Who is Sean Feucht?
A Worship Leader with Political Aspirations
Back in the late winter/early spring of 2020 I came across the name Sean Feucht while researching Bethel Church of Redding, CA. Bethel is one of the many churches and ministries that have been associated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) or Neo-Charismatic movement. NAR churches, like Bethel Church, believe in apostolic succession, the continuance of the charismatic gifts (healing, speaking in tongues, prophecy, etc) and a belief in the invisible interference/ intervention of angels and demons in the lives of humans. In January, the tragic death of Baby Olive and her failed resurrection put Bethel’s name into national news headlines. Prior to this, I was vaguely familiar with Bethel Church, a megachurch, headed by Bill Johnson and Kris Vallaton, along with the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministries which trains its students in the charismatic arts. Many of its students continue on to paid and unpaid ministry related jobs throughout the world.
A month or so after that I heard that Feucht (surname rhymes with exploit), then a volunteer worship leader at Bethel Church, was planning to run for congress as a Republican candidate. I poked around online for his background, qualifications and his platform. I found that he had started his own chain of 24 hour prayer groups and was the self-proclaimed founder of a revival movement that I was not familiar with. He also headed up a ministry that leads groups on short term international missionary trips and sponsors children in India. Before Covid-19 slowed the flow of international travel, Feucht was actively recruiting interns and volunteers to join his ministries overseas. He was simultaneously raising funds for his run for congress.
I added his name to my spreadsheet of New Apostolic Reformation leaders and their notable disciples. Feucht fell under the later category in my mind. He was just a worship leader that was one of many vying for attention in the cadre of “volunteer” staff that surround Johnson and Vallaton. His run for congress could have put him on the map, if he won the nomination. However, he was only able to secure only 13% of Republican votes. Not enough to continue the race. The spread of the coronavirus forced Bethel Church to close its infamous healing room and, I assume, that Feucht’s 24 hour prayer initiatives were paused, as well. Besides a brief conversation with a family member who expressed admiration for him and his political aspirations, Feucht and his ramen noodle hairdo were the furthest things from my mind during the early months of the pandemic.
That changed when he showed up in my state of Minnesota, centering himself and his crew, after George Floyd’s death. During the protests and rioting, the community had come together to share food and music near the memorial to Floyd. This was the sacred space from which Feucht chose to launch the beginning of his nationwide tour he later dubbed “worship protests”. Although Feucht had a few Minnesotan pastors who joined him, the majority were not from the community of Minneapolis where Floyd was killed, but they were from surrounding suburbs of the Twin Cities Metro. Social media started to buzz as people tried to figure out who Feucht was and why he had a crew with him that were on stage singing, baptizing people in a large tub of water and praying for people (“laying on hands”) without wearing masks or social distancing.
Although all of these religious practices are consistent with the practices of neo-Charismatic believers, they are notably practices that are discouraged because of the high likelihood of spreading the virus. Groups like Youth with a Mission, Sean Feucht’s crew and David Bradshaw’s Awaken the Dawn staff were not there to help the community through their grief. They weren’t there to help clean up after the riots or to meet the physical needs of the community with food or groceries. They did not join the community fire brigade to discourage outsiders from burning down local businesses and homes. The “good news” they promoted was a gospel of assimilation. And they were gone, along with the suburban churchgoers, before the week was over.
Feucht’s Family History and Context
According to the registration of several of his non-profit ministries, it appears that Sean’s given name is John Christopher Feucht. He grew up in Montana and Virginia. Both of his parents were highly educated and in the late 1970’s they volunteered together at a mission hospital in Tanzania for 3 months. His father, Dr. Christopher Lee Feucht was a licensed medical doctor, specializing in dermatology and he started a private practice in MT. Sean grew up in a charismatic church called Christian Life Center in Missoula, MT. The family moved to VA in 1994, when his father was hired by Pat Robertson to work for Robertson’s “Operation Blessing” Ministry. Robertson’s ministry included a flying hospital which offered medical procedures to people in other countries and utilized a private jet as a makeshift medical clinic.
