A Review of Antonio Wells and Faith Walker's Church

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Let’s review Pastor Antonio Wells and Faith Walkers Church of the Cedar Valley. This is among the most challenging and difficult articles I’ve ever had to publish, knowing it will likely rank between #2-4 on Google search for years to come.

This means anyone searching for this church or its pastor will almost certainly read this.

Furthermore, whether this a credible telling of events will be judged the Lord God and I welcome such scrutiny.

While many people in this community believe that I am 'crazy', which I am honored by, very few, to include Wells, can credibly call me to be a liar, even when I come down their alley.

On this website, I have 'given honor and tribute' to those church leaders to whom it is due yet rebuke and exhortation is a part of this platform's DNA and mission as well (Jam. 2:1,9).

As did the Apostle Paul, there are times when a leader's conduct is such that they need to be named publicly (Titus 1:13, 2:15).

Whether Peter, Hymenaeus, Alexander the Coppersmith, Philetus, Demas, Bar-Jesus or others, Paul believed that inclusion of their names in his epistles was necessary (1 Tim. 1:20, 2 Tim. 2:17, 2 Tim. 4:14, 2 Tim. 2:17, 2 Tim. 4:10, Acts 13:8–10).

However, Wells has been most evil where the church I lead is concerned, over an extended period of time, and without the slightest bit of repentance.

Just a few evenings ago, this dishonor reared it head again and will be discussed a bit later. I’m publicly sharing this account so God’s people can make a more informed choice about whether to attend Faith Walker's Church.

Unlike a few others featured on this website, which is now the number #1 black Christian blog in the country by visits and impressions—and is, of course, non-gossip—Pastor Antonio Wells is undeniably God’s man and no pretender (1 Thess. 5:12-13).

Yet, when I read 1 Timothy 3, which outlines the qualifications of a church leader, it specifically warns against novices leading (1 Tim. 3:1-7). Irrespective of whether a preacher can 'gather disciples after themselves,' which this kid has, it is never Jesus's stamp of approval on their methods or motives (Matt. 23:5, Acts 20:20, Jude 1:16).

Wells’ errors do not stem from his lack of being able to recite God's Word, which he does fluently, it comes from his youth, refusal to listen, and his tendency to burn every bridge that has allowed him to cross over, including with our church (Prov. 16:18, Prov. 12:15, 1 Pet. 5:5).

I once considered him a very close friend. However, for that to be possible again, he must acknowledge the harm he has caused and ask the Lord to deliver him from the deceptive belief that he is always the victim and has no responsibility for personal sin (Luke 17:3-4, 1 John 1:8-9, Jam. 5:16, Gal. 6:1).

As regular readers know, at the heart of black church's leadership issue is a refusal to either accept accountability or be held to such. Furthermore, for me to publish an article such as this, especially about someone whom I used to consider a friend is extraordinary, but from an accountability perspective, it has become necessary.

Why is it necessary now?

Wells made his disdain for holiness and God's people that I lead very public just last evening, not to mention the demonic way in which he left use of our facility around 18 months ago.

Over the past few years, I have remained silent, peaceable, though with much shame which I will discuss a bit later (1 Pet. 3:16, 2 Tim. 2:24-25).

The only preacher I shared the first part of what you will learn shortly was because he personally witnessed Well's very public sin against our church which took he and his wife in with nothing but love for them.

Faith Walkers Church of the Cedar Valley started about three years ago. For one reason or another, their first location was no longer viable and although Wells never said why, I came to understand that the 'show' of church, irrespective of the substance, was very important to him.

Pastor Wells and I began discusssions about the possibility of Faith Walkers holding services at our building. Having been a part of a church plant like Faith Walkers in Denver, Colorado some year ago, I understood the challenges they faced—everything from location to participation to finances (Luke 10:30-37, 1 John 3:17).

Now that I had the authority to assist a new church, there was no way I wouldn’t at least bring it before our congregation for a vote, as long as they were preaching Christ (Heb. 13:6, Jam. 2:15-17).

However, the error I made in so quickly allowing Wells and his church in, was that preaching Christ crucified is beautiful and Holy Ghost, but setting His leadership example was just as important (John 13:15, Philipp. 2:5-7).

To this point, I had witnessed him do the former but not the latter. By this time, I had enough evidence that the kid was not mature enough, especially with the messy way he organized his 'ordination', but I demonically ignored it.

Making my sin greater, was I had been warned by men much more gifted in discerning character than I (Prov. 12:15, Prov. 15:22).

