Pastor Michael Todd, whose previous object lessons have raised eyebrows, recently jumped in a bed on stage during a sermon about relationships. While warning about the consequences of making “counterfeit connections,” he cuddled with a female mannequin torso, adding pieces to the body.
Todd, who co-pastors Transformation Church near Tulsa, Oklahoma, with his wife, Natalie, was trying to keep the message “as PG-rated as possible.” But he admits he “might have to do an uncut version.”
Pastor Michael Todd: ‘Cuddling’ Can Kill
Since May, Pastor Michael Todd, author of “Relationship Goals: How to Win at Dating, Marriage, and Sex,” has been preaching a series titled “Cuffing Season.” The slang phrase can refer to hooking up or getting handcuffed or tied down to a partner. Todd defines it as loving things that don’t love you back but instead hold you back from God’s best.
On November 27, in his fourteenth installment of the series, the pastor discusses being “Cuffed to the Cuddle.” The deep-dive on relationships might be the most important message in the series, he says, because the body of Christ often seeks comfort in ungodly sources, “cuddling with things that have the power to kill.”
As an object lesson, Todd climbs into an on-stage bed filled with fluffy pillows. When objects don’t fulfill us, “we invite people into our beds,” he says, “and they can be fake.” Tucking a mannequin torso under the covers with him, the pastor says, “We don’t care who we cuddle with, if it makes us feel comfortable. It don’t matter when it’s convenient.”
Eventually we realize we have only “a piece” of that person and want more. Todd brings out an arm and then legs, constructing the mannequin while describing our desire for connection. The problem, he says, is that “most cuddles are a counterfeit connection” and leave people “compromised.”
Churches Fix the Consequences of Cuddles, Says Pastor Michael Todd
The closeness that occurs behind closed doors leads to connections and the desire to create something more, warns Todd. “But the truth of the matter is, many of the problems that we deal with in the church is fixing consequences that started as a cuddle.”
Because humans are selfish, we’re “looking for the cookie,” he says, throwing small packs of snacks out from under the sheets. “It can be different mannequins, different cookies. Bragging about how many different types of cookies you’ve had.” The truth, says the pastor, is that “most of [your] kids started with a cuddle.”
