A former Assemblies of God pastor who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $500,000 from Harrison Faith Church in Arkansas has been sentenced to 17 years of probation, 800 hours of community service and ordered to pay $100,000 of restitution to the church for his crimes.
The former pastor, identified as Brian Keith Herring, 49, is also a former city councilman in Harrison. Court records cited by KTLO said Herring was accused of stealing nearly $525,000 from the church in 2021 and was charged with felony counts of theft of property, second degree forgery and tampering with physical evidence.
A representative of the church told investigators in 2021 that more than $333,594 was missing from several church accounts and they were unable to access the church’s credit card account or statements associated with the account.
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Prosecutors also noted that Herring returned two church phones, a laptop and an iPad which were all factory reset. An audit later revealed that Herring had taken $524,634.24 in credit card purchases and other account transactions. When authorities initially tried contacting Herring at his home, they found it empty and listed for sale.
More than a year ago, while working as a staff pastor at the multi-site Brand New Church in Arkansas, Herring claimed the investigation of his credit card use at Harrison Faith Church was instigated by a former close friend who “had some sin in his life.”
“I remember when it all changed. I remember it was a board meeting. It was about the time the board was getting ready to elect its new members and I had … a close friend, in fact, that had some sin in his life and I sat down and I said, ‘We need to talk about some things,’” he alleged.
Herring claimed the friend denied his allegation of sin and was eventually elected to the church’s board.
“He was elected to be on the board and his heart changed against me,” Herring recalled.
“At that point, and I’ll never forget walking up to my close friend at one time with a clipboard as he was trying to get me recalled for an election and he went around to board members, he went to church members, and he was trying to do everything he [could] to have me recalled as the pastor. And I was just like, what is going on,” he said.
When his former friend couldn’t get the support he needed from the board or the congregation to oust him from leadership, Herring said he went to the denominational leadership who removed him on the friend’s testimony alone.
“They never called me. They never asked my side of things; they never asked anything. I was … called to our denominational leadership where I was asked to step down as the lead pastor. We were destroyed,” he said of his family.
“I remember going to my kids, and I remember telling them with tears streaming down my face that we’re having to leave the church that they loved, the only church that they ever knew, they grew up in,” he said.
“I remember sitting down and saying things that were being said about our family. … They’re saying we mishandled information. What they did is they basically took every charge on their church credit card that we ever spent and said that it was never approved. And so, they took all that and said that’s what he has stolen from the church.”
Court files reviewed by The Christian Post show that prior to his latest criminal charges, Herring filed three separate bankruptcy cases in Virginia and Missouri beginning in 1995. The last one was in 2008.
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