Todd White says his mission is to 'wake up' 'dysfunctional' church: 'The end is closer than ever'
One week after publicly repenting for failing to preach the whole Gospel, evangelist Todd White said his mission now is to now “wake up” the “dysfunctional” and “sleeping” American Church.
“Last week, I shared, ‘I repent for not preaching the full Gospel,’” White, founder and president of Lifestyle Christianity, said in a sermon delivered Aug. 2. “If any of you think that you know it all about the Gospel, you're deceived. I don't care who you are, I don't care what theologian you are, I don't care if you're a doctor of theology, if you've got your masters of divinity. If you think you know it all, I'm sorry, you're wrong.”
“I have stepped into a new awareness of why I'm really here,” he emphasized. “I feel like I just got saved. I feel like I've just met Jesus.”
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White, a drug addict turned evangelist, said his mission now is to “wake up a sleeping church.”
“I'm very concerned for a large majority of the body of Christ that says that they've met Him and yet lives in sin,” he said.
“There are people that are coasting through, there is a large majority of the church that sleeping. They're not awake, they're sleeping. We need to wake up. We need to wake up. People are dying. My urgency to share the Gospel, my urgency to reach the lost, my urgency to reach a church that thinks she's found is so big I can't even stand it. I can't even tell you what I feel in my heart.”
According to White, the American Church is “so dysfunctional right now it's absolutely ridiculous.”
“Dysfunction is thinking that my way is the only way,” the Watauga, Texas-based pastor explained. “But Jesus is the way, the Gospel is the way. When I say I haven't preached the full Gospel, it just means that God has taken me to a depth of His heart that I have not yet seen, and I want to see more people come to Christ.”
“We should all want to be able to be repentant. Repentance isn't the day you get saved only. If something's wrong, you repent. What does that mean? Repentance isn't just changing your mind. I understand that that's taught, and it is an about-face, but it's an about-face with godly intention, with godly sorrow.”
White said he “loves” being corrected by God and cautioned listeners: “If you’re not being corrected, you might not be His son.”
The prayers of those who have interceded on his behalf have “worked,” White said, adding: “Now I’m more on fire and more intense than I've ever felt before in my life. I'm more in love with God’s Scripture and God's holiness than I've ever been in my life. I am more convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the time is now. I am more convinced right now than ever before.”
“I am fearful for a Church that is walking half-heartedly. I am fearful for the body of Christ that is walking haphazardly, just walking so-so, [saying they’re] with Jesus, yet sin is priority still in their life.”
White cited 2 Corinthians 5:10, which reads: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”
“This Scripture blew me away,” he stressed. “There's really no way out. God's a holy God. Some people like some of what I say and they cut out the rest that they don't like. I've got news for you. I am trying to warn you that the time is closer than ever. The end is closer than ever. I want us to run hard, but I want us to run holy.”
Earlier in his message, White said many people have accused him of being “deceived,” and thanked those who have prayed for him.
“I am overtaken with gratitude for people that have prayed for me,” he said.
White rebuked the show “American Gospel: Christ Alone,” a series that condemned the prosperity gospel, for “assuming” and putting him in a “place of guilt” because of his association with pastors Bill Johnson, Kenneth Copeland, and Benny Hinn.
“None of them called me to talk to me, not one of them asked me to share my heart, not one of them asked me what I believe,” he said of the “American Gospel” creators. “Now all of a sudden, Todd’s the biggest heretic on the planet.”
“Shame on you for not praying for me and talking to me, but making a movie, thinking that you're God's police. You're going to stand before a holy God and answer for your life of judgment and hate, and it's called murder. It's no different than racism. It's the same thing. It's called no love. You have no love.”
White made headlines last week after revealing he recently underwent a season of painful “pruning” where God impressed upon him the importance of preaching on the topic of sin and the need for a Savior.
“This has been the hardest season of my life,” he shared. “I’m like, ‘Lord, what are you doing?’ He said, ‘I’m pruning every branch that you have.’ I’m like, ‘It’s not OK. It hurts.’ And He said, ‘If you were dead, it wouldn’t hurt. There are parts of you that need to die. I’m going to kill them.’”
White shared that this convicted him and showed him that he had not been preaching “the whole Gospel.”
“I repent!” White exclaimed. “You have no idea. I will not be responsible. I believe that when I preach that the blood of people is on my hands.”
