Feelings on the destruction of my old home church by a fraud pastor

I have been part of Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Monterey Park since 2012. It was a wonderful church. It was my home church. It was a great place for people to love God and love one another as a united community. The church actually had a second location in Rowland Heights. I grew to love the people at that church too. This was my home church and I envisioned being part of this church for the rest of my time in Southern California. But the church was in a middle of a transition. The church was looking for a new lead pastor after the previous one was called to a new position in Northern California. It became a two-year search. But finally, after that long wait, a candidate was chosen and was offered to the congregation to a vote on whether or not they would extend the position to him.

Steve Sanchez and his family.

I had an issue with this process as the congregation was not allowed to meet with this candidate to get to know him. With not much knowledge of who this person was (which includes his background, his family and beliefs), we were instead forced to gather that information from the handful of people who have met him. And based on these second-hand accounts, I found out that this candidate was not the right man for the job. Based on what I was told from various people, he had issues from his previous church and did not get along with the staffers there. His White child believed that he could grow up to be a Black man. That was a shocking thing to learn, indicating that his parents have not taught him anything about diversity. This candidate was coming from Texas and has a military and basketball coaching background. I was concerned that this might not mesh with a more diverse, liberal California congregation.

With no confidence in this man and lack of enough information about him, I confidently voted against bringing him on board as our new lead pastor. Unfortunately, most of the congregation did not see any of these red flags and this new guy was voted to be our new pastor. But I was optimistic, hoping that my perception may be wrong and that I will have the chance to get to know this man and his family and perhaps God did bring this man to guide our church.

What I would learn was that he was not the right man. I would learn that STEVE SANCHEZ IS A FRAUD PASTOR.

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Steve was brought on board in November 2019 but did not officially start preaching until the following month. He was preaching first at Rowland Heights, then driving 30 minutes west to preach at Monterey Park (the campus where I was attending church). He made it known many times he disliked doing this and that he was some kind of hero for enduring this. Little did I know that it would lead to a major announcement in January. (He made the announcement during Chinese New Year weekend while I was out seeing my family. Supposedly he didn’t want to do it the following Sunday on Super Bowl Sunday because he felt that would be a conflict.) This big announcement came unexpectedly. He was going to announce major changes to the church less than two months after he started preaching full-time at the church. The above video is that announcement. Below are the main points he spoke on.

• He proclaimed that everything he was announcing was a vision that God gave him. This was essentially God’s plan.
• He emphasized making church ONE, eliminating the Monterey Park campus and having all services, ministries, church-related things at Rowland Heights only. MP wasn’t ideal for future of ministry because it’s old and has no potential for growth in terms of space/parking.
• All preschool and school-related activities (both campuses run a school during the week) will be at MP only, including the shutdown of the RH school. He said that he feels the school interferes with the growth of MP church (taking up space and time).
• Worship ministries will expand to theater and dance.
• He would speak to all ministry leaders and work with them on how to proceed moving forward. (He never met with me about my ESL ministry and my work on all the church’s social media since this announcement.)
• RH is better for modern worship, ample parking and a chance to physically build a new building there. The RH campus is bigger than the MP campus, thus his belief in this plan.
• Proposed changes to church set to take place on Easter (April 12) with a farewell to MP the previous Sunday (which never happened).
• Changes to schools will take place on June 5.
• Multiple English worship services will range their start times from from 8am-2pm.
• Both Chinese ministries will be combined and bumped to the afternoon for service. (Nobody liked this.)
• Spanish service will be Saturday night. (Nobody agreed with this).
• All bible study/life/small group meetings will be Wednesday nights for all ministries at one location. One text (written by Steve, translated by the other pastors) in which all groups will follow. A worship service will happen to open before the different ministries split for the study. Nursery, children and youth ministries available Wednesday too. (He did not consider the different cultures and language challenges.)

