The mysterious church buying up a town in Alabama: ‘What is it about Warrior?’

It started with the purchase of a $400,000 home for the leaders of the fast-growing church. Then came the $4 million deal to buy the biggest downtown storefront.

In the past two and half years, Church International spent $6 million across numerous deals to buy up roughly 20 parcels of property in Warrior, a small mining town in the hills north of Birmingham. They also spent another $2 million on a house and large property in neighboring Trafford.

It’s unclear where the money came from, as IRS records don’t show any publicly available tax documents in the past five years. And the state of Alabama is investigating the church, suing for financial records that so far the church has kept secret.

Its leaders are an enigmatic married couple named Robin R. and Robin D. Bullock — she is the pastor and he calls himself a prophet. They have a background as an award-winning gospel music duo as well as a history of financial struggles and bankruptcies.

But their church now runs a YouTube channel that gained hundreds of thousands of followers while predicting “spiritual warfare” in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

And as the church gobbles up homes, commercial buildings and vacant lots, more new people are arriving, joining the church, and getting noticed in a town of just 3,200.

“What happens when all of downtown Warrior belongs to Church International?” said Jaqui Clout, who owns the tattoo shop on Main Street. “Like, what is it about Warrior, Alabama, that drew you here?”

‘They move here, they buy here’

Last August, Warrior City Council member Jacquelyn Wesson and her husband Jonathan sold their law office on Main Street to the church for $375,000.

“They have been consistently growing over the last 20 to 25 years,” Wesson, who has lived in the town for more than two decades, told AL.com. “There have been some odd stories about the church circulating that are clearly not true.”

Scott Praytor, the police chief in Warrior, said church leaders told him they plan to revitalize Warrior by renovating buildings and renting them out at low prices for boutique businesses. Praytor said they told him the “for rent” signs would be up soon.

In a letter to Warrior Mayor Johnny Ragland, an attorney for the church said they want to “empower business visionaries to fulfill their dreams” in Warrior.

“We do not know who the business visionaries will be, but perhaps our community will be blessed with a new bakery, a clothing boutique, an old-time movie house, a hamburger/hot dog diner, or a beautiful steakhouse,” Phillip Jauregui, a Birmingham-based attorney representing the church, wrote in the letter dated May 30, 2023. “We hope to help increase visitors to our city in an effort to not only increase the city’s tax revenues and businesses’ revenues, but in doing so, to facilitate the church’s efforts to extend its ministry to all.”

The entrance to Church International’s church building in Warrior, Alabama.  (Sarah Whites-Koditschek | Swhites-Koditschek@al.com)

Rhiannon White, a local real estate agent, said she’s gotten about a dozen calls from people who watch Church International services online and want to move to Warrior. She told AL.com she’s sold a few properties to out-of-state congregants.

“They feel called to do it, from their perspective and from their words,” she said. “They feel like they should relocate and follow the Church International. Some of them are, you know, just shopping and seeing if they want to come.”

The Bullocks and their attorney, Jauregui, declined to comment for this article.

Representatives for Church International will speak at a public meeting Thursday night at Warrior City Hall to explain their vision for the town.

The police chief told AL.com in June that the church has anonymously paid overdue power bills for people during the winter and even offered to let him start a shelter for victims of domestic violence in one of their buildings.

“If we saw red flags where these people were armed up and carrying rifles and, yeah, we’d be worried about that if they were building a compound out in the woods,” he said. “Actually, what we see is the people that come here are productive, they’re outgoing.”

Robin D. Bullock spoke to the congregation about the church’s plans during a service on May 10, not long after the $4 million purchase of the Launius Furniture Store, a multi-block storefront in downtown Warrior, became public and a community Facebook group started talking.

Wearing his all-black outfit, he stood on stage and said more are joining the church, as “God takes the message of the cross, spotlights this city, and people like yourself come from all over to see what freedom looks like and see the freedom proclaimed. They move here, they buy here.

“And more are coming.”

Overnight fame

On Oct. 30, 2020, Robin D. Bullock prophesied that former president Donald Trump would win the election, the Democratic Party would “go underground” and later rise to power under the antichrist. This message exploded online, spreading like oil to fire, channeling nearly 3 million views.

In the days that followed, the church’s social media reach ballooned. It even spilled over into the town, with congregants lining up the following Sunday morning.

The church seemed to achieve overnight fame, Jauregui said in a recent court filing. “Increased attendance and stewardship was accompanied by increased giving of time and donations,” he wrote. “Indeed, God is Absolutely Good.”

Two months later, on Jan. 6, 2021, Robin D. Bullock stood in the middle of Constitution Avenue as hundreds of people marched to the U.S. Capitol building.

