Good Lord, dude…. (no pun intended).
If you’re familiar with the “heavy hitters” of Evangelical Christianity so to speak, you’re undoubtedly familiar Pastor Steven Furtick. And even if you’re not familiar with him or his church, if you’re a Christian that listens to Christian contemporary music… you probably have some Elevation Worship on your “Jams for Jesus” playlist. Along with churches like Hillsong and Bethel… they’re leading the pack when it comes to worship music.
Steven Furtick is the relatively controversial lead pastor of Elevation Church, a multi-campus megachurch based in Charlotte, North Carolina, with an weekly congregation of over 14,000. Why is he controversial? A handful of reasons, mainly being that he’s super rich, lives in a big ol’ massive mansion, and generally waters down the Gospel message to make it more likeable to people who aren’t familiar with the faith. An example? They recently received some backlash for actively not wanting to use the word “resurrection” in their Easter Sunday materials (not the sermon itself, but their social media, handouts, flyers, etc…) because it might be confusing or weird to a non-believer.
He’s also been accused, perhaps admittedly, of only chasing “numbers,” AKA new converts, and not “feeding the flock.” In a sermon from quite a few years back, he said told his congregation that “if you know Jesus, I’m sorry to break it to you, this church is not for you.” Ask any numbers of pastors across the country and you’ll find problems with that statement.
And on top of all the doctrinal issues, I’ll just say it… the dude is an absolute cornball who acts like more of a rockstar hype man than a pastor.
Just watch this clip of him telling people to stand up and stay faithful, even though times are tough and the money is “bad right now.”
@stevenfurtickI know the money is really bad right now and the car isn’t new, but stand up! I know it doesn’t look good right now and you can’t figure it out, but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk! Get up and worship! Get up and move forward!♬ original sound – stevenfurtick
In light of that little speech, let’s check out his latest controversy… wearing a $2,000 dollar Givenchy sweater to Easter Sunday. Pastor Furtick donned this pink sweater on Easter Sunday, and according to Neiman Marcus, it’ll run you 2 Gs to look like this. You know, just 2 and a half weeks salary for a number of people in this country.
And needless to say, people aren’t happy with it. And I’m no just talking about those who despise the Christian faith as nothing more than grifters and crooks, I’m talking about fellow Christians (myself included) who say “this ain’t it, man.”
A number of people comments on one of his most recent X posts about being humble:
Others, perhaps rightfully, claimed that the $2,000 sweater isn’t even the biggest problem:
But hey, go ahead and watch the sermon and draw your own conclusions:
