I was tired, bone tired, more weary of soul than I wanted to admit. The challenges of life and ministry had taken their toll: A major building project, the decision to let a much loved ministry partner go, my beloved wife diagnosed with cancer. Fortunately I pastor a church that loves me and not just in words, but deeds. So they sent me on a three-month sabbatical with enough money to get away and get the help I needed. That help came in the form of a ministry called Pastors on Point. If you go to their website you will find the phrase, “taking Pastors ‘out of their element’ and ‘into their essence,’” which sounds a bit corny. But corny or not, it worked for me. Three gifted men took seven pastors and four lamas up into the Colorado wilderness to rediscover God’s calling on our lives and, thankfully, I was one of them.

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Fraud targeting Christians is an epidemic. Of the $40 billion that Americans lose to investment fraud every year, fraud against the faithful accounts for as much as $1 billion of it. Antiquated notions of why churches fall victim to fraud are at least partially responsible for the epidemic. Old adages like, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” are not only useless as protection against fraud, but also dangerous. Church executives concerned with sound financial stewardship and protecting the flock must reach beyond trite axioms. In this post-Madoff world, where scam artists are smarter and their schemes harder to spot, church leaders must adopt a pro-active, 21st century approach to protecting their church.

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Speak the name of Peter Steinke and what comes to mind immediately is his respected position in church life as a congregational systems consultant who has been a pastor, educator and therapist for clergy. His interest and work have been in helping congregations become healthy and vital. In 2006, he published the book How Your Church Family Works: Understanding Congregations as Emotional Systems (Alban Institute) and earlier Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach.

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Carva White possessed an unheavenly urge to convert his burned-up church’s ash to cash.

White was the music director at the Sunflower Missionary Baptist Church in Leavenworth, KS. He convinced the head pastor to help hatch a devilish plot: torch the place, fool insurers into paying for repairs, then extract large bribes from contractors who would submit inflated bills for the work.

Pulpit-poisoning insurance schemes by unholy holy men and women such as White are rare. But ministering to insurance fraud does happen, leaving trails of betrayed parishioners, fleeced churches, stolen insurance money and ruined reputations.

Preachers appear to rarely defraud their insurers and worshipers. There’s no known data on the frequency or severity of insurance crimes ministered by ministers, but devilish insurance cons do happen.

Insurance schemes by ministers exact a large toll on congregations who are betrayed by spiritual leaders in a high position of trust. Worshippers’ spiritual and personal lives are disrupted. They’re forced to piece together a damaged congregation when a church burns or the minister suddenly leaves after being exposed as an unholy insurance crook. Sometimes worshippers or bystanders themselves are fleeced out of thousands of dollars. White’s first fire came up short. It caused $20,000 to $30,000 in damage, which wouldn’t soak enough bribe money from contractors, White quickly decided. So he told head pastor Marvin Clay that he’d reload his matches and ignite a bigger blaze to line their pockets with more cash.

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