Crisis Response at Christian Fellowship Center
When churches face a crisis, they generally choose one of two paths: transparency or impression management.
Christian Fellowship Center is dealing with multiple crises in the summer of 2026, including a church split and new abuse allegations. This April, Pastor Daniel Paladin announced that he was leaving CFC Potsdam to plant a church unaffiliated with CFC. Rick Sinclair followed that bombshell with an email that raised more questions than it answered.
What Daniel and Rick both omitted in their announcements is that the new church is planned for Columbia, TN. People familiar with the Sinclair family tree will recognize Sinclair, Rick’s fifth daughter, but they may not know that Columbia has been Sinclair’s safe haven for the past few years.
North Country residents and CFC members have legitimate questions: Why have Daniel and Brietta Paladin decided to plant a church in Sinclair’s hometown? Why are so many long-time CFC families selling their houses and moving to Tennessee and Kentucky? Why has Pastor Rick Sinclair’s son-in-law, Ben Hull, resigned his position on the St. Lawrence County Board? CFC leaders don’t appear inclined to provide clear answers to any of these questions.
This church split comes as CFC Madrid pastor Ben Levendusky was found withholding information from his members about Jeremie Keleher, another child sex offender attending the Madrid location. In the past month, North Country Christian Fellowship (CFC Gouverneur) pastor Mike Tomford has faced allegations that he brushed aside legitimate child safety concerns at his Vacation Bible School. And Emily’s Story recently detailed how Pastor Jamie Sinclair mishandled her disclosure of sexual abuse.
It's against this backdrop that Rick Sinclair sent a video message to CFC members on July 11, 2026. What follows is a section-by-section look at that message, offered both for CFC attendees and for community members trying to understand how Rick maintains his power.
Rick opens with his usual salutation for congregational messages. Greeting viewers as “saints” reminds members of his spiritual authority before he's said anything substantive.
Well, greetings saints. I hope you're doing well. I wanted to use this format to communicate with the members of the five churches. We were together in April for the prophetic presbytery, and then again we had a special meeting in late May. That seems like a long time ago now, and so I felt it'd be good for me to communicate some things I feel like God is doing and saying. We won't be together again, all five churches until September 12, second Saturday in September. We'll gather at CFC Madrid for a special meeting. So I thought it'd be good to communicate some things now.
This opening frames Rick as a messenger rather than a party to the conflict. He isn't speaking for himself; he's simply relaying what God is doing and saying. His reference to "prophetic presbytery" reinforces CFC's culture of deferring to prophets as God's authorities, which sets up the next section.
What I wanted to share was this: God has really met us through a very, very challenging season with a couple of things. Number one, peace, and number two, faith. You know, when Charlie Sweet was with us back in April, he dropped a couple of nuggets. [I] really felt like they were prophetically from the Lord. One was that peace is letting God explain things later. Isn't that great? Peace is letting God explain things later. Peace is not having all the ducks in a row. Peace is not having everything fitting according to your mind. Peace is knowing the Master. Peace is knowing the One who is sovereign, and so thank God for His peace in all things.
Notice what's absent here: any acknowledgment of responsibility for the "challenging season." Rick then leans on traveling prophet Charlie Sweet to supply a redefinition of peace—"letting God explain things later"—that recasts legitimate questions as spiritual failure. Under this framing, members who ask why multiple families are suddenly leaving aren't exercising discernment; they're lacking peace. Faith gets the same treatment: it's defined as continuing to pray and trust rather than continuing to ask questions.
But the second thing he shared was, you will need faith. We know from Hebrews 11, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When do you need faith? When you can't see the thing you're looking for. And so, really, this has been a season where faith has been refined, where we've had to cling to the Lord. I want to thank all of you who've been praying, I mean, really pressing in. I know a lot of you have, and kind of dialing into the Holy Spirit and saying, Holy Spirit, what are you saying to us?