“We’re standing here as prophets of God, holding out our rod over the Red Sea. See the Washington Monument behind me?” Bullock said to the camera in a video now posted to YouTube. He called congressional Democrats “Trump’s enemies” while they were inside the Capitol counting votes. “We’re holding it out over the Red Sea until it parts,” he said, “because we will cross. We have a promise of God.”

Viewers continued to tune in on YouTube and Facebook. Before January ended, the church announced on Facebook that it was completely debt-free.

State investigation

On Nov. 17, the Alabama Department of Revenue subpoenaed Robin D. Bullock for financial records as part of an ongoing investigation into “charitable fraud and self-dealing,” per court records.

Like most churches, Church International collects tithes and donations from its congregants. Robin D. Bullock also leads “Over the Top Bible College,” a YouTube course of 30 live sessions, which costs $960. He has several self-published books, and the couple often travels to other churches for speaking, prayer and music gigs.

The state asked Bullock, who is listed in court filings as the custodian of records for the church’s nonprofit, to provide accounting and financial records for the church and the Bible course, including federal and state tax returns, between 2019 and 2021. Bullock provided nearly 18,000 pages of documents that included redacted information. When a state investigator followed up to ask for unredacted documents, Bullock, through his attorneys, refused, citing a First Amendment privilege to protect donor information because they are church members.

In April, Bullock still would not provide the names of donors or officers.

“Gentlemen, you literally HAVE to be kidding me with these redactions?” Victor Henken, a special agent for the revenue department, wrote in an email to Bullock’s attorneys, per court documents.

Henken declined to comment on the case; state attorney Brian Bird didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The case is ongoing. In late May, the Department of Revenue sued Robin D. Bullock in state court, asking Jefferson County Judge Brendette Brown Green to hold him in contempt for not responding in full to the subpoena and to order him to “provide a completely unredacted copy of the documentation.”

‘They have a vision’

A barbershop and a CBD store in downtown Warrior. (Sarah Whites-Koditschek | Swhites-Koditschek@al.com)

The expansion of the church has some local residents wondering what comes next.

“It’s a free country, you know what I’m saying?” said Chris Raymer, owner of the CBD shop in downtown Warrior. “The one thing that worries a lot of the residents is, ‘What’s his plans?’”

“The biggest thing is, just say what you plan to do, but don’t keep it in the dark.”

Pam Sutton, who owns a tractor supply store and several other buildings downtown, said she’s open to what Church International might do to help improve Warrior.

“They have a vision, and nobody has had a vision for a very long time,” she said.

Jaqui Clout opened her tattoo shop in Warrior, her husband’s hometown, earlier this year. She said she would like to see Warrior grow, maybe add some art galleries, restaurants, a pub, and something for kids to do. Instead, she said she is concerned the church could cut into the city’s resources by buying up properties that will no longer generate tax dollars.

“Pretty much anybody that lives in this area that isn’t really a part of the church is wondering why,” she said. “They have been secretive.”

Jaqui Clout is the owner of Angry Goat Tattoo Co. in Warrior. (Sarah Whites-Koditschek | Swhites-Koditschek@al.com)

When an AL.com reporter and videographer went to the church for comment, a security guard asked them to leave the parking lot. The man followed their car around Warrior until the videographer confronted him on camera in a restaurant parking lot. The reporter filed a report with the Warrior Police Department to document the incident, which the security guard and AL.com videographer filmed. Police did not respond to a request for comment about the status of the report.

In court records recently filed in the state’s lawsuit, Robin D. Bullock says the church plans to establish a center for victims of domestic abuse and to prevent local property from being used for abortion services.

In the filing, Jauregui wrote that the church also plans to turn Warrior into a “visionary model – a City on a Hill – that distills and integrates the ministry’s Christian message across society.”

Typical Sunday

Robin D. Bullock has said he visited heaven multiple times and witnessed God creating the world.

The Bullocks have claimed to have accurately prophesied or seen visions of the coronavirus, Hunter Biden’s laptop, earthquakes in Turkey and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s downfall.

During church services broadcasted on social media, the Bullocks preach their interpretation of biblical teachings and other personal values — anti-abortion, pro-America, anti-LGBTQ rights, and support of Israel.

Church International is an independent Protestant church. Their unorthodox approach has drawn questions online and in the media.

The Rick & Bubba Show even did a segment in June about Church International entitled “Is this church a cult?,” in which Rick Burgess warned: “Any time somebody shows up on the scene and claims to be a modern day prophet, that’s red flag No. 1.”

