Tag: trinity

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Prominent Christian Influencer Says Belief in Trinity is a Non-Essential Issue

Former megachurch pastor and current church-growth guru Tim Ross has claimed the belief in the Trinity is a non-essential issue and that Trinity-deniers have a “fidelity to Jesus Christ.”

Despite Ross gaining fame as the pastor of Embassy City Church from 2015 to 2022 (and who we recently covered after he claimed it shouldn’t be considered “cheating” on one’s spouse to engage in sexual dancing and being twerked on by a stranger), he got his start at T.D. Jakes’ The Potter’s House, where he claims he was led to attend by the Holy Spirit many years ago.

Ross spent nearly 14 years alongside Jakes, first as a youth evangelist, then the last four years as the young adult pastor, before leaving in 2010. 

Because he later went on to grow his church to megachurch status in just a few short years, Ross has been working on building his church consultant ministry. He now works full-time as a Global Christian Advisor, where he “partners with key influential ministries to help them through speaking, staff development, and direct pastoral consulting to create a safe haven and provide support for pastors and church leaders.”  Some of his clients include Embassy City Church; Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Shoreline City Church in Dallas, Texas; Seeds of Greatness Church in Wilmington, Delaware, and Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas.

In a conversation with Ruslan, Ross explains that Modalism may not be his preference, but that he’ll still “rock” with those who feel differenty.

Ross: So Julie (his wife) and I met at Potter’s House in a youth ministry. We were there for 13 and a half years, I learned a lot, grew a lot over that time. Like, I would not be me if it wasn’t for those 13 years there. I started the last four years as a Young Adult Pastor, after being like a youth evangelist would probably be the best term for it for about three years….the first pastoral role I ever had was at the Potter’s House.

…Like when Bishop Jake’s first got to Dallas, his Wednesday night bible studies have 5,000 people. And he was teaching Oneness Doctrine, like blatantly. Like it was like, you know, ‘if ice is frozen its water. If it’s steam, its water, if its water…’

Ruslan: which is kind of like a Modalist illustration….

Ross: Yeah yeah yeah, right? And so I’m sitting in the back, going ‘you (unintelliegabe) on that.’ I don’t agree. I’ve always been Trinitarian, right? So, but it wasn’t like, ‘I have to leave this church! This dude’s a heretic.’

It was like, it was ‘no, this community was poppin’. Like, I was learning. I was growing. And there was some stuff, even in my 20 year old mind-I wasn’t 20 years old, but in my 20- that I was like ‘Ehhhh no. I’m not amen-ing that, but I still rock with you.” You know what I mean? People be leaving over crazy stuff right now.

Ruslan: Do you think that is an essential?…Would you say the doctrine of the Trinity is an essential doctrine for like Orthodox Christianity?

Ross: I would say I feel better with the Trinitarian perspective and doctrine. And I’ll also say I can hold the tension of somebody that doesn’t hold that doctrine, and still be able to appreciate their fidelity to Jesus Christ.”

Bonus: Interesting backround on Elephant Room and Jakes’ Modalism:

In 2011, Jakes was invited to the Elephant Room. At this roundtable, prominent Christian pastors from different perspectives would be asked hard questions about their beliefs and practices by other well-known pastors. Prior to the event, there were questions about why Jakes should even be invited in the first place, particularly because, as Tim Challies noted, Jakes has shown a “continual reluctance to affirm a standard, time-proven creedal statement of trinitarian orthodoxy and that he has often used the language of modalism.” Phil Johnson was more direct, writing:

“A self-styled “bishop”—notorious for his love of money, who teaches a false prosperity gospel, who freely shills for every aberration on TBN, who was ordained in a Sabellian denomination, who has been confronted repeatedly about his anti-trinitarianism, who refuses to renounce modalism, who declines to embrace any standard expression of Trinitarian conviction, and who (on top of all that) is unclear on practically every doctrine germane to the gospel—such a figure should not be warmly welcomed into evangelical circles and given the platform at an evangelical conference as if we’re confident that he is a solid brother with good intentions.”

