The head pastor of Transformation Church, Michael Todd, got slammed in the media following Easter Sunday for an “inappropriate” service. Longtime head of the Black nondenominational church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Todd put on a musical called Ransom on April 9 for Easter that was regarded as tasteless and unholy.
According to the advertisement for Ransom, the musical performance was supposed to exhibit how “God’s love conquered sin, death and the grave.”
The performance, which was recorded and posted up on Youtube, featured dancers dressed in what was described as tight and revealing clothes dancing and singing around the cross with a pyrotechnic backdrop behind the stage.
The publicized performance got a lot of backlash for its inappropriate depiction. “By The Book Ministries” founder and pastor Frederick Clement took to Youtube to express his disapproval of the Easter Service.
“Pastor Mike Todd never ceases to amaze me,” Clement began, “Mike Todd’s Easter service was nothing short of blasphemous, and it was a complete mockery of the resurrection of Jesus Christ! His remarks, the service, the performances were only meant to entertain the goats and mocked the sheep!”
However, the Transformation Church defended its production choices following all the hate. In a Facebook post, the church wrote, “We believe that so many lives were TRANSFORMED today because He’s not DEAD. Thank YOU for spending this Easter with us. We LOVE you. And God loves you so much more that He sent His only Son to die for you to have a close relationship with Him. This weekend over 500 people gave their lives to Christ, and we want to let you know that TC and all of heaven is rejoicing because of your decision!”
Todd continued in a video to explain his unorthodox choices for Ransom. He said he had “never preached an Easter message [but he wanted to] come up with a play.”
“I said, ‘But it can’t be no whack, raggedy, just, He got up. I was like. Thisgotta moves people. And I really want it to be focused on people who don’t know God or are far from Him. I want the person who feels lonely and isolated like God doesn’t care. I want them to see how amazing Jesus actually is and what God actually did for all of us.”
Todd finished, “So I said, ‘We goin’ go to the edge on this. So they said, ‘Pastor, how far on the edge are we gonna go?’ I said, ‘We’re gonna do everything short of sin.”