While the Bullocks now find themselves the leaders of a church with national reach, Church International has been around for more than three decades. The couple first opened it as a youth ministry in Warrior.

They lead the church with their three adult children and a large worship team, among other volunteers.

Many services, held three to four times a week, stretch on for hours. A broadcast called “The Eleventh Hour,” designated for music and Robin D.’s prophecies, is every Tuesday.

They end each service with the phrase, “God is absolutely good.”

Some former members say the church preys on vulnerable people, urging congregants to pay tithes or face God’s wrath, shaming those who don’t live by the ways of their teaching.

Kate Cagle said she attended the church from about 2010-2019, while her parents served as leaders. In an interview with AL.com in June, she recalled standing on the stage in front of the congregation as Robin D. performed an exorcism on her when she was a teenager.

“He would just scream at you, berate you constantly, until finally you would break down,” Cagle, who is now 20, said. “It was like, ‘You nasty, terrible demon that’s making this kid act so horrible and be so horrible, get out of this child, you’re making this child be terrible and you’re going to make this child go to hell.’ Stuff like that. It was just constant.”

Political leanings

Robin D. Bullock has called it a sin to have voted for or to recognize Joe Biden as the president of the United States. Trump ally Roger Stone said he’s a “fan” of Bullock when the two appeared on a podcast last year to talk about the 2020 election.

In court filings, Bullock, through his attorney, has argued that the state’s investigation is politically motivated.

Jauregui alleged that agent Henken asked witnesses if Bullock met Donald Trump or prayed at Mar-A-Lago, and asked whether church members and staff received COVID-19 vaccines.

“The special agent’s questions about Mr. Trump scarcely mask his liberal political leanings and utter disdain for Mr. Trump and the Republican party,” Jauregui wrote in a court filing, adding that, despite this, the Bullocks led a group prayer to express their “love for, and explicit forgiveness of, Special Agent Henken.” The attorney called it an “unprecedented display of character and Christian devotion.”

Tax-exempt organizations, including churches, are legally barred from engaging in political campaign activities for or against candidates running for public office or engaging in lobbying, per IRS code.

The state has not yet responded to the allegations in court records.

Jason Freeman, a Texas-based attorney, responded on behalf of Robin D. Bullock in a March 17 letter to the state investigator.

“We are concerned that an investigation of Mr. Bullock has been utilized as a vehicle to avoid restrictions against an audit of the church — restrictions that are designed to protect precisely the First Amendment interests that we have expressed.”

Twice Robin

The financial growth of the church since the early 2010s under the Bullocks’ stewardship is unlike their personal financial history over the last 20 years.

The two met in 1977 in Blount County and got married two years later, in their late teens, per a 2018 release from the Bullocks about their new gospel single. Warrior resident Melinda Porter attended high school with the Bullocks. When she was 18, Porter said, she was in a gospel quartet and they often performed at the same venues.

The Bullocks – performing as Twice Robin – went on to win “Duo of the Year” for the Country Christian Music Awards in 2003, as well as a few other industry awards.

Later they started Youth Force Ministries. Porter recalled they held services for local children on Friday and Saturday nights in a small storefront just off Warrior’s Main Street.

The Bullocks expanded their ministry to include a full-fledged church, rebranding as Church International in 1996 and formally becoming a nonprofit with tax exemptions, per incorporation documents. Soon, they moved to a larger building at 420 Thomas St.

Church International’s former church building is located at 420 Thomas St. in Warrior. (Sarah Whites-Koditschek | Swhites-Koditschek@al.com)

From 1987 to 2012, the Bullocks saw financial difficulties. Between the two of them, they faced numerous claims over unpaid bills from medical facilities, banks and loan agencies, according to an AL.com review of more than a dozen lawsuits filed in Alabama courts.

In most of the cases, judges ordered one or both of the Bullocks to pay back the money owed. That totaled nearly $257,000 across the various cases.

In 2010, the couple filed bankruptcy in central Kentucky, reporting almost $39,000 in debt.

Robin R. Bullock also filed for bankruptcy in August of last year, reporting about $35,000 in debt, according to federal court records. In last year’s filing, she reported living in Kentucky “predominantly” for at least the previous six months. Yet during that time period, the Bullocks ran the church in Alabama.

Robin D. Bullock, through his attorney in a July 6 court filing, reported that for “almost all” of his and Robin R.’s time leading Church International “they and their ministry have been financially humble” with an annual operating budget that rarely passed $200,000.

Yet, the church grew and so did its finances.

Last September, timed with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, Church International opened its doors at its biggest home yet to accommodate the growing flock, transforming the former Fred’s Dollar Store and its 100-car parking lot, just behind Warrior City Hall.