Then the big day hit. Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald played the fool by lobbing a couple of softball questions his way that didn’t go nearly enough into any needed specificity. It was pathetic and crushingly dissapointing. Jakes was not pressed but treated with kid gloves before being declared a brother. In this way, Driscoll and MacDonald were co-conspirators in the Great Evangelical Coverup that gave the prosperity-preaching heretic the respectability of orthodoxy that was trumpeted all across the evangelical landscape, from The Christian Post to Christianity Today.

To this day, everyone believes that Jakes embraced and affirmed the Trinity at the Elephant Room, yet nothing could be further from the truth. It’s revisionist history. He left the event affirming a belief and acceptance of the Trinity, which garnered the big headline, so long as he could define Trinitarian “persons” (which he said was the language he was ‘uncomfortable’ with) as “manifestations.” This is a distinction with a damning difference, because a ‘person’ is not a ‘manifestation’. Using the same methods that Mormons use, Jakes was more than happy to affirm any point of doctrine, so long as he could pour his own definitions and understanding into them. Following this, gullible Christians oblivious of his sleight of hand and stubborn recalcitrance cheered him for his newfound doctrinal fidelity, and the rest is history.

In 1998, The Potter’s House doctrinal statement read, “God-There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three Manifestations: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

Then for a short time, also before the Elephant Room, it was changed to read: “THREE DIMENSIONS OF ONE GOD. . . . Triune in His manifestation, being both Father, Son and Holy Ghost AND that He is Sovereign and Absolute in His authority. We believe in the Father who is God Himself, Creator of the universe. (Gen. 1:1; John 1:1).”

Several years after the Elephant Room, it reverted to the 1998 statements, changing the capitalizations of ‘manifestation,’ which it has remained ever since.



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T.D. Jakes Called out for Welcoming Pro-Choice Politician Beto O’Rourke at The Potter’s House

(Church Leaders) America’s famous bishop T.D. Jakes has come under fire for welcoming Democratic nominee for Texas governor Beto O’Rourke to The Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, this past Sunday (Oct. 23).

The politician thanked Jakes on Twitter, saying, “It was an honor to be welcomed into The Potter’s House by Bishop T.D. Jakes. Thank you for having me at this morning’s service in Dallas.”

O’Rouke, the 50-year-old former Texas U.S. House of Representatives (2013-2019), is campaigning against current Texas governor, Greg Abbott (64), in this year’s November election.

O’Rouke is known for his extreme pro-abortion policy stances and is making abortion one of the top issues of his campaign, attacking Abbott’s pro-life stance and…to continue reading, click here.

Editor’s Note. This article was written by Jesse T. Jackson and published at Church leaders. Title changed by Protestia.

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Trinity-Denier TD Jakes Ending Famed Conference after 25 Years

Famed Trinity-denier TD Jakes is ending his ‘Woman Thou Art Loosed’ conference after 25 years, holding his final event on Sept. 22-24, 2022. The event, which has drawn over half a million people, was supposed to have its last year in 2022, but the pandemic thwarted those plans until now. According to the promo material;

“What Bishop T.D. Jakes started as Sunday school lessons at his church in West Virginia in 1992 has transformed into one of the nation’s most riveting women’s conferences. Through the years, Bishop Jakes has “loosed” multitudes of women from the shackles of abandonment, low self-esteem, addiction, and more to become victorious, secure women. “

Jakes held the first Women, Thou Art Loosed! conference in 1996 after discovering the impact his Bible study message had on women. Over the years, he claims he’s seen “breakthroughs in thousands of women ” because of it. As to why he’s ending things now; he told EEW:

“Women are taking leadership. They’re moving in positions of power. They’re being healed emotionally and spiritually. Now it’s time to talk about some other things that need to happen.

