Evangelist's Florida revival making local Pentecostal leaders very nervous.

madfloridian

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Sun Jun-22-08 02:45 PM
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Evangelist's Florida revival making local Pentecostal leaders very nervous.

Edited on Sun Jun-22-08 02:47 PM by madfloridian

Run time: 02:53
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There is a long article on the front page, front and center, of the Lakeland paper today. Don't ask me why a controversial...okay..absolutely nutty...revival deserves center front page. I don't know how to answer that. I really don't.

Canadian preacher, Todd Bentley

I guess it had to go front page so all the local preachers could weigh in with their disapproval. :shrug:

Actually until he started claiming he could resurrect the dead, they were not really that outspoken at all. Now they are publicly distancing.

Florida Outpouring Revival Concerns Pentecostal Leaders

Todd Bentley on the floor

Pictures are courtesy of a previous post and a previous article by the Ledger.

Storms of another kind - doubts about claims of healings and criticism of his teachings and techniques - have not troubled Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley and the leaders of the Florida Outpouring revival, which continues on, now in its 82nd consecutive day. The revival seems set to meet in the tents at Sun 'n Fun for the indefinite future, even though some national and local Pentecostal leaders are wary of giving approval to it.

..."The Pentecostal revival, which began April 2 at Ignited Church in Lakeland, draws an average of 30,000 or more people each week, according to its leaders, with about 50 percent of those from outside the state. In fact, it has become an international phenomenon, and almost a third of the crowds come from outside the United States, leaders estimate. At this particular evening service, flags from eight nations waved above the crowd, which numbered at least 4,000.

...."Bentley, 32, runs Fresh Fire Ministries, an independent organization based in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He presents an unusual figure with his many tattoos and jeweled lip studs. A self-professed fan of professional wrestling, he is prone to giving gentle shoves or kicks and shouting "Bam!" as he touches people to "impart" the Holy Spirit to them. His antics have alarmed some, such as J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma, a magazine for Pentecostals, who editorialized against those methods last week. But the crowds clearly love it.

But this is just too much, and now it is getting another front page appearance, so they don't have to write about the flooded midwest and devastating distruction.

While faith healing is a part of the Pentecostal tradition, the claims of resurrections have raised eyebrows. No dead bodies have been brought into the revival. Rather, reports of the recent death of a loved one - in some cases located long distances away - are relayed to the stage by e-mail or cell phone, and Bentley has led prayers for the person to be revived.

"We do our best to find out the situation. In one case, a boy drowned in a pool. He had no pulse, wasn't breathing and was clinically brain dead," he said.

Frontpaged, again.