Question:
Critics of Erwin McManus have raised some serious questions regarding the financial integrity of his various ministries but do these allegations have any basis in reality or are they simply the accusations of a few disgruntled ex-members?
A Revisionist History of the Church on Brady presented discrepancies in the comments made by McManus concerning “the church is not a building” and the behind-the-scenes efforts of his staff to secure real estate with funds raised during the Believe the Impossible campaign. In March of 2007, it was revealed in an email by Eric Bryant, a Navigator at Mosaic, to a former member of Mosaic that the monies raised during this fundraising campaign had been spent. Questions remain concerning whether these funds were spent in a manner consistent with the intent of the original donors.
During my research for A Revisionist History of The Church on Brady, I visited a lot of websites featuring biographies of Erwin McManus in search of any “Brady”-related information. It was while doing this research that I came across the names of two McManus-related organizations that I had never heard of before. I decided to look into these a little further.
Erwin McManus and Global Impact
What is Global Impact?
At the Bethel Seminary website I found this interesting sidebar on Erwin McManus:
Erwin McManusLead pastor of Mosaic and president of Global Impac
http://www.bethel.edu/alumni/HeartMind/vol14no3/drummer/index.html
I also found this at CR Online, January 2007:
12. ERWIN MCMANUS
MOSAIC
Los Angeles, Calif.
McManus serves as cultural architect of Mosaic in Los Angeles, Calif, which has emerged as a spiritual reference point for the future church. As founder of Global Impact, McManus is recognized as a national and international speaker engaging such issues as globalization, leadership, cultural transformation, post-modernism and church growth. He partners with Bethel Seminary as a distinguished lecturer and futurist and is also a contributing editor for Leadership Journal.
http://www.thechurchreport.com/mag_article.php?mid=875&mname=January
According to the above, Erwin McManus is both founder and president of “Global Impact.”
I did a Google search for “Global Impact” or “Global Impac” and looked for any items dealing with globalization, leadership, cultural transformation, post-modernism and church growth. There were numerous entries for organizations using the words “global impact” in their names but I felt these three fit the above description best:
Global Impact, President Renee Acosta. http://www.charity.org/site/c.gtJUJfMQIqE/b.2401643/k.BDB9/Home.htm. This charity does not mention Erwin McManus anywhere on its website.
Global Impact Ministries http://www.globalimpactinc.org/. McManus is not mentioned at this site.
Global Impact http://www.frontline.to/pages/page.asp?page_id=8325. This is a ministry of McLean Bible Church and does not mention Erwin McManus.
I did not find any items that matched Erwin McManus directly to an organization called “Global Impact” on Google, MSN or AltaVista search engines.
A search of the IRS non-profits database http://apps.irs.gov/app/pub78 revealed 15 names:
Global Impact, Alexandria, VA, USA
Global Impact,Prescott Vly, AZ, USA
Global Impact Foundation, (Until December 2006), S. Pasadena, CA, USA
Global Impact Group Inc., Denver, CO, USA
Global Impact Group Inc.Freemont, CA, USA
Global Impact Inc.,Pmhuilie, AL, USA
Global Impact Inc., San Jose, CA, USA
Global Impact Inc., Springfield, MO, USA
Global Impact Ministries, Springfield, MO, USA
Global Impact Ministries & Outreach Assoc., Bvron,IL,USA
Global Impact Ministries Inc., Alexandria, LA, USA
Global Impact Ministries Inc., North Judson, IN, USA
Global Impact Ministries Inc., Tucson, AZ, USA
Global Impact Ministries International Inc. (Until December 2009), Lockport, NY,USA
Global Impact Resources Incorporated, Greenville, NC, USA
I have as yet been unable to match McManus to any of the above names.
A search through the California Business Portal page for “Global Impact” (http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/list.html) produced nine names. Those marked with an asterisk * present possible candidates for the Global Impact associated with Erwin McManus:
Citigroup Global Impact Funding Trust, Inc. (This is Citigroup Bank.)
*Global Impact Alliance, Inc. (Status suspended.)
Global Impact Corporation (Corporation has been dissolved.)
*Global Impact Foundation Inc. (Status suspended)
*Global Impact Group, Inc.
Global Impact Ministries, Inc. (Operated by Bret and Teresa Wade)
*Global Impact Partners, Inc.
Global Impact which will do business in California as Global Impact International Charities, Inc. (This is the charity that lists Renee Acosta as President.)