“We’re losing our men. We’re losing our sons. We’ve got all kinds of crazy stuff happening in our country right now, and I need to free my hands from what I used to do so that I can have availability to focus on the ways that I can best contribute now.”

We’ve recently written about Jakes when he noted how he disgraces his wife with his twerking comments, joined Joel Osteen for a conference where tickets cost $1000.00 , and known to frequently wear insanely expensive designer shoes, clothes and watches, that cost more than many of his congregants make in a year.

Jakes, who has continued to be platformed by those at the Christian Post and Charisma News, has gone on record saying he doesn’t believe that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity but rather is just a “manifestation” of God. In fact, even now, his church website reads, “There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three manifestations:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

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More Modalism? Pastor Mike Todd Says The Father is God 1.0, Jesus is God 2.0, and the Holy Ghost is God 3.0

Three weeks ago, a new video came to light featuring Transformation Church’s Lead Pastor Michael Todd preaching modalism, using vats of water, ice, and dry ice to show that in the same way these are all “expressions” of H₂O, just in a different form, so are the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost “expressions” of God.

Todd is known for crowd surfing during his church’s worship service and spending a lot of money. In the last two years, he’s given away $3,500,000 in houses, cash, and cars, spent $65,000 to buy 168 pairs of shoes, gave $600,000 away in “reparations” and purchased a real estate complex for over $20,000,000, and then another for $35,000,000. He also gave away a million dollars in a recent sermon series.

He’s also known for frequently appearing on Preachers n Sneakers Instagram account for wearing insanely expensive clothing and for giving the world perhaps the grossest illustration in church after he snorted and then hocked a loogie full of spit and snot into his hand and rubbed it in another man’s face.

In a newly unearthed video from his April 18, 2021 sermon Why Wouldn’t You Accept The Upgrade, Todd continues in his quest to explain the Trinity in the worse way possible, likening the Holy Spirit to an upgrade you might get for your phone- why wouldn’t you trade in the iPhone 6 for an iPhone 12- and comparing the godhead to software that you might need an upgrade for, where the Father is God version 1.0, Jesus is God 2.0, and the Holy Ghost is God 3.0

Why wouldn’t you accept the upgrade? Why? Why wouldn’t I have all of this power available to me all, of this help available to me? Because somebody said it was weird? Because somebody abused that the term before? Because you were never taught about it?

I have a burden to help you experience God 3.0. See, a lot of people don’t realize that there’s three versions of God, and when you talk about an operating system, it just makes sense to me in my mind. Most of us recognize God. Most of us have loaded up the operating system of God. We say ‘You know what? I recognize him’ But it is my goal at Transformation Church, we represent God to the lost and found, for one reason- that’s transformation in Christ.

What we want you to do is not just recognize that there is a big man upstairs, we want you to recognize there’s a God, but we want you to receive God 2.0, which is Jesus. So at the end of every service, in just a moment, I’m gonna give you an opportunity to receive Jesus. And once you receive Jesus, the sad truth is, this is where most people stop. They just worry about getting to heaven. And God said, ‘but I came, that you may have life and life to the full.’ And through this series, my prayer is that you would release God 3.0. You would release the Holy Spirit.

h/t to @KriskDubtru for the link

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Pastor Mike Todd of Transformation Church Teaches Heretical View of Trinity

Earlier in the week, Tony Evans appeared at the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention and engaged in the heresy of Modalism by describing the Trinity as a Pretzel. Pastor Mike Todd of Transformation church has joined the fray- giving an even worse analogy and illustration of what the Trinity is while continuing to show he has no business leading or teaching anyone.

Transformation Church’s Lead Pastor Michael Todd is known for crowd surfing during his church’s worship service and spending a lot of money. In the last two years, he’s given away $3,500,000 in houses, cash, and cars, spent $65,000 to buy 168 pairs of shoes, gave $600,000 away in “reparations” and purchased a real estate complex for over $20,000,000, and then another for $35,000,000. He also gave away a million dollars in a recent sermon series.

