Exploiting Widows—The Restored Church of God Offloads $3.1 Million Debt Onto Its Members
Updated May 3, 2025 | by Marc Cebrian
Update May 3, 2025: RCG sold three more houses valued at $703,000 to members, bringing the total to thirteen properties. One of the new buyers is also a widow.
There are two remaining external Campus properties but they are not viable options for new buyers. No one attending The Restored Church of God can afford the $500k Eyesore, and the Hartman Road property hosts the horse barn, pasture, and easement.
Pastor General David C. Pack gleefully declared during “The Greatest Untold Story! (Part 568)” on April 5, 2025, that the Restored Church of God is officially out of debt with extra funds in the bank. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization turned a profit while perpetually teaching that the imminent return of Jesus Christ was only days away.
Part 568 – April 5, 2025
@ 00:23 I wanted just to tell everybody, and I trying to remember if it was April 1st or 2nd, but the debt is gone. Completely gone, and income is still pouring in. And not only that, we're growing faster, literally, every week than the week before.@ 01:04 Again, in not just no debt, but a lot left over. I couldn’t have dreamed. …The number was not huge that we needed, but it was large.
In addition to public donations by non-member “co-workers,” approximately 1,250 adult members globally pay first tithe, excess second tithe, tithe of tithe, third tithe, Holy Day offerings, free-will offerings, fundraisers, and the “sell all” doctrine known as Common, The Restored Church of God now enjoys a debt-free 104-acre Headquarters Campus in Wadsworth, Ohio.
During “The Greatest Untold Story! (Part 536)” on September 18, 2024, David C. Pack pressured the entire church to pay Common before Jesus Christ was to return 15 days later.
Part 536 – September 18, 2024
@ 44:50 The best you can do if you sell all the best you can do is save yourself. You can no longer benefit God’s work. It’s too late. You can benefit yourself, and whatever God says about you shoulda done it sooner, and He will judge you for that.@ 45:34 I hate to put it that way, but I’m here trying to save your life. There’s no way we’re going to benefit.
@ 1:08:55 If you won’t obey this great test of faith, you simply do not believe the Kingdom of God is coming.
Founded in May 1999, The Restored Church of God publicly claims it preaches the Gospel of the Kingdom of God through a “vast array” of free literature and videos and holds a unique, true understanding of the doctrines of the Bible. However, privately, David C. Pack has set 125 failed dates for the return of Jesus Christ since August 2013.
The Restored Church of God’s Headquarters Campus is out of debt. How did they do it?
The Restored Church of God
sold thirteen Campus houses
worth $3.1 million
to Headquarters members
to offload its debt.
Two of those members are widows.
The Restored Church of God’s debt relief was carefully coordinated by David C. Pack and negotiated behind the scenes.
While preaching that the Kingdom of God would arrive within days and claiming that neither he nor the church would benefit from the money, David C. Pack quietly approached select members in the Headquarters congregation from early 2024 through April 2025 and asked them to buy houses adjacent to the Campus worth $3.1 million along Akron Road and Hartman Road.
David C. Pack got out of debt by putting two widows into debt.
2 Peter 2:3
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.
The great irony of this financial arrangement is that David C. Pack teaches that only faithless members have not yet paid their Common. Fortunately for him, twenty-three faithless people at Headquarters could afford to buy a Campus property.
This information is publicly available on the Medina County Auditor’s website. Under the Advanced tab, type in the Seller's Name field: "restored church" to find the property records.