Getting his church in the building was more difficult than I could have imagined. Yet, I wonder whether this resistance had more Holy Spirit warning than I cared to acknowledge at the time?

A majority vote in favor eventually occurred, and Pastor Wells and his church moved into our facility. At the time, I knew that Wells, being a Oneness Pentecostal, believed that a Baptist church—whatever that means—was considered heretical by his denomination.

In fact, his denomination considers everyone outside their group heretics!

More plainly, having been founded in 1906 and suffering a split in 1912, they believe everyone from the last verse of the Book of Acts until the founding of their church, and everyone since, has gone to hell if not adhering to 'Jesus Name Only Baptism' (Act 2:38).

This doctrine isn’t worth elaborating on here, as we held a debate with them, which you can view by clicking this link.

For awhile, things were manageable, though anyone who has dealt with Wells knows he has a condescending and elitist attitude toward those he considers inferior- people like me.

Yet, I always remembered that he was around twenty-four (24) and literally, the judgment centers in his brain were still forming. More plainly, and as brilliant as the brother thought he was, Well's could not have been, no one is (Rom. 12:3).

However, I viewed this time as valuable, allowing the Lord to develop me in turning the other cheek and showing grace to church leaders—something I struggle with (Col 3:12-13).

On this wise, I am not, nor will I ever be, silent to the point of enabling wayward church leaders. “We gotta pray for them and let the Lord handle it” is the mantra of a coward (Jam. 2:17-26, Heb. 11:6).

Furthermore, I admired his zeal, youthful vigor, and commitment to outreach, even if he looked down his nose at us the entire time.

I found his arrogance and elitism slightly amusing at times because in addition to his brain being not fully formed, and as my momma used to say, “Boy, who you think you are to act like that? You ain’t got a pot to piss in nor a window to throw it out of.”

Imagine a couple in need who come knocking at your door, asking to eat with you, coming into your house, and then complaining about the taste of the food and the warmth of the house.

This accurately describes how Pastor Wells conducted himself and, as confirmed at a mutual service I attended last night 18 months after destroying our relationship, continues to.

The day Pastor Well's arrogance, complete cognitive dissonance, and lack of self-awareness became too intolerable to continue 'turning the other cheek' was the previously mentioned debate night at the church.

The day started as a blessed one and actually ended the same with respect to cross-denominational understanding if not agreement.

However, as we prepared the church for this co-hosted event, Wells’ demonic behavior escalated in a way that would ultimately end with his church no longer holding services at our facility by his choice and not ours.

As was discussed prior, the kid placed a higher value on appearing like his church was more than it was (living on front street), than demonstrating any form of honor, love, or respect to the multi-decades old fellowship which had taken them in.

First, I invited him, on several occasions, to join the panel to debate and theologically defend the Oneness Pentecostal doctrine. The debate featured myself, another minister serving at our church, and two Oneness Pentecostal theologians who were friends of Wells.

I won’t name them because those two young men conducted themselves above reproach (1 Tim. 3:2). Despite our doctrinal disagreement, I have great love and respect for how they carried themselves and the boldness in publicly defending their beliefs (Rom. 13:7).

However, with Pastor Wells, the story was quite different. It became clear that he would not sit on the panel, and by this time, I understood why.

First, he maintains the image of an educated and knowledgeable preacher and would never risk appearing otherwise. As with that which was pointed out earlier (living on front street), he values the illusion of being more than he is and would never put that illusion at risk of being exposed as false.

More plainly, he only trusts Jesus up and to a point (Matt. 15:8, Luke 6:46, Jam. 1:22).

Second, Wells is the guy we all grew up knowing who would talk big prior to the fight yet when it came time to throw hands wanted no part of the action.

Now, to be clear, it was myself and another minister who came to Wells about the debate. Yet the reason was a desire for dialogue with Oneness Pentencostals and for me at least, to see if the appearance of boldness had any substance to it.

At the time, I didn’t realize that Wells had marketed the event as if Faith Walkers Church was was primarily responsible, despite it being co-hosted. This was absurd because Faith Walkers Church had no facility to host, our church paid for his friends’ expenses to come, provided food, shelter, and covered other costs of their comfort while here.

This was no insult to Wells because we initiated the event. However, the most Wells could provide was a few home cooked meals and to refuse any humility towards his benefactors was simply stunning.

The weekend of the debate, Wells and Faith Walkers Church didn’t have a pot to piss in nor a window to throw it out of, yet they pretended the pot and the house were theirs and we were the guests.