He’s also known for frequently appearing on Preachers n Sneakers Instagram account for wearing insanely expensive clothing and for giving the world perhaps the grossest illustration in church after he snorted and then hocked a loogie full of spit and snot into his hand and rubbed it in another man’s face.

Now, in a teaching video, Mike Todd uses vats of water, ice, and dry ice to show that in the same way these are all “expressions” of H₂O, just in a different form, so are the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost “expressions” of God.

This assertion is commonly known as the heresy of Modalism, a doctrine of demons if there ever was one, where all three members of the Godhead are not understood to be three distinct persons but rather expressions of one being, rather than three modes or manifestations.

Amusingly, he ends up teaching an even worse heresy than Modalism because the chemical composition of dry ice is not H₂O but rather CO₂, which is two carbon atoms bonded to one oxygen atom, unlike the one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms of steam, water, and ice. He explains:

It’s one God- everybody say ‘one God’. Say like you mean it ‘one God, three expressions. Okay, let me. What is this? It’s water. That’s what we say, but if you want to be very scientific, this is H₂O. Okay, this is H₂O. Let me ask you a different question…We established this is H₂O.

What is this? (Congregants: Ice.) You say ‘ice’. If we go down to its basic form, this is H₂O. Now, it’s in a different form than the liquid version, but…this is a different expression. So when your drink is too warm, you don’t put more water in it -it’s H₂O- but you put a different expression of H₂O into your drink. And we call it ‘ice.’

What is this? This is H₂O too. It’s dry ice, and it’s a different expression. So if that was God the Father, God the Son, this is God the Holy Spirit. Still H₂O. But it takes on a completely different form.

And this is what God is about to do in your life. You’re about to see evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit. Still God, still, still, still God. Still God. Still God. God the Father, God the Son, and God help me the Holy-

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. James 3:1

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Tony Evans Preaches Heretical View of the Trinity at SBC Convention. ‘God is like a Pretzel’

Tony Evans appeared at the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention in order to promote racial reconciliation via his new “Unify Project” initiative” along with developing a “Kingdom Race Mindset.” In his bid for Christian unity, he ended up preaching a very heretical view of the Trinity.

Evans appearing to speak at the conference for any reason shows the drift of the denominational leaders who thought his presence was a good idea. He is not a Southern Baptist, but instead is a dangerous social justice warrior who affirms and supports Critical Race Theory and recently was seen espousing standpoint theory when he capitalized on the color of his skin to sow seeds of discord in American evangelicalism by encouraging the racist, divisive protests against the Dove Awards.

Furthermore, this man is a rank heretic. Evans’ heresies include (but are not limited to) Pelagianism (the denial of original sin), Inclusivism (you don’t have to be a Christian to be saved), and Limited Theism (the denial of God’s omnipotence).

Last year when he was the keynote speaker for the Southern Baptist Conventions’ (SBC) Send Conference, he told the crowd that he would be “lynched” if he ever became President of the Southern Baptist Convention, playing into tropes that the SBC is rife with racists and white supremacists for a laugh.

In any case, there is scarcely an analogy for the Trinity that is not terrible and troublesome. Christian philosopher William Lane Craig famously sought to describe the Trinity as the three-headed beast Cerberus. Other attempts involve explaining the Trinity as a three-leaf clover, like water (with solid, liquid, and gas), like an egg (with the shell, white stuff, and yolk), or like the sun with its light and heat.

All these examples inevitably involve some form of heresy, whether it be Modalism (Like TD Jakes) Sabellianism, Patripassianism, Noetianism, Tritheism, Subordinationalism, Arianism, or Partialism, the latter which Evans proffers when he describes the Trinity like a Pretzel with three holes that are not the same, but all made of the same dough.

“1 Peter 3:7 says if the husband and wife are in discord, the prayers of the husband are hindered. Where there is illegitimate disunity, God will not respond because of his unified Trinitarian nature. One God composed of three coequal persons who is one in essence, while being distinct in personhood, like a pretzel with three holes.

