Statement Regarding Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj

Following are answers to other questions you may have:

“How did you get involved in discovering Sundar’s unprincipled conduct?”

There are two ways we became involved.

1) This whole ordeal is not something we initially chose to be involved with.  It fell upon us.  In January of 2026 we began to be contacted by a number of people in North Carolina who were recent former members of Steven Francis’s church.  Two of those people we knew because before moving to North Carolina they had attended our church in Lancaster, California. They reached out in desperation to us for help because they had exhausted every other means they knew of.  They had seen and experienced first-hand the lies, manipulation and financial dishonesty of Steven Francis.  They also had documented proof of his financial corruption.  Some of them had gone to Steven Francis to confront him about his misdeeds and were rebuffed by him.  They showed us evidence (texts and emails) of reaching out to the elders and board members to seek help from them.  The elders and board members did not help them.  Then they showed us evidence that they had reached out to Sundar Selvaraj for help but they received no response from him.  In desperation, they called our church office in Lancaster for help.

After reading statements from several recent former members, a few phone calls and seeing convincing proof, Melinda (my wife) and I decided we had no choice.  We needed to help them. These people needed to be heard.  I asked a trusted friend who I have known for 16 years to go back to North Carolina with us as a third party impartial witness to meet with a group of the victims. 

We met with ten (10) of the aggrieved for many hours each day over a two day period in February, 2026.  About 10 others who could not be there in person during that time (due to work or other schedules) gave us written statements.  We recorded about three hours of video testimony from the group that we did meet with in person. We also obtained copies of documents published by Steven’s small church (Jesus My King Church, Shelby, NC), copies of videos and transcriptions of messages and statements by Steven and Sundar Selvaraj at that church, copies of emails, text messages, cancelled checks and more.  The proof of corruption was abundant and quite alarming.  The devastation to the families was heartbreaking.

The people shared with us, some in tears, that as their eyes were opened to Steven’s deceit and fraud, they also realized Sundar Selvaraj was complicit because he promoted his brother from the pulpit of JMK church as having “walked with a perfect heart before God for the last 40 years”.  There were other dishonest things that Sundar said and did that contributed to them being deceived by Steven.

Having the corruption and deceit uncovered before our eyes, it would have been sin before the Lord if we had remained silent and did not take action.  The Bible says that we are to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”  Ephesians 5:11

2) The second way that we got involved in this ordeal was because Steven had put fraudulent statements on his visa application back in 2019 when he first attempted to come to North Carolina on a visa as a “missionary” to plant a church.  I know this because my wife and I had met Steven in Singapore in 2018 or 2019 while ministering at a conference there.  Steven and his wife had a meal with us and claimed that “the Lord” was telling them to move to the USA to plant a church in North Carolina.  He wanted to know if we would “sponsor” them on their visa application.  We were led to believe that it only involved ensuring that he had a regular income in the USA.  He said that his church in Singapore would donate his monthly salary to our church in the USA.  We would then pay his monthly salary with those donated funds.  We hardly knew Steven but because Sundar had him speak at his conference and because he was Sundar’s brother, we thought that he must be a good person.  Not knowing any better, we said “OK”.

However months later, when Steven forwarded to us the visa forms that he wanted me to sign, they were filled with dishonest statements.  We found out that sponsoring him required much more than just ensuring that he had a job and a salary.  It required him to actually be an employee of our church in Lancaster.  He had to literally work here at least 20 hours per week.  The form that Steven sent to us said that he would preach four times a year at our church. The form said that Steven would be in our church board meetings giving guidance and counsel to the church board.  In a separate communication after that, Steven said that he needed to send his assistant out to go through our church books to audit them as a requirement for the visa application  (That was a lie as well.  That is not required for the visa.) I was shocked.  I would not sign the visa form.  I called him and told him that we were not having him speak here four times a year and he is not sitting in our board meetings to give us counsel and guidance.  I told him “I’m sorry, but this is dishonest.  Why did you put these dishonest statements in the form?  We can’t sponsor you.”
Steven replied “The attorney must have put those statements in there.”

I don’t remember hearing from Steven after that.   Four years later, in 2023 I was speaking at a conference in Jerusalem with Sundar Selvaraj.  After the conference, Melinda, myself and Sundar were sitting in the hotel lobby having a cup of tea.  Sundar looked at me and said “My brother said he is angry with you.”  Somewhat surprised by this I said “Why?”  Sundar replied “He said you promised to sponsor him on his visa but then you refused to help him.”

With Melinda there as my witness, I told Sundar “That is not true.  I was willing to help him, but he misled us as to what our involvement should be.  Then he sent me forms with fraudulent information.  He put on the forms that he would preach at our church four times a year and that he was going to sit in our church board meetings and give us counsel and guidance.”  I told Sundar that when I called Steven on these lies, Steven said “The attorney must have put those statements in there.”

Without hesitating Sundar said to Melinda and me “No, my brother did that.  I know him and I know what he is like.  That is something he would do.”  By Sundar’s own admission he was telling us he knew his brother’s character to be dishonest. 

So, after we had gone back to Shelby, NC in February of 2026 to meet with the group of aggrieved, they told us that Steven had told people in his church the same story that he told Sundar.  He told them he was angry with me because I promised to help him with his visa but then didn’t keep my word and refused to help him. So, I told the people in NC the truth of what really happened and how Steven put fraudulent information on the visa form and I would not sign it because of the lies.

So, later when some of the aggrieved in NC went to the police, they told the detective on the case that Steven had tried to enter the USA dishonestly but that I would not cooperate with Steven’s lies.  Because of that, the detective from NC called me to question me about the situation.  He then asked me if I had the emails from 2019 when Steven wanted me to sign the fraudulent forms.  I told the officer “I don’t know if I still have the emails, but I will look.”   I did find several emails and the detective asked me to send them to him.  That is the second way that we were brought into this ordeal.

“Why didn’t you see this corruption earlier?”

That’s a good question. In hindsight, we can see things now that we didn’t see before.
We are asking God for more grace to discern better.  I realize I trusted Sundar too much.  Looking back and remembering what seemed like little occasional “red flags” , in my mind I would give him a “pass”, thinking there must be a good reason for that and believing he was a man of God.  That is a mistake I don’t intend to make again.

We are not saying this is the complete answer to the question, but it may be part of the reason why exposure didn’t happen earlier:  God does give people time to repent.   Even concerning Jezebel who was teaching idolatry and sexual immorality in the church, the Lord says

“And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.”
Revelation 2:21

Over the last many decades we have seen numerous ministers exposed for greed, dishonesty, and immorality. Long before the public exposure comes, they have usually been practicing their sin for quite some time.  Before the Lord allowed public exposure He sought to deal with them in many ways, including private rebukes.  When these warnings go unheeded, public exposure comes.

Isn’t it a betrayal to expose a minister for corruption who was formerly a trusted friend?

No. It is a betrayal of God and a betrayal of His people for any minister to be dishonest and to abuse the people that we are charged by God to care for.  

When deceit and corruption are discovered, if there is no repentance, then we as leaders are betraying the body of Christ if we do not expose it.  This is how the body of Christ is protected.  Again, the Bible says that we are to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”  Ephesians 5:11