Joliet church raises $300,000 needed to avoid potential closure

A Joliet church was able to raise the $300,000 needed for a court-appointed receiver who has been recovering investor money that federal officials said was misused by a fraudulent Minooka business owner.

Messiah Lutheran Church, 40 Houbolt Road, had until Wednesday to raise $300,000 that the receiver said was given to the church by Ken Courtright. He was convicted by a federal jury last summer of committing wire fraud through his company, Today’s Growth Consultant in Minooka. He is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 18.

The church was able raise the $300,000 and wired the money on Nov. 3, according to Brian Wielbik, president of the parish planning council for the church.

“The community of Joliet and the surrounding communities have been outstanding and the support that we received has been unbelievable,” Wielbik said.

“We’re ecstatic,” said Kurt Hoover, senior pastor of the church.

In fact, Wielbik said the church was able to raise closer to $400,000 from donations.

If the church had not been able to raise $300,000, that amount would’ve jumped up to $587,000 and potentially cause a forced sale of the Houbolt Road building, according to church leaders.

Church officials said at a news conference in September that they committed no wrongdoing but still had to pay the money owed to the court-appointed receiver, Melanie Damian. At the time, James Murphy, an attorney for the church, described the situation as “no different than a natural disaster.”

When asked about Courtright, Wielbik said the “whole thing was very unfortunate.”

“At this point, we can only move forward and not look back as to what happened,” he said.

Messiah Lutheran Church received more than $780,000 in donations from Courtright’s company between 2010 and 2019. A federal judge appointed Damian as a receiver to recover the funds misused by Courtright after his company was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Damian filed a lawsuit in 2020 against Messiah Lutheran Church and other organizations who received Courtright’s money. Damian alleged the church and other organizations received money without providing “reasonably equivalent value” to Courtright’s company in exchange for those funds.

Joliet Catholic Academy was one of those organizations. Damian said Courtright’s children attended the school and used company funds to pay their tuition. The school reached a settlement with Damian to pay $100,000.

Messiah Lutheran Church reached a $487,000 settlement with Damian. They initially paid $187,000 of that money, leaving them with the $300,000 owed by Wednesday.

Another organization sued by Damian was Legacy Families in Channahon. A federal judge granted Damian’s motion for a $153,500 default judgement against the religious nonprofit.

One of the issues raised by Murphy last September was how Illinois law sets no limit on how far back the court-appointed receiver can go to recover money. He said charitable organizations are “not set up to question where donations come from.”