Christian influencer and TikTok star, Maygan Bryant, is fed up with Transformative Church pastor Michael “Mike” Todd’s overdramatic and theatrical sermons. In a video posted to her account Feb. 28, the 22-year-old slammed the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based pastor for pouring syrup and whipped cream on the Bible during his “Fit To Finish” sermon in January.
“Apparently Christians were told to disrespect the Bible all month,” Bryant said with a look of discontent on her face. “Now, Mike Todd wants to pour syrup and whipped cream on the Bible and treat it like a pancake stack at IHOP.”
For context, during Todd’s shocking sermon on Jan. 28, the Christian pastor was trying to stress the importance of taking care of the body, which is “a gift from God” and “the temple of the Holy Spirit,” an excerpt that is highlighted in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 6. However, his message of health and wellness was lost for some when he began throwing Cheetos, eggs and junk food all over the stage near the pulpit.
Todd, who has garnered both acclaim and notoriety for over-sensationalizing aspects of biblical teachings, sent his congregants into shock when he began pouring syrup over the Bible and the communion. To drive his point home, Todd then poured whipped cream on the Bible.
“Y’all stop acting like you care about this,” the New York Times bestselling author said as the crowd gasped. “Stop acting like this matters to you.”
While Bryant understood the message, she did not agree with the pastor’s extreme approach to teaching 1 Corinthians.
“Imagine if this was the Sunday that you finally convinced one of your friends or one of your unbelieving family members to come to church and then the pastor pulled out syrup and ready whip. It’s like we’re doing everything in church with these Bibles except reading them, except teaching from them,” she said. “Like I get what his analogy was trying to be. But baby, it don’t take all that. That same point that he was trying to convey could have been made without doing any of that.”
Bryant was already questioning the state of Christian preaching in a video she posted Feb. 16 about Senior Pastor Brian Tome and Pastor Alli Patterson of the Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. On Feb. 11, the pair were filmed punting a Bible across the stage during a sermon to have a little “fun” for Super Bowl Sunday. However, it was Todd’s recent method of delivering the message of faith that exacerbated her frustration with the prevalent use of gimmicky and theatrical techniques in contemporary preaching.
She used to be a fan of the faith leader, but she expressed that there have been too many times when Todd has crossed the line with his sermons. She pointed to his controversial spit sermon in 2022, where the Transformative Church Pastor hocked a loogie and put it in the eye of his brother while conducting a sermon on stage. He was trying to depict a scene similar to the Bible where Jesus spits in the eye of a blind man to cure his eyesight. Bryant was also ticked off by Todd’s over-the-top Easter play in 2023, where he pulled together rappers and singers to perform scriptures from the Bible.
“When I had freshly given my life to Christ, I was watching his sermons all the time, and they were truly helping me but now I’m not a spiritual baby no more. Now I’ve moved from spiritual mill to spiritual meat. And something I’ve realized is this, you would think that after his Easter play chaos and that spit-hit-the-fan sermon, that he would be like, ‘okay, I need to reevaluate what I’m doing. I’ve learned from those mistakes,’ but no things just keep getting added to the list. It’s no longer a mistake. It’s a choice,” Bryant explained.
“Like, is it too boring to just preach the word of God without all the theatrics, without all the gimmicks? Like, what part of the Bible is not enough for you to where you feel as if you have to go to all these extravagant measures? Pause, let me not say extravagant. Let me say these disrespectful measures just to get the point across.”
Further along in the video, Bryant opened up about how she was tired of people treating Christianity like a joke and “clownery.” The Christian influencer said she was happy to see other religious groups taking the word seriously, like Muslims, who she argued are “more serious about their faith,” and “play no games about it.”
She pondered if American Christians could do the same.
“Look at the image we’re portraying. We’re not giving people God, we’re giving people entertainment.”
TikTok users react to Bryant’s thoughts about the Transformative Church pastor.
In the comments section, netizens of TikTok could not agree more with Bryant, with many calling the Transformative Church faith leader a “performer” and not a preacher of God. Some claimed that Todd was lost and a “false prophet.”
“Mike Todd has become a performer, not a pastor.”
“Honestly, Mike Todd never sat right with my spirit and this shows me exactly why.”
“As soon as you said Mike Todd, I just knew it was gonna be some nonsense.”
“I think Mike Todd started off good, but now he’s lost.”
During an interview with Joni Lamb in December 2023, Todd confessed that while his sermons may be unconventional and jarring, he aims to use his “creativity” to tell scriptures from the Bible in an interesting way to “bring the word of God to life.” He also opened up about the backlash from his spit sermon and Easter play.
Listen to the full interview below to hear what he had to say.
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