Todd Bentley Lakeland Revival

Thursday 10th July marked the one-hundredth day of the Lakeland Florida Outpouring. Significantly it began at Ignited Church, the same congregation which had spawned the March 1993 nightly revival services led by the South African Evangelist, Rodney Howard Browne, at the end of which ‘thousands awaited prayer'. These soon exploded across the continent to Brownsville and Pensacola to become the ‘Toronto Blessing'. That a second movement should happen in this very same place perhaps shouldn't surprise us. Lakeland is situated in the heart of what is known as the Southern Bible Belt and a glance at the Lakeland area telephone directory shows that there are more than 300 Christian churches in the same area! Of more significance the Ignited Congregation have been preparing for a move of God since the beginning of 2008. In January the whole congregation was called to a month's fast.

Ignited Church, standing on Highway 98 with its flame-shaped spire and live screen message board is one of the town's many independent churches. Pastored in 1993 by Dr. Karl Strader who came from a Methodist background, it is now led by his son, Stephen Strader. In 1993 Stephen was in charge of all the technical aspects of the church's ministry but a year working with Rodney Howard Browne inspired and equipped him for the ministry.

Todd Bentley (b.1976) clearly stands in a direct line of twentieth century healing evangelists that includes Maria Woodworth-Etter, James Coe, William Branham and Katherine Kuhlmann. Their lives and writings have fired and inspired him. Categorized by Church Historian, John Crowder, as one of the ‘New Mystics', Bentley spent three months of ‘intense soaking', ‘plastered in the presence of God for up to twelve hours a day'. From this overwhelming experience, while still in his early 20s, he launched his ‘Fresh Fire Ministries International' (FFMI) through which hundreds of thousands have come to faith in Christ and claim to have been healed. As a healing evangelist he seems to have a particular anointing gift for healing the deaf. Observers have witnessed the ears of rows of deaf people pop open at his meetings. Despite what many see as controversial methods, Todd is clearly a man who listens to God intently and in consequence is able to discern the nature of the illness of some of those who stand before him and to see what God is doing in their lives.

Like many of his predecessors such as Etter, Branham and Kuhlmann Todd Bentley has had angelic encounters and visitations and on occasion, he has had moments of great ecstasy akin to the medieval mystics such as Hildegard of Bingen and St. John of the Cross. He describes being ‘caught up in the heavens' and experiencing ‘spiritual translations'.

Along with Lake, Branham, Coe and others, Todd came from a dysfunctional home background. His father was nineteen at the time of his birth and there were frequent domestic fights. His father smoked dope with him and soon he was into the world of crime and theft in order to supply his habit. Unsurprisingly this led on to a downward spiral in which Todd overdosed himself three times and eventually ended up in prison. He was finally and wonderfully delivered from it all when six-foot-four Wally, a recent offender and new Christian, pushed a Bible against his throat and said, ‘ You're going to have to get saved...You'd better repent or you're going to burn'. Todd was too scared to make any objection and cried out for Jesus to save him. His life soon changed dramatically. In his own words, ‘There is no high like the Most High'. Not long after his conversion Todd distinctly heard God's audible voice, ‘I want you to go to Abbotsford, British Columbia', a location which though in his home province, he had never heard of. In the event it proved to be the town where he met and married his wife, Shonah in 1995 and where his Fresh Fire Ministries was born two years later.

The main evening meetings in Lakeland began at Ignited Church but after only a very short period it was obvious that more room was needed and the venue was moved to the Lakeland Centre on Florida Avenue. When this was no longer available on account of previous booking, two huge interlinked tents capable of accommodating 10,000 people were set up on the edge of Lakeland Regional Airport. This is a ‘revival' which has been able to impact the entire world as a result of its being televised on God TV through the sponsorship of Wendy and Rory Alec. It was Todd's exhortation, ‘Come and Get it', broadcast to the world, which has caused so many hundreds to come to Lakeland from every continent of the globe.

