Nearly five years after replacing a legendary pastor in one of the nation's most prominent African American pulpits, the Rev. John J. Hunter counts his blessings.
Since taking the helm of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in October 2004, Hunter says, he has been privileged to bring 3,000 new souls to Jesus. He and his staff have launched such new community services as a summer enrichment program for children deprived of summer school by budget cuts.
His church shines with handsome new pews and carpets, a repaved parking lot and spruced-up landscaping. The church's affiliated nonprofit corporations have brought in $4 million in new grants. And the church recently joined a $50-million deal that Hunter says could help revitalize the congregation's West Adams neighborhood and bring in income for decades to come.
"It's amazing what we've accomplished," said the 52-year-old pastor. "The overwhelming majority of people are pleased with our direction."
So why is Hunter so besieged?
Hard as he may try, Hunter has yet to escape the larger-than-life shadow of the man he replaced, the Rev. Cecil L. "Chip" Murray. Some congregants still grumble that he doesn't adequately visit the sick, throw open his office to visitors or spearhead the social and political activism on police abuse, homelessness, unemployment and other issues that, under Murray, helped rocket the church to national fame.
And Hunter has not entirely escaped the cloud of mistrust over his management of church and personal finances that has hovered over him ever since he arrived.
Accusations that he misused church credit cards for personal expenses, for instance, followed him to Los Angeles from his Seattle church. Those allegations were dismissed as untrue by the church treasurer there.
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A public apology
But similar allegations soon arose in Los Angeles, and last December, Hunter acknowledged using First AME's credit card for $122,000 in personal expenditures on items including suits, jewelry, vacations and auto supplies.
Hunter publicly apologized for embarrassing the church and says he is paying the money back.
Not everyone is mollified. More than a dozen current and former church officers, missionaries and volunteers who say they once supported Hunter have accused him of "gross financial maladministration" and asked the denomination's regional authority, Bishop T. Larry Kirkland, to remove the pastor; his wife, Denise; and six executive church officers.
