Help Us Save Our Church

Can you help us save our church?! Our church, New Creations Family Worship Center, is a small church praising and worshipping God all week long, every week of the year, and spreading God’s love in South Greensburg, PA. We have been in this area for 9 years in June. Unfortunately, when we purchased the church building 9 years ago, our tax exempt status paperwork was not filed as it should have been because we never received notice from Westmoreland County telling us that they had removed the tax exempt status from our church property records upon purchase and that it (the county) requires churches to apply for an exemption from property taxes. We were tax exempt at the time from federal income tax (as we are a non profit organization like all churches) and we did not have to pay realty transfer taxes because we were a church buying a church from another church. We just didn't realize that the paper hadn't been filed because we never received notice that it was required. A TOTAL TECHNICALITY! It was not until the Greensburg Salem School Board, the city, and the county had scheduled a Tax Sale of our church for back/unpaid real estate taxes, that it was brought to our attention that the paper had not been filed. By this time the total was nearly $40k including interest and penalties! How absurd! All churches that have regular religious worship services at their building are exempt from real estate tax and we actually had the documentation to prove it… even to cover the dates in question. And this building, since before 1974 had never been used for anything other than a church. It had always been tax exempt. The county was willing to exonerate these taxes if the city and the school board would agree, but the school board denied this in a unanimous decision.  So, they are going to sell our church at a Judicial Sale instead of exonerating the taxes or making our tax exempt status retroactive, based on all of the documentation that we provided.  After about 4 years of court proceedings, we were told by the court that we could now only appeal through the Board of Assessment and Appeals and not through our local county court. The sale of our building is getting closer. This is where we need your help! The New Creations' congregation has grown and worships and studies and prays together every week of the year and holds multiple services weekly at the location that is threatened to be sold. This congregation feeds the homeless and provides sleeping bags and toiletries to them; gives out prom dresses to young ladies who would otherwise not be able to attend this special school function due to the lack of finances; has a food pantry, provides Christmases, and Thanksgivings to those in need, back to school items, hats, coats and scarfs in the winter months etc... all with about 60 members who work in tandem with other organizations, fundraise, or give out of their pockets to help those in need. And we do this in the city of Greensburg. We are an asset here. Not a burden. Help us to keep our building so that we don’t have to find a new place of worship, are able to continue helping the people in this community, and do not lose 9 years of equity in our building because of the laws that only focus on collecting taxes, but do not protect the tax exemption of property owners. No donation is too small. If you would contribute to our church, we will give you a charitable contribution receipt for the value of your gift that we receive. Please email your name, address, and gift amount to [email redacted] to receive your contribution receipt.  Thank you so very much.