The first hole is not the second hole, the second one is not the third hole, but they all tie together by the same dough, divine nature. When God cannot be involved and be himself, the unified person that he is, his presence, glory, power, and provision will not be felt in that context.”

Ht/ to The Dissenter.

Come on Patrick!

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Pastrix Michelle Higgins Instructs Congregants to Reveal Personal Pronouns Before They Can Speak at Pulpit

Michelle Higgins, the senior “pastrix” of Saint John’s Church (United Church of Christ) continues to leave us vexed but unsurprised at the blasphemously progressive way she’s running her new church goat pen, this time with a series of proverbial open-handed slaps to the face of Jesus. This is being done while flying David Hammons’ Pan-African Flag, whose colors according to Black Art in America “are representative, as the red is for the blood, the black is for the people, and the green is for the natural wealth of the Motherland, Africa,” in the background.

A Prophet Gets Misgendered?

To kick things off, Higgins insists on using a unique pronunciation for the prophet Joel, proffering in her opening salvo:

My name is Michelle, I’m the pastor here. And I want to just give us some kind of grounding and opportunity for us to join together in the Word of God. So if you have your Bible app, if you have a Bible in front of you, we’re going to go to the book of Joelle, the prophet Joelle.

Now some of us just pronounced it ‘Joel.’ And that’s alright too. That’s alright (unintelligeble).  We love you anyway. I’m not trying to shade nobody. If you go to the second chapter, this actually chapters one, verse thirteen. We have an opportunity today, beloved, to lament so many spaces where Faith is the center.”

No word yet if she insists on calling the book of John “The book of Joanna,” but over the course of the scattered, aimless “sermon” she repeatedly calls the prophet “Joelle.” We’ll assume she’s just using some esoteric pronunciation rather than misgendering based on her well-established pro-queer ideology, but you really never know.

Everyone Must Reveal Personal Pronouns When Introducing Themselves in Church

After a brief scripture reading, several people come up to the front to share what the verse meant to them, with Higgins instructing them to give their personal pronouns before they speak. (Apologies for the video quality: the original feed itself was choppy.)

“Morning beloved community. My name is Andrew I use he/him pronouns….”

“Good morning. My name is Elisa. I use the ‘she’ series…”

“Hi, I’m Maggie, I’m she/her pronouns. Yeah, it’s interesting that…”

and the best:

“Good morning. My name is Heidi. she, her, whatever, I don’t know. I don’t do the pronoun things. I’m too old for that. My name is Heidi. (Editor’s Note: Hahahahahaha…)

Offer Prayers and/ Or “Positive vibes”

Pastrix Higgins forgets she is in a Christian church rather than at a festival for bygone hippies and pagans, telling the congregants:

If there are any prayer requests that people want to quickly shout out and I’ll say them from the microphone. I’ll give you all items to pray over. Or if you are up the tradition of sending positive vibes, hopes and wishes for well-being you are welcome to do that as well.

More Queer Trinity Talk

Higgins reiterates her belief that the Trinity is queer:

We believe that the body of Jesus is that forever and ever, but we believe that God is three persons. Now I invite you to email me and talk to me about my trinitarianism. Let me assure you that I’m a little more ‘the Trinity is kind of queer,’ more so ‘the Trinity will strip you negative, hang you upside down unless you believe exactly what I believe.’

Again, this woman is one-third of the podcasting trio The Truth’s Table that is lauded and platformed as an orthodox, excellent resource for faithful Christians. Higgins shares the mic with co-hosts Christina Edmondson (wife of Mika Edmondson, whose always ragging on the SBC) and Ekimini Uwan. They know exactly who she is. They know how deep the rabbit role of blasphemy goes, and all parties affirm her as a sister in Christ.

This should naturally lead you to ask: can you trust the parties that hold up her?

