The Jesus Army Empire
On this page:- Robbing the World
- Jesus Fellowship Community Trust
- House of Goodness Ltd.
- Accountancy Issue/Irregularity
- Other Businesses
- Jesus Army Charitable Trust
- Jesus Fellowship Life Trust
- Conclusion
Robbing the World
The Jesus Army (JA) is 'officially' known as the Jesus Fellowship Church (JFC). They claim about 2,500 members, with the nucleus, the very heart
of what the sect is all about, being the New Creation Christian Community (NCCC) and its associated Jesus Centres.
There are about seventy household buildings owned by the community, which range from
small residential houses to huge complexes such as Cornhill Manor - an old hotel set in several acres of land and able to accommodate sixty or more people.
The hotel was bought, as I remember, in 1980 for what then seemed an astromic £360,000. Based on a very conservative current 'average'
price per property of £200,000, the community houses themselves represent somewhere in the order of £14 million
worth of assets.
Currently there are three operational Jesus Centres, and a fourth one is due to open later in 2010. The three existing
ones have a balance sheet value of about four and a half milion pounds.
And then there are the Jesus Fellowship businesses which include farms, an enormous
heath food chain, a building firm, a plumbing and heating firm, a medical practice, an outdoor retail shop, motorcycle retail, a firm of solicitors, and wood
craft centre. Not only do these businesses share many millions pounds worth of assets between them,
they have a collective annual turnover of between between twenty and thirty million pounds.
So far as I am aware from all the evidence available to me, there is nothing about the financial empire of the JA which is in any way outside of the letter of the law. Nor has there ever been any suggestion that funds are being used for the benefit of anyone other than the sect as a whole. The company and charity accounts are audited on an annual basis by Grant Thornton UK LLP (Registered Auditors), who, with the exception of the the matter discussed in section 4 (Accountancy Issue) have always found everything to be in order. This in no way implies, however, that the businesses, charities and general financial edifice of the JA are beyond criticism.
My own criticisms derive, primarily, from what I understand to be the driving force, the raison d'être, behind everything. Firstly, it is important to understand about 'the two kingdoms'. A central feature of the doctrine which has been advanced by the JA over the years is the concept of there being two kingdoms: 'the Kingdom of God' and the 'Kingdom of the World'. All of us are deemed as belonging to one or other of these kingdoms. Naturally, members of the JA believe themselves to be part of the Kingdom of God; and whilst they acknowledge that this kingdom has other inhabitants who are not JA members, they believe themselves to be a unique expression of this kingdom in modern day Britain by virtue of their community-based structure: a continuation of the model established by the first apostolic church in Jerusalem, where the members had 'everything in common' and shared all of their possessions (New Testament: second chapter of Acts).
The Kingdom of God, then, is not some linguistic concept to categorise a group of people. In the teaching of the JA it is just as tangible and real as the kingdom of Great Britain, found when Christian 'brothers' and 'sisters' unite together in what they describe as 'covenanted relationships' with one another. Look behind the glossy veneer of the street papers and publicity material and you will discover what the JA is really about: building 'Zion', a 'city on a hill', the 'new Jerusalem'. Chapter 10 of their biography, 'Fire In Our Hearts' is called 'Zion, City of God' and the book repeatedly makes reference to recapturing the vision of community life, or, as the author describes it 'our Zion'.
What you won't read about, either, in their more 'popularist' literature (e.g. their 'streetpapers') is the thinking that lay behind the creation of the JA businesses in the first place. I discovered it for myself as a naive twenty-year-old, and have never been able to forget it; nor have I ever been given any cause to suppose it has been renounced. Shocked at why one of the shops was selling tight-fitting jeans, Christmas boxes and pseudo eastern paraphernalia (items that flew directly in the face of what was being taught within the sect about radical Christianity), I asked Noel Stanton, the senior Pastor, for an explanation.
"What you've got to understand, Bro", he replied, "is that in our businesses we are robbing the Kingdom of the World in order to build the Kingdom of God." In other words, the end justifies the means: provided nothing actually illegal is taking place, the methods of 'liberating' money from one kingdom don't have to be consistent with your own values and beliefs. The chill that ran down my spine when I realised the implications of this was intense, and it was a philosophy toward business life that had many practical implications for day-to-day operations that I considered to be unacceptable. In this respect, nothing has changed. At the very least I find these businesses to be extremely hypocritical; especially when they seem to play so much on the 'goodness' theme whilst not actually caring in the least about the fate of the damned Kingdom of the World except to 'rob' it of its wealth and transfer as many of its people into the Kingdom of God as possible.
