Thoughts after being at the Lakeland Outpouring

My thoughts after being down in Lakeland for the past two nights -

• This present outpouring is a legitimate move of God. As with any move of God in this past century, there will always be extremes demonstrated in its birth. Look at the past revival from Azusa Street and the  acts and questionable life events surrounding Aimee Simple McPherson  William Branam, A.A. Allen and on to Oral Roberts Healing Tent Crusades were all opposed by the secular press and well meaning traditionalist Christians who did not like the new demonstrations of the Holy Spirit.  Lets not hasten to judgement. Just as history looks back at these movements with endorsement of the impartation(s) of the Spirit steering the church to its present position on the timeline of God's destiny, God willing,  this  movement could affect the next leadership generation of the church.
  • The presence of God  is what is attracting people to the Outpouring at Lakeland, FL.
  •  The Leadership at Lakeland has to maintain the pursuit after God and work to maintain that pure stream. It will be easy to let this slide into meetings just for signs and wonders.
  • If this Outpouring is to have any lasting influence in the culture of the church - the movement will mature as it continues to seek after the face of God and not just His hand. It will falter if the leadership is shortsighted. Just as the railroad industry failed because they failed to understand what business they were operating in. In the day of plenty the business execs of the Railroad Industry thought the boom would never end. They didn't mature. They did not recognize that they were in the transportation industry. This movement started seeking after the presence and heart of God in which signs and wonders were incidental not an end in themselves.
  • They will need to survive a leadership crisis. Not sure exactly what all this means, but in my spirit I feel a possible crisis could loom. This forces people to decide who they are folowing - God or man.

Update on Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 11:45PM by M.J. Pelechaty

After being at the revival for several days - I felt that there was going to be crisis in their Leadership. Little did I expect that it would be Todd in the center of the controversy. Yet there were warning signs - if you were observant and listening intently to the messages. The first warning light for me was the fact that Todd's preaching was taking on the tone of anger. In every revival there will always be many critical voices. In my opinion, Andrew Strom was Lakeland loudest critic. If you read any of his writings they were not only to warn the Body of Christ of excess but to tear down and destroy. I honestly believe he is motivated from offense and bitterness. As his writings gained more prominence in the cyberspace world - Todd seemed to be answering the criticism initially with anger and eventually with pride. This was the beginning of the end. The focus of the meetings shifted from the recognition of God's presence to maintaining the the organization Freshfire Ministries had created. Finances must have been overwhelming. By the way, whose idea was to meet 7 days a week? In retrospect, that was a mistake! The meetings became more unorganized and diffuse. It appeared no one knew who was in charge. Unbridled passion without direction produced public confusion. As I sat in the meetings talking with other believers from around the Country, it became painfully obvious these meetings were not going to last unless a strong pastoral team gained control of the organization. It was never clear to me the relationship Todd's ministry had with Steve Strader's church. Cooperative or competitive? Todd must have realized early on that without Pastoral Leadership he was going to flounder. In going forward, Freshfire's relationship with the local church is what concerns me the most. One can live in evangelistic fire and hype for so long until burnout occurs. Todd's personal life may have succumb to the stresses in building an International Ministry, but we are in the ministry of reconciliation. Lets not kill our own wounded. Todd needs to come under the covering of his Apostolic team. There needs to be a time recollection and healing for this young evangelist. He needs to submit himself to the men and women who ordained the meetings. Peter Wagner, Rick Joyner, along with the others who publically witnessed their agreement to the Lakeland Crusade must now privately invest in restoring and speaking the truth in love not only to Todd but to his organization.