You all know what we think. Or at least you should by now…

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Surprise! Jenna Ellis’ Replacement for Controversial ‘Christian’ Conference is Another Trinity Denier, Bringing Total to 4

With the news that Jenna Ellis has left the lineup of the controversial ‘America’s Revival’ conference, an event so rife with bad theology, character defects, and misguided spirituality and purpose that it’ll be the closest thing to the Christian version of the Fyre Festival there will ever likely be, organizer Johsua Feuerstein had to find a replacement.

By all accounts, the conference is still on and set for this weekend. Looking high and low, they found a replacement minister to fill Jenna’s slots: Pastor Anwar Fazal of Eternal Life Ministries.

Described as ‘Pakistan’s Benny Hinn,’ Fazal has worn the moniker like a badge of honor, having spent years putting on massive healing crusades and engaging in the same form of charismatic tomfoolery that Hinn has. He’s claimed to have healed tens of thousands of people from AIDS, cancer, blindness, deafness, back backs, short legs, and other incurable illnesses. In fact, Fazal considers Hinn a good friend, having done events together in partnership.

Unsurprisingly, he also denies the Trinity, making him the 4th speaker at this event to do so. From his ministry website

In standard Oneness Pentecostal flair, Jesus is not a separate person of the Godhead, rather he is just a manifestation of the Father. The Holy Spirit is likewise not God, but rather only a manifestation of God. They are not co-equal, but rather the Father is it, and he merely presents himself as Jesus of the Holy Ghost for narrative purposes

As an incidental, along with the usual ‘all Christians must be baptized in the Holy Spirit with the gift of tongues being the evidence” nonsense, he has a unique view on the scriptures which is idiosyncratic enough to be mentioned in the way it specifically keys in on the new testament alone.

4 out of 9 speakers at this conference are Trinity-deniers and at least two of the men that aren’t are unrepentant rogues with explosively troubling personal lives. And they think they can bring Revival to America?

The only thing they are going to bring is more judgment upon themselves, and we don’t wish that fate upon anyone.

Bonus:

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Charismatic Prophetess Explains the Trinity – with Disastrous Results

Kat Kerr, our favorite pink-haired, mainstream-continuationist, spunky charismatic meme-bot and “Dr. Michael Brown-approved prophetess” has given us a fresh round of “revelation” about heaven.

Appearing on Episode 20 of Wednesdays with Kat and Steve,” chief enabler Steve Shultz of the Elijah List asks her about the Trinity and what it means to be part of the Godhead. She responds with a brief explanation the personhood of God and then things get wild. Really Wild.

In the upper room in Israel, I saw the portal the Holy Spirit came to when he put the tongues of fire on those waiting [for him] and they were asking to be consumed by the Spirit of God. So Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity and He stands to the left side of the throne. There’s even like a well of oil called ‘the oil of the Holy Spirit’ that He takes and pours on people, sometimes it comes out of bibles – those things really do happen right – so there’s three individual Gods, they’re all God, but the reason He’s called the “three in one” is because they have the ability to step inside of each other.”

And the way the Father explained to me was He caught me up to heaven, I saw the Father sitting on his throne. There’s Christ sitting at His right side there’s the Holy Spirit on the left, and He said ‘now we will be the three in one.’

Jesus stands up and steps totally inside of his Father – you can’t see Him anymore, He’s in the Father. Holy Spirit comes and steps inside the Father and the Father goes ‘now we’re the three in one.’ It is that simple.

Steve: “That’s a literal thing? That’s not a symbolic picture? They literally did that?”

That literally happens. And even in the bible when Jesus would say to the Father ‘Me in You and You in Me, I desire that they that talks about the body of Christ be one as We are one,’ because when you go to heaven you can step inside the Father, Jesus steps inside the Father and Holy Spirit steps inside the Father and then you’re all there together.

It’s an amazing thing and you have more understanding of the spirit realm, you have a spiritual body, and so they as God, they are the Godhead, they each have a head, they’re three individual Gods, and they step inside to become the ‘three in one,’ the Holy Trinity.