Consider the following statments taken directly from one of JA 'Flame' pamphlets: Wealth Creation
- When Jesus is truly Lord of our finances, we can set about gaining more for Him. One method is to offer our skills and energies in return for a wage or salary. "Normal" employment like this takes money from the world to use for God -- as long as the income is used for God! A more obvious kind of trading with the world is when we establish "kingdom businesses" to sell goods or services to the general public.
- Is there a downside? That depends on whether you enjoy spiritual warfare! Satan is keen on money, and won't let us plunder his goods without putting up a fight!
- There is no point in robbing Satan of his riches if we then give them back to him through uncontrolled spending or careless use of assets!
I do not subscribe to the doctrine of the two kingdoms. If I did, however, then I would have to consider myself as a citizen of the Kingdom of the World, and I therefore feel affronted at the thought of how the JA uses its millions - which, when printed as currency, still bears the emblem of Her Majesty the Queen. Too dramatic? Then please also understand that until he died last year, the chairman of the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust - the non-charitable trust that holds most of the wealth of the JA - was the same person who publicly criticised charitable giving by Christian people to third world countries because it was "wasting thousands of pounds of God's money supporting people who were under the judgement of God". These were the words and creed of Noel Stanton, the man responsible for the creation of the Jesus Army and its associated financial edifice.
It was equally distressing to hear Mother Theresa of Calcutta being berated for having wasted her energy looking after orphaned children when she should have been using it to build the Kingdom of God. Given my own strength of conviction concerning how we should respond to world poverty, famine and disaster, I have always been implacably opposed to the conclusions which derive from the Noel Stanton-type account of the contrast between the two kingdoms, and especially the inevitable effect that this has on business operations.
The same emotions of outrage, anger and bewilderment came back to me a couple of years ago when I read about the insolvency of Heartcry Ventures Ltd.
The Jesus Army bought the old Art Deco
Canon Cinema building in Northmapton in 1999 and transformed it into one of their regional 'Jesus Centres' (outreach centres for the 'poor and needy'/recruitment centres for the Jesus Army - take your pick!). The centre was opened in 2004.
With the building, however, came the 'Deco Theatre' - a 900-seat auditorium which needed
to be restored under the supervision of English Heritage. Heartcry Ventures Ltd'
was incorporated as a firm by the JA in 2004, primarily for the purpose of supervising the licence arrangements
for the Deco.
To say it was a project doomed to failure would be an understatement. It doesn't take
too much research into the JA to confirm that rejection of the World and its social activities
are part and parcel of its very ethos. The juxtaposition of 'the Kingdom of God (Zion)' and 'the
Kingdom of the World (the World)' is a theme that crops up time and again in their literature:
- Separation from the world and brotherly sharing were becoming our hallmarks (From Fire in Our Hearts: Awake Oh Zion")
- Jesus is building His church in this present revival. But it is requiring a revolution of the first order. It's a revolution of Jesus discipleship. For us, that has meant setting aside every other interest so that a 'Zion church' can arise in beauty in our midst. It has involved a lot of repentance, sacrifice, forsaking of the world, and coming together in continuous covenant love. (Flame pamphlet: Zion, City of God)
- Every vestige of our old self-motivated natural life must be "lost". Those things which we have counted as gain to us, we must count as loss in order to win Christ. Such "gains" may include our culture, our upbringing, our attainments. (Flame pamphlet: Living the Crucified Life)
A Facilities Management firm, Incentive FM, was appointed to manage the day to day running of the Deco and its attached conference facilities. In January 2007, however, The Northampton Chronicle reported that Heartcry Ventures owed Incentive FM £300,000. In spite of this, Heartcry Ventures did not apply for public funding and it turned down three different rescue packages from Incentive FM. Instead, with the debt to Incentive FM outstanding, Heatcry Ventures took the get-out route of voluntary insolvency, the theatre was closed, and Incentive FM staff were made reduntant.
And all this happened during a year when the Jesus Army Charitable Trust (more about this in a while) showed an unrestricted fund of 4.3 million pounds and was supported by donations from its own businesses, trusts and sect members to the tune of over one million pounds (figures taken from the Charity Commissioners' record of accounts for the J.A.C.T.)
My own interpretation of the situation is that it shows total contempt for the welfare of those people who are, what the Jesus Army disparingly call 'worldlings' - that's me and you, the starving children of Africa, and the staff of Incentive FM.
But you might think the situation was otherwise when you read all about the businesses on the Jesus Army website. You might think that the businesses were there almost as a protest against the profit-motivated businesses of the world and that their 'charitable giving' was something to be applauded, not questioned. But questions have to be asked - and answered. Why? Because, to use a fashionable term, the JFC 'spin' makes it very difficult to fully understand what is going on. So let's look at the whole financial structure in a bit more detail.
