[Nell]

Jake,

The Living Stream d/b/a Living Stream Ministry is a non-profit organization, Tax Exempt Status 501(c)(3) which is required to file a Form 990 reporting its financial dealings to the IRS. Go to guidestar.org and create an account. Search for Living Stream. You will find the latest Form 990 for 2015 (also a few prior years.) It's a 57 page doc. I didn't want to post it as an attachment here when it's pretty easy to look at on guidestar.org. It's very interesting. There is a summary on page 1 that will tell you where the $15+ million in revenue for 2015 came from. Not in detail, but an interesting high level breakdown of revenue. At year-end 2015 net assets totaled $88+ million.

I'm pointing you to the LSM because there is a difference between the Local Churches and the Living Stream Ministry. Long story short, the Local Churches have become virtual franchises of the LSM. Of course, they don't call them that. The Local Churches, at one time, were forced to purchase a standing order of books from the LSM to maintain their "franchise" status. That probably hasn't changed and if so would represent a continuing steady income source. Much of what follows is anecdotal from my memory. There are various threads on this forum which give you more details on all the questionable dealings of the LSM, et al.

Ohio may have more information on this, but there are a number of churches who could not afford to purchase property for meeting halls. The LSM purchased property for these "localities" and it would be reasonable to assume that the LSM is also a "landlord" for these properties collecting rent. I don't know if it's a "lease-purchase" or not.

Anaheim may be the "mother ship" but the LSM is in control.

In the '70's there were several wealthy doctors in California who were contributors. I believe these doctors were also brothers. I stayed in one of their homes during a ten-day "conference" a long time ago. No idea how many wealthy contributors exist.

Witness Lee's ministry belongs to him as his personal ministry, now his estate. The LSM is the family business. His two sons, now deceased, were heirs, and it is unknown to me who surviving heirs are and who legally runs the family business. The Form 990 has Benson Phillips in that position. Again, nothing to do with the Local Churches, except as noted above.

At one time WL secured a loan from the Church in Boston, a non-profit, under the leadership of Sal Benoit. This money found its way into the pockets of various foreign unincorporated "Christian" organizations, at least one of which was actually Lee and Samuel Chang (deceased) and maybe a couple more men doing business as these religious organizations and funneling money around. Eventually this money ended up in the aforementioned Daystar Motorhome business. Daystar was a "for profit" business. Somewhere on this forum is a link to a tape of a telephone conversation wherein Sal Benoit called Witness Lee and confronted him about this and it's alleged illegality. Smacks of money laundering and non-profit funding for-profit corporations. Lee eventually hung up on Sal, telling him it was none of his business. Since Sal had signed the original loan documents as CEO of The Church in Boston, it was indeed Sal's business. The loan was repaid. The whole thing is at least ethically questionable and possibly illegal.

Since the LSM is a non-profit, there are regulations which must be followed to maintain its non-profit status, including the required filing of Form 990.

So where does their money come from? Good question.