What I am going to write in this article I write with fear and trembling before my Lord Jesus! The King of Kings and Lord of Lords! My Ruler and My God!
In 2023, Pastor Steven Furtick, Lauren Daigle, and Jason Ingram wrote a song together called, “Love Me Still.” The primary lyrics of the song go like this,
“When I’m at my worst, when I’m at my best, you couldn’t love me more, you’ll never love me less, You met me in places that I could have never imagined, you washed all my failures away as though they never happened.”
Daigle said the song was inspired by graffiti in her hometown and expresses God’s unconditional love even in our worst moments, though the song never mentions God, Jesus, or specifically His love, or His forgiveness. It is assumed the listener will know Furtick, Daigle, and Ingram are referring to Jesus in this song.
Daigle described the song this way:
“An intimate song inspired by a moment of unexpected inspiration in her hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana.”
God’s love does not forgive sin as if it never happened, that would cheapen the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for our sins. God’s love forgives sins because Jesus paid the price, so we didn’t have to. The sins of our lives are the trophies of God’s grace to us. Erasing those sins, for the record, removes the trophies of His grace to us through Jesus. Paul said, “I am the chief of sinners.” The Bible does not whitewash the stories of the saints of the faith as if they never sinned. No, it shows how despite their sin how God showed grace to them.
“Cheap grace” has become the anthem of the evangelical church because we no longer want to deal with the consequences of sin and holding each other accountable to the holy standard God has set for His people. It has become a grievous evil in the modern church. Our leaders’ sin but no one wants to say what they did. Our leaders “repent” and quickly return to ministry and no one wants to talk about the devastation. Our leaders want to hold tradition and suppress female leaders while turning a blind eye to the abuse males have done to women and children over the years in our seminaries, Bible colleges, and churches.
We have become corrupt.
Sadly, we have become evil.
And our solution is for God to “hide” our sin as if it never happened.
That’s not God.
That’s not Jesus.
That’s not the Gospel.
That is not the Bible.
As far as we know this is the only song Pastor Steven Furtick and Lauren Daigle have ever written together. It is difficult from the narrative of the genesis of the song to know which parts of the song were written by Furtick or Daigle, but it does stand as the only ballad these two giant Christian influencers have written together in Christian music.
Last year Daigle shared on Instagram that her music reached over 25 million listeners on Spotify. Her song “You Say” surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify in 2023. As of January 2026, her Spotify profile shows over 10 million listeners a month.
On the other hand, Pastor Steven Furtick and Elevation worship has a massive following as well. Elevation worship has almost 10 million listeners as well on Spotify each month. Pastor Steven also has 6 million followers on Facebook, 3.6 million followers on Instagram, and 800k followers on X. It is safe to say the combination of these two Christian influencers creates a massive influence that pushes them to the heights of influence in Christian music and Christian church.
Pastor Furtick and Lauren Daigle stand at the pinnacle of influencing the Church of the 21st century.
Over the years both Furtick and Daigle have had their fair challenges of push back from the Evangelical Church of America.
Pastor Furtick has been challenged in his sermons to address matters of orthodoxy, and Lauren Daigle has been challenged to address moral issues such as homosexuality. Each have chosen to either avoid the discussions or side with a “softer” approach than the Scriptures purport. This has left many concerned about the direction they are headed in the future and how their massive influence will impact the church of the 21st Century.
I think it is important to step back and acknowledge that many lives have been impacted positively because of these two Christian icons. Pastor Steven Furtick’s messages have obviously brought people to Jesus Christ. Lauren Daigle’s music, especially her early music, brought great inspiration to people’s faith in Jesus and challenged them to keep walking with Him. I too have been encouraged by both Pastor Steven and Lauren’s ministries.
With that said, I think it is equally important to ask some penetrating questions about their influence over the American Church. As an SBC pastor of Vanguard Church in Colorado Springs for the past 29 years, I have written articles for news outlets about both individuals. These articles have challenged them to address some of the concerning matters that come from the content and interviews that they have done over the years.
Before Pastor Furtick started his church in Charolette, North Carolina, he visited New Life Church in Colorado Springs to study the ministry and leadership of Pastor Ted Haggard.
Pastor Furtick has confirmed that he visited and studied the ministry of New Life Church in Colorado Springs during the pastorate of Ted Haggard, while he was a college student between the years of 1999-2003. He said he was deeply impressed by its ministry and growth.
