Neighbors of the Kingdom of God Global Church, an organization many accuse of being cult, say that strange occurrences around church-owned properties in West County have left them confused and at times even frightened.
"There's definitely a lot of questions about what exactly is going on with this group," Chesterfield Prosecuting Attorney Tim Engelmeyer tells the RFT. "They could certainly run whatever organization they want to run out of the dozens of commercial areas around Chesterfield. But they choose to kind of land right in the middle of neighborhoods."
The RFT previously reported on the church purchasing Nelly's old mansion in Wildwood as well as a house in Chesterfield on Wildhorse Meadow Drive that the church vacated after four years and numerous neighbor complaints related to the 30 or more people allegedly living in the residence. In total, the Kingdom of God Global Church owns at least nine properties in St. Louis County.
Engelmeyer says that he understands neighbors being concerned by some of what they see happening around church-owned properties.
"People were walking around the residence at night with suits on and sunglasses," he says about the house on Wildhorse Meadow Drive. "There was a guy that would sit at the side door of the house in a chair with sunglasses on, guarding that side door."
The city filed two municipal ordinance violations at that property before the church moved out, Engelmeyer says. One of the violations was for running a commercial enterprise out of a residential subdivision.
"They tried to assert these were simple Bible studies, but the scope of what was going on there was much greater than simple Bible studies," says Engelmeyer.
He adds, "I've seen pictures of children being led out of that house. They're all holding hands in a long line, and being loaded into a van. That's unusual in the middle of a subdivision, and it alarms people."
In addition to Nelly's former mansion, the church also purchased two other undeveloped parcels that border it. The church also owns a $1.7 million house on Hager Lane, in Chesterfield, on a heavily-wooded street tucked between the end of Route 109 and the Spirit of St. Louis Airport. The church bought the house and an adjoining property in 2020.
After hearing about the complaints from neighbors on Wildhorse Meadow Drive, an individual living on Hager Lane said it sounded similar to what she dealt with in her secluded corner of Chesterfield.
This neighbor estimated that at any given time there were around 30 people living in the house, mostly young boys. She'd often see teams of boys playing sports.
"They weren't creating a bad thing. They weren't smoking or drinking or yelling. They were just playing basketball," she says of the youths at the house.
She was more concerned for their well being, wondering what such a large number of boys were doing all in one house.
The church has been accused of using its followers in a manner akin to telemarketers, having them work long shifts cold calling and messaging people on Facebook to solicit donations. The church also operates a "dream interpretation phone line."
According to Engelmeyer, strict zoning laws govern what individuals can and can't do in residential areas. He says his office is responsive to neighbor complaints about zoning laws being broken, but his office doesn't patrol the city searching for infractions.
Multiple neighbors who lived on Hager said that there were U-Hauls "constantly" coming in and out of the church-owned property, usually late at night, around midnight or 1 a.m.
Security cameras affixed to a barn across the street from the church's property often recorded high-end cars leaving the property in the middle of the night, headed toward nearby Eatherton Road. The cars always returned 10 to 15 minutes later.
"In our mind, what could they possibly be doing out there outside that road?" the individual on Hager tells the RFT. "There's no stores there. There's nothing. Something was going on."
This neighbor said that the church was under the impression that when they bought the house, they had exclusive rights to the street running from their property to Eatherton Road.
She says that a man from the church tried to stop a neighbor from entering the subdivision from Eatherton Road. "So there was an altercation," this neighbor says. "They got set straight with that one."
All three neighbors of Kingdom of God Global Church-owned properties who spoke to the RFT asked their names not be used because they are still living down the street from houses owned by the church.
"If you research the Kingdom of God on the internet, it made it seem scary because one of the pictures we pulled up, he was fraternizing with the guy from [North] Korea," one neighbor says.
The neighbor is likely referring to a well-produced video published by the church in which the organization’s leader, David E. Taylor, predicts the reunification of North Korea and South Korea, a prophecy Taylor says Jesus relayed to him in a dream. The video contains newsreel footage of Kim Jong-un.
In church videos, Taylor frequently weighs in on global geopolitics. In a church video published to YouTube in March, Taylor claims to have predicted 9/11, saying that the terrorist attacks were financed by Russia. Now, Taylor says, Russia is sneaking nuclear submarines to the United States' shores. The video's narrator states that God sent Taylor to be the country's "end-time general" and help avert the Russian attack. Taylor also frequently claims to perform miracles healing the sick.
An individual who lives near Timpaige Drive in Chesterfield, where the church owns a $2.1 million dollar house, tells the RFT that the church's property has been an annoyance in the area but that a man who identifies himself as the property manager has tried to address concerns. The church installed bright security lights by their pool, but the lights' timer either malfunctioned or was programmed incorrectly, and they shone into the abutting house all night. The property manager worked quickly to fix this once he was made aware of it, a person who lives nearby says.
The Timpaige neighbor also says that when the church first bought the property, they planned to use it as a "drug and alcohol rehabilitation center." The RFT previously reported that a contractor who worked on the church's Timpaige property wrote a letter to the City of Chesterfield stating that the house had "20 to 30 people staying at the property zoned residential."
Neighbors around both the Hager and Timpaige properties say that the church occasionally threw massive parties on the properties. A Fourth of July event on Hager drew hundreds of people and even included tents pitched on the property for people to stay in, a la a music festival.
The church has participated in at least one event in St. Louis City. In November it worked with St. Louis Metropolitan Police on a Thanksgiving dinner giveaway in north city. Both the police and Joshua Media Ministries International, an organization closely affiliated with the church, posted photos of the event to their social media pages. According to police spokeswoman Evita Caldwell, city police officers "participated in several community engagement events at the school in conjunction with various community organizations."
It's unclear what the future holds for the Kingdom of God Global Church in West County. Neighbors of Nelly's former mansion said there hadn't been much activity there since the church bought the property last fall. On a recent visit to the property, it looked as abandoned as ever.
On Hager Lane, it appears to some neighbors that the church may have recently left.
"In December, they had like 17 U-haul huge trucks come down the driveway," a neighbor tells the RFT. "So we knew they were moving everything out at that point. The house right now appears to be empty."
Neighbors say there have been no developments at Nelly's former residence since the church bought the property last fall.
In addition to being on the radar of the Chesterfield Prosecuting Attorney's office, according to two people, church either has recently or currently is being investigated by the FBI.
This neighbor on Hager Lane says that once when Chesterfield police responded to complaints about a large number of cars being parked by the church's property impeding traffic, an officer told her that the FBI was investigating the church. A former neighbor of the church on Wildhorse Meadow Drive says that he was interviewed by the FBI about the church.
The individual living near the Timpaige property said, "We keep joking that one day, we're going to see guys in tactical gear walking through our yard going to storm their complex or whatever."