At one point during the debate—keep in mind, I am the pastor of the church hosting this event, and I allowed Wells to call himself a co-host—the debate moderator, also a Oneness Pentecostal, tried to shut me down from speaking!

The moderator looked to Wells for permission or authority to silence me, and Wells waved his hand, like some kind of godfather, signaling to allow me to speak. Please read that again to grasp the blindness required to do something like that.

After the event was over, another well-respected pastor who was present, came up to me and was stunned at this turn of events. The people from our church, who were in the overwhelming majority, saw this unfold and became very upset—I could see it on their faces.

As I checked the online stream during the debate, another outrage came to light, which literally made my hands shake. The event was being streamed with only Faith Walkers Church’s name and a request for donations—something we never agreed to, and Wells never mentioned he would do.

But it gets worse, during the debate, while his bold, competent, and humble friends were on stage defending Oneness Pentecostal doctrine—and keep in mind, Wells lacked the courage to join them—he was on Facebook, mocking our church's minister and me, for daring to challenge their Oneness position.

This brother didn’t have the nerve to do what his friends were doing, certainly couldn’t have stood up to us theologically and yet, behind our backs, in public view of everyone, was making negative comments.

After the debate, to say I was more hostile than I’d been in years is an understatement. I understand that God’s Word says the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God, so I demanded a Matthew 18:15-17 meeting with Wells.

He initially agreed to meet but then texted back, saying he couldn’t because he had an appointment. So, after causing all this confusion, he either lied about being able to meet or lied about having an appointment to avoid meeting me immediately.

More concerning, he asked what was the meeting about?!

He said he could meet three hours after the initially agreed time which was not going to work for me. For brevity’s sake, Wells was trying to avoid me because he knows I’m confrontational and won’t tolerate messy, demonic confusion from black preachers.

Because of all the confusion he had caused, and for lying about meeting with me, which was one of a number of untruths that weekend, and for trying to change the terms of the meeting to avoid accountability, I decided the meeting would have no value.

By this time, I understood one thing about Wells: he’s is like just about every other negro preacher in that they cause evil, resist to the point of lying any form of accountability, and worship the status of pastor while not adhering to its most basic tenents of fidelity.

More plainly, they don't fully believe the very Bible, or God, they claim to represent. How can one when the holiness preached doesn't extend its covering of accountability to them.

Anyone claiming to be called and anointed by the Lord to preach yet lacks enough love for the Word to self-examine or be held accountable are by defintion hypocrites. We preachers bring accountability to God's people yet reject the same when it is brought to our doorstep (Rom. 2:1-2).

I met with our church leadership, who were hurt and angry about what happened, and to say I was ashamed for inviting this confusion into the house of God is an understatement.

My mistake was being hospitable to a friend without the Lord’s say-so. I understood Wells was God’s man, but surely the Holy Spirit would have warned me that, although someone may be God’s man, it might not be time to bring them forward.

More clearly, in calling out sin, I confess my own and did so before our church leadership team. My evil was inviting an unprepared church leader into a place the Lord was preparing for a great work.

This damaged what God was doing at the time, and I was further guilty of not listening to those with experience from the same man I was now dealing with.

We are now about 18 months past Pastor Antonio Wells and his church’s exit from our building. Yet, at a recent communal fellowship event where Wells was present, his total lack of self-awareness, thankfulness, and humility showed itself again.

A woman professing to be of the holiness denomination stood up and made derogatory comments about the Baptist church having no 'teachers' so she went 'Holiness.' No need to dissect the rank hypocrisy of the COGIC Holiness church again.

However, if I do not hear from her husband, who was the guest evangelist, they will be featured here as well and based on his minimal Internet presence, it will not be hard to get the top Google page #1 ranking for his name (keyword).

The time for allowing these ill-equipped black preachers, their undiscipled and emotionally unstable wives, and followers to poison God's people with hypocritcal division without worldwide Internet top visibility, redress, rebuke and correction is past (2 Tim. 3:16).

As it is written; "as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these resist truth. Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith but their foolishness will go no further because it will be made known to all people" (2 Tim. 3:8-9).

Preaching that one black denomination, and this woman even slandered non-denominational churches, are less equipped and valid than Church of God and Christ (or Oneness doctrine) is demonstrating a reprobate mind!

This will not only be accomplished through articles with biblical references, high level (yet less formal and conversational) papers will be written to refute such falsity as well.

For an example, download my latest paper here: Jesus Had No Faith for free. These are the same types who told you and I; "Jesus held onto to His faith in the Garden and on the Cross." Wrong, again. They confuse "faithful" with "faith."

