Popular evangelist and spoken-word artist Clayton Jennings has canceled all his speaking engagements and stepped away from ministry to focus on his “marriage, his renewal and his spiritual formation.”
“I never claimed to be perfect and I never said I was sinless. Presenting you with a fake facade of greatness is never why I got in this. I want you to know this: I’ve sinned—a lot,” Jennings says in a Facebook confessional video.
Rampant rumors swirled in recent months of Jennings’ sinful past and present. Multiple women came forward about Jennings’ sexual behavior and claimed he asked them to use the morning-after pill.
“I could tell you stories of my past sin, but I wouldn’t know when to stop. I had sex before marriage and I broke a lot of hearts. And that’s not even the worst part. Sometimes it was during seasons of ministry. I led some girls on, and there were text messages of sex and sin,” Jennings says in his video.
Now, he’s moving away from the ministry spotlight with the encouragement and support of his mentor Tony Nolan of Winter Jam fame.
“Recently Clayton came to me in a spirit of humility and repentance over some sins of his past that are still haunting him in his present,” Nolan says. “In a spirit of accountability, Clayton has agreed to a process of restoration. A part of that is he has discontinued all of his speaking engagements to focus on his marriage, his renewal and his spiritual formation.”
Many of the video’s commenters offered prayers of support as Jennings takes time for himself and his marriage.
“Jesus will make all things new, heal what needs to be healed, and break what needs to be broken. He will do this with you, in spite of you, through you, and in you. You are not alone. I love you, man, and will do all I can from here on to #TellTheWorld about the Christ who will never leave you or forsake you. Always. And in all ways,” one person wrote.
