Stunning News from Fresh Fire Ministries

Two announcements came from the board of directors this week. www.freshfire.ca August 12 the board announced that Todd has begun legal proceedings to separate from his wife Shonnah. August 15 they announced that Todd has stepped down from the ministry due to an inappropriate relationship with a woman. The news is sad and every one of us is praying for the resolution of these matters.  This news follows a progression of events that is mystifying to casual observers.

On June 23 C Peter Wagner convened a meeting of 17 Apostles to bring 'alignment' and 'commissioning' to Todd. These two things were intended to endorse the Florida Outpouring and to bring Todd into accountable relationships for the ongoing ministry of revival. Within a week of that commissioning Todd was taking time off at the insistence of his overseeing board from Fresh Fire. In fairness this was a necessary action as Todd had been going for about 100 days with few days off.  For most of July Todd was not present at Lakeland and the meetings went on. Then very  suddenly the announcement was made that the large tent was being closed and the Outpouring was being moved from a venue of 10,000 to a venue of about 750. Then on August 6 Todd handed over total responsibility for the meetings to the local church pastor of Ignited Church. By August 11 the bad news began to be released.

On August 11 C. Peter Wagner announced that he was asking 10 apostolic leaders to come together to deal with the numerous questions that had come forth from the Florida Outpouring. Wagner stated that the group intends to examine 24 separate issues from the revival and bring forth answers in an open fashion for everyone to see. That was the same day of the announcement of Todd's marriage problems. It appears that Wagner had no forewarning about the announcement. I was encouraged by Wagner's intention as we all had unanswered questions about Todd and the revival.

What Should be Done?

First, we already know to pray for everyone involved in this. Second, we should ask what went wrong? How did all of this happen? To ascribe this to Satan is certainly not without foundation but it all too often deflects our own personal responsibility. So we should wait until the commissioning leadership of Revival Alliance has had an opportunity to respond. Third, we should all continue to look beyond these events and these people to the Lord and his good hand.

These events threaten to put us all in a bad light.  Lovers of renewal are already scrutinized by critics within the Christian family. Now these events give the whole world an opportunity to scorn our faith again. The seventeen apostolic leaders who went to Lakeland bear the brunt of the responsibility to handle this matter. We should expect them to deal with it and we should give them an opportunity. Todd's personal failure is scandalous to the public but we all have had personal failure. We are all desirous to forgive Todd and see his family restored. The big question is why was this such a surprise to our apostolic leaders? What did they know about Todd's marriage? And what action will they take now?

I for one hope we play this out just as publicly as we played out the endorsement of Todd Bentley.  Our repentance should be as public as our proclamation of revival. Let's go on God TV and tell the world about our failure, our weakness and our courage to face problems openly and without fear. Todd will find forgiveness from his Christian family. The overseers will find understanding from the body of Christ. And we should expect to find them all open and transparent. I will have more to say about this.