Dr. James Payne in Hayward

'Honky-tonk' preacher fires up the faithful in Hayward
Payne exhorts crowd at Jesus Christ Kingsway Fellowship
By Rachel Cohen, STAFF WRITER

HAYWARD — With her arms outstretched, Sylvia Villemel sits in the front row at Messia Temple Church on Hesperian Boulevard as Dr. James Payne presses his palm on her forehead while the 30-or-so people attending the Jesus Christ Kingsway International Fellowship cheer.
"Let my people go!" the preacher repeats five times, as he states the Bible says in five separate places.
"Deja ir a mi pueblo!" preacher Victor Bianco echoes in Spanish, translating Payne's words for the mostly Spanish-speaking congregants.
They have come to hear Payne, a Grammy-nominated songwriter, preach the gospel. Payne says he is here "to loosen the spirit of containment. So if you've been bound, I come as a deliverer."
Villemel, who has received the message, said, "He is bold to deliver the word, to speak the word, and is very energetic."
Villemel founded this branch of Jesus Christ Kingsway in Alameda in 1996. She invited Payne to preach because she has known him from attending a Kingsway conference in 1998.
As a Pentecostal church within evangelical Christianity, Kingsway emphasizes the direct personal experience of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which Payne represented. "Let the Bay Area go from the devil," Payne said.
Payne likened the devil to the pharaoh of ancient Egypt and discussed the eight faces of pharaoh as themes that keep people in bondage, through an acronym. Starting with the letter "p" and "poverty," he said that "Financial is the biggest slavery." Payne said that he once had been $247,000 in debt but that, through faith and a miracle, he climbed out of it and encouraged people to give generously.

The other themes of containment followed as "heartbreak," addiction," racism," adultery," occult" and "homosexuality." He preached against homosexuality because, he said, it does not fulfill God's purpose for humanity to reproduce. He talked about how some men dress like women, and that appearances should not deceive.

"We're contained in the church — spiritual homosexuality. People look like Christians, they act like Christians, but they can't reproduce."

Payne is well-known within the Christian and country music worlds. He has written more than 2,000 songs and recorded 24 albums. His "The Night Ole Jack Daniel's Met John 3:16" rose to
No. 4 on the country music charts. He has played at the Grand Ole Opry house in Tennessee, where he lives, and has another album coming out in July.

Payne said he was not raised with religion, but came to it in 1968 after his third drug overdose landed him in the hospital and he was pronounced dead.

"I had an out-of-body experience and saw my body lying in bed. But Jesus came and walked in the room," Payne said. "He still delivers."

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