Was Sean Feucht’s Viral Story About His Guitar Thief Being Saved All a LIE?
Over the summer, prominent worship leader Sean Feucht was the victim of a smash and grab where someone broke into his car and stole an “irreplaceable guitar. Feucht lamented the crime, prayed for justice, put the word out on the street, and was rewarded for his efforts when his prized guitar was recovered undamaged and unharmed days later after being found in a pawn shop where it had been hocked for drug money.
He revealed that a local evangelist was doing street ministry when he ran into “Zach,” who confessed to his crimes after being “wrecked by God’s love.” This man showed Zach videos of Feucht leading worship, prompting him to repent & ask forgiveness.
Zach attended Feucht’s concert a month later, where in front of thousands of people, he publicly reconciled with Feucht and gave his life to Jesus, being baptized later in the evening.
Feucht explained it this way in an interview with Church Leaders:
“I forgave him, we hugged, it’s all in the video, and then he said he wanted to give his life to Jesus. He wanted to be free from drug addiction. He wanted to surrender and so they led him to Jesus, and then he said he wanted to get baptized and so he was got baptized last night.
Oh my gosh, I’m just over the moon. You know, God always writes the best stories. He’s not just the author, but he’s the finisher of our faith, and how that story finished was just so mind-boggling.”
It’s a wonderful tale of miracles, providence and grace, but did God write that story, or was it fabricated Feucht and his team?
It’s the latter, according to Aaron Hedge of RANGE Media who published an article painting a very different picture than what the worship leader (who has a reputation of stretching the truth) put out.
Hedge located Zach Williams, the homeless thief who has been on the street since he was ten years old, and consented to an interview. Williams does not co-sign all the viral content he’s been featured in and openly repudiates it, insisting that he’s not a Christian and that he was only baptized so the people who were pressuring him and stressing him about it would stop and leave him alone.
He does not dispute that he stole the guitar but says conviction and a change of heart have little to do with it. Instead, evangelist Dean McCarty, a local part of On Fire Ministry who has close connections ministering to the city’s downtown core where the theft occurred, asked around and located Williams, who he convinced to return the guitar in exchange for a $110 reward that was offer by Gavan Spies, a member of TPUSA Faith who helped organize the concert.
Williams accepted this reward even though he thought he could have received more money by selling the instrument. Why did Williams accept this sum when he could have kept his mouth shut and been richer?
“Because I thought it would be good,” he said. “I thought it would be the right thing.”
It was Spies who told Feucht that his guitar was found and would soon be returned, but somewhere in that process, communication broke down, and Feucht mistakenly (if we’re being charitable) misread that it was found in a pawn shop, rather than it was NOT found in a pawn shop, and that is what he told everyone.
After being corrected by Spies about where it came from, folling his tweets about it, Feucht texted back,”‘LOL, I got it all screwed up.’… It all got straightened out because it was all just a goofy mix-up.”
Yet Feucht never corrected the record either that it was “traded in for dope” and then “wound up in pawn shop.” There was no follow-up clarification. In fact, when Feucht appeared on Fox News to tell of this miraculous incident, he also did not correct the news anchor who reported the false story, despite previously acknowledging it’s a falsity.
With the concert about to take place, Feucht expressed his belief that the greatest way to end this miraculous story isn’t that he merely got his stolen property back but that the thief would convert and come to saving faith. Feucht asked McCarty if he could locate Williams and get him to come to attend, and he eventually did after a bit of persuasion.
Once word got to Feucht that Williams was there, he was brought on stage where, with cameras rolling, pastor Jay Koopman said of him, “He reminds me of me. Because I was stealing and doing drugs, but I wanted to get my life right. Many of you may not know, but Zach’s the one that actually took Sean’s guitar.”
Williams, who looked uncomfortable and unsmiling the whole time, is shown in a widely circulated video giving his life to God and then later being baptized.
Speaking to RANGE, Williams denied having converted, saying, “Definitely not.” He also said being onstage was unpleasant. “It kind of made me feel … like I was being showboated. I didn’t know the dude. I don’t like being touched by people, especially if I don’t know them. It’s just weird.”
Williams described what happened next, which was not depicted in the video: “I walked offstage and there was a group of people that surrounded me, and this big fat dude came up to me and he’s like, ‘Hey, can I touch you?’ And I was like, ‘Why?’ And then he puts his hands on me, and I’m like, ‘Okay, you’re touching me now.’ And then he proceeded to tell me that he’s not doing anything, he’s not doing anything, and he pushes me. And he says, ‘That was God!’”
The group offered to bring Williams to a treatment center but he refused, saying he didn’t wnat to stop using drugs and wasnt ready to quit them.
“Williams said the group then asked if he would get baptized, the Christian ritual in which sinners’ unclean past is washed away as they are dunked in water and they are born anew. “I’m like, ‘No, I don’t want to get baptized right now.’”
Williams said they replied, “Oh, c’mon, man, you gotta get baptized.”
Williams said he again refused, but that they continued to pressure him.
“And they kept on doing it for like 15, 20 minutes, begging me to get baptized, and I’m like, ‘Fuck, okay, let’s go do it.’”
Following the baptism, Williams went back to life as usual; stealing, doing drugs, and surviving on the streets. It was a strange night, but nothing that had any lasting impact or effect. While McCarty occasionally checks in on him, Williams says no one from the local church that sponsored the event and sent the team to baptize him has been in contact. He also didn’t know that the video of him getting “saved” and baptized was being recorded and broadcast to the world.
Despite Williams’ continued life as a pagan and lost soul, Feucht continues to spread lies and misinformation, writing a month after the fact that subsequent to his salvation and baptism, Williams is three weeks sober, staying with a family in the church, and is “now ministering and saving souls on the same streets.”
He’s not.
Williams is still homeless, still regularly uses fentanyl, and does not consider himself a Christian. He certainly doesn’t go evangelizing, nor does he minister in others in any spiritual sense.
Feucht’s handling and portrayal has also frustrated McCarty, who wonders why the prominent leader continues to spin this yarn
McCarty correctly suspected that Williams did not accept Jesus on that stage and criticized Feucht for exaggerating the tale. “You’re stretching it to make a story, and you’re full of crap,” McCarty said, pretending he was speaking to Feucht. “We don’t need to make a show of this deal.”
About Author
We need Justice for David Morrill. We must hold his mother accountable.
David – there’s no excuse for what your mother did to you. Even though we should open our hearts and give the same forgiveness that we were given, we should still keep victims like you in mind.
https://fasdunited.org/donate/
http://www.fasdtrust.co.uk/
https://www.naswfoundation.org/Our-Work/Special-Projects/Fetal-Alcohol-Spectrum-Disorders
Feucht is an ungodly narcissist.
The facts are more believable than the stories of miracles with no proof that are routinely foisted up upon an unsuspecting public.
Yes, God certainly does miracles and he needs no help from man to achieve His ends
Proverbs 23:2