‘I was one of them’

Annie Albarado attended Church International for about eight or nine years, serving as a youth pastor and teacher before leaving her hometown church in 2019.

Annie Albarado previously served as a youth pastor at Church International. (Contributed photo)

In a recent phone interview from her home in California, Albarado recalled wheelbarrows rolling down the aisles as church leaders urged congregants to drop in donations.

“The more you gave, the better. I’d watch families give stuff, and they’d give all they have, and they’d have to have faith for the week just to get by,” Albarado said in an interview with AL.com. “Trust me, I was one of them. I know.”

The church bought a $400,000 home — what seemed like a mansion to Albarado, a home now featured on the town’s web site — as the parsonage, where the Bullocks live. The Bullocks spoke of their shopping sprees, Albarado and other former church members said.

Albarado’s daughter, Kate Cagle, grew up at the church. Cagle said she wasn’t allowed to celebrate Halloween or attend an Easter egg hunt – though she never knew why. She had to listen to Christian music and couldn’t watch any TV or movies, or wear anything related to curse words, alcohol, drugs, witches, magic, skulls or anything dead.

“I believed what they were doing was right, and that’s what needed to be done,” Albarado said, adding that the guilt of bringing her two daughters to the church still weighs on her. “I will probably feel guilty about that for the rest of my life.”

Allie Field served on the worship team for five years until leaving Church International in 2019. She said that for years she was afraid to speak about her experiences.

She said when she questioned whether the Bullocks’ teachings lined up with the Bible or inquired about the church’s finances, they told her to find another congregation. She recalled Robin D. telling congregants that if they spoke badly about him or the church, God would make the tires fall off their vehicles while they drove.

“We were all afraid to speak because he would say all the time, ‘Touch not my anointed. Do my prophets no harm,’” Field said. “I think we all just came to a huge realization that they were only using that to keep us silent.”

But others say their lives have been enriched by the church.

Luke Partridge’s Christian music band has led worship at Church International a few times in the past couple of years — most recently during a youth conference in June. He said on recent visits, he counted attendance above 200.

“I have met a lot of people there who are just full of love and they have spoken into me encouraging words,” he told AL.com. “It’s an environment where you can flow in the Lord and not be judged, being called weird or crazy.”

Via the church’s nonprofit, the Bullocks purchased their home at 202 Brake St. for nearly $400,000 in March 2021. (Amanda Khorramabadi | AL.com)

‘Welcome to Warrior’

On Aug. 10, Warrior Mayor Johnny Ragland joined Chief Praytor and the Bullocks to kick off Church International’s “Gathering of Tribal Nations,” a four-day revival for Native Americans. The revival featured a special guest, Duane Chapman, better known as TV’s Dog the Bounty Hunter.

“It’s a blessing to see you folks come together to praise and worship the same God that I praise and worship,” the mayor told the congregation before thanking the Bullocks. “Brother Robin, when he first started this, he told me, ‘You ain’t gonna believe what happens.’”

From left to right: Church International Pastor Robin R. Bullock, prophet Robin D. Bullock, Warrior Mayor Johnny Ragland, and Warrior Police Chief Scott Praytor speak on stage at Church International on Aug. 10, 2023.  (Screenshot from Church International Facebook page)

Ragland’s office did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

Praytor told the crowd that he wanted revival attendees to feel welcome in Warrior. “It’s a godly city. Everything we do is centered around God,” he said, noting the words “In God we trust” written on the city’s police cars.

“Welcome to Warrior, Alabama, the little town that’s shaking the nations,” Robin R. Bullock told the crowd.

Church International sits right behind city hall and the police department. In an interview with AL.com, Praytor spoke of the city’s positive relationship with the church. He’s worried more for the church than about it. He said he fears its online presence could possibly attract an active shooter someday. He’s even reached out to the FBI to discuss the possibility and conducted drills with his officers at the church.

Scott Praytor, a former deputy chief for the Birmingham Police Department, is the police chief in Warrior, Ala. He said he has a good relationship with Church International.  (Sarah Whites-Koditschek | Swhites-Koditschek@al.com)

Robin D. Bullock doesn’t seem to fear any pushback. At a recent service, in between blows on a shofar, a warning about “hordes of homosexual armies” and criticism of global financial leaders, he shared a warning to critics of Church International.

“For you will mock them one too many times out of your mouth and you may not have a mouth to mock with. Do not find yourself on the wrong side of this,” Bullock shouted from the stage. “Witches, witches, witches, back your ass up. Witches, your time is almost up.”