Charges against Jefferson and Brenda Lanier were eventually dropped, much to the consternation of prosecutors and sheriff's officials. Local authorities in Tampa say they have received inquiries about Deeper Life from across the country as the ministry's reach has spread.
Just returned from a monthly roundup of Deeper Life churches held in Kentucky, Pastor Elginnina Mathis introduces me to her congregation, mostly newer recruits who have called Deeper Life home for anywhere from a few weeks to two months. About 15 congregants have arrived; with beatific expressions illuminating their gaunt faces, they recount similar tales of their journeys from ruin to restoration. All gathered have been promised that if they stay at Deeper Life, they will eventually get their own church.
The Deeper Life church on South Ervay Street missed an October deadline to correct building code violations. It's just one more legal problem for the Tampa-based ministry.
Mark Graham
The Deeper Life church on South Ervay Street missed an October deadline to correct building code violations. It's just one more legal problem for the Tampa-based ministry.
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Gerald Anthony, the 31-year-old man who earlier recited Bible passages aloud, touts Deeper Life as the best rehab place in town--better than Alcoholics Anonymous. "I lived under bridges, stole, went in and out of jail, and was disobedient. Once I got a check, I went to get the dope. I was lost in sin, but God had mercy" by guiding him here, he says.
Donald Lee, another "minister" and Army veteran who says he's kicked powerful heroin and crack addictions since arriving at Deeper Life a month earlier, says he's been cured of painful back problems by Bishop Jefferson. "I feel so much better, and I like waking up knowing I'm going to make it," he says. "The Bishop said I'm fit to be a preacher one of these days."
Other ministers extol the church's chapter-and-verse approach to behavior modification. "Each time I get upset, they teach you to go to your verses," says Thurston Bridges, a Detroit native who denies using hard drugs but admits addictions to marijuana and beer. To curb his anger when church rules get in the way of instincts, he immediately remembers Hebrews 13:1, which reads simply: "Let brotherly love continue."
It works, he says: "That's what I need to keep saying in my brain to stay out of trouble."
Deeper Life's biggest critic doubts that the ministry does the incredible job of rehabilitation that it claims, pointing to a growing gaggle of disenchanted ex-members. "There are a lot of programs that can help you, and you don't have to sign over your assets," says Clora Hogan, the Endless Choices publisher and a volunteer at the Stewpot, a downtown soup kitchen run by First Presbyterian Church.
Some ex-members say Deeper Life members surreptitiously do drugs when higher-ups aren't paying attention. Sierra Johnson, a 49-year-old homeless woman who briefly lived at Deeper Life and recounts endless afternoons and nights devoted to Bible study, says many adherents don't like it there but lack the will to leave on their own. "They're stuck," she says.
Mathis will hear none of it. She can't help those who don't want to join the glorious kingdom. "We are operating through Jesus himself," she says with quiet, unshakable conviction. "Yes, sir, we are growing. By leaps and bounds."
