Abstract:

Following the neo-Pentecostal revivals of the 1990s, and commencing in the Spring of 2008, a fresh wave of revival, characterised by miraculous healings, became associated with what came to be known as the ‘Florida Outpouring’. Unlike the earlier so-called Toronto Blessing and the Brownsville revivals, that at Lakeland, Florida, proved to be relatively short-lived. While similar to the earlier revivals in many respects, it differed in being predominantly led by an individual of outstanding personal charisma, the healing evangelist, Todd Bentley, whose name became practically synomanous with the ‘Outpouring’. This paper identifies the source of Bentley’s charisma that drove the revival but which proved to be ‘precarious’. The paper then proceeds to trace the ‘Outpouring’s’ rapid decline as a result of various factors, not least of through an equally speedily discrediting of its charismatic leadership.

Author: Stephen J. Hunt