10 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • MAY 2018
IN THE NEWS
REV. TODD BISHOP:
THE GREATEST SERMON
By NICK CICCONE
It’s 9 a.m. on Easter Sunday, and
a few hundred people are talking
amongst themselves while a pair
of enormous speakers pumps
a raucous electronic drumbeat
into the main room of Church
Unleashed’s Commack campus —
a not-so-typical-Sunday at a notyour
typical-church.
While the smoke machines and
colored lights are being tested, Rev.
Todd Bishop, 45, who co-founded
the congregation with his wife,
Mary, in 2008, tells me in his office
that he’s nervous, which is unusual
for him.
“There’s a lot of technical
components,” he says, referring to
the production he is about to pull
off — an Easter spin on The Greatest
Showman, with Bishop playing a
priestly version of P.T. Barnum.
The church is part of the Assemblies
of God, under the Protestant
umbrella, which touts more
than 13,000 affiliated churches
nationwide.
A few dozen young volunteers
adapted portions of the musical to
mesh with Bishop’s Easter sermon.
He is technically in costume from
the waist up — wearing a red trench
coat with gold lace and a
top hat, r e s t i n g
his hands o n
a cane.
His jeans a r e
ripped at the knee
and are part o f
his regular attire.
Bishop, who was
raised in Buffalo, says
he felt disconnected
from church as a child.
His parents divorced
when he was 2, and he is
endearingly quick to reveal that, at
times, he is still trying to please his
absent father. The youngest of three
boys, he says his relationship with
God made him feel less alone.
“I would literally be downstairs with
my G.I. Joe guys, and be preachin’
to ’em,” he says with a laugh.
Perched on top of a wooded hill in a
residential neighborhood, with almost
no front-facing windows, the former
site of Commack Jewish Center looks
more like an abandoned warehouse
from the outside. Nonetheless, people
come from all over Long Island to hear
Bishop preach.
“When they walk in, they’re going
to get an experience,” he says. “It’s
gonna feel like they’re at a concert
on a Friday night.”
Liz Sartorio, a congregant and
volunteer from Melville, says Church
Unleashed is “the best-kept secret on
Long Island.” Others describe it as a
place to connect with other Christians
— a close-knit community that is
somewhat removed from the chaos of
day jobs, schoolwork and traditional
friendships.
“It’s different than any other church
I’ve ever been to, in my entire life. It’s
more of a place — not only is
it Bible-based — but it’s
a place where you can
find out who you are,”
says Alex Coutrier, of
Deer Park. “We’re all
looking for something
in life, we’re all
looking to fulfill
our purpose. And
I feel like, here, I
found out who
I was.”
The first church was planted in
Hicksville 10 years ago. The second,
in Commack, was formed two years
ago, and the Bishops just announced
a third, planned for Garden City.
Not only is that growth unheard
of for the area, but so too is the
church’s popularity with young
people.
Part of the reason for that could
be Bishop’s willingness to unpack
current events occasionally during
his sermons. After the Feb. 14
school shooting
in Parkland,
Fla., for
e x amp l e ,
he told the
congregation something to the
effect of, “People have the right to
bear arms, not arsenals.”
The turnout is a testament to how
much her sermons resonate with
congregants.
“People today are looking for spiritual
leadership on some of these issues
that they’re not getting,” he says.
That sentiment resurfaces in his
Easter opener — a pre-taped
video monologue in character
as “P.T. Bishop” — in which he
speaks candidly about feeling
inadequate, but assuring the
audience that God will always
satiate. The hopelessness of the
times, his insecurity, his fear
of failure — it is present in
Bishop’s sermon, but he is
sure to speak warmly to
everyone, as if they’re all
in on his little secret.
“It’s a place to belong,
much more than you have to
believe,” he says of his creation.
“Belief comes later.”
P.T. Bishop: Rev. Todd
Bishop of Commack’s
Church Unleashed evokes The
Greatest Showman. (Photo by Nick Ciccone)