The nightly gatherings have been supplemented each week-day morning at Ignited Church and members of the staff, invited speakers, and representatives of Fresh Fire Ministries provide a continuous cycle of seminars giving the context for what is happening and explaining what they see as its purpose for the world wide Christian Church.

The main evening meetings begin at 7.00pm and generally last until 10.30 or 11.00pm with prayer and ministry often extending until 1.00am. Attendance seems to be holding steady at between 4,000 - 5,000 a night with more coming at the weekends. The format is different each evening with roughly speaking, two hours of worship followed by ministry directed by Todd, or one of his associates from the platform, often ending in opportunities for impartation of the power and presence of God. On other nights there are sermons, sometimes of considerable length. For example, on Saturday 12th July, Roy Fields, one of Todd's team members, spoke for an hour and a quarter on ‘The importance of the Heart'.

The worship might be described as a ‘high-octane' version of New Wine. For many in order to really enter into it, it is necessary to break through the American Revivalist culture and atmosphere to the reality of the presence of God's Spirit and the Lord who is worshipped and whose presence is sought. Revivalist worship has often been very high volume and Lakeland is no exception. Led usually by Roy Fields on keyboards, the vocalists can be distinctly and clearly heard a hundred yards and more away from the tent.

The music is for the greater part heavy rock and the words which may best describe the singing are loud, passionate, occasionally raucous, intense and repetitive. At times the atmosphere can reach almost hysteria pitch but nothing beyond what would be found on the football terraces on a Saturday afternoon when the home side is hitting the back of the net. There are very powerful moments when with the aid of repetition participants are able ‘to press into' the Lord's presence. Refrains such as ‘Rain down, rain down', ‘I am pouring out a vial of worship' and ‘How Great is our God' are particularly memorable. During the worship there is much shouting, cheering and flag-waving by representatives of the thirty or more nations usually present on any given evening. The small cluster of Todd's interns, team members and visiting revivalists who have seats on the platform usually sway, rock and some even engage in a little ‘turkey trotting'. That said, the worship is decidedly Christ-centered with many songs addressed to and focused on Jesus, offering him worship and adoration or making supplication for his presence in the world or individual lives. There is freedom to worship in whatever way one chooses. As Roy Fields put it, ‘Revival is falling in love with Jesus all over again and it's restoring the joy of our salvation'. All the sermons I heard during the period 7 - 13 July were Christ-centered and opportunities were given for people to commit themselves to Christ and on Thursday 10th July at least 30 people did so and many more on Saturday 12th July.

Todd Bentley and FFMI are convinced that the ‘Florida Outpouring' is not for the Church but rather for those beyond its bounds. Several of the FFMI associates describe encountering the ‘Angel of Winds of Change' who announced that he has come ‘to release winds and coals of fire across the world'. This Fresh Fire of the Holy Spirit is believed to be the presence of God to demonstrate the compassion and transforming, healing power of Christ. FFMI seek to impart this presence of God in various ways through worship and as participants are given the opportunity to pass through prayer lines or to be prayed for in national groupings or individually by FFMI team members. A significant part of most of the main evening meetings is devoted to healing and testimonies of healing. Todd frequently operates out of what charismatic and Pentecostal Christians understand as ‘words of knowledge' (see I Corinthians 12:8); that is he listens as best he can to what he takes to be the inner voice of God and then speaks it out. Often this is in the form of announcing that an individual person has been healed of a particular disease or that healing a specific condition such as deafness or asthma is taking place. People who know or have felt themselves to have been touched are then sometimes invited to come up on to the platform and share what has happened. Sometimes individuals who have been healed at previous meetings return to let their healing be publicly known.