March 20, 2024 – 852 Akron Road – Pablo Ruiz
RCG Bought 5/22/20: $105,000
RCG Sold: $200,000 [+$95,000]
April 3, 2024 – 754 Akron Road – Justin Frazier
RCG Bought 5/16/18: $252,000
RCG Sold: $325,000 [+$73,000]
April 24, 2024 – 8421 Hartman Road – Raymond & Kirsten Garb
RCG Bought 8/4/17: $85,000
RCG Sold: $154,700 [+$69,700]
March 11, 2025 – 303 Akron Road – [Widow]
RCG Bought 1/18/12: $100,000
RCG Sold: $199,000 [+$99,000]
March 27, 2025 – 383 Akron Road – Garrick & Larissa Oxley
RCG Bought 1/20/15: $140,000
RCG Sold: $222,000 [+$82,000]
April 2, 2025 – 293 Akron Road – James & Sarah Habboush
RCG Bought 7/18/12: $220,000
RCG Sold: $240,000 [+$20,000]
April 2, 2025 – 331 Akron Road – Samuel & Angela Baxter
RCG Bought 7/31/15: $145,000
RCG Sold: $253,500 [+$108,500]
April 2, 2025 – 321 Akron Road – Charlie & Brandy Sarracco
RCG Bought 7/21/15: $156,500
RCG Sold: $253,000 [+$96,500]
April 3, 2025 – 313 Akron Road – Frank & Jody Lydick
RCG Bought 12/3/15: $220,000
RCG Sold: $330,000 [+$110,000]
April 25, 2025 – 361 Akron Road – Samuel & Nicole Maiden
RCG Bought 9/5/14: $132,000
RCG Sold: $235,000 [+$103,000]
May 1, 2025 – 351 Akron Road – Chauntel & Calah Houk
RCG Bought 2/27/18: $150,400
RCG Sold: $220,000 [+$69,600]
May 1, 2025 – 369 Akron Road – [Another Widow]
RCG Bought 8/10/15: $135,000
RCG Sold: $245,000 [+$110,000]
May 2, 2025 – 341 Akron Road – Larry & Christine McElroy and Bradford Schleifer
RCG Bought 8/24/15: $150,000
RCG Sold: $238,000 [+$88,000]
RCG Sold Properties
to Members for $3,115,200
Sales Profits: $1,124,300
David C. Pack gained $209,000
from two widows.
RCG’s Debt Cycle Summary
1–Members gave David C. Pack their money to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
2–David C. Pack used the members’ money to secure bank loans to buy houses, upgrade, and maintain them.
3–David C. Pack asked members to move into those houses and charged them rent. Members paid rent to RCG on houses that were bought with their money.
4–David C. Pack asked members to buy the houses he bought with their money after they had been paying rent on them.
5–The Restored Church of God escaped corporate debt by putting members into debt while profiting from the increased home values.
6–David C. Pack has taught 125 failed dates, and The Kingdom of God has not arrived, but members continue to pay RCG tithes, offerings, and Common.
A Tale of Two Exploited Widows
Directly motivated by David C. Pack’s greed, there are heartbreaking stories in RCG’s history about the treatment of widows. Their identities will remain anonymous, but their cautionary tales are a warning for others.
Matthew 23:14
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore you shall receive the greater damnation.
Zechariah 7:10
And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor…
Exodus 22:22-24
You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto Me, I will surely hear their cry; And My wrath shall wax hot…
God has a special affection for widows. Pastor General David C. Pack does not.
David C. Pack built his religious empire using other people’s money and said behind closed doors, “You never use your own money to build a business. Use other people’s money.” This is how The Restored Church of God’s Campus was financed.
Widow #1
In March 2025, Widow #1 paid $199,000 for a house connected to the Headquarters Campus to help The Restored Church of God get out of debt. But this is not the first time she has been asked for thousands of dollars by David C. Pack.
She received an inheritance after her mother died. Her husband was a deacon, and they had assets, including a nice trailer on 1.5 acres. Her husband was diagnosed with bladder cancer, but he refused treatment so he could “walk in faith.”
Complications from the untreated cancer caused a blockage in his urinary tract. He became debilitated when he suffered a stroke from a blood clot. She was her husband’s caretaker until he died.
