Session 3 - An Analysis of Bethel
In session three, we look at some issues with Bethel church in Redmond, CA. Dr. Joe attempts to qualify his analysis by openly stating that he has only engaged in about 20 hrs of Johnson & Co.'s work, as well as the fact that there is much commendable in Bethel's overall output. Bill Johnson has been forthright about the fact that they are consciously exporting their particular HS revival model, openly using their media wing of the ministry in this encouragement. As such, we can look at the issues involved in imbibing the Bethel revival model wholesale & not attempting to extract the good and remove the theologically and Biblically questionable. I am hardly alone in my concern about Bethel's revival and church praxis commitments. Many Christian, indeed even Pentecostal, scholars, leaders and pastors have echoed these concerns. Bethel, like Hillsong before it serves as great compare and contrast laboratory, as it were, to try and honor 1 Cor. 12 (Rom 12) as well as heed the Corinthians problems that so often plague even sincere Christian groups that want more HS expression among them in the gathered body of believers. This analysis is in no way a shaming of those that enjoy Johnson and Bethel music nor to deny their status as true Christians.
