By Michael Hernandez
St. LOUIS—”We have no intention of calling their loan. In fact, we have extended them more credit (as of Friday),” said Cass Commercial Bank President Dwight Erdbruegger to the Citizens Journal Monday morning after hearing that Godspeak Calvary Pastor Rob McCoy had said Sunday, “Churches should no longer do business or take out loans with Cass Bank.”
(Update: Cass Commercial Bank President Dwight Erdbruegger spoke to Godspeak Calvary Pastor Rob McCoy this morning to let him know that the Calvary Chapel San Jose loan interest rate has been reduced and the loan amount increased.)
Santa Clara County is attempting to place fines which have amounted to $1.7 million dollars as a lien upon the Calvary Chapel San Jose church mortgage with Cass Commercial Bank for its 18,000 square foot sanctuary building that seats 1,800 people.
“We are not demanding a payment and we are okay if a lien is placed on the property as long as the church is contesting fines in good faith,” said Erdbruegger. “Pressure has come upon us from Santa Clara County as we have received multiple letters from them stating that our position is in jeopardy because of these fines.
“We did a bit of legal research to see if a super priority lien can be placed on the property. We have hired a California attorney to look into this,” said the St. Louis-based lender which operates a $400 million church lending division and has assets of $1.1 billion. “We have a 25-year relationship with the Calvary Movement,” said Erdbruegger with “dozens of loans” to Calvary Chapels.
“We have made mistakes by not being personal and not sitting down (with the McClures’ in San Jose). We didn’t handle this well. At the end of the day, our heart is with San Jose. We will do what we need to do, to provide support through this process, including the extending of credit, through appeals to remove the fines,” said Erdbruegger, who has been Cass Commercial Bank president since July, 2018.
Cass Commercial Bank is the commercial banking subsidiary of Cass Information Systems (NASDAQ: CASS), a national provider of transportation energy, telecom and waste invoice payment and information services. Cass Information Systems in 2019 acquired Gyve On-Line Generosity Platform, a digital charitable-giving system that enables religious and nonprofit organizations to provide donors with six ways to give. The bank was founded in 1906 and has four divisions:
- Lending to nonprofit and religious organizations (one-half its business) typically to build churches and temples and to buy real estate;
- Commercial and industrial lending to St. Louis businesses (especially for real estate and manufacturing needs);
- Franchise restaurant lending (principally for McDonald’s); and
- Equipment financing.
On Thursday (Jan. 28), Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Peter Kirwan ruled that Calvary Chapel San Jose Pastor Mike McClure and Youth Pastor Carson Atherley were in contempt of court but suspended new personal fees they were facing provided a Social Distancing Plan would be submitted to the county by Feb. 19.
Hundreds of Christians gathered in the rain outside the Santa Clara County Courthouse to support Calvary Chapel San Jose including 26 pastors, 20 of them from Southern California (including Godspeak Calvary Co-Pastors Rob McCoy and Rick Brown).
(Editor’s Note: To see last week’s Citizens Journal story you can go to this link:
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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Hi Mr Hernandez, I just wondered if you’ve been able to follow up on this story. The bank actually threatened to forclose if they did not pay $1 million dollars. Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills paid the bank and gave Cal San Jose a new interest free loan
Excellent that he is supporting the church. The mindless fascists of SC County are truly the “Deplorables” here.