“But for some reason, most churches…don’t subscribe to that—if they do have the resources to do it, because I understand that there are different challenges in that—but some people just don’t, because they feel like it doesn’t take all of that,” Todd continued. “But in my mind and my heart, everything we do should reflect his excellence.”
Todd said that he has often received outside criticism for “doing the most,” but, “I made a decision that I cannot not be me. The most exhausting thing I can do in my life is to be somebody that God did not create me to be.”
“And so for me, what may seem like a show, a picture, a put-on, my wife will tell you, that’s been me since I was 15 years old,” said Todd. “If I was working at Amazon, and I was delivering packages, the way I deliver packages would be completely different than everybody at the company.”
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“I heard [evangelist] Myles Munroe say one time that the goal of life is to actually die empty. And he said, ‘The richest place in the world is the graveyard,’” Todd said, “because so many people have actually died with what God put on the inside of them due to how they would perceive somebody else would take what he told them to do.”
“And when I heard [Munroe] say that, I wrote down on a spiral notebook, ‘I will die empty,’” Todd added.
Referencing Todd’s “theatrical” sermon illustrations, Lecrae said that some people see clips of Todd on social media and might think, “Why isn’t he just preaching the Word? Why does it take all this? What’s happening here?”
“It’s because of the context that it’s in,” said Todd. “So I’m in the context of church, which 99.9% of the people just stand and teach the Word.” He continued, “What I try to do is teach the Word and then give you a picture of what it actually looks like, because most people remember pictures more than they remember what somebody says.”
“That’s why every rap song has a video. That’s why all stories turn into movies. That’s why Instagram is a popular social media site—and TikTok,” Todd said. “Because I’m not just hearing it; I’m getting a picture. I see what you look like. I see what it feels like.”
“That’s what Jesus did,” Todd said, referring to Jesus’ frequent use of parables.
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Todd joked that he preaches so much that he can’t even remember what he said four weeks ago. “But I can tell you right now,” Todd said, “that people remember me being on water in a boat talking about making it through a storm. Whether you liked it or not, you remember it.”
