"It's chaotic … it's sandlot baseball. It's …''A Working Man's Revival'

madfloridian

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Sun May-18-08 11:13 AM
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"It's chaotic … it's sandlot baseball. It's …''A Working Man's Revival'

First off, I do not like the column title using the words "working man."

It is a revival being held in Central Florida that is drawing people from around the world and around the country. They have had to change the venue several times because of the huge crowds. This write-up is about a Monday night service, and there were only 3000.

Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley speaks last week at the revival, which resembles a rock concert.

'A Working Man's Revival'

I find the title a tad strange because I think the "working people" theme has been way overdone for a long time. There are all kinds of "working people" who earn their living in many ways and who prefer different religious experiences. This is stereotyping.

It resembles a rock concert. The crowds have listened to an hour of loud, power-chord Christian rock music, singing, "We are the generation who'll stand and fight; in the midst of all the darkness, carry the light."

Tonight, visiting evangelist Todd Bentley says he has been told by a prophet, Bob Jones, that 13 wise virgins would carry the revival forward. So Bentley calls teenagers up to the stage and "anoints" them, touching them and watching many fall backward, a practice Pentecostals call being "slain in the Spirit." It's just the beginning of an hours-long service.

People worship and sing during the "Florida Outpouring" revival last week at The Lakeland Center.

A Dean of Regent University, founded by Pat Robertson, said that "This is kind of looked-for and prayed-for in the Pentecostal world...Everyone is looking for the next revival. When they hear of it, they want to go."

Attendance reached about 10,000 one night recently when the revival was held at Joker Marchant Stadium. Recent crowds have ranged from 3,000 to 7,000 per night, with about 800 in the mornings, although the numbers swell on weekends, Stephen Strader said.

.."Revival leaders are expected to announce today that beginning May 26, they will hold evening services on the grounds of Sun 'n Fun Fly-in under a giant inflatable "air dome" that will hold up to 10,000 people. It will be the home of the revival "indefinitely," said Lynne Breidenbach, a spokeswoman for the revival.

There are several universities nearby that were and are bible colleges, and they are growing.

It is not uncommon to stop for a burger and have people come to the car and begin preaching. We even had to ask someone we had hired for some work around our home not to preach to us, just do the work.

The Third Wave

Some Pentecostal observers are calling the Lakeland revival the "third wave," following the "Toronto Blessing" that began in January 1994 and overlapped with the Brownsville Revival that began in June 1995 at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola. In both of those revivals, there were daily services for more than two years, and both featured claims of miraculous healing and prophetic messages and worship practices not usually found in most churches, such as speaking in tongues and "holy laughter," in which worship leaders and portions of the crowd are seized with long bouts of hysterical laughter.

Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley lies on the stage at the "Florida Outpouring" revival last week at The Lakeland Center. Bentley has preached, prayed in tongues, relayed prophetic messages and laid hands on people wanting to be healed from a wide range of troubles, from financial difficulties to mental illness to cancer.

I judge no man's religion. I do judge the title that appears to stereotype working people into one category. Working class people have many kinds of religious preferences.