Pastor Alan Scott—who’s been the focus of controversy since he removed his church, Vineyard Anaheim, from Vineyard U.S.A.—has returned a statue to the family of the late John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement. But the family claims Scott stole the $62 million church property from Vineyard two years ago and renamed it Dwelling Place, and they won’t rest until it’s returned.

“For over two years, members of (Vineyard Christian Fellowship) Anaheim and leaders in the Global Vineyard family have been asking Alan Scott to return the Anaheim property that he confiscated through secretly changing the name of VCF Anaheim church corporation to The Dwelling Place,” the Wimbers said in a statement provided to The Roys Report (TRR). “Alan has adamantly refused every attempt.”

This is the latest in a two-year-long legal battle over the property that once housed the flagship church of the Vineyard movement, Vineyard Anaheim. In March 2022, Scott disassociated Vineyard Anaheim from the Vineyard movement, saying God told him to do it.

Later that year, the Wimbers and other former members of Vineyard Anaheim sued Scott and other Dwelling Place board members, claiming Scott fraudulently and deceptively took the property. The Orange County Superior Court dismissed the case last December, ruling according to the First Amendment’s church autonomy doctrine to stay out of the matter. It’s now on appeal.

On Sunday, Scott told his congregation he was “only too thrilled” to “donate” a statue of Jesus to the Wimber family after they requested it.

“They expressed the belief that it was specifically intended as a gift for their family and for the movement they led,” Scott said. “Of course, we were only too thrilled to do that. . . . We’re very happy to give that and donate that. It is, after all, a statue of serving.”

The statue, returned Aug. 5, is of Jesus washing Peter’s feet. Scott said Sunday it has been in the church building since 1993.

John Wimber’s daughter, Stephanie Ruppe, told The Roys Report (TRR) that Alan Scott was not present for the statue transfer. She also said Scott hasn’t returned all of Wimber’s sermon tapes despite multiple requests over the past two years, a request Ruppe made again to another pastor present at the transfer.

In January of this year, Carol Wimber sent a handwritten letter to Scott and his wife, Kathryn, saying that two couples had donated the statue specifically to John Wimber because of his impact on their lives.

Scott told his congregation that “legalities” had delayed the transfer.

“It just took us a little time to work through the legalities of that,” he said. 

 A video by former Vineyard Anaheim member Isaiah Valdez captured the transfer.

@SaveVCFAnaheim Today was quite the spectacle! John & Carol Wimber and the Vineyard received this as a gift, which Alan swiftly claimed for himself.

With courage in their hearts, Carol and Kevin faced an anxious James Renwick, who, alongside Greg Scherer and Alan Scott, believe… pic.twitter.com/GBJOUuuvlm

— Isaiah Valdez (@mrvaldez__) August 5, 2024

At the transfer, Ruppe told TRR that her mom, Carol Wimber, told James Renwick, the Dwelling Place pastor who was present, how much the statue meant to John and her and how meaningful that day was for her.

Ruppe said she told Renwick at the transfer that Ruppe would be back for the sermon tapes and the building.

“We will never ever ever stop,” Ruppe said.

Ruppe showed TRR emails from 2022 between her and Dwelling Place board member Greg Scherer, asking for her dad’s sermon tapes so they could preserve them and share them with others. She said Dwelling Place returned four thin boxes of Wimber’s sermon tapes to them that year. But she said last year Scherer told them legal counsel said he couldn’t give the Wimber family any more tapes.

Neither Scherer nor Scott immediately responded to TRR’s question about when, or if, all the sermon tapes will be returned to the Wimbers.

Scott told his congregation Sunday that the statue had become a “sacred space” for families who grew up in the church.

“You’ve kind of grown up around this house and you remember your kids playing in the statue and you remember meeting friends of yours who became your best friends,” Scott told his congregation Sunday. “It became almost like a little sacred space for you.”

Last year, TRR reported allegations of Scott’s manipulation, lies, and spiritual abuse. A few months later, a third-party report from the Vineyard Churches of UK and Ireland found Scott spiritually abused staff and congregants from when he pastored at Causeway Coast Vineyard in Northern Ireland.

Scott said Sunday that because the statue is of Jesus serving that it would be “inconceivable” to keep it after the request was made. But also, it’s “just furniture,” he said.

“(A)t its base, it’s simply furniture,” Scott said. “And I just want to reassure you that if it were Jesus himself leaving, we would put up a great fight.”

The Wimber family has now donated the statue to the charity, Giving University, said Paul Martin, a close family friend. Martin has recently spoken out about allegations of spiritual abuse against Scott on his podcast. He told TRR today that Scott’s reasoning about the statue being furniture should also apply to the building.

“What about the property he’s also being asked countless times to return?” Martin said. “It doesn’t seem to be ‘simply property.’”

The Wimbers are calling on Scott to repent.

“Our ultimate hope and prayer was and remains that Alan would repent of his confiscation of the Anaheim Vineyard Christian Fellowship property, not merely return a statue that he declared is ‘only a piece of furniture,’” their statement said.

Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.