I am a devoted member of Vous Church, and love our Pastor Rich and his wonderful wife DawnCheré. 

On several occasions Pastor Rich has encouraged the congregation to contact Vous Church if we are in serious need of financial help. After suffering a devasting personal financial crisis, I reluctantly and humbly applied for financial assistance which, after many weeks was "Approved"! That felt so amazing to hear, but that promise never materialized. Meaning, I went through the whole process of submitting my personal financial statement, showing where every penny was going, and explained in detail what happened, which won the Approval! But days and then weeks passed with no assistance received. The two women assigned to my case said these things take time, and the Church was busy working on the new office Grand Opening. Ok, I understand. There is a process which may not take into account my urgent needs. Beggars cannot be choosers, right? 

I was then told that payments are only made directly, and was asked for my credit card logins and passwords. After zero attempts were made to login to any of my accounts (I get notifications when I login), the story changed to, "We had difficulty with making payments directly" so they asked me for my Zelle information. Ok cool! Maybe they are serious and will send something, anything will help, I explained. More days and weeks passed and still, nothing. My personal experience has led me to wonder about the stewardship of our church's funds. Therefore I am calling for complete fiscal transparency.

I am not angry. I am sad. If no funds are available because you just handed out $103,000 to storm victims, fine. I understand, it was bad timing. But to give me hope and then literally no longer respond to me, there is at least a communication problem. So, I searched the Vous Church website to see how they allocate their funds. To my surprise there was no such information available, so I looked at the law to see what was required as far as reporting to the government. 

According to Florida and IRS laws, non-profit religious organizations are not required to file taxes or even report income from donations from the congregation. The Pastor and all other paid employees must still file Federal tax returns and show income received from the church as taxable income, but that information is private. 

Pastor Rich said on Sunday, October 13, 2024, during his sermon entitled "Financial Pressure" that he was not only rich, but double Rich, due to his name. Ha ha ha! He also told us all that if we live in Miami, we are rich too, compared to the rest of the world. With sky-rocketing inflation over the past few years, and rent and housing costs exploding, not many of us feel so rich living in Miami, but that's beside the point.

According to a study by 'Nonprofit Quarterly', financial transparency in religious organizations enhances church members' trust and attracts more donations. It's not about questioning faith, but about ensuring the responsible management of the contributions made by its dedicated members. We propose that our church leaders disclose all financial data: all income, expenses, Pastor and staff salaries and hourly pay, and, of course charitable donations. This request is consistent with the values of honesty and responsibility preached by our faith.

We are not asking for names or any personally identifiable information, with an obvious exception, as the Pastor will obviously be earning the highest income, and rightly so.

Please sign this petition to support full financial transparency of our church. Your voice can ensure our donations are spent with the same integrity that we, as parishioners, have when giving to the church. God bless Vous Church and God bless us all. In Jesus' name, Amen!