Supporters seek to defend Pastor Keion Henderson amid backlash for evoking a ‘spirit of disobedience’ in his choir during service

Pastor Keion Henderson wants God to receive all of the glory, but at once he’s in the highlight for his viral leadership.

The founder of Lighthouse Church has grow to be a topic of discussion once more, and a recent clip from a recent sermon has began circulating on Instagram.

It stays a hot topic days after sparking debate over the very public way he selected to silence a disruptive church member whose constant wailing during praise and worship was getting on people’s nerves. In the newest clip that has sparked comments, a pastor is in the center of preaching when all of the choir members start moving on the stage behind him in a Houston sanctuary.

The music director punctuated the moment with organ chords that signaled a powerful cry and an unfolding experience of the Holy Spirit. Henderson turned to them and said, “Let me…no. We won’t do it. “Wait,” but it surely was too late. Several band members had already began walking across the stage, tilting their heads back, calling out to the Lord, and fidgeting in place.

“It’s… wait! Wait! We’ll get there. There is a spirit of disobedience in this church. Please wait a moment,” he said because the music continued to play and the choir members roared into the microphones, further inciting the energetic scene to unfold.

Still, he said, “Okay, house in order. Look at another person and tell them I’ll live to see it occur.

“He hates it, but the money is good,” said one critic. Another user wrote, “The worship team needs to read the room. The pastor had something to say that God had placed on his heart, and the people were too busy catching the spirit to catch the message.

However, several other people suggested that the Indiana native could have had a moment of fun. “I can’t say some of you don’t go to church regularly… he’s joking… sheesh,” read one defense of his actions.

“It was very carefree… completely different than the last time he hit the internet,” wrote one other, drawing comparisons to the time he told a parishioner to “be silent in the name of Jesus” because she was drawing attention to herself along with her crying.

Still others claim that Pastor Henderson was simply doing his job. “He turns them on! If you do not go to church, steer clear of church matters,” one person said.

Another wrote: “Say you didn’t grow up in a black church without saying you didn’t grow up in a black church. it’s normal behavior for southern black pastors to say stop, it doesn’t literally mean it’s like, you understand, something like that.

Henderson addressed the controversial moment he appeared alongside his wife Shaunie O’Neal on “Tamron Hall” last week. Even though people suggested his actions were inappropriate, he explained that he and other church members had been trying for 4 years to get the girl to stop talking.

“As a pastor, I know the difference between disruption and worship, and I know what people need to understand. “What people need to understand is that any time you hear noise in church, it is not worship,” he told the daytime talk show host. He added: “There must be order. (…) So I brought order to the room so that people could hear God and not her, and I will do it again if necessary.”

Another supporter, who defended him from heavy criticism over reactions to the brand new clip, said: “All BLACK pastors do it!! Act like you want them to stop, but really you just want them to keep going! You really need to get up from this man!”

Henderson has been serving since childhood, when he first realized he was called to lead. He planted a church in Houston in 2009. He began dating O’Neal in 2019. They married in 2021, making the basketball player’s ex-wife (she was previously married to Shaquille O’Neal) the primary lady.