May 24, 2013
Around 20 members of the Christ Life Church surrounded a law office in downtown Enterprise on Wednesday afternoon.
They were there protesting the sale of their former church building located on Highway 27 South of the City of Progress.
Church Pastor Michael Shroads says in the late 1990 then Tennessee minister Hank Davis took over payments for the church and contacted Shroads who was looking for a church building.
“He had this signed over to him 10 years ago for the amount of $10 and he is selling it today in that building for $165,000. Money we feel belongs to the church and doesn't belong to Hank Davis or his so called ministry.”
Shroads and others in the church say they paid $550 a month plus insurance costs for the building mortgage that on top of sending Davis 5 percent of their tithes every month.
Shroads says Davis, formerly of Word of Life Ministries in Cleveland and Tennessee, made a verbal agreement to sell the church in order to build a new expanded church for their growing population.
"About 5 years ago during some legal troubles he was having, we were hoping to have the property sold back to the church,” said Shroads.
According to WVLT in Chattanooga, Tennessee that legal trouble for Davis revolved around a child sex abuse case. The case settled for just under $200,000 and most of that money paid out by Word of Life Ministries.
Protestors continued to wait for the closing of the church property, when Davis and others left the building, they emphatically declined to comment.
Davis, driving a silver SUV, paused as a group of protesters stood in front of his vehicle. Then he gently pushed his car through the crowd striking two members of the congregation.
Pastor Shroads says a man named Tom Neese wasn't aware of the situation when he agreed to purchase the property, and after Wednesday closing, Neese was at what was presumably his new property.
Congregation member Justin Swasey had this to say of the sale.
"We put tons of hours into that church and out hearts and souls into it....It's frustrating because we put so much time and effort into that church and we know there are a lot of people out there that don't know Jesus and we want them to meet Jesus and without a building that's hard to do."