These are a lot of changes that were announced less than two months of him coming on board — and half of them didn’t even make cultural or logistical sense. He didn’t even get a chance to get to know the church flow or even the people of the church. He came right in, proclaiming that God told him all of this, and went on to implement these massive changes. Then only a few hours after that announcement, he hosted a Q&A at another location to ask him about these changes. (This Q&A “vision forum” was only made known to the church members via email in the middle of the night the day before.) Below is the entire Q&A, which includes him not making eye contact with the concerned congregants and him openly expressing that he has no empathy for anyone who was feeling sad and hurt about the sudden changes.

So about two months into being the lead pastor, a lot more red flags about him popped up. He did not act with respect, but rather an authoritarian approach. It fits his background as military man and a coach. But of course that is no way to lead a church, right? Then when he said he had no empathy, it made realize that this man could not be a man of God. After all, Jesus had empathy for those who were hurting in faith yet this man proclaims the opposite. All these changes also did not seem like something that God would do. After all, this new plan was dividing the church. Was this really from the vision that God supposedly gave this guy or did he make it all up?

As the church congregation started to process and feel out what may happen next in the upcoming months before the transition, the pastor made no plans to meet with the members of the church to discuss this. His plan was to make the big general announcement and continue on without getting to know the congregation. After some convincing, he reluctantly agreed to hold open time slots during the day at a Starbucks for people of the congregation to meet with him (and his wife) to discuss and get to know each other. It was puzzling that he would do it during the day since many people would be working. Fortunately, my wife and I were available and agreed to meet with him. It was an hour conversation and for the most part, he seemed pleasant (which was the opposite of how presents himself during church). But it was very clear that he was not going to change his style or approach. One thing that stood out was that when my wife and I talked about his responsibility to learn about the different cultures of the congregation (which is mostly Latinx and Asian) his body language displayed uncomfortableness. It seemed like he was unwilling to do that. It was strange. After the meeting, my wife and I were convinced that this man wasn’t going to change.

In the following weeks, I still attended service there knowing that my time at this church and campus was coming to an end. I was angry going to church. I would sit and stare a whole through this new guy. I hated what he did. I hated how he’s presented himself. I hated the fact that I was questioning if this guy was actually Christian. Everything he has said and done up to this point was no Christ-like at all. I was conflicted because he proclaimed these major changes were given to him from God. Was I lacking faith or did I actually catch on that this guy was a fraud?

And before I even got a chance to say farewell to the church in April, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and that was that. I never got to say goodbye. Some people I never got to see again. We were just told that we weren’t driving to church on Sundays going forward. My time at this church came to a screeching halt. The plan to smoothly transition two campuses to one never happened. The farewell party never happened. And just like that, it was over. Many people of the congregants, despite the option to tune in online for streaming service during the pandemic, opted to not do that. They instead started to find their own church. A group even started their new church. They all decided that this man was not the leader they trusted and the church that they held so dear was now taken away from them and destroyed. I was on that boat too. The search for a new church was on the horizon.

As this was happening, I once again started to wonder. Was this whole transition really part of God’s plan? If so, how could God have been blindsided by the pandemic? Unless, this was never God’s plan and this new pastor falsified that message to help his own personal agenda. If that is the case, then is this pastor even a Christian? That was the question.

IS STEVE SANCHEZ A CHRISTIAN?

My answer to this is no. And I feel guilty questioning someone’s faith. I am in no position to make that judgment so I cannot actually say that. But if a man in the position of power such as a pastor lies about the message of God, then he must not be a man of faith. He is a man of lies. He is a FRAUD PASTOR.

So after the pandemic forced everyone home, my wife and I started to look for new churches but were only limited to whatever streaming services we could find. I stopped watching services from my now former church and that was that.

On May 25th, George Floyd (a Black man) was murdered by a police officer (a White man). This sparked a lot of protests and rallies throughout the country. It also led to some riots as well. The whole country was aware. People of Color were hurting. It was a major topic of discussion. I was curious as to how churches would address this as the murder happened on a Monday and the protests were going on that weekend. The church I was checking out scrapped the original sermon plan and that pastor dedicated the entire sermon about unity and love in light of this tragedy.

