the Church’s PPP funds was managed by the Church’s CFOs. The 2021 PPP funds had been fully used up by the Church’s payroll. Neither the PPP funds nor the Turncoin funding additionally had something to do with Pastor Stovall’s wage advance.
Pastor Stovall invested roughly $100,000 in Turncoin, an SEC permitted funding, for the aim of making a retirement fund for long-time Celebration Church workers. At present, that funding is value greater than $1.5 million. Pastors Stovall and Kerri by no means meant to obtain any cash from this funding. The restricted utilization of those funds is documented with the Church’s Human Sources division,” mentioned Sara Brady, spokesperson for Stovall and Kerri Weems
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The News4JAX I-TEAM additionally acquired a press release Thursday from an lawyer for Celebration Church:
“Celebration didn’t convey this lawsuit and doesn’t intend to litigate it by means of the media. The church’s investigation has uncovered ample documentation to assist the positions in its movement to dismiss, and Celebration stays assured that the reality will finally prevail,” mentioned Lee Wedekind, lawyer for Celebration Church.
No prison fees have been filed on this case. A civil court docket listening to is scheduled for Could 20.
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