Inevitably with powerful platform rhetoric some may be captured in the emotion of the moment and mistakenly believe themselves to be physically touched or healed. It could also be that some may respond to calls for prayer or ministry as a result of group pressure rather than out of their own volition. Even if this is so, it is hardly a life and death issue. I witnessed such kindness and genuine compassion that I firmly believe little harm, if any, is done. Undoubtedly when crowds of four and five thousand gather for any kind of celebration there may well be some hysterical phenomena. That said, I didn't observe any extremes during the week I spent in Lakeland. There can of course be no doubt that many of the thousands of people who followed Jesus and witnessed his miracles were caught up in the emotion of the moment. Indeed the New Testament is clear that many hundreds of those who followed Jesus during his ministry left him at the time of his crucifixion probably for that very reason that they had had no more than a passing emotional high as they watched heal the blind or cleanse the lepers.

The morning seminars run from 10.00am till 1.00pm each week day. There are additional opportunities for pastors and Church leaders which were instructive, balanced and wise. It was made abundantly clear that the anointing was not about replicating and sending out Todd Bentley clones with nodding heads and shouts of ‘bam' (a wrestling term I'm told) to boot. Rather the purpose of the outpouring is that each individual participant should find their calling, seek passionately after God's presence and be authentically secure in who they are and what God has called them to do. As one seminar speaker put it, ‘You can't take Todd Bentley back with you. You can't even take back what Todd Bentley is doing. You can't be Todd Bentley. You have to be authentically you. Your purpose in God will never be lived by anyone else.' Dr. Karl Strader put the matter clearly, ‘It's not about taking the anointing back. It's about becoming what you are called to be.'

Seminar speakers were also at pains to emphasise that this ‘outpouring' is not about gifts or experiences, ‘it's all about Jesus, period'. It was also recognized that, as in all revivals of the Holy Spirit ‘there is a mixture of the flesh and indeed some demonic activity'. The flesh, it was pointed out, was seen in such aspects as immodest dress (could be any church!), excessively loud shouts and intercessions.

During the course of a seminar Dr. Karl Strader said, ‘ I don't understand how God could use a man like Todd Bentley,. I don't like tattoos, I don't like earrings, I don't like rock music and I don't like Bam'. Just recently, over a lunch, Todd had asked him if he had any question about the revival. Strader replied, ‘I don't have a clue how God can use you?'. Todd replied, ‘I don't know either!'. Strader's opinion is that Todd is a man ‘with no guile'. It's also clear that he is well respected by his own Fresh Fire Ministries team particularly in the way that he relates to his family and those he works with. Todd is orthodox in his creedal theology. Dr. Strader commented that he couldn't fault him on basic Christian teaching.

It's all too easy for the critical observer watching the outpouring on the net or God-channel TV to become part of ‘the revival police' or ‘heresy hunters' and start to put Todd and Fresh Fire Ministries down. It's not difficult to collect up a few anecdotes from Todd's past record or to denounce him because he has been inspired by others such as Katherine Kuhlmann and William Branham who went through times when they weren't exactly squeaky clean in their life-style or biblically earthed in their teaching. However, before we engage in theological rock slinging we do well to reflect on the fact that King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband so that he could marry her. He also had other wives, among them Ahinoam, Abigail, Maacah, Haggith, Abital and Eglah. Yet for all this, the Scripture is clear that ‘David was a man after God's own heart' and Christians don't reject the reading, singing or praying of the psalms because David was a mortal sinner. To bring the matter a little closer to the UK, we don't reject Anglicanism because its founder King Henry VIII was an abusive bully, a murderer and a serial adulterer and believed Roman Catholic doctrines. In fact, Article 26 ‘Of the unworthiness of the Ministers, which hinders not the effect of the Sacrament' clearly states that the unworthiness of the minister is no barrier to the passage of God's grace.

Todd clearly has some unorthodox procedures including pushing some people down (though most who fall do so without assistance), and shouting ‘bam' or ‘boom' when praying for them. Jesus too had some strange healing procedures. His frequent encounters with angels and reception of their assistance in matters of guidance, healing and evangelism have raised a few eyebrows, as have his many tattoos which he received comparatively recently and well after his conversion. However, it is abundantly clear both from his writings and his teachings that he neither worships angels nor prays to them. Rather he simply asks God that He will send them to assist in his ministry. Whilst many will find tattoos objectionable the fact is that they were only forbidden under the ceremonial laws which are not binding on Christians. It is worth noting that on several occasions in the New Testament Jesus is recorded as speaking ‘in a loud voice'. Todd's occasional pushings and slappings and uttering ‘bam' are no more startling than Jesus putting his fingers in people's ears, spitting at them, anointing their eyes with clay paste or touching their tongues. And nothing Todd has done could match for startling effect Jesus sending a cluster of demons into a herd of pigs that caused 2,000 to run down a steep hillside to a violent death in the sea.