I also wanted to see if this fraud pastor at my old home church would address it. I had my doubts that he would do anything meaningful. Apparently he pre-recorded his sermon so whatever he preached on did not address the tragedy and outcry of the people. However, the church was also announcing that it would re-open the doors the following month. He used that announcement platform to discuss what was happening in the country. He gave George Floyd’s death and the protests 90 seconds of his attention. But please listen to the words he used and how he refused to acknowledge the root of the issue in the video.

I was baffled by the words he would use. I decided to comment on the video to ask him about it. This is what I wrote.

Hi Steve. In the one minute in this video in which you addressed the crisis that’s affecting all of us and the rest of America, you referred to it as “all of the riots and everything like that.” I wanna tell you it’s more than just that. It’s what preceded it, that is the bigger issue.
We need to address the acts of racism, murders and injustice that has occurred. We cannot only look at the ripple effect (riots) and ignore the rock of hate (centuries of oppression) that was dropped into the water.
More than ever right now, the followers of Christ need to make themselves present. The role of the church and its people is not to just stay back and pray. As we all know, “faith without action is dead.” Like Jesus, we the church are supposed to act during times of oppression and injustice.
You said this time is an “opportunity for the church to actually be the church.” But we cannot show who Christ is by simply praying. A church engages and defends the community that’s hurting, stands with the oppressed to fight injustice in the name of Christ. The people are crying for help. We shouldn’t riot and loot but surely there is more than just praying.
You call for us to share the Gospel and “convey the love of God” and we should. There must be tangible action.
The Asian and Hispanic communities have been tremendously impacted during the pandemic. The Black community has been hurting for a long time. What have we as a church done for our suffering community during this time of crisis these past months? What will it do now?

This is how he responded.

It is my personal policy to not engage in discussions like this on Facebook. (They are pointless and usually solve nothing)….I have never seen anyone change their mind because of a ‘brilliant’ argument….mine or anyone else’s. But just so you (and others) will not think I am ignoring you, here goes……
Sin is sin, Brother Sam. Whether it is racism, lying, stealing, killing, adultery, gossip, pride, etc., God doesn’t look at one worse than another one. The Lord has given me vision for Trinity that I was truly looking forward to implementing when COVID hit. I’m still eagerly anticipating carrying that forward.
I don’t minimize racism Bro. I’m twice your age and have not only seen racism longer than you, I have also experienced it in my life. In those times, I didn’t allow hateful people to dictate how I would respond back. I have also seen it outside our country on every continent when I served in the Air Force. It is not an American problem it is a sin problem. Additionally, it will not be fixed by protesting nor by crying out against it. It can only be remedied by heart transformation. Prayer does work. Prayer is the work!!!
“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and RESTORE THEIR LAND!” As a pastor, that’s what I choose to preach, teach, and live.
In terms of COVID 19 help, our staff, many of our laity, and I have been helping folks as they’ve had need….to the best of our knowledge.
I won’t respond back in this venue….if you want to talk I would rather speak to you. 🙂.

That’s not how you should respond. Look at him. His last name may be Sanchez but he looks White. He has looked White all his life. Yet because he is older, he believes that his viewpoints on racism is more valid than mine as a Chinese man. He refused to acknowledge the unjust killing of a Black man. Instead he generalizes it and doesn’t see the actual problem as it was. He is basically telling me that my hurt and sadness as a Person of Color was invalid. Jesus would never speak to anyone this way who was hurting from injustice. I decided to not engage anymore with this new pastor.

When the pandemic hit, everything was forced to and online forum. But another major change was that key church leaders began to step down. Board members one by one stepped down. A key worship leader stepped down. Two pastors also announced that they would be leaving. This was a clear sign that this new lead pastor was not somebody key leaders of the church wanted to work with. This was another signal that whatever this new lead pastor was doing, people were not following him. Slowly along with the leaders leaving, the attendance and tithing would drop. The church began to struggle. It was not thriving at all. And even though I wanted to see him fail, I hated that my old home church was no longer anything close to what it was before. Was there a way to save it without him there?

