Questions Of Sex, Fraud And Faith Surround Megachurch Now Courting God's Hipsters

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — A massive megachurch is preaching its conservative message to the most unlikely of flocks: God's hipsters.

The multimillion-dollar assembly with 470 pentecostal parishes and hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide — as well as a legion of concerned watchdogs who raise questions about financial irregularities, bizarre youth rituals and possible sexual misconduct — has been building a following among the hipsters of New York City.

C3 Church Global is set to open its fourth city church in Fort Greene's Brooklyn Music School next month.

The megachurch rakes in millions of dollars annually and is led by a charismatic pastor from New Zealand with close ties to religious leaders with convictions for embezzling from their congregations.

Since it was founded in Australia in 1980, the church has suffered multiple scandals within its own ranks, too. More than one pastor has been charged with fraud. Another was accused of covering up the sexual abuse of a young boy.

If C3 sounds like a franchise, it markets itself more like an artisanal vendor of $17 avocado toast.

Here's Patch reporter Kathleen Culliton discussing this story on Morning Edition with Richard Hake:

Every week, a crowd of faithful gathers at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, the famous venue where fans usually worship their favorite indie-rock bands. But on Sunday mornings, the space belongs to C3 Brooklyn. Across the Williamsburg Bridge, a similar gathering happens at the Bowery Ballroom.

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Volunteers armed with clipboards and big smiles stand outside the doors to welcome newcomers, who are asked to RSVP before they arrive.

Inside, pastors with trendy haircuts lead sermons that resemble rock concerts to hoards of hand-waving hipsters clad in fedoras and their best flannel shirts. The look is modern but the message is not – C3 believes the devil is roaming amongst its flock, homosexuality is a sin and that a person must be baptized to be saved, according to the doctrine published on the church's website.

With locations on six of seven continents (there’s no C3 Antarctica — yet), the organization, which used to be known as the Christian City Church, is one of the most ambitious institutions of its kind. By 2020, founding pastors Chris and Phil Pringle hope to have launched 1,000 churches and attracted some 500,000 followers.

And those followers will be encouraged to "tithe" — or donate — around 10 percent of their income.

“We believe that the bible is clear in it's [sic] instruction to bring tithes and offerings to God,” the church says in large letters on its C3 Sydney website, above a link to a donation page. “God is clear in His word that he will honor and bless all those that tithe!”

A blog called C3 Church Watch, set up by self-described ex-C3 members to monitor the church's activities, is filled with posts about its constant push to give money.

“It was a false C3 prophesy and encouragement which ultimately led to my family becoming bankrupt and falling apart,” writes a contributor called Icarus. “They had demanded 10% of investment funds raised for a project, which was paid. Needless to say C3 did not step in to help my family when we didn’t have a cent.”

“The Pastor spent a good amount of time going on about tithing,” adds Tracey B., who says she belonged to a C3 Church in Washington state. “He made me feel it was a sin not to give 10% to God.”

“They talked about tithing being New Testament and Jesus telling the Pharisees they should keep doing it — I never felt comfortable,” writes another poster named Simeon.

On his own blog, C3’s founder reminds his followers that good Christians are people with “great dreams, big commitments and tremendous capacities.”

“Sadly, some of the stingiest people in history have been Christians,” Pringle writes. “However, happily, as they spent more time with Jesus they became bigger people.

“Big people give more than expected," he hints.

God’s Millionaires

Because churches are commonly tax-exempt, it’s difficult to assess exactly how much C3 Global earns through its tithing requests. But in New Zealand, where churches are required to file financial statements, one C3 outpost in Auckland reported a $2 million annual income in 2016, which it noted came primarily from member donations.

A 2005 report from Business Review Weekly Magazine in Australia estimated that at the time — when C3 had about 100 churches — it was earning around $100 million per year.

These are troubling figures, the report said. “Many of these ministers have made themselves multi-millionaires,” Pentecostal preacher Philip Powell told Business Review Weekly Magazine for the report, entitled “God’s Millionaires.”

“They are no more than business magnates who benefit from the tax-free status of corporations that they lead,” Powell added, citing C3’s founder Phil Pringle and another Australian pastor as prime examples.

