BY JULIE IRWIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Rev. G. Lach
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Membership in the church of Storehouse Ministries doesn't take much: no services to attend, no creed to recite, just a few bucks and a desire to turn it into something more.
And while leaders don't mind if you're liberated from sin in the process, they're more concerned with liberating you from financial worry.
Storehouse, which operates out of a Pendleton district office building, has more than 800 members and is welcoming more. All new members are automatically sworn in as leaders of the church, allowing them to take advantage of tax-free retirement programs even as their donations to the church remain tax-deductible.
Funds from the nonprofit Storehouse are then invested the for-profit Regional Initiative Inc., which buys and develops real estate in the Tristate. Profits are returned both to Storehouse members, who can track their investments through the church, and to community agencies.
The Rev. Gerald Lach, a retired Methodist minister, came up with the idea after seeing billions of dollars pour into churches that turned around the next day and asked for more. The system, church leaders say, allows people to set aside money in the church and have it there when they really need it.
"How many people have put in their five or 10 dollars a week, only to go to the church with a problem and be told, 'We can't help you but we'll pray for you'?" said Storehouse President and CEO John Trautman. "We're not in the market of selling stock. We're in the market of building a new church structure in a new way that will take its members out of poverty."
The for-profit arm has 1,700 acres under contract, including land in Clermont County and Vevay, Ind., the Rev. Mr. Lach said. He said he started buying land 30 years ago when he realized the value of land "can only go up; there's a limited supply and a growing demand."
Storehouse has members from all over the country, some who have joined for $5 and others for as much as $300,000. Although they welcome everyone, the leaders hope poor people with no other access to investing will use the system - something the Rev. Mr. Lach sees as fulfilling the wishes of the founder of Christianity, no matter what a member believes.
"We don't care what you believe," said the Rev. Mr. Lach, author of the book Solutions for a Troubled Nation. "You can be a Hindu, you can be an atheist, you can believe anything you want about Jesus. We're only interested in the religion of Jesus."
