Hugh's News & Commentary

Former Crossroads Cathedral pastor dies at 81
Minister promoted missions, preached against racism

From Staff Reports Oklahoman
Published: September 3, 2010

The Rev. Daniel T. Sheaffer, a longtime Oklahoma City pastor, died Thursday at age 81. Sheaffer was the founding pastor of Crossroads Cathedral, which was one of the first megachurches in the Oklahoma City area.

At the time of his death, he was the pastor of Harvest Assembly of God, 4109 S. Pennsylvania.

He became pastor of what was then the First Assembly of God Church of Oklahoma City in 1969. In the late 1970s, construction began at the current site of what is now Crossroads Church at 8901 S. Shields Blvd. The sanctuary was dedicated in 1979, and with the move, the church became Crossroads Cathedral, noting its location at the crossroads of two major highways.

Sheaffer preached integration of churches, and against the sin of racism.

"The church ought to be a microcosm of what heaven is going to be like," Sheaffer told The Oklahoman in 2002. "And I know that when we get to heaven, God's not going to say, 'Now all you black Christians, you go to the northeast; rich white Christians, you go northwest; and everybody else, go south."

According to The Oklahoman archives, Crossroads Cathedral was the first Assembly of God church in the United States to give more than $1 million to foreign missions in a single year. Mountain Movers magazine in 1994 showed that Crossroads members gave $1,007,094 to missions during 1993.

Sheaffer and his wife Bonnie previously hosted a television program on TBN, called "The Answer," in which he answered viewers' questions about the Bible.

[Editor's Note: It was my pleasure to meet Dan Sheaffer in 1975 when I became president of Southwestern College, now Southwestern Christian University. I found out that he had once been an ordained minister in the IPHC, and his father was an IPHC pastor as well. He attended Southwestern College when Dr. R. O. Corvin was the president. I wanted to honor this outstanding man of God who is one of us. May God bless the memory of this great servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.]