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Fire puts Solid Rock pastors on global stage

The church’s tax-exempt status affords them  an upscale life and the privacy to enjoy it

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By Tom Beyerlein  and Mary McCarty, Staff Writers 9:05 PM Saturday, July 24, 2010

MONROE — The 62-foot King of Kings statue no longer stretches out its giant arms to motorists on Interstate 75, but a pastor of the Solid Rock Church says the June 14 fire was good PR for what the church is about: Christ.

“His name was mentioned more in the 24 hours after that fire than probably in 2,000 years,” said Lawrence Bishop, 68, who, along with his wife, Darlene, 65, founded the church in 1978.

The fire also shone a spotlight on the Bishops, who built Solid Rock from a dozen congregants in a tin-roofed building with folding chairs into one of the region’s largest churches, with a satellite church east of Cincinnati, a home for troubled women, 13 churches in the Philippines and an orphanage in Brazil. Clearly, the statue outside the church wasn’t the only thing about Solid Rock that’s larger than life.

The Bishops live on a 100-acre ranch near the church. Lawrence said he made his fortune in the sale of quarter horses, but the family’s religious work also pays handsomely. Solid Rock Church is tax-exempt and doesn’t have to report its finances — including the Bishops’ salaries — in public tax records.

But Darlene earns $250,000 a year from her nonprofit Darlene Bishop Ministries and drives a corporate Land Rover. Lawrence is a bluegrass recording artist with five CDs and a self-produced movie to his credit.

The Bishops have also been a lightning rod for controversy, some of it inside their own family. Darlene became embroiled in a family feud over the estate of her brother, Darrell Wayne Perry, a hit songwriter for Tim McGraw, Toby Keith and the Backstreet Boys. After years of bitter litigation, the estate is to be finalized Monday.

Darlene said the critics don’t understand the good that happens at Solid Rock Church.

“They don’t understand the love and compassion,” she said.

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