“They are not 'pastors' but business managers who have cashed in on a loophole in the Western governmental tax system."

The slim, silver-haired Pringle seems to fancy himself the Steve Jobs of religion. He describes himself as a creative entrepreneur who gives plain-talk speeches (with the requisite big-screen backdrop and crowd of worshippers) and, like Jobs, has developed his own specialized campus to pass on his wisdom.

Also like Jobs, Pringle belongs to an elite community of successful men who have made millions pursuing their ambitions. Several of Pringle’s closest friends pursued those ambitions by breaking laws.

Kong Hee is the founder of another megachurch, based in Singapore, called City Harvest. In 2015, Hee was found guilty of using $35 million in church funds to jumpstart his wife’s floundering music career. Pringle, a high-ranking advisory pastor with City Harvest who frequently invited Hee to preach to C3 followers, testified on his behalf in court.

“I know Pastor Kong Hee to be an honest, true and faithful minister of Christ,” Pringle said in a statement in which he compared Hee to Christ.

Pringle also befriended the founder of the largest megachurch in the world: David Yonggi Cho of South Korea's Yoido Full Gospel Church. Cho was convicted of embezzling $12 million in church funds in 2014 and, a few years earlier, was accused of pocketing $20 million more.

Pringle maintained their friendship and invited Cho to a C3 leadership conference in 2016. He posted photos to Instagram of himself and Cho holding hands.

Rick Ross, executive director of the New Jersey-based Cult Education Institute — set up to oversee controversial religious groups — told Patch the problem with megachurches is that oftentimes, no one is appointed to an internal position meant to monitor leaders’ financial practices.

“In my experience, many independently-run church organizations and ministries like C3 Global become personality driven spiritual empires,” Ross said in an email. “How is Pringle accountable? Can he be fired?”

“Is there an independently audited and annually published budget that discloses in detail all the expenses, salaries and compensation paid out from church funds in detail?” he asked.

Patch tried to ask C3 Global whether any of these institutions were in place. However, a spokesman declined to comment.

'That Would Not Be Having Faith'

Accountability has been a problem for C3 pastors as well.

The largest piracy scheme in Australia’s history was the brainchild of C3 pastor Mosaic Defredes and his “disciple,” Allison Daniel. The pastor in the Sydney suburb of Blacktown and his follower sold more than 65,000 counterfeit DVDs, copied from movies Daniel stole from local vendors.

When Daniel was caught by store detectives, Defredes would plead for her pardon in court, adding, “as a Man of God and Honest Citizen I totally condemn this act.” Both were convicted.

In the United States, C3 pastor Nicholas Dimitris, of Asheville, North Carolina, was found guilty of participating in a “straw borrower” scheme to defraud local banks of $825,000 in loans to support a failing golf course venture. The former pastor paid more than $3 million in restitution and served one year in prison.

But the most troubling account of C3 leadership comes from Jason Ferguson, a 15-year-old boy from Sydney who told his pastor he was being sexually abused by his stepfather.

Ferguson’s stepfather Stephen Dent first told C3 pastor Gary Dench in 1985 that he’d been forcing his teenaged stepson to have sex with him, according to a 60 Minutes report.

Dench responded by pulling the teenager into his office and, in front of his stepfather, telling Ferguson the abuse was his own fault, the victim told 60 Minutes.

“Gary turned around to me and said, ‘Now, your father’s explained everything that happened,’” Ferguson said. And he remembered Dench adding: “‘But you’ve got to understand, in a way you led him on as well.’”

Dench encouraged Ferguson to pray for forgiveness and not to tell his mother, and the teenager complied, he told 60 Minutes. His mother, Kerri Ferguson, only found out about the abuse years later. When she asked her son’s C3 pastor why he had failed to tell her that her son was being victimized, she said Dench replied, “Frankly, Kerri, it was none of your business.”

When Ferguson asked if the pastor had followed up with her son to see if the abuse continued, he said, “That would not be having faith," the news show reported. The boy's stepfather was later convicted of sexual abuse.

Another Australian C3 pastor, Trevor John Russell, was convicted of molesting at least four boys in a church camp in the 1980s.

