Calvary Chapel Cary Sells Church Property in Apex, North Carolina, for $7 Million

Calvary Chapel Cary, a congregation in the Calvary Chapel movement, has sold its 9.8-acre church property in Apex, North Carolina, for $7 million, according to the report headline. The reports do not agree on when the property was first put up for sale. One report says the church building, including the nearby parking lot, was listed online for $11.5 million in late July without prior notice to the congregation, and that the listing was canceled within days, prompting speculation and concern among members. Another report says Pastor Rodney Finch had previously put the church up for sale in secret, and that the board and congregation learned of the secret listing in July 2024. That report says Finch withdrew the listing after they found out.

Pastor Rodney Finch announced his resignation as senior pastor less than a week after the July listing, according to the first report. His final sermon was on August 4, when he told the congregation it was the last Sunday and that he would be taking a backseat. In that period, Finch admitted he had secretly conspired with the board of elders as early as January to find a buyer for the church property. He said the sale was intended to address financial concerns, and that the church could not sustain itself financially without him unless it relocated to a more affordable location.

The first report also describes earlier concerns raised about Finch’s leadership. In 2019 statements to the Calvary Chapel Association council, former staff members alleged that Finch withheld budget information and church by-laws and used church credit cards without accountability. The report also says a fundraising initiative known as the “Nehemiah Project,” run between 2012 and 2017 to build a new church, was never completed despite aggressive solicitation of restricted funds. These are allegations made by former staff, and the report does not state any finding on them.

The second report says Finch later announced his resignation in August, then rescinded it less than two months afterward. It attributes the reversal to a dispute over retirement pay. It also reports that Finch removed the pastors who were slated to replace him and set up a new church board. According to that report, Finch’s tenure tested the limits of the Calvary Chapel Association’s ability to rein in misbehaving pastors.

The sources do not give the buyer’s identity or the date of the completed sale in the material available here. Read together, the reports show a sequence in which a secret sale effort was revealed, the listing was withdrawn, a resignation was announced and later rescinded, and the property was ultimately sold. Proverbs 11:1 speaks to honest dealing in business, a standard that the questions about the secret listing and the handling of church funds bring to the fore (Proverbs 11:1).