John-Paul Miller's Myrtle Beach church was his piggybank and status symbol, lawsuit claims

Yahoo

26-02-2025

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — At one point in the middle of 2024, John-Paul Miller controlled a nearly $6 million real estate portfolio that included a private plane and huge swath of land along Highway 17 Bypass.
The Solid Rock Church pastor was never shy about sharing his fascination with money — he called it 'the most fascinating subject to me in the Bible' during a February 2021 sermon.
'But this image was a lie,' is how a 43-page lawsuit filed Tuesday against Miller, his father Reginald Wayne and their consortium of ministries begins. ' It was part of a calculated plan to groom victims while simultaneously gaining the community's trust and financial support.'
Timeline: The saga of John-Paul and Mica Miller
The suit claims that the Millers 'presented themselves as devout religious leaders' through the years and ran the churches 'for their own personal financial gain,' while also using 'their positions of power to manipulate and exploit vulnerable victims while concealing their actions from the public.'
John-Paul Miller has repeatedly refused to speak with News13, which also reached out to him Tuesday for this story. Attorney Russell Long, who has represented Miller in other legal matters, declined comment when contacted by News13 on Tuesday.
The complaint — filed by an anonymous woman who said John-Paul raped her when she was 15 years old in 1998 — also pulls apart the church's financial standing in a bid to prevent a cap on damages due to ecclesiastical and nonprofit protections.
Sunday rock and roll, ministry trips to Kenya and plans to construct a lavish school on that prized piece of Horry County property on Highway 17 were all part of the Miller brand — partly on the strength of tithes from his followers.
News13 has been investigating John-Paul Miller and his Solid Rock Ministries for a nearly a year — ever since his wife Mica died by suicide last April at Lumber River State Park in Robeson County amid allegations of abuse and a contentious divorce proceeding.
Since that time, a flurry of lawsuits against and by John-Paul Miller have wound through Horry County's court system — many of them adding context and new details about his troubled past.
Tuesday's lawsuit is the first that takes aim at the Millers' evangelical empire, which began with Reginald in the early 1970s in Florence and migrated to Myrtle Beach in 1993.
Two years later, Reginald acquired property at 803 Howard Ave., paying the U.S. Air Force $280,000 for a site that now sits inside The Market Common.
Beginning as Cathedral Baptist Church and then All Nations Church, the 2.31-acre parcel was transferred to John-Paul in 2013 under the Solid Rock name — his son created the ministry seven years earlier.
In 2014, Reginald Miller took a deal with federal prosecutors after pleading guilty to fraud in foreign labor contracting, visa fraud and willful failure to pay minimum wage — all stemming from claims that they worked at Miller's Cathedral Bible College under a 'pervasive climate of fear and intimidation' that includes being forced to work at Miller's home unpaid, deprivation of food and water and threats to eliminate their visa status.
Miller was charged with crimes that carried a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
'Though the names have changed over the years … (all) are not separate and distinct entities but rather a continuing joint enterprise under the exclusive control of RWM and JPM, evolving over time through strategic name changes and restructuring to maintain their influence, evade scrutiny and shield assets from liability,' the lawsuit claims.
Among Jane Doe's allegations is that the Millers violated South Carolina's Unfair Trade Practices Act and shouldn't be granted 'charitable immunity' under state if found liable for her rape.
'While allowing John-Paul Miller to be a church leader may involve ecclesiastical considerations, the training, supervision and monitoring of Miller to prevent the abuse of minors is a secular obligation governed by neutral principles of law, which Defendants failed to uphold,' the lawsuit claims.
Solid Rock Church on Feb. 13 was purchased by Salem Woods Holdings LLC for $2.1 million. By that time, its membership had dwindled to nearly nothing as controversy dogged John-Paul after his wife's death — punctuated by weekly 'Justice for Mica' protests across the street on Sundays.
But back in 2021, Miller explained why tithing was such an important part of his life — and needed to be for his churchgoers as well.
'All growing up, I saw Christians manipulate each other financially, I've seen spouses break up and have horrible marriages because they fight about money, I've seen friendships that were supposed to last forever disintegrate because of money,' he said at a sermon.
Miller said he would ask the church's bookkeeper for tithing information on congregants if they expressed interest in taking on a leadership role or 'cause me a whole bunch of problems.'
Tithing is the practice of giving 10% of a person's income to support a church or religious community.
Miller said he began tithing in 2003 after a religious conversion. Solid Rock Church earned its federal tax-exempt status in 2015.
'Let's say you meet somebody and you start to fall in love and you really want to get to know them, because we can all put on a good face, we can all fake people out, if you really want to know somebody, look at their bank account,' Miller said. 'Imagine telling somebody, 'I love you,' but they never ever spend any money on you.'
While Solid Rock Ministries doesn't claim a denomination, marketing materials labelled it as 'Christian.'
On Solid Rock's now defunct website, John-Paul Miller started one section by saying 'I am the richest person on the planet.'
The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability — which counts more than 2,700 affiliates nationwide — does not include Solid Rock Ministries among them, according to its websiteGround Zero in Myrtle Beach and WMBJ FM based in Murrells Inlet are ECFA members.
On its website, Solid Rock explained how its finances were split: A third on ministry purposes including local, national and international mission work, a third for employment and third for maintenance and operations.
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Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here.
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