Back to top of page
The Jesus Fellowship Community Trust
At the heart of the 'Modern Jesus Army' is the New Creation Christian Community (NCCC) and the various Jesus Centres.
 |
| Entrance to the London Jesus Centre - at night |
As already mentioned, members of the community live in communal households (some 70 altogether) and donate ALL their income into what is known as a 'common purse'. This is in addition to the requirement that all possessions (including homes) are sold and the proceeds donated to the Community (or given over extant - e.g. motor vehicles).
The majority of the NCCC members have 'ordinary' jobs in the outside world (many are highly-paid ones), but a sizeable minority work for one or other of the JA businesses.
All of the property, income, and capital donated by members of the NCCC, together with the farms, land, assets and income of the various Jesus Army businesses, is owned, held and administered by the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust. The Trust is a legally constituted, non-charitable trust whereby the NCCC members are all equal owners of its assets. An AGM needs to be held to approve the accounts and formally sanction other significant matters. Needless to say, this is little more than window dressing! Dissent is effectively unknown, and all resolutions put to the meeting by the trustees (all of whom are NCCC leaders) can be certain of receiving unanimous or overwhelming approval.
The House of Goodness Ltd.
This group of companies is totally owned by the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust and, in addition to several farms, includes the following businesses:
- Goodness Foods
- Goodness Direct
- Skaino Services
- Atmos Heating Systems
- TBS Builders Merchants
- Good Timber
- White & Bishop
Skaino Services and Atmos Heating Systems are divisions of Skaino Atmos Ltd.
Collectively, the businesses listed above trade in farming; foodstuffs and clothing; building supplies; engineering, building contracting and architectural services; timber, turned wood and crafts; and motor cycle retailing.
B.S. Collet & Co Ltd. was acquired by the House of Goodness in 2007 and was shown in the 2008 company returns as being dormant.
The latest accounts which are publicly available for the House of Goodness group of companies cover the period up to 31st. December 2008. These show an income (turnover) of nearly 21 million pounds . From this, there is a declared operating profit of £795,508 - extremely tight profit margins, presumably. From the operating profit, £350,000 was given as a charitable donation to the Jesus Army Charitable Trust. No other charitable giving is declared.
This isn't exactly the kind of 'charitable giving' that most people would think about if they read articles like the BBC news story: Principles before Profits : "I'd love to see other companies do what we do," says Lesley Cutts, marketing director at Goodness Foods. "We are all about using profits for charitable causes and making life better for other people, rather than just putting money in directors' pockets."You could almost think, from oft-repeated statements like this, that the Jesus Army were students in the Bill Gates school of entrepreneurial philanthropy. What they fail to mention is that all of the charitable donations from the House of (not-so) Goodness go to Jesus Army charities.
As such, this reduces their tax liability and is reclaimable by the Jesus Army Charitable Trust in gift aid. This leaves a shortfall in funding that would otherwise be spent at a national level; funding that you and I, as taxpayers, are ultimately having to make up. I, for one, am not happy that money which, in my opinion, should be going into the national purse is being used to further the so-called 'charitable' aims of the Jesus Army!
The Jesus Army businesses also use a wage strategy which, whilst presumably in compliance with the relevant laws, is
designed to keep wage costs to an absolute statutory minimum. As such, they are able to exercise a
totally unfair competitive advantage over other local firms operating in the same field.
They are only able to do this because their employees' wages go directly into the common fund
and no one has to meet the direct day to day expenditure that ordinary members of society do.
To illustrate the point, I compared the average wage earned by the 55 employees of
TBS Building Supplies Ltd. during 2008 with another building supplies firm, Birtley Building Products Ltd (who employed 188 people during the same period).
The average wage for the TBS employees was £12,458, and £26,765 for the Birtley employees. Even adjusting
for the disparity between the two average wages that is attributable to the high salary of several Birtley Building Products directors, it still ought to be immediately clear that
the wage paid to the TBS staff came nowhere near what would be considered a viable, living wage in
the free market!
After having a brief look at an accountancy issue and other JA businesses, I shall take a closer look at the 'charitable' work of the Jesus Army.
Accountancy Issue/Irregularity
In 2007, The House of Goodness acquired a firm called B.S.Collet & Co. Ltd. A note in the 2008 House of Goodness company accounts
gives an acquisition figure of £1,043,793.
In the audited 2008 accounts for B.S Collet & Co, the company directors (all Jesus Army members) filed
a figure for
investment property assets of £97,332.
This, apparently, represented the 'cost' value. The auditors made a statement that this was incorrect accounting practice
and commented that the figure should be the open market value of £1,060,000.
No trading took place and the only transaction was the transfer of property to House of Goodness.
The company was subsequently dissolved.
On the surface there appears to be, at the very least, an irregularity here. Once I have investigated
further I will post my results.
