Lawsuit Against Church Leader Seeks Ownership Rights

The ex-wife of the Rev. Perry Gaspard, pastor of the 3,000-member Abundant Life Fellowship Church, in Lake Charles, La., is suing to halt Mr. Gaspard’s $3.5-million sale of the church’s property, reports the American Press.

The lawsuit, brought by Mary Kerwin Gaspard, says that Mr. Gaspard asked his followers to give large sums of money to the church, and “at all times the message was that being a member of Abundant Life Fellowship meant having full and continuous benefit of its assets, in whatever form, that were achieved through such member’s time, efforts, and money.”

The church’s assets were appraised this year at $13.2-million, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleges that members did not know they had no ownership rights to the church. Mr. Gaspard sold the church’s property in Louisiana and moved to Texas, taking the assets with him “under the exclusive control of him and its board of directors, leaving the local church members with nothing to show for their time, effort and money.”

The lawsuit requests that the court appoint the members of Abundant Life Fellowship as owners of the assets, or that the church’s assets be managed by its board.

Mr. Gaspard’s lawyer says in court documents that Ms. Gaspard’s lawsuit is “nothing more than an attempt to obtain additional community property.”