Church evicted after not paying mortgage for almost two years

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The bank that foreclosed on a southeast Atlanta church said officials had tried to work with the Greater Works Assembly and its related organizations for almost two years before evicting them from the building Thursday.

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Vino Wong vwong@ajc.com Sonya Wright, left, and Peyton Jackson keep watch at the entrance of Greater Works Assembly along the 1800 block of Jonesboro Road protecting their property after Fulton County marshals served the church with an eviction notice.

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Vino Wong vwong@ajc.com Members of Greater Works Assembly spent Thursday night camped outside what used to be their church in southeast Atlanta.

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Vino Wong vwong@ajc.com Volunteers swept up the parking lot and stacked up piles of trash Thursday night.

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There were scattered piles of boxes, paper and what looked like a bag of clothes in the church parking lot Friday afternoon. Several men in pickup trucks drove around the lot and looked at the discarded items.

Former member Mamie Gilley pulled up and looked around.

She said she came to the church on Thursday night after she heard about the eviction to support former and current members.

“Tears came to my eyes,” said Gilley, of Atlanta. “I was so disappointed. The church used to have a lot of functions going on. They were just building up the kingdom.”

The facility will remain a church.

Andy Waters, vice president of Wisconsin-based Ridgestone Bank, told The Atlanta Journal Constitution there were two other churches interested in making the building on Jonesboro Road their home .

"This bank is committed that people of  [the] Lakeview [community] have a strong and viable organization," Waters said Friday.

The pastor at the church, Bishop Darrell Winston, said Greater Works Assembly had rented the building from Kiamsha Community Development Corp. He conceded that he was chairman of the board of that entity, which no longer exists.

Waters said Winston and his wife are also listed as officers for another organization named on the loan documents -- Kiamsha House Ministries -- as well as on state documents for Greater Works Assembly and seven other organizations affiliated with the church.

"I've been making loans to non-profits ... 17 years and occasionally you run into situations that aren't what they appear to be," Waters said.

Winston said Kiamsha originally bought the property with plans to develop it but that plan dried up when the economy crashed.

"We had some devlopers at the table ready to  develop the property," Winston said.

He said the groups wanted to reduce its payments to the bank.

Winston said the organization could not afford the $11,000 a month note, considering that similar properties in the area were leasing for $1,500-$2,000 a month.

Winston said the organization offered to resolve the debt for $900,000 but the bank wanted $1.5 million.  "They wanted their full note. They  did not want a cram down or short sale," Winston said. "They didn’t want to deal with us."

Fulton County marshals evicted the 300-member church from the building on Jonesboro Road in southeast Atlanta on Thursday, moving almost all the contents into the parking lot.

"It caught us off guard," Winston said.

"We tried to enter into a rental agreement with them a year ago and they modified the lease and sent us a check and the check ... bounced," Waters said. I contacted the church about the alterations to the lease and the bounced check. They didn’t get back to us. They had free use of the building for two years.

"We're currently talking with a local church interested in leasing the property on a short-term basis and another church interested in buying the building," Waters said. We're really, truly sorry Bishop Winston was not able to come up with a viable plan for his many organizations."