Or perhaps the Jesus Army would like to offer a full and frank statement
concerning the acquisition and disposal of B.S.Collet & Co. Ltd!
Other businesses
The Jesus Army also owns two other companys. Because they aren't limited companies, I am unable to access their accounts. But they are both well established with an annual turnover amounting to tens, and possibly hundreds, of thousands.
Jesus Army Charitable Trust
This charity is the main recipient of the gift-aided charitable giving from the House of Goodness
and other JA-related firms.
Every year, a 'Heartcry Appeal' is launched with a £1m target. To get some idea of how this target
is reached, here are the relevant contributors to it during 2007 & 2008:
| 2008 | 2007 | |
| Skaino Atmos Ltd. | £50,000 | - |
| TBS Builders Merchants | £300,000 | £250,000 |
| Whitefields Medical Practice | - | £36,750 |
| Jesus Fellowship Community Trust | £28,317 | £27,125 |
| Members of the Jesus Fellowship Church | £596,083 | £720,824 |
| Public donations including Trusts | £122,432 | £93,034 |
| £1,096,832 | £1,127,733 |
Typically, then, around 90% of the money coming into the Heartcry appeal comes from JA-related sources.
To use a rather vulgar description, it's all money slushing around within the same pot - and attracting gift aid as it does so, of course.
A relatively small amount of funding also comes to the charity through:
- Rental Income and lettings
- Interest Income
- Cafe sales
The declared charitable aims of this trust are:
"to assist people in need or suffering hardship because of their social and economic circumstances, to advance the Christian religion through the provision of places of worship and to provide facilities for recreation in the interests of social welfare."
These objectives are similar, no doubt, to those of many other Christian charities. But we need to be clear that the charity being promoted, together with the money to facilitate it, remains entirely bound up with the institutions and activities that are all part and parcel of the JA 'family'. This is declared explicitly in the statement of the JACT trustees concerning how they are going to meet their charitable objectives:
The current strategy for meeting these objects is the operating of Jesus Centres providing care, worship and social facilities in major towns and cities around the United Kingdom.
Charitable expenditure in 2008 was divided up between:
- Fundraising and publicity
- Running costs of the Jesus Centres
- Governance costs
There is no reference in the accounts to any form of expenditure/giving outwith the Jesus Army's own concerns!
All this is entirely consistent with what I explained earlier concerning the JA vision of building the localised expression of the 'Kingdom of God'. The important thing to focus on is the end use of the declared charitable giving from the businesses.
Jesus Fellowship Life Trust
This is the charity that looks after the more subtle evangelistic aims of the Jesus Army: "the promotion of the Christian faith" as stated in its objectives.
Its strategy for meeting this objective is:
by supporting the charitable activities of the Jesus Fellowship Church . This is achieved through provision and promotion of public meetings and evangelistic activities, provision of literature and publicity, the production and sale of Christian resources and financial assistance to relieve material need.
So how is it funded?
This was the situation for 2007 and 2008
| 2008 | 2007 | |
| Jesus Fellowship Community Trust | £450,000 | £360,000 |
| Donations via regional funds | £165,624 | £170,728 |
| Public donations | £788 | £1,626 |
| Members of the Jesus Fellowship Church | £912 | £1,681 |
| Snack bar | £3,423 | £2,545 |
| Conference receipts | £1,144 | £1,815 |
| £621,891 | £528,395 |
Exenditure was largely taken up with the 'cost of church events': £393,735 in 2008. The single largest item in this category was venue-hire costs: £141,687
£149,502 was spent on literature and publicity costs
£52,344 was spent on the 'Cost of sale of Christian resources' (wages, admin, equipment costs etc)
Finally, there is the element of 'financial support':
£9,142 was spent helping people travel to JA
events in the UK from abroad, £2,875 was spent on the Heartcry 'relief of need' fund in Northampton,
and £15,496 on 'Bursary funds, relief of need and gifts'
Given that the JA have historically made 'relief of need' payments to individuals or families that it has become involved with during the course of its evangelistic recruitment activities, and whom it considers to be potential members, there is good reason to suppose that this could account for such expenditure.
Conclusion
Of all the millions that pass through the Jesus Army's hands in one from or another (as declared in their business and charity accounts), not a penny
has gone to support what you and I would consider to be 'conventional' charitable objectives.
Not a penny was spent helping the tsunami victims or the victims of the recent Haiti earthquake.
Not a penny has been spent supporting environmental charities. Not a penny has even been spent
supporting well respected Christian charities such as Tearfund.
Why not? Because the Jesus Army Empire is there for one thing alone: to establish the Kingdom of God,
Zion, along the lines laid down by its founder and erstwhile leader, Noel Stanton.