His father and 10 other “Operation Blessing” employees were fired in 1997 by Robertson who accused them of ignoring instructions and traveling further into a remote area to perform medical procedures. This was possibly a violation of their visas in that country and it deviated from the stated goals of the ministry. Robertson reiterated that medical procedures should be based around the aircraft and was not interested in sending teams to provide care to remote areas. Controversy has surrounded Robertson’s “Operation Blessing”, which was investigated because it was rumored that Pat Robertson used the operation to launder money and smuggle mining equipment in connection to the “blood” diamond mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In the late 1990s, the Feucht family completed additional missionary training with the Charismatic para-church organization, Youth With A Mission, commonly called YWAM. Based on several versions of Feucht’s testimony, the family was active in short term missions trips which exposed him to new experiences and cultures, which one encounters with the privilege of international travel. Feucht’s father became the director of missions at New Life Christian Fellowship in Virginia Beach, VA until his untimely death from cancer in 2010.
On the “Burn 24–7” website, Feucht posted a short video with his wife Kate under the “Who We Are” tab. Feucht recounts that he and his wife were high school sweethearts back in Virginia and met when they were 16 and 15. They describe that he was a football player and she wore his football jersey. They have several children and make their home in CA. Feucht attended Oral Roberts University (ORU) in Tulsa, OK. Oral Roberts University was named after its founder and has been a popular choice for higher education among Charismatic Christians. While at ORU, Feucht co-founded a bible study, which he reported had expanded to the degree that he and his co-leaders decided they needed to move it across campus. They met at a coffee shop which provided a space and a venue for what Feucht deemed a “grassroots revival”. He noted that this location was also crucial in allowing female students to participate since they were not previously allowed to attend the prayer meetings in the men’s dorms at ORU.
Part of their ministry focused on starting a 24 hour prayer initiative, which was a growing trend among New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) churches at the time. This type of ministry is very complicated to get going because of the sheer amount of volunteer or staff hours needed to provide the music and prayer on an ongoing basis. Feucht notes that in the early days they tried to meet in this 24 hour format once every two weeks.IHOP-KC was a pioneer of this 24 hour prayer service and they made this practice well known amongst the neo-Charismatics. Bethany Global University in Bloomington, MN was an early adopter of this type of ministry and they sent staff to Kansas City to learn the worship practices of IHOP-KC under the leadership of the Kansas City prophets, including Mike Bickle.
The 24 hour prayer room phenomenon came out of a set of beliefs regarding spiritual warfare, which provides the backbone of doctrine amongst the proponents of the New Apostolic Reformation. Neo-Charismatics use prayer, singing (worship), instruments or repetitious phrases to “break the spiritual strongholds” so that those who “hear the message of the gospel” will be receptive to it and convert. Those who practice spiritual warfare also tend to believe that geographical areas are controlled by a pantheon of invisible spiritual beings, both good and evil, generally referred to as angels and demons.
Tools used to influence those forces are prayer, music, rituals and marches. Recent use of tools that notable neo-Charismatics have used include the keys and trinkets that Dutch Sheets buried at the head of the Allegheny River or the gavel used by Paula White when she recently interceded (prayed) for Trump’s presidential victory. Although one can pray for a geographical location wherever they are, it is considered more powerful and persuasive to travel to the location of the “stronghold” in order to “break it”. YWAM is another group that has been influential in their teachings of spiritual warfare. As noted above, Feucht’s parents had been highly involved in the YWAM organization and his involvement with Bethel Church and IHOP-KC, so these practices of spiritual warfare are evident in his words and actions.
