‘If you leave the church you will go to hell’: Veteran scammed by House of Prayer shares his story

HINESVILLE, Ga. (WTOC) - The House of Prayer Christian Church has long been under scrutiny from federal authorities and former members who describe it as both a ‘scam’ and a ‘cult’.

According to federal indictment from earlier this month the church scammed more than $3 million in veteran education benefits for its Georgia locations and more than $23.5 million for all five of its locations.

Words that play over and over in Gregory Ward’s mind since he says he made the decision to leave the House of Prayer Christian Church in 2018.

“They closed us out from the world, we didn’t know anything that was going on,” said Ward.

In 2008, Gregory Ward enlisted into the United States Army, stationed at Fort Hood in Texas.

Before his first deployment, he says the House of Prayer location in Texas invited him to service, but it wasn’t until he got back from Iraq that he really got involved.

“I deployed for a year and when I came back I really got sucked in,” said Ward.

Ward says the church pressured him into leaving the military and getting deeper involved with the ministry, but he says involvement costed him his sanity, his savings and ultimately his veteran benefits.

“It’s tore me up mentally, I am still trying to recover from that,” said Ward.

Ward says the church enrolled him into bogus bible classes that were non-transferable and not accredited in order to receive funding from his GI bill.

“It was made up of classes by them, so I can’t use them to this day,” said Ward.

The non-profit group Veterans Education Success has introduced the Student Veteran Benefit Restoration Act of 2025 to help victims like Ward retrieve benefits that were scammed from them.

“Those are earned benefits, they worked for them through service and they should be able to get a productive outcome,” said William Hubbard, Veteran’s Education Success.

As the law stands now, once a service member like Ward uses their GI bill, it’s gone and they can’t get it back— except for rare cases.