Secrets inside the revival
Note: "Together in the Harvest Ministries" (Steve Hill) and "Partners in Revival" (John Kilpatrick) ministries are now both members of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
Leaders shield finances, make many false claims
The Pensacola News Journal/November 16, 1997
Pensacola -- The numbers are amazing: Millions of visitors,
millions of dollars, thousands of souls.
The claims are heart-warming: crime curtailed, addiction overcome, sickness healed.
The leaders are captivating: An ex-convict-junkie converted to evangelism; a visionary
and prophet dedicated to revival.
But how true is it all? Is Pensacola's Brownsville Revival all that its leaders say it
is? Are the leaders who and what they say they are?
The News Journal sought to answer those questions in a four-month investigation into the
2 1/2 year-old revival. The investigation focused on the revenue and the spending, the
leaders' backgrounds and lifestyles, the revival's methods and messages, and the
revival's claims about healings, crime reduction and charity.
Much about the Brownsville Revival is unquestionable: Millions of people from far and
near have attended the four-nights-a-week revival Many have had an emotionally and
spiritually stimulating experience there.Many have been baptized. Many have made a
commitment to change their ways and live closer to God.
But much about the revival, as a business and a community influence, is questionable,
and the answers cast it in a far different light.
Among the News Journal findings: --The revival did not begin the way Pastor John
Kilpatrick and evangelist Steve Hill say it did. They say it was a spontaneous and
overwhelming move of God and that everyone there felt it. But a videotape of the first
service, plus the accounts from members who were there, reveal otherwise and indicate
the revival was well-planned and orchestrated to become a large and long-running
enterprise.
- Money is flowing, information is not. Brownsville leaders refuse to disclose revenue
and spending details, beyond an abbreviated, generalized financial statement that shows
the church taking in $6.6 million in 1996. Not even members of the congregation are
allowed to look at the books.
- Revival leaders are generating fortunes. The top four ministers have set up their own
nonprofit corporations selling their own revival-related merchandise, such as books,
tapes, T-shirts and bumper stickers. The merchandise is sold both inside the church and
via mail order. Only one of the corporations is paying sales tax.
- Hill's autobiography and oft-told stories about his outlaw past are contradicted by
facts and by police records. He admitted to the News Journal that he fictionalized parts
of his book for "impact."
- Hill's claims that most of his ministry's revenue from the revival goes to missions
and charities is contradicted in his ministry's financial statement and Internal Revenue
Service return. His assertions that his financial books are open are untrue; he would
not share key information with the News Journal and sought to discourage questions.
- Kilpatrick has retreated from close contact with his flock while rapidly moving up
into a luxurious lifestyle outside Pensacola. His new home, at an Alabama location he
tried to keep secret, has barbed wire, a security guard and a metal gate. Months before
an injury that kept him at home for weeks, Kilpatrick had ceased to keep office hours
and had delegated his pastoring duties to assistants.
- Hill and Kilpatrick both have taken advantage of opportunities to conceal financial
information. Both put "$10 and other good and valuable consideration" on their deeds
as the price they paid for their new properties; Alabama allows people to do that if
they wish to avoid public disclosure of the purchase price.
- The revival service's spiritual messages and methods have distressed many devout
Pentecostals and given rise to much criticism among theologians and Bible scholars.
- Kilpatrick has sought to silence dissent and criticism by prophesying -- announcing
he is voicing God's own predictions -- that the critics would die or suffer.
- The revival's benefits to the Pensacola community are either overstated or untrue.
For example:
Top law enforcement officers cite data disputing the revival leaders' statements that
the revival has reduced crime.
Social service agencies report having to serve a large influx of impoverished people who
were drawn to Pensacola for the revival but who have been turned away by the church.
Drug treatment centers report drug problems are on the rise, not dropping.
Mental health centers report treating more out-of-town people than ever before, and most
of them are people who came to Pensacola for the revival.
Residents and businesses in the impoverished parts of the Brownsville community report
that the church has done nothing for the area and refuses requests for help.
- The revival's claims about healing are unsubstantiated by medical documentation. The
revival touts cases in general but does not provide names or specifics. The News Journal
found people who said they had been cured and healed, but none had medical proof from
doctors. .
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