Rick then shifts to a classic bandwagon tactic: claiming broad, unseen support without offering any evidence.
A lot of you have been texting me or calling me basically with words that echo that sense of faith, that sense of ‘you know what, God's doing something.' God is able to do things we might not understand the details, but God is able. That sense of a buoyant faith, a faith that kind of rekindles expectation, really has been present. So I want to thank you for that. God has been doing that, and it's been really, really good, very, very, very life-giving.
He doesn't show texts or call logs; he simply asserts that many people sense God at work, positioning anyone with doubts as the outlier. This is a documented pattern: James Harmer documented this tactic several years ago in his story. When James and his wife raised concerns about a leader, the response was: “Nobody else is saying that to us. We’ve asked all of these people and they all esteem him.”
You know, yesterday I had a couple of interactions. One, in a meeting with a brother, I had early morning with one of the CFC Potsdam brothers, and we get together from time to time just to encourage one another, just to share what we feel like the Lord is saying, to build one another. And in this meeting, he shared a number of things, and it was almost like in my spirit, I felt like there's an opening, there's a transition that in the spirit is happening right now. It was almost as if we'd been in the cooker, been in the oven, and God was kind of like taking us out of the oven. It was like the cake had been baked, and so that was significant. I walked out saying, ‘Boy, my faith has been really not only renewed, but it's almost like God moved. God is moving.'
The specific mention of a CFC Potsdam brother signals to Potsdam congregants—the ones most affected by the Paladins' departure—that someone from their own church trusts Rick's judgment.
The next person that Rick brings onto the stage is significant. Rod Aguillard founded the Network of Related Pastors (NRP), the body that's supposed to provide outside accountability to Rick and CFC's churches. By presenting Aguillard's text this way, Rick converts a private message into a tacit endorsement from the organization meant to hold him accountable.
And then a little while later, I got a text message from Rod Aguillard. Some of you know Rod. Rod was with us for our members meeting about a year and a half ago. I hear from Rod occasionally, not too often. I've probably heard from him maybe three, four times in the last few years, and he will occasionally just either call me or send me a text message. He prays for me. He prays for us. He prays for a lot of people, and he listens to the Lord. And so he'll share with me the things he feels like God's saying. So yesterday, he sends me a text message. ‘God is with you. The Holy Spirit is helping you in overcoming disappointments and discouragement. It is time for you to move forward. Your Red Sea is open.'
It was just like a prophetic confirmation of what I had sensed earlier in the day, in that other meeting. That was like God's doing something. That picture, of course, of the Red Sea is pretty dramatic, you know. And I immediately when he wrote that I was like yeah and I thought, but what was it like before the Red Sea opened, when they were up against the Red Sea? Pharaoh's army is charging, it's like wow that's a really overwhelming moment but then, when the sea opens up, it's like God says, ‘Walk through,' and it takes us from one place to another, one side of the Red Sea to the other, almost like a new position. And I felt like that's what God was saying. It was almost like we'd been in the cooker. He had worked some things in, and it was time to now move to the other side, carrying with us the lessons that we had taken in the spirit.
The metaphor casts CFC as God's chosen people and, by implication, villainizes those raising concerns as Pharaoh's army—a force that ends up destroyed.
Some of those we might not know until you know we stand before the Lord in eternity. We might not even know that He's been working all things together for good. So He's been doing that. It's almost like the cake is baked. Take it out of the oven, and so move to the other side. Move to the other side. Your Red Sea is open. So I want to share with you, as I consider this, three areas that I think we can move to the other side. I want us to move to the Jesus side of the Red Sea, so to speak.
The cake metaphor returns, folded into the Red Sea imagery, and Rick arrives at his framing device for the rest of the message: there are only two sides and CFC members need to choose.
The first is simple: forgive and move on.
