John Cooper, from the Christian rock group Skillet, wants Christian leaders to see the influence their words have - especially on social media.

Cooper responded to the recent announcements made by Christian leaders, concerning their faith - or lack thereof -  because, he says, "The truth is that I was really bummed - I was really saddened. These are people that have influenced me and my family. My kids grew up singing some of these worship songs."

Cooper didn't think his Facebook followers would really care when he decided to make the reply. "I just thought, 'You know what, I think a lot of people are probably sad and bummed out'.

"I want to plead with the Church to come back to the truth of the Gospel. We are not valuing it as we ought and, because of that, I think we are raising up leaders that are not valuing the Word as they should," Cooper says.

The post was not a direct attack at anyone's personal character: "I'm not trying to attack him," says Cooper, "I feel like I want to attack is the spirit of the age which is: 'Jesus is cool and he is a way to heaven, perhaps. There are a lot of ways to heaven.'

"I want to attack that. I don't believe that's true and I don't think our Christian leaders should be saying that is even a possibility."

Cooper feared this type of post would discourage other Christians. He says, "I don't want anybody reading his post and 'stealing our sheep' if you will.

"I don't think the posts are fair and I don't think they make logical sense."

Sampson has posted on different websites and his own Instagram page to clarify that he has not renounced his faith, but rather, is "on very shaky ground." Cooper does not believe that social media is the place for this type of questioning.

"There is a difference in someone that is a church leader, a church influencer, a thought leader - there is a different kind of weight for your words. You are literally influencing people."

"I'm not saying that leaders shouldn't wrestle with their faith, or get confused, or have a crisis, I think all that is fine, I just don't understand why adult leaders don't understand that social media is not your diary. ... The posts that are coming out are not posts just saying, 'Hey, I am struggling' they are posts making statements of influence because they are people of influence."

How do we - the Church - play a part?

Cooper does not see this as an individual or isolated problem: "We are partially to blame as well - all the Church - because we like entertainment. We enjoy entertainment more than we enjoy pressing into God for who He is and struggling with God to know him better."

The Christian rocker wants to see leadership and the laypeople of the Church come back to the truth in God's word instead of searching for an entertainment experience on a Sunday.

"I think that the next step, again, for the Church - all of us - we need to value the absolute preeminence of the Word of God," says Cooper.

"That is done by saying ... 'I am looking for truth that is taught and if the people are boring, that is fine, because I want the truth over the entertainment.'"

Cooper says the posts on social media can only take this type of discussion and line of questioning so far. Instead of posting your questions to a large online community, Cooper encourages Christians to reach out to those nearby: "Why don't you talk to your friends about it rather than making a huge post?"

"Talk to your friends and you can wrestle with it together," says Cooper, "You can only do so much wrestling in a social media platform where you spout off all the things you're thinking and then someone spouts all the things you're thinking back to you. That's not dialogue."