Reading Time: 9 minutes One thing you can absolutely count on with evangelical leaders: their insular Good Ole Boys network certainly protects its own. I’m sure Todd Bentley is most appreciative of the help it’s given him over the years. Today, let’s see how Todd Bentley’s pals helped him back onto the gravy train — again, and why Bentley might be beyond their help this time around the tracks.
Vineyard Church
Posted inReligion
The Lasting Legacy of the Toronto Blessing
Reading Time: 9 minutes Though it began in 1994 and ended quite some time ago, the Toronto Blessing left a lasting impression on today’s evangelicals. Today, let me show you what evangelicals miss about this movement–and what they ache to recreate.
Posted inReligion
Power and Control: A Fitting Epilogue to the Toronto Blessing
Reading Time: 12 minutes For a while now, we’ve been talking about the Toronto Blessing (TTB). That’s a huge evangelical movement that broke out in Toronto in 1994, then spread to most of the evangelical Christian world. As our community here discussed it and engaged with it as a topic, some very familiar themes rose to our attention: power, control, and authoritarianism on both sides of the leadership divide. Today, I’ll show you the conversation I had with an ex-Christian who was very much a part of this movement as it happened–and what we both realized as we talked about it.
Posted inReligion
The Christian Slapfight Over the Toronto Blessing Reveals a Dealbreaker Problem
Reading Time: 10 minutes This whole thing happened decades ago, but they’re still not ready to make nice–even at the cost of their entire religion’s credibility. Today, let me show you what they argued about, and why these huge doctrinal fights should matter to them–but never do.
Posted inReligion
How the Toronto Blessing’s Influences Created Chaos
Reading Time: 10 minutes Most folks know well that evangelicals live in a haze of alternative facts. Several times here, we’ve examined this or that belief they hold about themselves that has turned out to be completely false–if not the polar opposite of reality. Their beliefs about the Toronto Blessing (TTB) of the mid-90s don’t work any differently. Today, I’ll show you how the lofty ideals of the Toronto Blessing got completely out of hand–and why evangelical leaders were powerless to stop it.
Posted inReligion
The Authoritarians Arise in The Toronto Blessing
Reading Time: 11 minutes Lately, we’ve been discussing the Toronto Blessing–a huge movement that erupted in evangelicalism in 1994. Though one of its major teachings and influences was deeply anti-hierarchical, the engineers of this movement were anything but. Today, let’s take a look at the authoritarians who helped create the Toronto Blessing–and their effects on John and Carol Arnott, who led the church where it began.
Posted inReligion
The Muddle of Influences That Created the Toronto Blessing
Reading Time: 11 minutes Today, I’ll show you both the obvious influences and the undercurrents that went into the making of the Toronto Blessing. Nothing about this movement is divine or miraculous–and I’ll show you exactly why not.
Posted inReligion
The Tangled Web: Rick Joyner, Todd Bentley, Lakeland, Toronto, and More
Reading Time: 10 minutes Today, let me introduce some of the major players of the Toronto Blessing–and how they fit together with Todd Bentley, the weirdo that strangely, none of these Christian ‘prophets’ saw coming.
Posted inReligion
The Power of Prayer in Christian Marketing
Reading Time: 10 minutes Last time we met up, we were talking about Christian marketing and why it sucks. Christians are required to put faith in stuff that simply isn’t true–and their magical thinking carries through to their strategies around revitalizing their brand, guaranteeing failure.