Elders Want Audit of Church Finances under Ousted Pastor

A popular church in Bellevue that recently ousted its pastor is auditing some of its financial records after concerns about the church's bookkeeping, a spokesman for the church elders said.

The audit of documents at Bellevue Community Church is of records directly involving former pastor David Foster, spokesman and elder Richard McKinney said Tuesday.

He would not elaborate on exactly what records were being audited. He said elders met with an attorney Monday who recommended they hire a "forensic auditor" to review the records.

McKinney said the elders discovered some of the issues more than a year ago and confronted Foster about them and the problems stopped.

However, as elders are facing a revolt among church regulars over their decision last week to fire the charismatic pastor, they have called in an accountant to review the books.

"It did not follow standard accounting practices," McKinney said of the records. "It did not have the normal checks and balances you'd expect in an organization this size. We're having an accountant review it to see if there's anything untoward."

Foster said he does not know what McKinney and the other elders are talking about. He said he didn't handle the church's books or its money — that fell to an office administrator and the elders.

Foster said he believes the elders are picking out issues to pile on him in the wake of an unpopular decision to fire him and his wife, Paula Foster, who was the head of the nondenominational church's youth ministries.

"In all the 13 months we've had discussions and meetings, I've never heard that brought up," Foster said. "I have nothing to do with the finances. I don't sign the checks. I don't count money."

McKinney said the financial issues have been a concern for elders, but the chief issue that led to Foster's ouster was his style and bullying of staff.

"His personality and his unwillingness to be anything but the boss, period," McKinney said. "In any work setting, but in a church particularly, you have to have a congenial work environment.
You cannot have someone bullied."

Foster has acknowledged that he has not always acted as he would like in dealing with the staff, but he said it was more a matter of his "passion" for doing the job right than any effort to mistreat the staff.

McKinney said the flare-up that led to Thursday's firing started in June 2005 after an elder approached Foster about two of the pastor's daughters being on the church payroll. Foster blew up at the issue being raised, McKinney said, and the concerns of the elders quickly shifted to what they describe as Foster's explosive temper.

"He just blew up, and he said, 'I've had it,' " McKinney said. That episode sped up a process of elders looking to hire a head pastor and move Foster into a founding-pastor role.

Foster disputes McKinney's version of the discussion regarding his daughters being on the payroll. He said he never quit, but he does not wish to battle the elders on their decision to fire him.

"It's over," he said. "They've fired me. I accept it. I accept that my wife and I have been fired"

Source: www.tennessean.com staff writer: BRAD SCHRADE