The alleged cult that in 2021 bought a Wildwood mansion from Nelly is now trying to buy a 284-acre property in Florissant where Boeing used to operate its Leadership Center.
According to an individual familiar with the Kingdom of God Global Church's business dealings, the organization is attempting to take out a $25 million loan in order to purchase the sprawling property, which until the fall of 2020 was used by Boeing for corporate retreats and training.
According to a brochure for the property on New Halls Ferry Road, the site contains dining and educational facilities, as well as conference rooms, classrooms and residential lodges.
Reached for comment, Joseph Busch, a preacher with the church whose name is on a loan application obtained by the RFT, said he would have to run the query by the church's executive team. We never heard back.
The Kingdom of God Global Church currently owns nine properties in west St. Louis County, including the Wildwood mansion and a five-bed, nine-bath mansion in Chesterfield valued at $2 million.
Past local properties owned by the church have drawn scrutiny from neighbors, who have complained of large numbers of people living on site. At one property in Chesterfield, which the church has since sold, neighbors said that dozens of people were living in the home and working on site in what appeared to be a call center operation.
The church is led by 50-year-old David E. Taylor, who has boasted of raising people from the dead.
While the church owns millions of dollars worth of property in the St. Louis area, the Boeing property would be on another level entirely. A brochure advertises buildings totaling 300,000 square feet, including 204 private rooms as well as a cafeteria and dining facilities similar to those on college campuses. The property is adorned by a chateau and a carriage house adjacent to tennis and basketball courts. The structures are surrounded by five miles of hiking trails.
The Boeing property is about a 30-minute drive north of St. Louis at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The land once belonged to the wealthy Desloge family, whose roots in Missouri go back more than two centuries.
Boeing acquired the property when it merged with fellow aerospace giant McDonnell Douglas in 1997. The Boeing Leadership Center opened in 1999.
One California facilities manager told an industry publication in 2000 that the campus was a "velvet prison," because while the amenities were top-notch, almost all the Boeing employees who went there for training and corporate retreats didn't have a car and there was nowhere else to walk to.
The source familiar with the church's business dealings spoke to the RFT the condition of anonymity for fear of drawing the group’s animus. He proved his bona fides by providing more than twenty of the church’s bank statements, a loan application, paperwork from the IRS granting the church tax-exempt status and a photocopy of Taylor's passport.
The source tells the RFT that he aided the church in their attempts to buy a hotel in Houston as well as with their attempts to secure financing for the Boeing property.
The loan application for the Houston hotel says that the church has almost $7 million in a savings account and has brought in $26 million in gross revenue over the past two years. Curiously, on the loan application for the hotel in Texas, the church listed their street address as 16805 New Halls Ferry Road, which is the address for the Boeing Leadership Center property.
The source says the church is still actively trying to buy the property, but that Boeing appears hesitant to sell to them.
The source says a loan applicant listing as a street address a property they don't own is odd, but on par with the unusual manner in which he has seen Taylor's church conduct business. Business representatives for the church were prone to long phone calls at irregular hours, the source says. He adds that representatives from the church often referred to "having to check with" a board of directors, but that he came to suspect this board doesn't actually exist.
In 2019, the News-Herald of Southgate, Michigan, published a lengthy investigation of Joshua Media Industries International, another organization run by Taylor. An individual who left the church told reporter Colin Maloney that at a property southwest of Detroit, numerous people spent hours a day cold-calling and messaging people on Facebook to solicit donations. Some of these people lived at the church, sleeping on mattresses or pieces of plywood, the former member said. Maloney reported that tax records show the church brings in millions of dollars a year in Michigan. The church also operates a "dream interpretation phone line."
Former members told Maloney the church is a “slave labor cult.” They described working long hours in the church’s call center, as well as witnessing physical assaults. They also said Taylor frequently had sexual relations with female church members.
The source familiar with the church’s business dealings tells the RFT that the church is increasingly having trouble securing financing for its purchases. He cites one instance in which it received preliminary approval from a lender that specializes in loans to faith-based organizations.
However, the source alleges that the lender scuttled the deal once they did their due diligence.
"As soon as they googled him, they saw all the negativity out there," the source says.
We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at [email protected]or follow on Twitter at @RyanWKrull.
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