Just over three months after re-ordaining and restoring Sam Collier, the lead pastor of Christian Cultural Center’s Atlanta campus, A.R. Bernard and his son, Jamaal, the new senior pastor of CCC New York City, said the megachurch is standing by him after his ex-wife claimed he was extorted by a trans-identified male prostitute during their marriage.
“The Christian Church in America has struggled with two critical failures. The transition of leadership and the restoration of fallen leaders. Both have too often revealed a painful imbalance between grace and truth, leaving the church vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy,” said Jamaal Bernard, reading aloud a statement signed by him and his father and delivered to the Atlanta congregation on Jan. 4.
“In light of the recent tabloid style coverage that prioritizes scandal, a spectacle of integrity, I’m issuing this statement reaffirming CCC’s commitment to accountability, grace, and the restorative power of Christ. Pastor Sam Collier came to CCC as an anointed and authentic yet flawed human, quite some time after the divorce from his ex-wife. In spite of the recent publicity campaign, we are committed to the healing process we began with Pastor Sam in 2024,” Jamaal Bernard said to applause.
Jamaal Bernard, who took over as the new senior pastor of the 37,000-member New York City-based megachurch founded by his father and prominent faith leader, Pastor A.R. Bernard, nearly five decades ago, said he also remains committed to the Atlanta campus and promised to support Collier “no matter what.”
“We ask that you keep Pastor Sam in your prayers, his family and his journey,” Jamaal Bernard said.
During an interview on the “Girls Gone Bible” podcast last October, Collier’s ex-wife, Toni Collier, revealed that he told her he was being extorted by a trans-identified male prostitute months before she announced she was getting a divorce in 2023.
Toni Collier, who married Sam Collier in 2015, claimed she discovered her ex-husband had a pornography addiction and was paying women for sexual favors during the second year of their eight-year marriage, which was well before he was announced as Hillsong Church’s first black lead pastor in the U.S. in 2020.
“Our second year of marriage, I found out he had a porn addiction. He was hiring women for sexual favors, y’all. And then I would say I just was really isolated, and I was nervous to tell my parents and my friends, and then I didn’t want to go through another divorce,” she revealed.
Toni Collier said she tried to fix her marriage and assumed that conditions had been improving until 2023, when Sam Collier revealed that he was being extorted.
“Two years ago, I was in Nashville filming with TBN, and I got a call from him that he was being extorted by a prostitute ’cause he never stopped. I thought he did,” Toni Collier recalled.
“Long story short, he hired someone; it was [a] transgender prostitute. … I guess they got a video of him. And so they were using this video to extort him, and he sent like $10,000. And then they threatened to come to our church because we had planted a church. We planted Hillsong Atlanta.”
A report Sam Collier made to the Atlanta Police Department on Sept. 24, 2023, backs up the extortion allegations made by his ex-wife.
The police report does not confirm that Sam Collier paid any money to the prostitute, but the pastor says of the transgender prostitute, “He has already stolen money from me.”
Addressing his congregants on Jan. 4, Sam Collier said he was grateful for the support of his church and Christian Cultural Center because he was prepared for the megachurch to abandon him as his marriage unraveled.
“I’m grateful for organizations like CCC and Pastor Jamal, Dr. A.R. Bernard. When you have situations like this happen, the Church leaves you. And I’ve experienced that a lot over the last two years. So I was prepared. I was like, look, just kick me, let me go,” Collier said as Jamaal Bernard interjected, “I was like no!”
Sam Collier said even though it has been a difficult process, the support of the church and his congregation helped him recover.
“I’m still here. I just want to thank all of the messages that came through. The Instagrams, the emails, some of y’all cursed me out in the DMs. You’re like, get back to church now! And I just really appreciate it. It has been two years of unexpected trial. You could not tell me I would still be here today navigating this,” he said.
“It’s been difficult because you have your integrity questioned,” he added. “As of recently, your sexuality questioned, which has always been intact and will always remain intact: heterosexual.”
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