Number one is on the Jesus side: really strengthening and building one another. It is time. It is time to let the word of faith, the word of victory, fill the camp. It is time to recognize God is at work. He's doing amazing things. There's tremendous opportunity to harvest, and in some ways, one of the things we're called to do as a foundation is to build one another, to strengthen the saints. So I want you to be, I want you to get on the Jesus side. If you've been dealing with discouragement or whatever, it's time to get built up in your faith. It's time to build one another up in faith. It's time to strengthen one another, to love one another, to forgive one another, to just go on with Jesus. Get on the Jesus side of that.
Rick knows that CFC isn’t particularly popular right now; this was likely evident at the Potsdam Summer Fest. So he inoculates his viewers by framing a challenge as an opportunity. The hostile crowds aren’t a challenge—they’re a waiting harvest!
Number two, on the Jesus side of the mission. Yesterday and today, I was over at the Potsdam Summer Fest. It was great seeing all the different folks who were at the two different booths from the different churches, who were just engaged in ministry, evangelism, face painting, games, singing. I mean, there was a beautiful presentation from a number of the folks from the different churches at the Potsdam gazebo yesterday, really beautiful stuff, and to see the people of God with a mind to work, ready to work on the Jesus side of the mission.
The other thing that struck me though during the Summer Fest was this, and you don't always kind of get to see this here in Northern New York. It was all the people. Northern New York is such that we don't typically find big crowds. You're not dealing with that very often. It's one of the things we probably like about Northern New York is we're not dealing with big crowds. It's not like New York City where if you sat down at a park bench, in the course of about 10 minutes, you've got the entire population of Gouverneur or Potsdam or Canton walk past you. It's not like that up here, but the Summer Fest, I realize, there is a harvest, there is a mission field, there is an opportunity. We are called to make disciples, to preach the word of God, to bring people in, to then equip them and build them and to prepare them to follow all things that He has taught. There really is a mission. So I want to encourage you to get on the Jesus side of the mission.
The third (and main) point of the video reframes public scrutiny as persecution.
The third thing I wanted to share was this: I know that there's been some persecution that continues, but we need to get on the Jesus side of responding to persecution. You know, Jesus talked about the fact that people would revile us, say all kinds of evil falsely. He warned us in advance, but he gave specific instruction about what to do when that happens. You know what he said? Rejoice. You know what he said? Be exceedingly glad. I was reading a Blue Letter Bible on that term, ‘exceedingly glad.' Be exceedingly glad. You know, great is your reward in heaven. It basically means jump for joy, getting on the Jesus side of responding to persecution, all kinds of evil falsely, reviling. Getting on the Jesus side in some ways is a response to Jesus' own words. He said it. We ought not to be surprised when we his followers get a portion, just a taste of the treatment he got, and he gave us instruction and he gave us the power of the Holy Spirit to walk it through. So I want to encourage you. Let's get on the right side of responding to persecution. Rejoice, be exceedingly glad.
Rather than engaging with the substance of the abuse allegations, this framing asks members to treat scrutiny as confirmation that the church is doing God's work and to double down instead of reckoning honestly with who's been harmed.
So three, kind of like, if you picture the Red Sea, the people moved from one side, the Egypt side, to the other side, the Promised Land side. It was a dramatic transformation of position, and I really feel like the Lord's speaking that to us in this season. So I want to encourage you: get on the Jesus side of strengthening and loving one another. Get on the Jesus side of the mission. Get on the Jesus side of responding well to persecution. I'm looking forward to seeing you when we get together in September, September 12. In the meantime, keep it up. God bless you. Look forward to seeing you soon.
The date isn't incidental. September brings CFC Potsdam's usual seasonal bump as college students return to campus. This influx will reassure regular members that their sanctuaries aren't empty, even as longtime families continue to leave.
If you're a North Country resident, we hope this breakdown helps make sense of the pressure CFC members face. And if you're a CFC member yourself: you're allowed to change your mind. Asking questions and changing your mind in response to new information isn't a failure of faith. It's a sign of health.
