The Church of Jesus Christ

Remember Todd? Now that he has left his wife, he doesn’t want to go back. It seems that the other woman was the child’s nanny, and had been so for over a year. Note that the very first reason for Todd’s failure is…God. That’s right…the anointing was too addictive. In the Garden, when Adam fell, he first blamed God. (It was the woman that YOU made me). No need to post all of the letter (you can find the link at the end of this post) nor comment on it thoroughly, but read it and enjoy. Also note, Todd was one of Joel’s Army’s poster children.

Moving on, let us first say that we know, without a shadow of doubt, that Lakeland was and is an authentic move of God.(remember, divorce and alcoholism is not a fruit of the spirit) Having known Todd well for many years, both his amazing strengths and his areas of weakness, we can say without reservation that the move of God in Lakeland, which began at Ignited Church, was genuine. We have never seen, in the history of this ministry, a greater quantity and quality of the miraculous demonstration of God’s healing power. As the Lord began to pour out His glory in Ignited Church and in the many venues that followed, Todd’s spirit was as pure as it has ever been and he was intensely hungry for more of God’s presence. He would spend hours soaking each day before the evening meeting, and once the worship had begun, Todd would become lost in the presence of God. The manifestation of amazingly accurate words of knowledge and astounding miracles flowed effortlessly night after night.

As the Outpouring continued, the Board of Directors and other leaders in Lakeland suggested that Todd take a few days off each week to rest and refresh. We learned from experience, however, and the post-Lakeland counsel of Christian leaders, that the anointing can be addictive. Significant personal issues in Todd’s life and make-up, as well as, flaws in the functioning structure of our leadership resulted in an impossible pace to maintain… seven nights a week for more than 15 weeks on end. We fully accept the responsibility as a Board of Directors for this lapse in judgment; we should have required that not just Todd and the team, but the entire Outpouring rest a minimum of one day a week. God himself rested after six days work as a pattern for His creation, and if the yoke of the Lord is easy and His burden is light, then He has no need to exhaust His people in a fresh encounter with Him.

As fatigue began to set in, significant personal issues in Todd and in his relationship with Shonnah were exacerbated. This, together with his increased familiarity with a female staff member created more tension in the Bentleys’ relationship. As the pressure of leading the revival continued, media attention increased resulting in less and less personal time. With the development of more friction in his marriage relationship, Todd began to make irrational decisions. Alcohol, movies and leisure time spent with a few of the younger, more impressionable members of his staff and road-crew began to replace the hours of soaking in the presence of God in which Todd had engaged during the early days of the Outpouring. (Todd is a convicted child molester. Should he really have spent time with the ‘younger’ members of the staff. Is this FFM’s why of telling us that Todd got a little handsy with people that he shouldn’t have. When did alcohol become acceptable at a revival.) Finally, Todd began to burn out, and things came to a head in his relationship with Shonnah. He was unwilling to put distance between himself and the female staff member and ultimately told Shonnah he wanted a separation.

The fact that the revival was in Florida (Again, blaming God since it was so far away), three thousand miles from our home office in Abbotsford, BC Canada, meant that the entire administration for the revival was provided by a rotating stream of church leaders and Board members who would assist behind the scenes and on the platform for a few weeks at a time and then return to Canada, usually on the verge of total exhaustion. Trying to keep up with the logistics of administrating the revival, including the massive challenge of moving from venue to venue until we finally arrived in the tent along with the media circus that ensued shortly afterwards, meant that communication was greatly inhibited between the leaders involved. Many early signs that something was drastically wrong were overlooked. By the time we became fully aware and/or were willing to admit how dysfunctional things had become behind the scenes, the damage had already been done.

As to our long silence in writing to you, please let us explain. We have been in much contact with Rick Joyner, Bill Johnson, John Arnott and other members of a team focused on restoring Todd, seeking to do all within our power to encourage him to embrace a process of counseling and genuine accountability. In deference to these leaders we have refrained from communicating at all until we could be assured that we were all on the same page. At the same time, senior members of the leadership team here at Fresh Fire as well as members of the Board of Directors have been stretched to the breaking point in attempting to deal with all of the attention created not just by the revelations of Todd’s marriage problems and personal issues, but also by the five months of revival preceding their disclosure. Since then, many false accusations and rumors surrounding both Todd and the Lakeland Outpouring have attempted to use Todd’s failures as a springboard to question the legitimacy of the revival. Consequently, key leaders have had to step back and rest in order not to burn-out themselves. This, coupled with the busy schedules of the restoration team, all of whom travel internationally, has made getting everyone on the same page difficult.

We so appreciate all those who have stepped in to assist the FFM Board in a process of restoration for Todd, but what we have come to realize is that ultimately, the buck stops with the FFM Board of Directors. No one knows Todd better, or has more access to all the facts from both sides than we do.

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There is a difference between covering Todd and covering for him. We refuse to expose explicit details of his failings over the last few months, but neither will we pretend there haven’t been any. “Covering” is a biblical term as in “love covers over a multitude of sins” or as in the case when Noah’s two sons draped him in a blanket when he unwittingly discovered what happens when you drink too much fermented grape juice. “Cover for” is a contemporary idiom meaning to lie or misrepresent the truth in order to enable another to get away with or to continue to be involved in illicit behavior. We have been slow in responding up until now, because we wanted to bring you a positive report, full of hope and the promise of restoration. All of that is still entirely possible and we pray to that end, however, further silence on our part would be misrepresenting the truth by allowing you to believe that what we said in our first two statements (which were true to the best of our knowledge at the time of their writing) is still the case. Unfortunately that is not so.

Here are the facts:

1. Todd has yet to enter into a clear system of accountability with the leaders he identified that would be involved in such a process. Todd has visited Rick Joyner in Fort Mills, South Carolina, and indicated early on in September that he would be moving there soon to become a part of the community there and to receive counseling from Rick Joyner, Jack Deere, Bill Johnson and others that Rick might feel to bring alongside. Todd is in regular contact with Rick Joyner and has agreed together with Rick that he will move to Fort Mills during the first few months of 2009.

2. Having spoken with Todd in recent days, he is resolute in his intentions to divorce Shonnah, and in his mind, the restoration he is seeking is one which would not include reconciliation with his wife. Todd admits to being 100% responsible for the divorce.

3. It also needs to be clarified that Shonnah has in no way initiated this divorce and has no present intention to do so at any time in the future. She is understandably hurt by Todd’s infidelity, but is not asking or pressing for a divorce. The legal separation from Shonnah was initiated completely by Todd and he has not seen her or the children since the last week in July. To our knowledge, Todd’s relationship with the female staff-member, who was a former intern and also, at his initiative, a live-in nanny in his house for over a year, is still ongoing. We believe that there are currently no biblical grounds for Todd to leave his wife and children. While it has been maintained that no physical contact happened between Todd and the former female intern until after he filed for legal separation from Shonnah, in the Boards’ eyes, the nature of the present relationship between Todd and his former staff member is that of adultery (Finally, someone has admitted that Todd B. committed adultery, although any wife worth her salt would tell you that an emotional relationship with another woman is adultery itself)

There is more pigslop at the link below

via Fresh Fire Ministries

Tags: adultery, Bill Johnson, divorce, florida outpouring, florida revival, fresh fire ministries, ignited church, John Arnott, lakeland outpouring, lakeland revival, Rick Joyner, shonnah bentley, word of faith