Breakaway Vineyard Anaheim, California, pastors face $62 million fraud lawsuit over alleged deceit and asset control

The widow of Vineyard USA founder John Wimber, along with several former church board members, has filed a $62 million fraud lawsuit against Alan and Kathryn Scott, the pastors of the former Vineyard Anaheim church. The complaint, filed in November 2023 in the California Superior Court for Orange County, alleges that the Scotts sought the senior pastor positions in December 2017 with the intent to control the church’s assets and disassociate from Vineyard USA.

The lawsuit claims that the Scotts, who led the church since 2018, announced their decision to leave the denomination in March 2023 without providing a specific reason. In April, the church was renamed Dwelling Place. The plaintiffs argue that Alan Scott’s assertion of divine calling to leave the denomination was an example of spiritual manipulation and deception.

According to the complaint, during the Scotts’ job interview in 2017, they stated they would “keep the Anaheim Vineyard in the Vineyard Movement worldwide and in the Vineyard USA.” The lawsuit says the couple was hired, in part, based on that promise. However, it alleges that the Scotts “always intended to remove Anaheim Vineyard and its $62,000,000 in assets from the worldwide Vineyard Movement.”

Before moving to the United States, the Scotts led a Vineyard congregation in Northern Ireland but resigned due to dissatisfaction with the denomination. The lawsuit cites a 2017 letter from Alan Scott expressing his distaste for the Vineyard Movement and Vineyard USA, stating, “it’s not an environment where we would want to plant our lives or raise our girls.”

The plaintiffs claim the Scotts only became interested in leading the Anaheim church after learning of its substantial assets. The complaint states, “They had no intention of applying for the vacant senior pastor position until learning of Anaheim Vineyard’s substantial assets and knew that keeping Anaheim Vineyard in the worldwide Vineyard Movement was a material term of being hired as the senior pastors.”

The lawsuit seeks to return control of the Dwelling Place to former board members and to block the Scotts from removing the church from Vineyard USA. Vineyard Anaheim, planted in 1977 by the Wimbers, is widely considered the mother church of the Vineyard movement. Today, Vineyard is a network of over 1,500 churches worldwide.

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