With direction from David C. Pack, agents of The Restored Church of God pressured Widow #1 to pay Common to The Restored Church of God. She pledged her funds, but moving assets through probate and real estate banking entities takes time. The Pastor General has a poor understanding of how long financial matters take to execute, even with willing donors. Multiple sources confirm that David C. Pack often expresses frustration that receiving funds “takes too long” and has accused members of stalling.
David C. Pack told the minister involved, “She’s procrastinating. Get that money.” The former employee also noted, “Pack lusts after money. He kept telling me, Get that money. Get that money.”
They got her money from the real estate sale and inheritance from her mother. She is now a Headquarters employee who purchased a $199,000 home so David C. Pack can ride his horse in peace, knowing the Campus is debt-free because of the generosity of a widow.
But she is not the only one with a story worth telling.
Widow #2
Widow #2 once enjoyed a house by a lake with her two children and her husband, an insurance broker. After he died suddenly, she was left with over $900,000 in a life insurance policy payout. Her husband planned to ensure she and their children would be cared for after he was gone.
Then, David C. Pack sat her down alongside two other ministers and pressured her to give it all to the church. Because she was a faithful woman who believed RCG was “the one, true church” and David C. Pack was an apostle, she was willing to give “until it hurt.”
The scheme that David C. Pack pitched was for her to think of giving all her money as an investment. Her spiritual reward would be in the Kingdom of God, but since he wanted to make sure “she was taken care of,” RCG would grant her permanent third tithe assistance each month of around $2,000. That was half the monthly budget for all third tithe assistance in the church.
One of those ministers privately urged her to keep a portion large enough to protect herself from a rainy day, pay for future healthcare, and have the ability to afford a small home. She would have gladly given most of it if he had not warned her.
She sold her original home, moved, and bought another one in Wadsworth. She gave RCG funds from the home sale and her husband’s insurance payout.
She has since remarried after giving her Common and remains a member of The Restored Church of God. She was not the second widow who bought a Campus home.
David C. Pack tells the brethren of The Restored Church of God who and what he is. If only they had eyes to see and ears to hear what their Pastor General said to the church in 2024 when he urged them to send in their Common before Jesus Christ returned on Trumpets.
Part 536 – September 18, 2024
@ 32:17 And and and brethren, it should be pretty clear, there’s no way I am doing this so the church can benefit from it unless I am an unbeliever and do not believe the Kingdom is coming this fall. So, there’s no way I could be doing this. It's impossible, unless I am a grand liar, that I could be saying, “I don't want your money.” I don't get your money. I don’t get a pay raise.
James 1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
We are commanded to visit a widow in her affliction, not cause it.
Psalm 146:9
The LORD preserves the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked He turns upside down.
David C. Pack does not relieve the widow but exploits her.
Isaiah 10:1-2
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
Common is an unrighteous decree. Widows are prey for David C. Pack while he says, “Get that money.”
Malachi 3:5
And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, says the LORD of hosts.
David C. Pack oppresses the widow without fearing God.
The Headquarters hirelings in The Restored Church of God are no less guilty as they silently stand by, complicit in a system of spiritual and financial exploitation.
Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Bradford Schleifer, Carl Houk, Edward Winkfield, Jaco Viljoen, Frank Lydick, Salasi Jezhi, James Habboush, Andrew Holcombe, Raymond Garb, and that notable coward, Ryan Denee, refuse to plead for the widows.
Ezekiel 22:27-29
Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus says the Lord GOD, when the LORD has not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy…
Bradford Schleifer, Carl Houk, Edward Winkfield, Jaco Viljoen, Frank Lydick, Salasi Jezhi, James Habboush, Andrew Holcombe, Raymond Garb, and that notable coward, Ryan Denee, are ravening wolves supporting dishonest gain.
These enablers willfully disregard the blasphemy, hypocrisy, and lies of their human idol so they can maintain their positions of power in a spiritually corrupt yet debt-free organization.
David C. Pack’s “The Greatest Untold Debt Story!” is far from over. This is Part 1.