In February of 2001 I received a prophetic vision of Pastor Ted Haggard, which I later shared with Pastor Ted and eventually his elder board led by Pastor Larry Stockstill. The prophetic word was dismissed, my repentance was called for at that time, and later when Pastor Ted fell publicly in 2006, there was never any public mention of this encounter with Pastor Ted and me along with the presbytery. This sadly led to years of deception and denial under Pastor Brady Boyd’s leadership and ministry at New Life Church, that was intertwined with Gateway Church and Pastor Robert Morris. Thankfully the current New Life Elder board addressed matters in a biblical fashion and removed Pastor Brady from ministry. I applauded them in an article that I wrote for Patheos: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/pastorkelly/2025/08/new-life-church-elders-are-worthy-of-praise
After Pastor Ted’s public fall in 2006, five years after I shared the prophetic word with New’s Life’s presbytery, Pastor Steven Furtick said he was “devastated” and “tore apart” by the effects it had on the family and the church. In April of 2009, Furtick invited Ted and Gayle Haggard to Elevation Church for an interview following the release of the HBO documentary The Trials of Ted Haggard.
Furtick explained the invitation was not an endorsement of Haggard’s past actions but an opportunity to discuss the “deception of sin” and the “power of forgiveness.”
Pastor Steven, great reminders for us today and for you!
Over the years Pastor Steven has been in the news for his potentially heretical statements about God and His Word including “God is energy,” “God wouldn’t want me to tell you how much I paid for my house” along with the undisclosed amount he makes, the moral failures of almost all his original elder board and the current lack of an elder board, along with the $100 million of undisclosed cash investments in Elevation’s investment portfolio, and his latest statement while preaching saying (I quote), “I feel like I just snorted cocaine or something” along with a myriad of other tactics exposed and reported on that Elevation uses to pull people from other churches to come to their church services from other churches. Where is Elevation Church’s CFO, Chunks Corbett, on these matters? Speak Chunks, come to Steven’s defense or give us an explanation as to how this is all okay.
These ghastly measures keep piling up and the followers continue to grow on all platforms as Pastor Furtick stands on the pinnacle of Christian influence.
While Lauren Daigle is not tied to a local church like Pastor Furtick, she too has massive influence in the Christian community of churches and Christian organizations. One of her heroes is Pastor Larry Stockstill, former head of the presbytery of New Life under Ted’s pastorate and the Senior Overseer for Pastor Brady Boyd. Thankfully the current elder board of New Life removed Larry as well as an overseer of their church.
Lauren’s success speaks for itself. She too stands on the pinnacle of Christian influence. Her compromised view of sexuality has been documented by me, by others, and remains unaddressed by her for years now.
It appears that the Evangelical church across the world chooses to look the other way about both Daigle and Furtick because of their likeability, success, and the songs and sermons that do give us hope and strength for our faith in Jesus. And it is important to me that I acknowledge the good here: they have done a lot of good for Jesus. Thank you!
But maybe it is time to ask ourselves, what pinnacle are they standing on now? And where are they leading us? And are you sure you want to go with them?
When Jesus walked this earth, before He began His ministry, He fasted for forty days and forty nights. While He fasted, the Bible says in Matthew 4 that the Devil came to tempt him. One of the temptations had to do with the Devil taking Jesus to the pinnacle of a mountain overlooking the kingdoms of the earth. Listen to the conversation between Jesus and the Devil,
Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil took him (Jesus) to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Maybe it is time to ask ourselves, what pinnacle are Steven and Lauren standing on? And where are they leading us? And are you sure you want to go with them?
I have decided, I don’t.
Lauren and Steven, it is time to repent.
The Lord gave me a prophetic word almost nine years ago. He said, “A network of pastors would fall.” Sadly, I have watched now for years Christian pastors and musicians fall morally. It grieves me deeply with each falling pastor, musician, writer, and influencer. And sadly, there has been a lot of them in the past nine years!
Laruen and Steven, it is time to turn back and acknowledge how you have misused the influence God has given you and refused to stand on truth without compromise.
It is time to acknowledge financial accountability, theological accountability, and sexual purity.
It is time to say, Steven, “full disclosure in finances” is God honoring. It is time to say, Lauren, “homosexuality is a sin.” Not the sin, but a sin.
Otherwise, the pinnacle both of you are standing on will begin to erode.
God will give His glory to no other.
God is love. Thank You, Jesus!
But He is also Holy!
And He requires us as Christian influencers not to compromise His Word, His Glory, for our success.
It’s time for both of you to repent.
I pray you do before it is too late.
Humbly And Honestly,
Pastor Kelly
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