What was even worse is once the preacher's wife said it, she tried to back-up off it. He called her up to speak, introduced her as an Ephesians 4 preacher (Evangelist) and church leader, so he will answer for the her godlessness.

If my wife were to do something like this, I would have to answer as well!

However, Wells and in front of the entire congregation at another pastor's church where he was a guest, and in the face of our church who had been so loving to he and his wife, blurted out, “That’s why I came out of the Baptist church as well!”

As another pastor warned me prior; "be careful because he (Wells) boxes with the truth."

Antonio Wells never came out of Baptist world because he continues to mingle among the local Baptist church pulpiteers. Furthermore, he co-hosted events with us, leased our building, and recently worshipped (and preached) at Holy Week Services in the city while hollering "Amen" to their Baptist preaching.

The Bible says "have no dealings with the unfruitful works of darkness rather reprove them" (Eph. 5:8-11). If we are truly as unholy and apostate as Wells, Oneness, and COGIC claim, why are they associating with 'heathens' anyway?

The Bible further commands, "if anyone doesn't bring the doctrine of Christ and you bid them godspeed (support), you are a partaker in their evil deeds" (2 John 1:10-11). At minimum, and assuming every other church type is going to Hell, and knowing they associated with our 'sin', how are they not going as well?

What was even more insane was the woman who said this is COGIC, which Oneness Pentecostals believe are heretics, and COGIC believes the same about them!

In the middle of all of this were Baptists, who both COGIC and Oneness believe are lost, but we are all in the same place calling on the Name of Jesus Christ.

Jesus, please be a fence.

Well's claims of being anti-Baptist are no more sincere than his apparent allegiance to Oneness doctrine which he flaunts when it suits his personal desires. What this false conversion is really about, in general, is anger toward the Iowa State Baptist Convention leadership who he personally told me had wronged him.

This is why he left, not because some sudden Oneness doctrinal conviction or being led by the Holy Spirit. More plainly, Pastor Antonio Wells experienced church hurt, like so many others, and played the role of a 'bunny rabbit' Christian hopping from one church to another.

All of this must become public because at this point the kid continues to unrelentlessly mock the very accountability he preaches and lacks any form of contrition.

Furthermore, he has sinned publicly as a church leader, so, as Paul did on many occasions, there’s no need to address this privately—we must deal with it publicly. I hope that, at some point, Wells matures, stops lying, and is humbled.

At that time, I will gladly remove this from the top of Google search. However, until then, irrespective of what he or his members say on social media, this article will remain 'live' and unlike a dated post on Facebook, it will never move unless either Google changes its search protocols or I remove it.

Of course, when Wells comes across this, he will play the role of a victim again. However, I am many things but a liar is not one of them. Find one church leader in Waterloo, Iowa, or church member who can, with evidence, righteously convict me of being someone who promotes falsehoods.

With all of that said, a message of rebuke must always give way to the grace of the Lord Yeshua (John 3:15-17, Heb. 12:15). Antonio Wells is called of the Lord yet his personal and very public mockery of truth is cognitive dissonance of the most damaging sort.

This brother must repent and turn back to Christ because Jesus loves him (1 John 1:9).

I’m all about taking a flamethrower to bridges which require destroying, having done so and will in the future.

But it has been based on the truth of the Bible, not my personal flaws.

If you are attending or considering attending Faith Walkers Ministries of the Cedar Valley, I suggest you pray and seek the Lord’s face. Congregations are always a reflection of their leader, period.

If he (or she) is anointed in the area of outreach, the congregation will be. In our case, confronting injustice within the church and righteouly rebuking and protesting its sin (and ours as well) encapsulates a large portion of missional identity.

Likewise, if the leader is 'boxes with the truth,' as I have personally experienced from Wells, and lacks the courage that he/she demands of the people, the congregation will take on that identity as well.

This is sure to be seen a an attack of Satan, although this is blasphemous, because it is always easier to, as someone once said to me, "look out of the window instead of in the mirror."

Waterloo, Iowa city pastors (not the phonies) who attempted to warn me and those who politely questioned why I allowed this guy in our midst, and who I became combative with believing Antonio Wells was my friend and trustworthy, I repent in the dust.

Brethren, I was wrong, self-deceived and walked in my flesh and plead your forgiveness.

In this instance, Wells was not the only one out of order. For not receiving wise counsel, I was as well. May the Lord God of Armies forgive me on that day.