Wide Awake or Why Wake?

Is Anyone Awake at "Awaken?"

Erwin McManus was the featured guest on yesterday's broadcast of TBN's "Praise the Lord" (July 10, 2008.) http://www.tbn.org/index.php/2/37.html During the broadcast, McManus promoted his newest book, "Wide Awake: The Future is Waiting Within You." Included with the book is a short video preview of the films produced by Erwin McManus' (non-profit?) organization "Awaken."

Most of what Erwin McManus had to say during his interview was the same old, same old but then something odd caught my attention.

The interview turned to the subject of "What if God doesn't come through the way we thought he would?" Erwin McManus goes on to talk about how he loves living with what he calls the "big if", the uncertainty and mystery surrounding what God does. At this point (roughly at 36:58 into the broadcast) McManus mentions that while on a recent trip to Europe, he called his wife Kim and told her,

"Honey, the things we're trying to do, if they fail, we're going to go bankrupt, we're going to lose everything."

Kim replied, "Then why did you do it?"

He answered that he felt he "had to."

His wife responded by saying, "Alright then, let's just keep going forward together."

That brief admission from Erwin McManus struck me as being more than a little bit strange so I began to wonder if there had been any recent changes with the registered California corporation "Awaken" which holds the copyright for the films McManus mentioned in his PTL interview.

I went back to the California Business Portal, http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/list.html, and typed in "Awaken" in the search field.

I was not surprised to discover that the corporation called "Awaken"created in 2005 which lists Erwin McManus' publicist Sealy M. Yates as the Agent for Service of Process is now under a suspended status.

This fits in with the disturbing pattern of corporations created by Erwin McManus or people acting on his behalf:

Awaken Center for Creativity

Created 2002

Status: Suspended

Awaken International

Created 2003

Status: Suspended

Awaken

Created 2005

Status: Suspended

What does suspended mean?

According to the California Business Portal, suspended means:

"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."

So what about the last of the "Awakens", Awaken Humanity?

The California registered corporation, Awaken Humanity was created in the summer of 2007 and list Eric Bryant as it's Agent for Service of Process. Eric Bryant is the executive pastor of Erwin McManus's church Mosaic, L.A. As of today's date, July 11, 2008, Awaken Humanity is still listed as "active." The nature of the business relationship between Awaken Humanity and Mosaic remains unclear since the name "Awaken Humanity" is still being used by Mosaic to describe it's own programs.

I have an email from Eric Bryant in which he assured me that Awaken Humanity would be seeking it's own tax exempt, 501c3 status from the IRS in the summer of 2007. Eric Bryant has not responded to my last email nor acknowledged my valid request for documentation on his "non-profit" organization Awaken Humanity.

Today I looked for but could not find "Awaken Humanity" in my search of the IRS Publication 78 listing of charities and non-profits. http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=96136,00.html

Eric Bryant keeps a blog of his own, http://www.ericbryant.org/, and this is an excerpt from his entry on July 8th, 2008 entitled: Want to Talk Next Week?

I would love to connect with you personally next Tuesday, July 15th at 10am (Pacific Standard Time) in our next Teleseminar.

The topic: Catalyzing Community (starting a small group, a ministry, a non-profit, or even a church). We’ll also interact and I’ll try to answer as many of your questions as I can.

Eric Bryant then goes on to tell his readers how they can "register" to participate in this discussion next week.

Given the above track record for "Awaken", I have no doubts that Eric and his crew are qualified to speak on the topic of "starting a small group, a ministry, a non-profit, or even a church."

The jury is still out on whether they can successfully continue a "non-profit."

Yvonne W.