Who is Sean Feucht?

The story of Sean Feucht, a former worship leader of Bethel Church, is complicated. He preaches the gospel, promotes religious liberty, and uses his gravelly, rich voice to God’s glory. His music powerfully draws people to Jesus; his songs swell with passionate praise. These positive qualities, unfortunately, aren’t why we’re considering him today. 

Dr. Ben Carson and Feucht, in a recent interview, talked about David, the King of Israel, and a man after God’s own heart. They aptly considered his shortcomings, to put it mildly—David murdered and committed adultery, yet was used mightily by God. In light of this, that God uses broken people, and surely uses Feucht, we turn our attention to recent alleged moral failings.

Sean Feucht’s story

To provide a quick overview, Feucht is a charismatic singer-songwriter with several popular worship songs and albums, some of which have reached Billboard’s top 50 Christian charts. He also leads revivals across the country, helping people to encounter the Lord in powerful ways. But he also aspires to be more than a musician.

In 2020, he ran on the Republican ticket in California’s third district in the House of Representatives. He was a self-proclaimed activist during the COVID lockdowns, holding outdoor gatherings of worship, often in defiance of local restrictions. He founded “Hold the Line,” a group designed to mobilize young Christians to embrace conservative politics.

In addition to his conservatism, affiliation with the Republican party, and vocal support of President Trump, he is also a self-proclaimed “Christian Nationalist” (although what he means by this term is unclear). We at The Denison Forum have addressed and challenged the movement at length, and will continue to do so as it gains popularity. 

According to some, Fuecht is a de facto leader in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a movement of conservative Charismatic Evangelicals. 

Defining this movement is challenging, but in essence, NAR posits that a necessary way for Christians to “make disciples” is by pursuing an explicitly Christian nation, a theory at odds with America’s separation of Church and State. 

The NAR couches the culture wars and political tension in terms of spiritual warfare, embracing antagonistic language in an already divided partisan landscape. It also tends to equate end-times prophecies with contemporary politics. 

With this background established, let’s turn to the report of his failings. 

A pattern of failures

This summer, several former co-workers of Feucht, some of whom are highly positioned ministry leaders, signed a formal document outlining “longstanding and serious moral, ethical, financial, organizational and governance failures involving Sean (John Christopher) Feucht.” In this document, they reveal financial mismanagement, gaslighting, emotional abuse, and failure to address internal complaints against him. Moreover, they allege he blames victims for any grievance against him. 

This pattern of behavior is, sadly, one that is all too common in celebrity culture. According to Ministry Watch, anyone who brought concerns to Feucht over the years faced “retaliation, threats of litigation, and exclusion from ministry events.”

More than his missteps in ministry leadership, he also seems to idolize hype over truth.

According to one anecdote, during a revival, a “turban-wearing security guard was pulled onstage for an attempted photo op to be posted online as a ‘salvation moment.’” In fact, the man had no conversion, but was only angry and confused at being pulled up on stage in such a, well, staged fashion. 

Feucht has faced some resistance at his various worship tours, especially in Canada. An antifa protester recently rolled a smoke grenade into the crowd, for example. In addition, Feucht’s gatherings, controversially, had their permits to gather in public places revoked in several Canadian cities. 

However, Elias Dummer, a popular worship leader who faced genuine suppression of speech in his Canadian high school, says Feucht has too often “called wolf” on so-called persecution. He speculates, “For Sean [Feucht], the persecution narrative is a feature, not a bug. It drives the story. It fuels the donations.”

This brings us back to the financial concerns. In 2020, Feucht stopped reporting his ministry’s financials, which spiked dramatically from “$243,000 in 2019 to $5 million in 2020.” After 2020, he stopped reporting the organization’s finances publicly. 

He may have valid reasons, but either way, Ministry Watch gave his organization an “F,” and recommended that people withhold donations. His mishandling of finances has now been widely reported in Christian and secular news organizations. 

How should we respond?  

There’s a negative bias against famous Christians. A pastor faithfully completing their duty to God and family is not particularly newsworthy, whereas scandals make headlines. For example, I recently reported on “the world’s highest IQ” man, YoungHoon Kim. He claims to be a Christian, yet his IQ  claims are dubious at best. Most likely, they’re outright deceptive. 

This bias can feel discouraging, but in some ways it’s a sign of Christian integrity. Christians often hold ourselves accountable, as we should. Ministry Watch and the organization critiquing Feucht, “Truth and Freedom Stories,” are both Christian ministries. 

When Christian leaders fail, such accountability—so long as it follows both legal and biblical guidelines—is appropriate. Claiming persecution in light of genuine, brotherly rebuke is the sign of serious, idolatrous pride. 

Let’s return to the example of King David. Just because David was a man after God’s heart, and salvation to humanity came through his line, doesn’t mean he wasn’t held accountable. Quite the opposite. 

Because of David’s warring, violent life, God did not allow him to build the Temple (1 Chronicles 22:8). God also took David’s son with Bathsheba because of his sins (2 Samuel 12). God holds those accountable whom he loves (Hebrews 12:6). 

If, indeed, Feucht sees himself as a David character, as we all should (fallen, broken, imperfect, but choosing God anyway), then he should also accept correction. Apparently, he has spurned brotherly calls to repentance. If true, we should watch out for him as a false teacher, whom we know by their fruits.

Take heart

For every preacher, worship leader, or Christian influencer in the limelight who falls into public sin, there are hundreds of quiet, humble, faithful teachers, pastors, and lay leaders serving people in love and faithfulness. I enjoy the publication “The Remarkable Ordinary,” which is designed to “publish ordinary stories of Christian kindness, hospitality, and integrity. [The aim is to] be an anti-moral failure, anti-church scandal, anti-Christian hypocrisy journalism.” 

As even further encouragement, there remain those humble leaders in the spotlight who run the race well unto death. Tim Keller and Billy Graham are two prominent examples. 

While we can look to mentors, spiritual leaders, and heroes of the faith, we must first and foremost, ultimately, look to Christ, the only perfect one to whom we can join our allegiance. As the faithful men understood so well, it’s only through humility, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,” that we can run the race “with endurance” (Hebrews 12:2).

How will you look to Jesus today?