The Cancer Of Oklahoma City
When we think of a cancer diagnosis, there’s questions that tend to come to mind quickly — how fast is it spreading and how much time do I have to treat it. When we think of Pastor Dillon Awes of Anchor Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, it’s important to realize that we need to deal with those same two questions, but biblically.
Pastor Dillon Awes was ordained by Pastor Jonathan Shelley of Stedfast Baptist Church following the ordination of Salvador Alvarez that resulted in broken fellowship between Shelley and his first protege. Additionally, Awes was ordained in an official capacity in an attempt by the New IFB to save face in wake of the abuse accusations against Pastor Steven Anderson.
Then-Pastor Salvador Alvarez was supposed to be a breath of fresh air for Jonathan Shelley, but instead became one of his worst nightmare scenarios. Alvarez wasted no time breaking complete fellowship with Shelley due to the fact that he would not wait for the fog to lift from the situation in Arizona and made a public renunciation of the group and it’s de facto leader.
As we’ve looked at in other pieces, the New IFB was losing churches and congregants in droves because the goal posts had simply shifted too far from what Christianity actually stands on. It was no longer rooted in Christ but chaos — and depended more on you being fearful than forgiven.
Pastor Anderson was explicitly accused of beating both his wife and children while simultaneously encouraging those in his congregation to do the same.
Once it became clear that Pastor Jonathan Shelley was not able to replicate a don’t-ask-don’t-tell test dummy with Salvador Alvarez, Dillon Awes accepted the call.
Awes is connected to Pastor Aaron Thompson through marriage. Pastor Thompson is also part of the New IFB and currently functions as the pastor of Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Vancouver, Washington.
Prior to being sent to Oklahoma City, Awes spent time preparing for the ministry both in Washington and in Texas and has had several inflammatory sermons go viral.
Viral can be a good thing for bold and biblical preaching, but in the case of broadening the New IFB witch hunt against brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to stop romanticizing the cancerous situation and learn to discern it accordingly.
Pastor Awes first made waves years ago on social media for a sermon preached at Jonathan Shelley’s church where he preached against sodomites and predators, calling for them to be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head.
The concern with Awes is not his call to biblical justice for those of the reprobate sort as much as it is for the fact that his rhythm of righteous indignation has now been shifted towards saved brothers and sisters in Christ.
During a conference in Texas where the re-brand of the New IFB was born, also known as the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship, Awes preached against those who had left the movement.
This copycat style of railing is no stranger to Stedfast Baptist Church, as this had been performed countless times by the other Andersonite sister churches.
The movement is no longer representative of what it was in years past.
Even now, they’ve collectively lessened their preaching against the sodomites and instead have decided to engage in a red line of railing against other believers who don’t support domestic abuse.
Awes’ sermon at the conference attempted to spin the dissent of long-time pastors and churchgoers from the movement as an infection of feminism amongst Christians.
A significant amount of people had stepped away due to the movement now requiring that you must get on board with beating your wife or else you’re a feminist.
Pastor Awes continued his full-time pursuit of self-righteousness by equating those who rebel against the idea of blind obedience to Steven Anderson with those who worship the devil.
The narrative needed to change from the issue being abuse to the issue being authority — this way, anyone who had walked away from the New IFB could now be labelled as rebellious against God.
It inserted New IFB pastors as the mediators who determine your right-standing with God, even though the Bible explicitly rejects this ideology.
Our only mediator between God and man, according to scripture, is Jesus Christ.
Further into his sermon, Pastor Awes states:
Never would I have thought that the New IFB would split over doctrines of authority, over doctrines of feminism. But guess what? There’s a lot of Christian feminists today.
Naturally, Awes focused more on projecting instead of preaching and heard plenty of amens from the echo chamber.
If you’re wondering how domestic abuse became an issue of feminism or authority within the New IFB, here’s the bridge.
Between the events at Steven Anderson's home and the conference event at Stedfast — women spoke up for their husbands who had stepped away.
Pastor Jared Pozarnsky of Hold Fast Baptist Church, when dissenting, publicly stated that he did so given consideration to how the concern with Anderson’s behavior was impacting his wife and his family.
Pastor Robinson of Mountain Baptist Church, when dissenting, shared biblical truths in a sermon to draw clear distinctions between discipline and abuse.
Pastor David Berzins of Strong Hold Baptist Church, a long-time friend of the Anderson family, stepped away from the movement because he became aware of how depraved the situation truly was.
Pastor Joe Jones of Heritage of Grace Bible Church, when dissenting, was accused of being a “gently led husband” by Steven Anderson from the pulpit.
Anderson’s verbal assault continued as he took shots at all of the listed pastors and attacked the character of their wives in an attempt to provoke a response.
When the leader of the movement could not get what they wanted, they had no choice but to manipulate the situation and lie about why so many people were leaving.
In giving Awes a chance to prove his loyalty to the leader, Anderson was then given the same sadistic satisfaction he’d been unable to find by thrashing saved pastors left and right.
As Anchor Baptist Church continues their attempts to reach Oklahoma City, the prayer for Pastor Awes is that he wakes up, embraces the fact that he is an independent church, and gets things right with those that he has maligned from the pulpit as a result of his people-pleasing tendencies.
It’s a cancer he has to deal with before it consumes him — otherwise, he runs the risk of discovering the spiritual point of no return.
