Evangelist Todd Bentley has now moved on from his Reno casino revival. However, I have noticed something in the online “good news” tales about the events there.
Rick Joyner, in one of his usual weekly updates, adds a brief postscript about Todd in Reno. What I found interesting was that Todd and his new wife were taking time to press the flesh and talk to people.
Joyner writes:
“We just received this update from Pastors Eric and Wendi Moen of River Rock Christian Fellowship in Reno, NV where Todd Bentley, along with MorningStar Leadership Staff, held the first meetings with Todd since his phase two restoration release into public ministry at our recent HarvestFest Conference and Festival, and it is very exciting news.”
[He quotes Eric Moen]
“…He and Jessa had lunch with me the first day and really shared from their hearts. Later, Todd and Jessa took two hours of their time to meet with local pastors in our hospitality suite. We were all just gathered around the "kitchen table" having a wonderful time of ministry and fellowship….
….Todd confessed his past sins to all of us without beating around the bush. Then he asked us all to forgive him. He made no attempt to shift blame in any way…..”
What I found interesting about this was that apparently Todd Bentley has changed his mind about the value of fellowshipping with pastors. According to Pastor Moen, it is no longer a big factor that crippled the Lakeland Revival in 2008.
Who said that, you may ask? Todd Bentley.
On September 10, 2009, Todd Bentley began to take baby steps back towards being in the public eye with a “financial supporters only webinar” which was broadcast over the internet. Although it was later saved at his website, it is no longer available there as I write.
I blogged on the webinar shortly afterward, and I remember this in particular, where I paraphrased what Bentley said:
“The last question that Bentley took [from his online audience]asked what parts of the Lakeland revival were fleshy. Replying, Bentley said that in April and May 2008, “when the revival was purest”, he spent a lot of time in prayer. But as the revival got busier he spent hours dealing “with the media” and meeting with friends, associates and pastors. “There were days that I spent only 1 hour with my family” he complained. Prayer suffered.”
This has been a constant for Bentley over the years. Namely, the need to spend time in prayer and meditation so that you can get the “anointing” from God..
Well, if the evangelist is thinking, “No one is paying attention to what I say and if the old video file disappears, I can do something totally different…” he is incorrect.
Why would he not want to soak his first “new” possible revival in prayer and meditation, since that is what he said just last September that he failed to do at Lakeland? Made the revival fleshy. Probably killed it, in his mind.
Why would he meet with pastors instead?
Here is a guess. Think of his possible TV reality show.
Since Todd Bentley is a little infamous in Christian circles, he could use a spot, in the first episode of his show, perhaps, where he goes over his past sins and faults once over lightly. Then he is swarmed by loving, forgiving Christians.
Maybe, if someone from Discovery TV was there with a handheld camera, the meeting with the pastors in Reno would fit the bill for that segment. (Or it could have been a dry run for when they do it for the TV show.)
This would neatly handicap reporters who know of Todd’s past shenanigans who want to cover the show. Reporter: “What about…” Todd: “I dealt with it in the first episode and that is all I am going to say….” A thirty or sixty second TV could then have to do for any aspect of Todd Bentley’s entire life that the press wants to ask questions about.
If the “Reno Outpouring” suffered as a result of not praying and meeting pastors instead, as Todd Bentley said happened at Lakeland, it could perhaps be a necessary sacrifice. Especially, if you can nail down the crucial “I was bad, let’s move on” segment of the first episode of the proposed Todd Bentley reality show.