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Bank Dismisses Foreclosure on James MacDonald’s Estate After Settlement with Harvest

By Julie Roys
James MacDonald's million-dollar house in Elgin, IL.
James MacDonald's estate in Elgin, IL.

Chicago-area Republic Bank has stopped foreclosure proceedings against disgraced celebrity preacher, James MacDonald, and reinstated MacDonald’s mortgage on his $1.5 million Elgin estate.

The dismissal filed today with the Kane County, Illinois, court comes less than a month after MacDonald settled his arbitration case with Harvest Bible Chapel and may have received a large payout.

Though Harvest had promised to communicate about its arbitration with MacDonald and not keep the “matter unnecessarily private,” the church and MacDonald agreed to a Protective Order, making details of the August 14 settlement confidential. As a result, it is not known how much money MacDonald received in the settlement. 

In July, when Republic began foreclosure proceedings, MacDonald owed nearly $948,000 on the  5.5-bathroom, five-bedroom home that sits on 10 acres. He owed $925,902.96 on the loan, $20,669.34 in unpaid interest, and $974.04 in late charges.

MacDonald also owed $47,000 in overdue taxes and had an upcoming September tax bill for nearly $16,000.

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Harvest Bible Chapel fired MacDonald in February 2019 for “engaging in conduct … contrary and harmful to the best interests of the church.” In November 2019, the church formally disqualified MacDonald from public ministry. The church also conducted an audit and financial review, which concluded that MacDonald had misused millions in church funds.

According to Harvest, MacDonald’s arbitration claim against the church primarily involved MacDonald’s termination and ownership of his former broadcast ministry, Walk in the Word.

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16 Responses

  1. Nothing surprising here. Well connected creeps like JMac always get to slither past their responsibilities somehow especially legal and financial. And as for HBC leadership being “transparent” to their congregation about the arbitration process, nothing surprising there either. They have no guts to make the right and hard decisions primarily because they are still protecting those that aided him in his lies and thievery which means, of course, they are still covering their own butts. Harvest BIBLE Church?? I don’t think so.

    1. HBC= Harvest Business Center …..the reason the leadership at Harvest isn’t going to be transparent about the big pay off to Jmac is because it would be bad for business, and Harvest is a business not The Chuch.

  2. The 3 marks of a faithful church is the right preaching of the Gospel,the right maintaining of the sacrements and church discipline. The leadership of the Harvest organization did non of these as they were men trained and “in the pocket” of JMac. They have again revealed that they are not men of integrity but spiritual wolves and hirelings. How can anyone justify paying their pastor over $1MM/year and living like a king while the pastor of their ‘sister’ churches in Romania live on less than $10,000/year? These men in leadership just have no conscious.Perhaps those left in that cult will finally see the light and go somewhere where the Spirit is working.

  3. I just got this story on my email. Thanks Julie. If I were to remove words from this article like “church”, “ministry”, etc, and replace them with other “contemporary” “business people”, it would qualify as another deal within the Clinton Crime Syndicate…..er….The Clinton Foundation.
    People will fall away from the Faith as prophesied by His Word.
    “……there is nothing knew under the sun” Ecc. 1:9

    1. What a strange reply, UWE. It is the Trump Foundation that has been closed down for fraud. And neither of these Foundations are churches. You seem compelled to make a political statement where one was not necessary.

  4. So frustrating to see how JMac got away with irresponsibly not fulfilling his part of the contract. (Yes, for those of us who have purchased homes, we know that a mortgage is a contract). How dishonest and unChristlike.
    I may be reaching here, but I wonder if any of this (i.e., lack of transparency about the final agreement with JMac) is connected to the changes in ministry leadership that’s going on at Harvest over these upcoming weeks.

    1. Sinkiller,

      May I remind you of the apostle Paul’s clear instructions to the church in a situation such as this…

      [2 Peter 3:1-5]
      But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

    2. SINKILLER – How do you know God will use James again? Did He tell specifically or is it just speculation? Certainly it’s the latter.

  5. I know my Bible.. It all points to the cross…

    Limit God if you desire.. But remember, just like cain, sin desires you.

  6. Sinkiller, it sounds like you have missed the reports ALL the many sins and crimes JMac has committed.

    Please spend a couple of weeks reading about allllllll of them…and then give us an *informed* opinion!!

    1. I know everything you know and more… I also know who I was apart from God… Perhaps you don’t know who you are just yet.

  7. Sinkiller,

    I’m not sure who is limiting God or how that is relevant to the issue of James McDonald’s behavior?

    At issue is not God using James (he can use anyone, even donkeys)… at issue is James using God.

    The man has proven himself to be a selfish glutton and a false shepherd and of such people, our Lord’s apostles have urged believers to stay away!

    Being discerning and watchful in no way undermines the gospel of the grace of God but rather adorns it.

    1. Agree here.

      “Being discerning and watchful in no way undermines the gospel of the grace of God but rather adorns it.”

      I discern hardened hearts from my watchtower.. I see fruits of shifting motives.. I see selective/agenda driven outrage.

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