Has 'Florida Outpouring' sparked revival at 2 Oregon sites?

By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
    Churches in Medford and Albany are experiencing what their leaders say is an extension of a Florida revival that has caught worldwide attention..
    Moreover, pastors at the two churches say what is happening both here in Oregon and in Lakeland, Fla., could be part of a worldwide move of God that is prophesied to eventually see one billion people led to Christ.
    As has been the case with other reported revivals of recent years, the activities are not exempt from sharp criticism within the Christian community.
But that doesn’t diminish the enthusiasm that both Pastor Dan Mickelson of New Song Church in Medford and Pastor Denny Cline of Albany Vineyard Fellowship are feeling about events they say are creating a fresh hunger and passion for Jesus Christ.
   What is now termed the “Florida Outpouring” began when British Columbia-based revivalist Todd Bentley and his Fresh Fire Ministries arrived in Lakeland on April 2 to conduct five days of meetings at a local church.
   Saying that God has intervened in a powerful way, and because of a reported continuing manifestation of the Holy Spirit through healing and salvations and even claims of people being raised from the dead, Bentley has extended the meetings, which are now being carried by GOD TV, a satellite network with a worldwide viewership.
    Due to the influx of visitors from around the world, the venue was recently changed from Ignited Church in Lakeland, which accommodates about 700, to a concert arena that seats 10,000.
    The services have now gone on for months, and will continue, says Bentley, until God indicates otherwise.
    The events in Lakeland quickly caught the attention of New Song Church in Medford. Pastor Dan Mickelson said members of his independent charismatic fellowship started talking about what was going on in Florida. Richard Larcombe, a pastoral staff member at the church who is Mickelson’s son-in-law, expressed interest in seeing the Lakeland events in person. The congregation eventually provided funds that allowed both Larcombe and Mickelson and several other family members to attend for three nights.
    New Song Church hasn’t been the same since, said Mickelson.
   “We came back, and felt prompted to have a one-week revival service for our church,” he said. That one week has stretched into a series of nightly meetings that will continue indefinitely. Visitors have come from about 30 churches throughout Southern Oregon, and dozens more from churches as far away as Seattle and New Mexico.
   “We’ve seen dramatic healings in our meetings, and it’s been spilling out into the streets,” said Mickelson. “There’ve been as many as a dozen healings every night.”
    Among the afflictions reported healed, he said, are cancers, back injuries, bipolar disorders, deafness, terminal blood diseases and more. Already many of the healings have been medically confirmed as people go their doctors who find that the ailments disappeared, Mickel-son said.
    The manifestations aren’t confined to the New Song Church building, nor even just its congregation and visitors, he said. People in the community at large are being affected.
    For example, Mickelson said he himself has in recent weeks received three wrong-number phone calls from people who had misdialed. Prompted to ask the callers if there was anything wrong with them physically, they all acknowledged it and allowed Mickelson to pray over the phone with them. In each case, he said, the callers were healed.
   In another case, he said, a person on the street whose limbs were uneven in length received prayer and one arm lengthened on the spot. In yet another instance, church members received words of knowledge — mental impressions reportedly given by the Holy Spirit — about problems with pain that other customers in a Medford grocery store were experiencing, and asked if they could pray right there for them.
   “It’s really quite dramatic,” said Mickelson, “People say, ‘This is so weird!’ ’’
    During mid-June, Mickelson went north to Albany to meet Cline and compare notes on what they believe God is doing. Bentley, who has a long and close relationship with Cline, has often come down from British Columbia to hold meetings at the Albany church. Cline told Christian News Northwest that back in 1999 and 2000 a local revival took place at his church as a result of Bentley’s ministry.
   “But I think what’s happening now is on another level,” said Cline.
    Bentley in April asked Cline to come to Florida and witness for himself what was happening. Cline has since been to Lakeland three times.
   “Having attended on three occasions, we decided to hold special meetings to give God the opportunity to release this wonderful anointing in our region,” he wrote on his church’s web site. “The impact was immediate and more powerful than anything we have experienced in its beginnings in our almost 14 years of ministry in preaching the gospel with signs and wonders. “
    Currently Cline’s church is holding meetings Friday and Saturday evenings at 7 p.m.
    The church also is holding training sessions for outreach and evangelism each Friday and Saturday at 1:30 p.m. until further notice.
   “We feel that this glory and presence is not only for the church but especially for the lost, and we invite you to join in with us in taking it to the streets,” Cline states on the web site.
    The web site includes a long list of reported divine healings at the Albany meetings: “People keep getting healed and touched by the power of His love ... so we will keep gathering until the Lord says to stop.”
Cline, who founded Albany Vineyard in 1994, said his church “has always had a propensity for healings, deliverance, signs and wonders. But what this has done is given us a fresh anointing and fresh breath of air, to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
    Both Mickelson and Cline note what is happening in their cities was recently prophesied as eventually spreading throughout Oregon and then America. They said the prediction came from Rob Deluca, a prophetic minister from New Zealand who had foreseen the Lakeland events.
    Deluca specifically mentioned Medford and Albany as the starting points for “a vision of this whirlwind of fire — trailblazing across Oregon, and it was burning up forest trees and the fire was spreading and it was getting larger and larger and it began to consume towns and cities — all across the state of Oregon. As I watched, I also saw that it began to pull ‘golden stones’ (people) out of the ground — they were alive. As these came out of the ground, they swirled within this whirlwind of fire and they were full of life. I saw these golden stones begin to shine really bright and then they were flung out all over the nation of America. ... Many people will be sent out from Oregon — golden stones to touch the nations.”
    The events in Lakeland are highly controversial, prompting noted Christian leaders nationally to speak out fervently both for and against.  Mickelson said his church has received e-mails saying that Bentley is in spiritual error and advising against following his lead.
    But because Mickelson is confident that it is the leading of God and not Bentley that is the driving force, he is ready to face whatever criticisms might come. “I’m not afraid of that,” he said. “Mostly it’s from cessationists who believe that healings aren’t for today.”
    But Cline also acknowledges that some of the criticism is from fellow charismatic Christians who aren’t comfortable with Bentley’s ministry style or his descriptions, on his Fresh Fire Ministries website — www.freshfire.ca — of his own experiences.
   “But one of the things I would say is to look at the fruit of this,” said Cline.    “By this time probably thousands of people have been led to the Lord, and many have been healed ... If this is not of God, it will burn itself out.”
    There is also great support from within the Christian community, said Mickelson. Because of what is happening in Medford, about a half-dozen other churches locally are now praying for a larger revival in their area.
    “Mostly we’re just interested in the presence of God,” he said. “The meetings could stop tomorrow and we’d just continue with personal revival.”

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