Creflo Augustus Dollar, Jr. (born January 28, 1962 in College Park, Georgia) is a 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.
Biography
In 1984, Dollar received a Bachelor of Science degree in education from West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia.[citation needed] He also continued to receive a master's and doctorate degree in counseling. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Oral Roberts University in 1998.[citation needed] 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][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 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]
Controversy
Dollar is known for his controversial teachings of Prosperity theology.[7] He has been criticized for his lavish lifestyle as he owns two Rolls-Royces, a private jet, a million dollar home in Atlanta, and a 2.5 million dollar home in Manhattan.[8] Dollar has refused to disclose his salary and Creflo Dollar Ministries received a grade of "F" for financial transparency by the MinistryWatch organization.[9][10]
Senate investigation
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.[11]
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. [12]
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