pat loughery

Many of you have heard the sad and disappointing news that charismatic evangelist Todd Bentley has recently separated from his wife and is no longer leading services involved with the Lakeland revival. I’m saddened by this event, but I know that God has a large, overarching cosmic plan that brings us nearer to Him – or as my old friend Drew Bennett used to say, “Well, God’s still King, and He’s still on the throne.”

I wanted to write some brief thoughts on the topic and give you a few links to check out.

First, a few of my own baseline assumptions:

• I believe that God continues to interact with humanity today in ways that include divine guidance, dreams, visions and other revelatory experiences
• I believe that God performs miracles, disrupting the natural order that we know as normal, and sometimes people are healed, people are raised from the dead, marriages are restored, addictions are immediately broken.
• I believe that God has chosen to act through human agents who, by nature of being human, are imperfect and flawed
• I believe that God’s choice of his agents is sovereign and in no way says that God endorses that person’s character, lifestyle or spirituality.
• I believe that when charismatic phenomena such as the above occur, they occur through human agents who can also add their own flavor or spin to them, sometimes to the detriment of the original message
• I believe that our current culture loves celebrities whether in sports, entertainment or church, and this is often idolatry
• I believe that God notices this
• I believe that sometimes God changes directions in order to reveal our own brokenness to ourselves so that we more fully rely on Him and not on our idols.

I’m not a fan of the big shows that happen in current charismatic event circles. I think that much of what happens is initiated by God, but with human additives. I suspect that Christ’s ministry among us today is more likely to seek to avoid live TV broadcasts than to actively seek them out.

I think that the Triune God was working through much of what we saw in the Lakeland Revival. I believe that God sovereignly gifted Todd Bentley with supernatural power and revelation. I believe that Todd’s level of gifting may have been out of proportion to his depth of character. I realize that this was God’s choice, not my own.

I pray for the restoration of Todd and his marriage, and that those who were impacted by Todd’s ministry would trust Christ throughout this fallout.

Paul writes about this issue throughout I Corintians, actually – not to glorify the church of Corinth for their excellent handling of spiritual gifts, but to temper their usage of these excellent gifts – (and temper them with love, not with karate kicks or tackling people to the floor).

26the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 27To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.

– Colossians 1:26-28

It is Christ in you and I that is the hope of God’s glory. It’s not Christ in Todd Bentley, or any other celebrity Christian (whether Brian McLaren or John Piper or Mark Driscoll) who is the hope of the glory of God.

Christianity is about God’s movement among the people from the edges in to the center, not of the celebrities.

A few posts from around the Internet that I have been contemplating

• Life After Lakeland – Sorting out the Confusion – The editor of Charisma magazine writes a sobering article about the tailspin that the Bentley news has thrown the charismatic movement into.
• Call it Apostolic Fallout – Brother Maynard’s excellent summary, with a plethora of links
• Lakeland! – Boston Vineyard pastor Dave Smelzer offers a balanced take on this issue
• Todd Bentley and John Crowder – UK Vineyard pastor Jason Clark’s excellent framework for how he understands the breadth of the Christian church
• Robbymac’s book Post-Charismatic would I suspect be a wonderful thing to read on this topic – if only the publishers would release it in the US.
• Apostolic Bulls*** – Grace takes a look at the leadership structures in place within Bentley’s community, and in particular at the interaction with those who are in the self-described apostolic circle, quoting from Peter Wagner on his interaction with Todd. While I wish that this post was written with more charity for those involved, the discussion of leadership and apostolic authority is very helpful.

Grace and peace to all, and especially to Todd and his wife, as well as to all those impacted by this story.