Creflo Dollar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Creflo Dollar
Born	Creflo Dollar January 28, 1962 (1962-01-28) (age 47) United States
Residence	College Park, Georgia
Occupation	Evangelist
Spouse(s)	Taffi Dollar
Website www.worldchangers.org

This biographical article is written like a résumé. Please help improve it by revising it to be neutral and encyclopedic. (December 2007)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2007) (Find sources: Creflo Dollar – news, books, scholar)

Creflo Augustus Dollar, Jr. (born January 28, 1962 in College Park, Georgia) is a televangelist, Word of Faith teacher, pastor, and the founder of the non-denominational World Changers Church International based in unincorporated Fulton County, Georgia,^[1] Creflo Dollar Ministerial Association (formerly called International Covenant Ministries), Creflo Dollar Ministries, and Arrow Records.^{[citation needed]} Each of these enterprises is overseen by Dollar and his wife, Taffi Dollar.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Controversy 3 Senate investigation 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Biography

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009)

In 1984, Dollar received a Bachelor of Science degree in education from West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia.^{[citation needed]} He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Oral Roberts University in 1998.^{[citation needed]} He calls himself "Dr. Creflo Dollar," but his doctoral degree is merely honorary. Dollar started his ministry in 1986 with eight people^{[citation needed]} and in 2007 was said to have a congregation of 30,000 with $69 million in revenue (gross cash collections) for 2006.^[2]

Dollar's Changing Your World television program is aired both in the United States and internationally.^[3] In 2004, a satellite church was started in New York which has a membership of over 7,000.^[4]

Dollar is the publisher of CHANGE magazine, a quarterly international publication with nearly 100,000 subscribers and The Max, a bimonthly resource newsletter for ministers and ministry leaders.^{[citation needed]}

A popular conference speaker and best-selling author^[4], Dollar is known for espousing his own method of approaching the Bible for spiritual and financial fulfillment.^{[5][citation needed][6]}

Dollar is the founder and senior pastor of World Changers Church International (WCCI) in College Park, Georgia, which has nearly 30,000 members, and World Changers Church-New York which hosts over 7,000 each week.^{[citation needed]}

Dollar claims to have received the vision for World Changers Ministries Christian Center in 1986.^{[citation needed]} He reputedly held the church's first worship service in the cafeteria of Kathleen Mitchell Elementary School in College Park, Georgia, with only eight people in attendance, and successfully soliciting over $100 in contributions from those present. Over the years the ministry is said to have grown rapidly and was renamed World Changers Church International. The congregation moved from the cafeteria to a modest-sized chapel, adding a weekly radio broadcast and four services each Sunday. On December 24, 1995, WCCI moved into its present location, the 8,500-seat sanctuary known as the World Dome. At a cost of nearly $18 million, it is claimed^[who?] the World Dome was built without any bank financing.^{[citation needed]}

Dollar and his wife, Taffi, have five children and live in Atlanta.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Controversy

Dollar is known for his controversial teachings of Prosperity theology.^[7]

He was a member of the Oral Roberts University Board of Regents and, along with four other board members, is named in a lawsuit against the university alleging wrongful termination, among other claims.^[8][9]

[edit] Senate investigation

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009)

On 6 November 2007, United States Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa announced an investigation of several ministries by the United States Senate Committee on Finance. Grassley asked for financial information (Grassley's letter) to the committee to determine whether Dollar made any personal profit from financial donations and requested that Dollar's ministry make the information available by December 6, 2007. The investigation also asked for information from five other televangelists: Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Eddie L. Long, Joyce Meyer, and Paula White.^{[citation needed]}

On Mar 16, 2009, Grassley, now only an individual Senator on the committee, stated "My staff and I continue to review the information we’ve received from the ministries that cooperated, and we continue to weigh our options for the ministries that have not cooperated," noting that two of the ministries gave full financial disclosure. Dollar has contested the probe, arguing that the proper governmental entity to examine religious groups is the IRS, not the Committee on Finance. ^[10]

[edit] See also

Glossolalia
Pentecostalism
Charismatics
Holiness
Christianity
Full Gospel
Kenneth Copeland
Faith
Jesus Christ

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Video Stream of Creflo Dollar on November 30, 2007 with remarks to the Senate inquiry
• Official Biography
• Creflo Dollar Ministries homepage
• World Changers Church International homepage
• World Changers Church-New York homepage
• Creflo Dollar Sermons Delivered at Kenneth Copeland Believers Conventions
• National Public Radio story
• Copy of Senator Grassley's letter to Creflo Dollar