Popoff's operation had functioned as a religious nonprofit until 2006, when it merged with a small church in Farmers Branch, Texas called Word for the World, which operated out of a storefront. By being classified as a church, the operation no longer had to report annual income or salary to the IRS. When a reporter from "GQ" attempted to visit this church on a Sunday morning in late 2016, he found a deserted parking lot in an industrial park with no church sign visible on the outside.