The Family Christian Center on 45th Avenue in Munster.
MUNSTER | While the Family Christian Center was spending millions of dollars annually on leadership compensation, travel, meals and jet fuel, it was falling behind on its mortgage payments and racking up a list of past-due bills, a Times investigation found.
Five properties owned by the megachurch were sold last year in the Lake County treasurer's tax sale because of unpaid property taxes, though Family Christian Center later reclaimed four of them, county records show.
Family Christian Center's financial situation grew so precarious, it agreed to turn all its money and financial records over to a court-appointed administrator in 2012.
"When I saw some of the expenditures being made in this church when there was a mortgage not being paid, I was astounded," Lake Superior Court Judge Diane Kavadias Schneider told attorneys during a Dec. 4 hearing relating to a California-based credit union's attempt to foreclose on the church.
At the time the mortgage foreclosure case started in 2011, Family Christian Center had been bringing in about $10 million per year and had a $98,000 monthly mortgage payment, a transcript of the Dec. 4, 2012, hearing states.