Three victims later filed suit against Christian City Church — as C3 was called at the time of the abuse — claiming the church ignored members’ warnings that Russell was a “pervert” who was exhibiting “inappropriate behaviour” with young boys, the Advertiser reported in 2009.

Russell was sentenced to nine years in prison and C3 denied owing his victims any compensation for the abuse.

'My Kids Tell Me It’s A Cult'

More recently, parents of children in a C3 youth group in San Diego reportedly discovered their children were being encouraged to complete bizarre dares for cash prizes, and attending sermons that looked like “make-out” parties.

In February, the San Diego Reader interviewed a concerned parent named John whose 13-year-old daughter attended the C3 youth group MyCity with her friends. She soon began coming home with strange accounts of her activities.

“There’s this Nerve challenge thing,” John, 56, explained of one church group activity, based on a 2016 thriller about teenagers who pull off increasingly dangerous dares. "MyCity kept amping it up."

The kids were asked to jump into swimming pools with their clothes on, spill drinks on themselves at the mall and fall down in a public place, said John. Those who completed the challenges got a $500 prize.

John grew concerned when his daughter told him she’d been driven to events by people John had never met, he said. And the church's sermons gave him pause as well.

“I’m just not used to young kids holding hands, swarming all over one another and snuggling during a sermon,” John said. “Is it a ‘make-out party’ or is it a church?”

When the San Diego Reader asked youth pastor David Chiddick about the concerned parent's concerns, Chiddick replied, "One of our core values is staying relevant, so we’ll take the things that are most cutting-edge today."

“It’s absolutely about bringing in kids,” Chiddick added. “If we’re not doing that, we’re not doing anything."

When John asked his daughter how exactly MyCity was able to attract all those teenagers, she told him they picked out teen recruiters and rewarded them with Urban Outfitters gift cards it they made certain quotas.

“My kids tell me it’s a cult,” said John.

C3 Brooklyn

The Brooklyn branch of C3 is very Brooklyn. Founding pastors Josh and Georgie Kelsey host sermons at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, LightSpace Studios in Bushwick and the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan's Lower East Side. And in the four years since it was founded, C3 Brooklyn has built an impressive following of young and artistic millennials who know how to work social media.

The images on C3 Brooklyn's Instagram page, updated on a daily basis, meet all the hallmarks of elite hipsterdom seen in artful photos, videos and graphic designs.

On the group's website, there's a growing collection of carefully curated glamour shots accompanied by personal essays and videos of testimony from more than 100 young followers, who describe how the C3 community helped them launch careers as models, musicians, craftsmen and more.

"I had to realize that I am made the way I'm supposed to be, and this body is the way God made me" says Mekdes, explaining how her faith allowed her overcome an eating disorder and launch her modeling career. "Finding this community of C3 has helped me so much."

Many testimonials also mention how lonely it is to move to the city.

"True loneliness hits when you walk down the streets of New York City and don’t know a soul," writes Michael Bruce, a struggling musician. "Stepping into C3 I realized I didn't have that expectation."

This emphasis on community is intentional, according to Kelsey, and designed to attract young followers.

"A great buzzword is discipleship, how are we discipling young people?" Kelsey said in an interview with the Christian film studio Glory Unlimited, explaining why he doesn't focus on strict moral rules in his sermons.

"Yeah, we need to have theological positions on things," said Kelsey. "But it's really not about the ideas, it's about the heart and the humility of community."

But Kelsey also asks his followers to tithe. And, according to a C3 Global policy document, 3 percent of that money goes to an organization that preaches sex is for procreation and that homosexuality is a sin caused by "the lack of honour and thankful worship to God."

And his requests for tithes are reaching a growing number of Brooklynites. The church's fourth NYC location is scheduled to open in Fort Greene’s Brooklyn Music School on Oct. 8.

Kelsey, who could not be interviewed by Patch despite several requests, told Glory Unlimited that his congregation is growing because C3 provides the message his followers want to hear.

"This generation is not looking for morality or ethics," said Kelsey. "It's looking for glory."

Header photo by Kathleen Culliton