The Lapp Brothers, Light of Hope, Blessings of Hope

[mike]

Are these the "Glory Barn" people?

Yes

[mike]

Years ago, the chaplain at the prison where I volunteered told some of us a story about a volunteer who talked to the inmates about his ministry, telling them that he would write out checks in faith that the money would be there. An inmate raised his hand and said that some of the listeners had done the same thing. Needless to say, this was the last time this volunteer was permitted to speak in this prison.

The volunteer was from a local charismatic church. I think there is something about the charismatic name-it-and-claim-it theology that leads some to "declare" or "claim" something to be the case, believing it in faith, in hope that God will make it to be so. The idea of declaring something to be God's vision for oneself, or somebody else, or for an organization - this sort of thing. This kind of looks like that.

[Ernie]

Here's a non-paywall version:

https://archive.is/sSqNG

I, too, am curious how they just churned the Board of Directors. Maybe it was just an advisory board (admittedly, I have set up things similarly with a Board of Directors for legal purposes and then an advisory board composed of members, donors, and so on who pretty much make most of the decisions and advise the actual Board of what to do).

A 501 c3 overseen by a church can appoint/dismiss board members and it doesn't need to file an annual I-990. The church is the accountability.

An independent 501 c3 must file an annual I-990 with the IRS and the IRS is the accountability.

[mike]

Here's a non-paywall version:

https://archive.is/sSqNG

I, too, am curious how they just churned the Board of Directors. Maybe it was just an advisory board (admittedly, I have set up things similarly with a Board of Directors for legal purposes and then an advisory board composed of members, donors, and so on who pretty much make most of the decisions and advise the actual Board of what to do).

A 501 c3 overseen by a church can appoint/dismiss board members and it doesn't need to file an annual I-990. The church is the accountability.

An independent 501 c3 must file an annual I-990 with the IRS and the IRS is the accountability.

The nonprofit I help manage is a 501c3 that is an integrated auxiliary of our church conference's 501c3. A charity being an integrated auxiliary of a church is perfectly legal, which is why I wouldn't say the structure of a charity like BOH is illegal, but at the same time in this case it does not inspire confidence. A lot depends on the real, actual accountability and governance that the church provides the charity. In the case of BOH, it is possible that the church of which BOH is the auxiliary is also controlled by the Lapp brothers, in which case there is very literal actual accountability.

About this board that they disbanded. If they only recently dissolved the board, and if these board members only got concerned when they started realizing they weren't going to get their loans repaid, part of the issue really is with them for rubber-stamping the ministry going into this kind of debt. Presumably these loans earned interest, so they were actually going to profit from the ministry borrowing money, and only got concerned when they faced financial loss.

It's entirely possible that what has happened here is that the charity brought in unusually large amounts of donations in 2020, like many others, to the extent that the Ephrata bank and private individuals deemed them a good risk for investment. However donations since might have fallen off to more normal levels, leaving them unable to make payments.

If the fallout of this publicity harms their donation revenue further, and if they fail to raise large amounts of capital from investors, their days are numbered as an organization. If it is true as the article says their liabilities are nearly twice their assets, there is no way out. Taking "investments" at this point is almost a crime because they are just using money from new investors to pay off creditors. I think there is a name for this kind of thing.

[JohnH]

They really need to file for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. $30 million in debt and facing defaults is pretty serious.

One does not "invest" in a nonprofit (Microsoft's investments in OpenAI notwithstanding), and in particular soliciting "investments" from private individuals is quite questionable. (It may also run afoul of securities laws.) The proper thing to do with a nonprofit is to make donations.

[cooper]

They really need to file for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. $30 million in debt and facing defaults is pretty serious.

One does not "invest" in a nonprofit (Microsoft's investments in OpenAI notwithstanding), and in particular soliciting "investments" from private individuals is quite questionable. (It may also run afoul of securities laws.) The proper thing to do with a nonprofit is to make donations.

Where are you seeing the $30 million in debt?

[cooper]

Until 2022, they posted their financial statements online. https://linktr.ee/reports.blessings.of.hope
The 2021 Balance Sheet shows ~$3 million in Net Assets

[JohnH]

They really need to file for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. $30 million in debt and facing defaults is pretty serious.

One does not "invest" in a nonprofit (Microsoft's investments in OpenAI notwithstanding), and in particular soliciting "investments" from private individuals is quite questionable. (It may also run afoul of securities laws.) The proper thing to do with a nonprofit is to make donations.

Where are you seeing the $30 million in debt?

Whoopsie. They have $14.6 million, but had plans to raise $30 million to pay down debt.

It is entirely possible that all their arrangements are technically legal, as far as criminal law is concerned, (they appear to be so far), but are certainly of dubious morals and way, way outside the bounds of what is acceptable in plain Anabaptist circles.

With the amount of defaults they are having, lawsuits, and judgments, Chapter 11 would really be the best path forward for them.

[JohnH]

Are these the "Glory Barn" people?

Yes, and their "church" is called Light of Hope.

You can watch some of their services here:

https://www.youtube.com/@LightOfHopeChurchPA/streams

They often do stuff with Steve Stutzman and related parties, which you can see here:

I have been meaning for a while to download all of this stuff and run it through an AI to find the interesting stuff, as they have expressed some bizarre/unique theology and doctrinal positions before.

[cooper]

Their 2023 Financial Statement shows $16 million in debt, with around $16 million in Fixed Assets. (Though ~$5 million in Vehicles and Building Improvements which may be overvalued.)

I wonder what the $595,881 for Tithes and Offerings expense goes to. Edit: "In accordance with the bylaws of the Organization, 60% of yearly tithe goes to Light of Hope Ministries, a related party as noted in Note 1. The amount owed to Light of Hope Ministries was $223,852 at September 30, 2023."