*Global Impact, Inc. (Status suspended)
I have not yet been able to connect Erwin McManus with any of the above; however, it is possible that a member of his staff is acting as the Agent for Service of Process.
I am still looking for any information regarding Global Impact and Erwin McManus.
Erwin McManus and Awaken
I first became aware of what looked like a Para church organization called “Awaken.” http://awaken.org/ when I visited the official Mosaic website http://mosaic.org/.
The site is rather vague about what type of “organization” is behind Awaken but it seemed to be operating as a non-profit.
I found this March 2006 interview with Erwin McManus at CR Online, http://www.thecronline.com/mag_article.php?mid=91&mname=March
5 Good Minutes with Erwin McManus: Erwin McManus is lead pastor and “cultural architect” of Mosaic.
[Q:] Tell us about Awaken - the collaboration you have going on there and where you're going with it.
[A:] Well, when I came to L.A., I didn't come to be a pastor. I already had another organization that focused on identifying and developing leaders for a more cosmopolitan, post-western world; and so Awaken is really the next phase of that. Its focus is, (in) a general sense, unleashing human creativity. It's the integration of spirituality and creativity; and so we work in partnership with the church. If Mosaic is the Body of Christ R & D department, Awaken is Mosaic's R & D department. And we just really focus on the organic type of leadership, focusing on ethos and how to create an entrepreneurial, innovative, inventive creative movement.
What exactly is Awaken?
According to the Awaken website:
Awaken is a collaboration between a team of dreamers and innovators who specialize in the field of developing and unleashing personal and organizational creativity. Awaken is committed to creating environments that expand imagination and unleash creativity. Convinced that the world is changed by dreamers and visionaries, Awaken serves humanity through its commitment to maximize the creative potential in every individual and organization. Awaken emerges out of the unique ministry of Mosaic and reflects Mosaic’s commitment to creativity, uniqueness, innovation and diversity.
Searching the site for further information on this “team” of dreamers and innovators revealed no names. There is no information given regarding a governing board of directors, staff members or even an actual office for Awaken.org. The only names mentioned are those of the people who taught at the various conferences.
Clicking on the “contact us” link sends the reader to a page with two email addresses:
resources@awaken.org where one can order “resources” (books, tapes, music, etc.)
webmaster@awaken.org to ask questions regarding the website or downloads
There is also an email form for questions not covered under the two above. Again there is no office address given or named administrator.
At the top of the homepage for Awaken is a sitemap with five dropdown menu options. The first of each of the drop down choices is a “catchy” explanation for its name followed by a list of contents under that option.
Movement – Gives a list of Mosaic’s conferences: The Origins Project, Ethos NYC, Yelo.
Imagination – Awaken Films, Wide Awake Records, Urban Poets
Humanity – This appears to be a fund raising appeal to complete a film project called Awaken Humanity. Another appeal for funds is made for Awaken Los Angeles, a set of social programs targeting the urban poor.
Village – International Mentoring Network (link is to a promotional website), IMPAC Services. (No explanation is given for this off-site link to a “capital stewardship consulting” company. It is a mystery why it has been included here.)
Resources – This is a merchandizing section for Erwin McManus’ books and other materials.
Aside from the above, there is no other information given regarding the organization of Awaken as a non-profit.
I did come across this disclaimer at the bottom of several pages:
© 2006 Awaken Humanity. All Rights Reserved. A portion of the proceeds from all sales goes to help Awaken Humanity.
This disclaimer is listed at the bottom of Ethos NYC, Awaken Films, Wide Awake Records, the Awaken Humanity page, and the resources main page.
At the Mosaic Alliance, “Connect to the Alliance,” webpage, http://www.mosaicalliance.com/connect.html, the following information is given on how to become a part of the “Mosaic Alliance.”
Level 1 Explorer (Free, no need to donate.)
Level 2 Adventurer (Requires a $200 donation.)
Level 3 Pioneer ($200 donation plus a commitment to invest 5% of the participating church’s annual budget in the Mosaic Alliance.)
Those who sign up at Levels 2 and 3 “…will earn the donor a 10% discount on resources purchased at http://awaken.org/resources.”
Remember, “A portion of the proceeds from all sales goes to help Awaken Humanity.”
This disclaimer gave me a second name to research, “Awaken Humanity.”
Is Awaken Humanity a recognized non-profit organization?