Feucht, a business major, reported working in real estate following graduation from ORU. In the video with his wife, they recount an seemingly impulsive decision (after the establishment of his nonprofit, Burn 24–7) that Sean made to sell their house and drive across the USA. His wife, Kate sounded like she initially was not thrilled with the idea, but she agreed because he said that he was following the Holy Spirit’s direction. Kate concluded, “This is obviously not logic, so this must be God”. Feucht uses the words “grassroots” and “organic” multiple times in this video. The emphasis on spontaneity and miraculous happenings show that those are things that Feucht values over careful plans and sound doctrine. Despite his emphasis on happenstance, he managed to form a handful of 501 c3 nonprofits, including two with identical names. He and his partner(s) were able to establish a formula of creating 24 hour prayer groups that must have been effective, gauging on the amount of “burn” sites.
Along with the ties that he has to YWAM and Pat Robertson, it appears that Feucht also has strong connections to Mike Bickle of the International House of Prayer Kansas City, Heidi Baker and Lou Engle. Following the establishment of his prayer initiative franchise, Feucht branched out into international missions with his missionary sending agency called “Shine a Light”. This ministry is most known for the film that he produced during a trip to Iraq. Feucht has patterned his marketing strategies after contemporary social media influencers and he has a knack for producing content that his viewers like and want more of.
Feucht also dabbles in child sponsorship in India, where he make the unsubstantiated claim that some of the children that are being helped by his organization were at risk of or being sex trafficked. This claim by its very nature cannot be verifiable and I find it to be manipulative since his donors are likely to uphold the values of purity culture which prioritizes the value of chastity over consent.
Feucht decided to run for congress in the 3rd congressional district in California as a Republican candidate. Feucht currently lives in Redding, which is located in the 1st district. Feucht said that he was “running as an outsider” and he was inspired to do it for his children because he wants them to have a bright future and he feels that CA is in a “dire situation”. The incumbent congressman he attempted to unseat was a Democrat. Feucht complained about taxes and regulations in CA, and was especially concerned about building permits and parental rights. Not surprisingly, he said he considered sex education and mandatory vaccinations to be “an overreach of the government”. In an interview in March 2020, Feucht said that he wanted to address the “issue of homelessness’ in the district, but did not offer specifics on what he planned to do. I found it strange that Feucht did not address the concerns of the district’s agricultural industry and its workers, since these concerns were addressed by the other candidates.
Feucht founded a SuperPac he called “Hold the Line”. This is a political organization which is described on the website as “a political activist movement. Our goal is to engage with the church and with millennials in a way that charges them to become more politically active.” Because it was created this year, we do not have the financial details of expenditures and donations, however donors who gave significant amounts can be searched. Feucht’s strategy appeared to be: using his relative Christian celebrity on social media to promote his campaign. He attended the National Prayer Breakfast and was part of the court evangelical photo op. He is pictured with Vice President Mike Pence, as well, and one of his campaign photos was taken at a stretch of the border wall that President Donald Trump had erected. Feucht used his social media accounts for both his ministry and his political agendas. Feucht was vocal about his support for law enforcement and his opposition to Black Lives Matters.
The Planned Revival of Revivalists
Despite his favored narrative arc, Feucht did not just appear in Minneapolis out of an organic whim. Prior to the pandemic, a group led by David Bradshaw called “Awaken the Dawn” had planned to partner with a number of New Apostolic Reformation related ministries and churches (including a group of events called “The Send”) for a planned revival, with political intent, in various locations around the country. This plan was called 100 Days of Worship and the goal was to start in June in Washington, DC and culminate with a packed stadium rally in Kansas City, MO in October. Due to the health and travel restrictions in place during the early months of the spread of the coronavirus, this plan was temporarily thwarted. The self-dubbed “revivalists” must have been itching to travel and promote their message. While many states went into partial lock-down, these leaders continued to promote their ministries, raise funds and create online content. They also started to test the waters to see how they could still pull off the planned mandates and fulfill the prophecies that they felt were given to them by God. Plans to violate stay at home orders were made over social media and later deleted. This was done with the handy excuse that they were exercising their freedom of religion. The leader of the Godtown communal living group in Saint Paul even started a petition for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to prematurely reopen MN. By April, the revivalists’ plans started to refocus and prepare to continue with some slight adjustments.
