Andy Wood, the incoming pastor of Saddleback Church, has a predatory pattern of trying to acquire multi-million-dollar properties from small, aging congregations, leaders of a California Baptist association say.
Mike Stewart of the Great Commission Association of Southern Baptists Churches (GCA) told The Roys Report (TRR) that Wood and Echo Church plotted in 2013 to acquire a $10- to $12-million building from an elderly congregation in Campbell, California. Echo Church is the multi-site megachurch in San Jose that Wood co-founded in 2008.
Stewart said the plan by Wood and Echo was foiled when upset congregants contacted Stewart about the proposed “partnership strategy,” and GCA blocked the deal. But the tactics Wood used were “unethical” and calculated to exclude GCA, Stewart told TRR.
“It was obvious to me that there was a coordinated plan,” Stewart said. “. . . And that quickly formed in order to move from being without a pastor to becoming an Echo campus as soon…