Before any of this pandemic thing happened, I connected on Facebook with this new lead pastor and one of his friends who follows him wherever he goes. The pastor had previously done ministry in Oregon, New Mexico and Texas before coming out to California. This other guy has followed him every step of the way. I became friends with both of them on Facebook. The pastor would use Facebook to post links to his daily YouTube videos promoting his “Daily Sharpening” devotionals and share those videos on the church Facebook page. He has since deleted all these videos off his YouTube page for some reason. And after his lack of respect towards me after the interaction over racism on Facebook, I deleted him off my Facebook too. And I had to do the same with his friend because he would share content on Facebook making jokes on the severity of the COVID-19 virus. This actually led me to wonder if this new lead pastor was one of those people who probably believed that Neo-Nazis are fine people. His friend might. And knowing his military background, there might be a chance he was a Trump supporter. I was no longer connected with him on Facebook but someone who was shared that Sanchez had shared a post praising Trump. And many of his posts are public, so I decided to look. He posts things like that with a lot of COVID-19 conspiracy theorists in the comment. This was what he was referring to, which he later shared as well.

Well, that was more evidence that this guy was not good. That’s the kind of guy he associates with and the message he wants to promote. Plus his wife also shares posts praising Trump, disdain towards the media and hating on liberals. These are the kinds of people they are. There’s no love or care in what they share.

So the entire summer leading into where we are now, I have not followed what has been happening at my old home church. I harbored a lot of anger towards this FRAUD PASTOR who lied about God, led the congregation with those lies, showed no love and empathy and drove the church into the ground. I knew that his “my way or the highway” approach would be his downfall. No way that he got a vision from God. That was a lie. And because the congregation wasn’t following his lead, he was going to quit. It was bound to happen. My father-in-law, who heard about this new pastor last year, said that he would quit within a year.

And wouldn’t you know it, in November, he announced that he was quitting.

This did not surprise me at all. This guy is a fraud. Even I know basketball coaches and people in the military never teach about quitting when the going gets tough. But Steve Sanchez did. He quit on the church when it got tough. He disguised it by saying God called him to a new ministry. That was the lie that divided the church. He sought a new ministry because he wanted out. Don’t believe a word he says when it comes to God telling him things. As evidence from the past, he lies about that. His entire tenure at my old home church has been a complete farce. And he knowingly deceived everyone in an attempt to get what he wanted. He never cared who he hurt to get there. And when he didn’t get what he wanted, he just decided to get up and leave.

STEVE SANCHEZ IS A LIAR.

STEVE SANCHEZ IS SELFISH.

STEVE SANCHEZ IS UNEMPATHETIC.

STEVE SANCHEZ IS NOT A MAN OF FAITH.

STEVE SANCHEZ IS A FRAUD PASTOR.

And worst of all, the Nazarene denomination is not going to keep him accountable. They never made him publicly apologize for the lies he told, the hurt he did or the resources he squandered in his one-year tenure. The district superintendent in a phone call with me did say that Sanchez’s time here was NOT part of God’s plan. He did admit, in a sense, that he was a mistake. But no actions can be done. No reparations or accountability. It seemed like they just wanted to be rid of him. It probably is the best. Good riddance.

And so it came to be. This past Sunday was his final Sunday before he heads to Indiana where he will lead a new ministry. Indiana is more middle White America. It will fit him and his racist viewpoints better. Or maybe he might destroy that church and quit too. Who knows?

What good can come from all this? I know that my faith is strong and I may have found my new church during this turmoil. Others have too. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for some people who were forced to leave. And I am still sad over what did happen.

And I share all of this because I want to keep record of what has happened. But I also want to also use this as a caution anyone else who may encounter a church leader who does questionable things. This may help them see whether that person is genuine or not. I do pray for that family that maybe they can finally hear God speak to them about being loving and kind.

I have wanted to document all this pain and hurt for a while and now I have. It’s been hard for me to be at peace about this but I think writing this will give it to me. I pray that God will do the healing and that good can come out of this awful situation.