And so that’s the best explanation. That’s exactly the one the Father gave me. I understood clearly and then of course the Holy Spirit steps out, Christ stepped out when I’m standing before the throne of God. He said now we are Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is so simple a 5-year-old can understand that.

[Editor’s note: It sounds more like a 5-year-old made it up…]

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Judah Smith and Churchome Bring on Trinity-Denier T.D Jakes as Board Member

Pastors Judah and Chelsea Smith of Churchome, a hip-to-be-cool, celebrity-endorsed 10,000 member megachurch, further cemented their theological obliviousness by bringing on Trinity-denying Modalist T. D. Jakes as a Board Member of their congregation, effective January 1, 2021.

The Seattle-based church, spread across its five locations in Washington State and California, joins other celebrity preachers like now-disgraced Carl Lentz and Elevation Church’s Steven Futick in having very close ties with the “Jesus is a manifestion of God” Pentecostal Bishop. They made the announcement on their website, writing:

Bishop TD Jakes has been in church leadership for more than 40 years, and is the founder and senior pastor of The Potter’s House Church. He has been in relationship with Churchome since 2006. 

One of the world’s most revered faith leaders, his passion to bring people together is evident over his decades of ministry. He is an inspiration in matters of reconciliation and racial diversity. The wisdom of his collective experience leading people to Jesus, and instinct to serve others in areas beyond the church brings invaluable leadership to the Churchome board.


It is not a supremely surprising move, given that both men have had close ties for years, speaking at conferences together and even at each other’s churches.

By way of a brief profile, the Smiths are about as seeker-sensitive and biblically compromised as they come. They live in a multi-million dollar home and have a penchant for Gucci luxury clothes, where a single outfit can cost upwards of $ 5000$. They count Justin Bieber as one of their members and let him occasionally lead worship, with theoerotic songs like Reckless Love being a mainstay.

He frequently tweets stupid, unbiblical things like this, clearly having no knowledge of Acts 10:38, 2 Corinthians 5:10, John 5:22, 27, and other scriptures.

He is, by all accounts, emblematic of the skinny-jeans-wearing soyboy pastors that breed effemininity and are a blight on the church today.

As for where the couple stands on abortion and LGBT issues, more unbiblical, cagey, waffling garbage abounds. In a long-form article in Marie Claire that is worth the read, writer Jennifer Swann quickly zeroes in on the ethos of the couple.

Regarding his 2005 comments on abortion, (where he preached against it) Judah says (through his publicist), ‘We have grown significantly in the past 15 years. I wouldn’t agree with my approach when I was a young pastor on many issues and understand that no life decision is easy. We hope to be a loving home for humanity, no matter what someone has experienced.’

When I ask Chelsea what she would say to a member of her congregation considering an abortion, she is quick to clarify that, unlike a priest, a pastor—at least at Churchome—isn’t meant to provide counsel. ‘We know what we’re good at, which is the Bible and Jesus and telling His story. And we know what we’re not good at. There are amazing trained professional psychologists and counselors [for that].’

That’s why, on the Churchome Global app, the Smiths titled a section of videos ‘Question and Response’ rather than ‘Question and Answer.’

Throughout the two days we spend together, Chelsea has few answers for me. So I call her up a few weeks later to ask more questions: What is Churchome’s position on LGBTQ members, for example? ‘Every individual is entitled to their own persuasion, and it’s not our job to persuade. It’s just our job to proclaim. They feel just as loved and welcome and a part of our community,’ Chelsea says.

Have Judah’s views on homosexuality changed since 2005? ‘We are a church who love and welcome people regardless of their beliefs or background,’ he says. Would Churchome be open to having a gay pastor? After a long pause, Chelsea says, ‘We are very much in the category of “We love everybody. God is for everybody. And God’s heart is for people.” So our hearts are for people, and that is where we land, absolutely.’


Having TD Jakes on their church board, as bad as that is, is clearly the least of their problems.