I did a search on the internet for any information regarding “Awaken Humanity” but the only other items I found were those referring back to the Mosaic website.
A search through the IRS charities and non-profits database, http://apps.irs.gov/app/pub78, produced no results for “Awaken Humanity.” Neither did a search for “Awaken.”
I then did a search of the California Business Portal (a page in the official website for California Secretary of State Debra Bowen), http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/list.html.
I searched for “Awaken” and received a list of organizations using that word as a part of their name. Among those listed (http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowList) were the following entries:
Corporation Name: Awaken Center for Creativity
Agent for Service of Process: Erwin McManns (sic)
Date Filed: 8/7/2002
Status: Suspended
[Note: the address given for “Erwin McManns” is that of the Church on Brady in East Los Angeles. Presumably, the misspelling is a typo]
Corporation Name: Awaken International
Agent for Service of Process: Erwin R McManus
Date Filed: 7/22/2003
Status: Suspended
There was no entry for “Awaken Humanity.”
These results were current as of April 4, 2007, and the California Business Portal page is updated weekly.
What does “suspended” mean?
This is the definition given at the California Business Portal page:
http://www.ss.ca.gov/business/corp/corp_help.htm#statinfo
Suspended:
The California corporation has lost all rights and powers for failure to meet statutory filing requirements of either the Secretary of State's office or the Franchise Tax Board.
Erwin McManus and Mosaic
Now that my curiosity had been aroused, I did a search of the California Business Portal for “Mosaic”: http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowList?QueryCorpName=Mosaic&startnumber=100
Corporation Name: Mosaic, L.A.
Agent for Service of Process: Eric Michael Bryant
Date Filed: 12/8/1944 (Date refers to the creation of the First Southern Baptist Church of East Los Angeles, Mosaic’s precursor)
Status: Suspended
Eric Bryant is a Navigator and elder for Mosaic. He is considered to be Erwin McManus’ right-hand man.
This result is also current as of April 4, 2007.
It is not clear what this “suspended” status means for Mosaic. Since the list is updated weekly it could be this is a simple matter of a missed deadline or some other minor problem.
Conclusions:
Global Impact
I have no conclusions regarding this organization at this time. I will continue to search for further information and update this page as it becomes available.
Awaken
I have one question regarding this organization:
What’s happening to the money?
When I started my search I was looking for additional information on the existence of Awaken. I’d had a small suspicion that this organization might have been dissolved and that its website had simply not yet been dismantled; however, if there really is no such entity as “Awaken Humanity,” then where is the “portion of the proceeds from all sales” going?
Mosaic
I am concerned by the information regarding Mosaic L.A. Given the fact that “tax time” is rapidly approaching I can’t help but wonder how this “suspended” status may affect the tax deductions of church members and other donors to Mosaic. Hopefully, any problems will be dealt with before they affect the members of the church.
After reviewing all this information I came to one general conclusion:
It looks as if the critics may have cause for concern after all.
According to the California Business Portal it is possible to request further information regarding the status of a corporation by mailing a Business Entities Records Order Form. There is a nominal fee for such a request
http://www.ss.ca.gov/business/pdf/be_ircform.pdf
This page will be updated as further information becomes available.
[A Note From Yvonne: I'm having trouble with the html code in my template, which is why the comments function is not working, and I've been unable to figure out what the problem is. I apologize for the inconvenience. I am accepting comments via email (my address is in my profile) which I will attempt to post as soon as the problems are fixed but in the meantime if you would like to leave a public comment you may do so at the Mosaic of Pain comments page. The address is in my links.]
UPDATE: April 10, 2007
Awaken Humanity now includes this address near the bottom of the page:
*All donations are tax deductible. Please make checks payable to “Awaken” and indicate “Awaken Humanity” on the memo line and send to the Awaken offices at:
Awaken1443 E. Washington Blvd. #659Pasadena, CA 91104-2650
*Note this is a mailing address and not an office address. Or, give online with the link below. Donations will be distributed according to the need of each area.
http://www.awaken.org/awaken-humanity
I have checked out this address and was able to find offices for several other non-related charities located in the same building but in different suites. I'm still looking for Awaken Humanity.
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I have discovered that 1443 E. Washington Blvd. in Pasadena, CA. is the address for The UPS Store; apparently #659 refers to a P.O.Box. This explains the "mailing address" part but why does the above statement from the Awaken website say donors can send their checks to the Awaken "office"?
