A couple observations about the Lakeland Revival

As most people know, Ken and I have watched/participated in this revival for most of it’s 111 nights thus far. We’ve missed some due to church, travel, etc… but not too many.

This week’s services have been particularly GREAT – Todd preached the other night on Romans 8:11 (And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.), Steven Strader the night before last, and Roy Fields ministered last night. Among excellent preaching and faithfulness to the Word, he also does the funniest impressions

Anyways, some thoughts have occurred to me over time.

#1 – A great many of the people on stage claiming healing have back and/or joint trouble. Todd tells them to do something they couldn’t do before and invariably they bend over to touch their toes.

Has anyone noticed that well over two thirds of them can not only touch their toes, they can actually put their hands on the floor? Only a couple of them look like they might have been in a gym or physical therapy in the last decade or so.

#2 – I’ve seen the following charges levied by the heresy hunters:

• “When Billy Graham went into an area, he always had a team for follow-up” They got the people into local churches.
• “There’s too little/no documentation of the healings at Lakeland.”
• “Todd Bentley rakes in the cash every night!”

Okay.

As an aside, the same people hooting that Billy Graham did it right are awfully quick to condemn him, too, for alleged sins. Don’t be fooled.

But back onto topic: Firstly, when Billy Graham went into an area, it was generally for a one-time meeting or short-term set of meetings for local believers. Sure, people might’ve travelled within the state/geographic region to hear him… but I’m not thinking anybody from Korea heard he’d be preaching in Kentucky and showed up, got saved, and needed somebody to find them a local church in Korea!

Could it be done at Lakeland? Sure. (and who knows, maybe they ARE finding churches for people – the ones making the charge haven’t been there. I was already saved when I was there, so I didn’t get to go off with the ones just prayed for to meet with the pastor… :::cough cough cough:::)

But if it was done at Lakeland, it would take a dedicated  base of staff to do.

Just like the medical. Todd’s said that he’s got a team he’s called in to evaluate the medical reports.

These two things you don’t put in the hands of volunteers (Unless they’ve been with you for a season and you know them well – and even then the lawyers would say no to the medical). In any case volunteers Todd’s known a while would come from Canada… they’d still need their expenses paid, to move to Florida…

So – let’s assume [these are my estimates and have zero bearing on reality] that Todd’s got ten people working 40 hours a week on medical reports, and another ten people working forty hours a week on finding churches for new believers (it’s actually harder than you think to do this…). Let’s assume he pays each of them ten bucks an hour. So, that’s eight grand a week that he needs JUST for these  two functions. (Don’t forget, somebody’s got to pay for those big lights – pay for the tent – pay for maintenance and cleanup at two locations – pay the salaries of the speakers and musicians (even Todd, BTW).

Oh, but I hear a roar. Todd says his salary’s set by his board of directors and he gets paid by the ministry.

Where do you suppose the ministry’s funds come from? Trees? or out of chicken eggs?

No, when Todd goes from place to place, he gets paid by the sponsoring church either via honorarium or love offering. That $ goes into the ministry’s budget, out of which he gets paid, the office staff gets paid, the office light bill gets paid… Todd’s not been many places, now has he? So it stands to reason that he’s getting that same old-same old paycheck from money he’s bringing in nightly in Lakeland.

Anyone want to dispute the fairness of that? I sure hope not.

And I was going to say more, but I’ll save it for a future post.