The death of George Floyd and the following protests led to an opportunity for these ministries to join a mass of people who had already gathered. A team of at least 13 volunteers from YWAM’s mission bases in Huntington Beach, CA and in Kona, HI arrived in Minneapolis shortly after Floyd’s funeral. They were allowed to use the parking lot of a local church, World Outreach Center, to assemble their stage and makeshift baptismal. A YWAM affiliated group, they called themselves “Circuit Riders”, referencing the traveling intermittent preachers of the first and second “Great Awakenings” in the USA. Andy Byrd, who co-authored a book with Feucht, helped to found the “Circuit Riders”, a ministry that focuses on evangelism in colleges and short missionary excursions. Byrd also heads up “The Send” events and, like Feucht,he founded a prayer initiative called “Fire and Fragrance”. It was not an accident that Feucht was able to easily pivot from his failed plans to perform at North Central University and instead fill the stage that the Circuit Riders had located near Floyd’s Memorial. A YouTube video from a local volunteer published a day prior to Circuit Riders arrival features a desperate plea for a stage and sound equipment, which is an example of how unorganized these plans were.
Besides this group of pastors and ministers that traveled in from far flung regions, some in attendance were located in the Twin Cities Metro. In combing through social media one of the faces that I recognized was Mike Smith, the Minnesota State Senate Chaplain and pastor of Redeeming Love Church, an Assemblies of God Church in Maplewood, MN. It appears that his congregants and the community of the God Town Ministry of Saint Paul were present for the arrival of Feucht’s team. Josh Lindquist, David Bradshaw’s point of contact in Minnesota, was at the site and preached. Lindquist was also on staff at one of the communal living homes of John Tolo’s God Town ministry. GodTown heads up an initiative called SafeCity that cooperates with the Saint Paul Police Department. Charles Karuku, a dual citizen of Kenya and the USA, and a pastor in Burnsville, MN was a new face for me, but Karuku would become Feucht’s right hand man as he traveled throughout the USA following Feucht’s appearance in MN. His teaming up with Karuku seems to have been a strategic move for Feucht to use him as a shield of defense in response to early criticisms of his colonialist proselytizing methods and his opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement. Karuku was not the only Black minister that preached in Minneapolis. Joshua Giles, author of prophetic books and a growing YouTube channel, preached from the stage one night. Giles is located in Saint Louis Park and is a recent transplant from South Carolina. Sammy Wayonni, a graduate of Bethany Global University and Bethel University (in MN, not Redding) also preached.
Although Feucht may have received the support of some Charismatic church leaders in the Twin Cities, the nearby Assemblies of God denomination’s North Central University cancelled Feucht’s reservation to use their facilities. Although Feucht initially said it was cancelled due to rioting, it was initiated by the alumni of the Christian University who expressed that they felt that Feucht’s relative celebrity would shift the focus onto him and distract from what the community needed. Feucht’s social media posts shortly before he came to Minnesota revealed that he was opposed to Black Lives Matters and was unsympathetic to the frustrations of the Black community. It would appear that NU’s decision to not rent their space to Feucht led him to join the YWAM crew, who provided the stage that Feucht used. NU’s alumni were correct in their predictions, as writers of a number of posts on Twitter and Instagram expressed outrage in response to Feucht using the opportunity to center himself.
Evangelistic volunteers were recruited from churches related to the groups that were preaching and performing music. These volunteers laid hands on people, prayed for them, and offered them water immersion baptism. Although singing, close contact and expressive vocalizations have all been linked to the spread of Covid-19, these were the very activities being performed by ministers and volunteers present. It was noted that few (if any) face masks were worn by these volunteers, preachers or musicians.
This is the first article of a series of articles I plan to write. A continuation is being researched and written. I will be adding more references to this article, as well.
References:
Credit for “rhymes with exploit” goes to:
On his congressional campaign:
Re: Minneapolis/death of George Floyd
