The Church of Jesus Christ

August 15, 2008 In the midst of controversy over “The Florida Outpouring” revivals, faith healer and leader Todd Bentley has unexpectedly left the revival meetings due to “personal difficulties.”According to a Bentley media representative on August 12, “He has turned the revival over to Pastor Stephen Strader of Ignited Church.”

By mid-afternoon on August 12, Bentley’s ministry, the Fresh Fire Ministries Board of Directors issued a message as special prayer request addressed to “partners and friends” on the ministry Web site’s homepage about the nature of the personal difficulties—Bentley and his wife, Shonnah are now separated.

An excerpt from the statement said, “The Lord’s blessings and abundance have been so evident on the ministry during this season of intense activity and we rejoice in seeing and being able to participate in what we believe is only the beginning of a worldwide awakening. It is with considerable sadness then, that we must temper the jubilation we know you all feel with the sobering news that Todd and Shonnah Bentley are presently experiencing significant friction in their relationship and are currently separated. We want to affirm that there has been no sexual immorality on the part of either Todd or Shonnah, nor has there ever been. Undoubtedly the pressures and the burden of the Outpouring, which approaches 144 days on August 23rd, have helped to create an atmosphere of fatigue and stress that has exacerbated existing issues in their relationship.”

In spite of the controversy and personal difficulties, Fresh Fire Ministries has reported that this is the first revival in history to be broadcast live into literally millions of homes and churches across all five continents and into more than 200 countries. The “Outpourings,” as they have come to be called, are now continuing in many cities worldwide. The revivals began in the spring and are scheduled to continue until August 23.

“These ‘Outpourings’ in Lakeland reached a peak attendance of 10,000 during the tent meetings, and they are currently averaging about 600 to 700 attendees each evening,” said Bruce Merz, Fresh Fire Ministries’ assistant to the media director.

Merz also said that the ministry has received as many as 6 million hits per month on its Web site. They have also been equally overwhelmed with phone calls and emails at their office based in Abbotsford, B.C.

While the events are free for attendees, Fresh Fire Ministries reported that the average daily cost to put on the revival at the tent was $35,000 per day, not including television and broadcast costs, which are paid for by GodTV. An offering is taken at each service.

Additionally, there is another revival slated to take place in Uganda, Africa later this month.

“We are still fully committed to our crusade in Uganda, Africa later this month, and though Todd will not be in attendance, our Fresh Fire Team and Associate Ministries will lead a team of almost one hundred people from around the world to share the love of God, the power of the gospel, and humanitarian aid with the people of Uganda,” continued the Board of Directors in its message.

Bentley, a Canadian who has been labeled as “a new faith healer,” has become known for his claims of supernatural powers, violent healing techniques and angelic visions. He also suggests that he has raised people from the dead.

In one YouTube video, Bentley can be seen kneeing in the stomach a man with stage 4-colon cancer. As the man bends over in extreme pain from the blow, Bentley said, “I had to be obedient to the Lord, sir, but I believe that colon cancer is coming right out of your body now.”

While the revivals seem to be impacting millions, some evangelical leaders are opposed, and even pastors from Lakeland area churches are warning that Todd Bentley “is doing more harm than good.”

Senior Pastor Shane Skelton, Calvary Baptist Church in Lakeland, Florida said he briefly attended one of the nightly meetings. He has also been following the nightly broadcasts so that he can know what’s going on in the community and with his church members.

When describing his experience, Skelton said, “I am going to have to come down on the side of the negative, I am against what he [Bentley] is doing for several reasons.”

“I believe it threw more light to emotion than it did to doctrinal standards,” Skelton said. “I looked at it very closely because I actually had some folks who went to it, and I had to deal with them going up on the stage, and they didn’t get healed for whatever reason, and it created a lot of stir and controversy within my church.

“One of the biggest issues I have with it, is that it makes God a means to an end and not the end. People come from all around the world to receive healing, and they come from all around the world to get what they wanted, which was healing or a better life, and God became a means to that end, instead of God being the end. God should be the end of everything, whether we have good health, a good marriage and so on,” said Skelton. “God is not a link in the chain to get you what you want. He’s not a lucky rabbit’s foot. He’s not magic genie in a lamp. He is God, whether we have good health or not.”

Skelton also expressed concern that “revivals” were not actually calling people back to God. “[A] lot of the things I watched on the broadcasts were nothing more than pumping up people’s emotions,” he said. “There is no revival to it. Revival is returning to the holiness of God. I don’t see any bars being shut down in Lakeland. I don’t see any fruit from it as far as the town turning back to holiness and righteousness.”

Hank Hanegraaff, author and host of the popular “Bible Answer Man” radio program, said what’s going on in Lakeland is a “counterfeit revival.”

“I think what you have in genuine revival, is you have powerful, expositional preaching, and the preaching emphasizes an esteem for Christ, an eternal perspective, and a focus on essential Christian doctrine, as opposed to what you find in ‘counterfeit revivals,’ with its excesses, airs, and extremes, which are I suppose personified in Todd Bentley, as much as anyone I’ve seen in recent history.”

Hanegraaff said he believes that the term “revival” is often misused in our culture. He believes people need to get back to basics, into the Word of God, and get the Word of God into them.

“I think we have a misplaced sense of revival, in that we are looking for revival in all the wrong places,” Hanegraaff said.

Martha Hollowell, a graduate from Fuller Seminary, who holds a degree in Cross Cultural Studies and serves as the prayer coordinator for her church Messiah Christian Church in Richmond, Va., attended several evenings of the Florida Outpouring revivals at the beginning of July with a group from her church. Although she said she did not go expecting physical healing, she said her experience was a positive one. On July 4, she saw Bentley speak.

“Todd Bentley was there only one of the four nights that I was there,” said Hollowell. “That service was a slightly different evening. They had planned on having a baptismal service, and 3,000 people lined up to be baptized. It was amazing. The focus that night really was, not so much on physical healing, but on healing from drug and alcohol abuse.”

She described the Florida Outpouring as “a revival for the church.” She said a huge number of people who are attending are Christians, not non-believers.

“I know I’ve been praying for a revival for a long time. What I mean by revival is seeing people coming to Christ in large quantities. I’ve studied about revivals, so I understand that is not all there is, and that a lot of times, revival was first about reviving the church so the church can then go out and win people,” Hollowell said.

“What I went for, and what I feel like I came back with, was a renewed sense of purpose and an excitement that God is going to move, not only in the church, but in reviving the church so that we can reach out to society,” Hollowell said.