‘Revival police' is the term used by Ignited Church for those who have condemned the Lakeland outpouring. As in all past moves of God, there is a tendency for the participants in the last revival to criticize those in the next. Significantly there has been much less criticism over the Lakeland meetings than was the case at Toronto. This has been due, in part at least, to a number of major revivalists and ‘apostolic leaders' coming together on 23rd June to endorse what was taking place under Todd's leadership and ministry. There is always of course an antipathy between establishment denominational religion and the revivalism which is striving to revive it from predictable, decaying and dying formalism. The historic churches for their part will therefore find revivalist Christianity a threat to their ordered and structured procedures. Indeed history shows that the more effective revivalists tend to provoke greater hostility.

It should be noted however that Todd Bentley and FFMI are respectful of denominational Christianity and give particular honour to visiting pastors and clergy. In one address given on 10th July the congregation were exhorted to be very careful not to condemn any of God's appointed leaders unless there is very clear evidence of immoral living or false teaching. To take Holy Communion with an unjustified condemnatory attitude, we were told, is to fail to discern the body (people) of Christ for which reason ‘many are sick and some have died' (1 Corinthians 11:30). Reminders were also given that in every Christian denomination there are committed believers who need to be exhorted not to leave but to be encouraged and nurtured in the faith.

That said, the ‘Florida Outpouring' has a distinctive Kingdom rather than an ecclesiastical focus. As one of Todd's interns put it in his address in the main evening meeting: ‘We are tired of tradition and we are tired of religion ... and we want to see people filled with the Holy Spirit'.

So what are we to make of the Florida Outpouring? Clearly any movement such as FFMI which proclaims an end time revival will inevitably be regarded as suspect by fundamentalists who believe that the last days will be characterized not by revival but by spiritual deterioration with the appearance of the Man of Lawlessness arising prior to Christ returning to inaugurate the millennial period of bliss on earth. Todd's concern with angels and Open heavens will not resonate with liberal theology which regards them as part of first century mythology. His outside of the box Christianity will not be the liking of those who eschew unpredictable religion. That said, Todd, unlike the great majority of Christians, is a man who passionately pursues Jesus' commission to preach the gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out the demons. He lives in the presence of God and is steeped in the Scriptures. In recent years thousands in Africa, South America and elsewhere have come to faith in Christ and found healing and wholeness through Todd's ministry. Because the Lakeland FFMI meetings have been put out across the world every night on God TV many thousands are having the level of their commitment to Christ challenged. Thousands are having their experience of Christ deepened and being given a greater awareness of spiritual realities. Numbers are being healed many of whom have solid medical evidence. A small but significant number are coming to Christ and committing their lives to him for the first time. Perhaps of greatest significant of all, most are returning from Lakeland to their own countries and home areas greatly inspired with a renewed determination to make an impact for the Kingdom of God in the particular sphere where they live and work.

The New Testament urges that all believers test ‘the spirits' and exercise discernment. At this relatively early stage it is too early to judge whether Florida will become a worldwide or indeed an American revival that will extend Christ's Kingdom among the unsaved. Will there be thousands of new Christians living out their faith in an authentic manner that captivates a secular western world? Will the prophecies that have been made about revivals breaking out again in Toronto, Pensacola, Brownsville and elsewhere including twenty cities in England and in Calcutta and France be fulfilled? Will the healings that people have received last ? All Christians must hope, pray and work, trusting that under God they will!

Nigel Scotland, Research Fellow, University of Gloucestershire

Visited Lakeland 7-14th July 2008.