Ministry News

Selling the Cathedral

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Thursday, 13 August 2009 19:05

So you think your house has gone down in value? Last November the 51-acre campus of what used to be one of the nation's most influential charismatic churches was put on the market for $24.5 million. At its peak in the 1990s, The Cathedral at Chapel Hill in suburban Atlanta, founded by the late Earl Paulk Jr., drew 10,000 attendees and was the hub for those who aligned with the controversial bishop's "kingdom now" theology.

Last week the property was purchased by Greater Traveler's Rest Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga., for $17.6 million, according to CNL Specialty Real Estate in Orlando, Fla., which brokered the deal. The sprawling campus has seven buildings, including a 6,000-seat main auditorium, large fellowship hall, offices, classrooms and theater. "We are happy to have brokered a successful outcome for a property of this size, especially in today's challenging economic climate," CNL broker and principal Matt Messier said in a statement.

Paulk, who died in March at age 81, helped popularize charismatic "kingdom now" theology, which teaches that the church, as a manifestation of God's kingdom, must take dominion of every sector of society. In recent years, The Cathedral's membership had declined to roughly 1,000 after several women accused Paulk of coercing them into having affairs with him and another claimed he molested her as a child. DNA tests proved Paulk also fathered a child with his brother's wife. That child, D.E. Paulk, now leads the Cathedral, which embraces universalism and affirms the gay lifestyle. Last year, the younger Paulk said the church's evolving mission to be "radically inclusive" lessened its need for space.

Greater Traveler's Rest, a 6,000-member congregation led by pastor E. Dewey Smith Jr., plans to sell its current facility and will hold its first service in the new sanctuary on Aug. 30. [charismamag.com, 8/11/09]