PUBLISHED WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 19, 1997
Copyright 1997 The Pensacola News Journal. All rights
reserved
Pastors orchestrated first revival
Hill's persistent urging pushed crowd to react
By Alice Crann
News Journal staff writer
PENSACOLA - For 2 1/2 years, the Rev. John Kilpatrick,
pastor of Brownsville Assembly of God, and evangelist Steve Hill have promoted
the Pensacola Brownsville Revival as a spontaneous arrival of the Holy
Spirit on June 18, 1995. Kilpatrick also has repeatedly described the arrival
of revival that day as "a mighty wind" that suddenly blew through the church.
Everyone who was there felt it, he says.
But videotape and statements of numerous people who were
there indicate that nothing like that happened and the congregation in
general was far from overwhelmed.
In addition, say present and former church members, the
revival did not suddenly arrive. They knew what Kilpatrick was setting
up because in the months before the revival:
-
He talked persistently about bringing revival to Brownsville
and threatened to quit if the church did not accept the revival.
-
The pastor's wife, Brenda Kilpatrick, and a number of Brownsville
church officials traveled to Canada and observed revival crowd-control
techniques and prayer-team methods at the phenomenally successful ongoing
revival there, the Toronto Blessing.
-
Kilpatrick showed the congregation a video of a Toronto Blessing
service, in which people fall to the floor, "slain in the spirit," as they
feel the Holy Spirit taking over them.
-
Kilpatrick had followers of evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne
attend a Brownsville service, where they functioned as an example of highly
expressive worship. Howard-Browne, a dramatically energetic evangelist
who calls himself the "Holy Ghost bartender," is known for promoting the
"holy laughter" phenomenon in which people succumb to hysterical convulsions.
His followers did that at Brownsville.
-
Kilpatrick invited Hill, an "on fire" evangelist whom Kilpatrick
knew to be in search of a place to conduct a long-running, big revival
to give the sermon on Father's Day 1995.
The video shows what happened after Kilpatrick turned the
stage over to Hill.
Hill says: "Everyone who would like a refreshing from
the Lord you'd like God to touch your life I want you to come forward,
just stand right in here."
Hundreds move into the area in front of the stage.
Hill: "Now if someone falls next to you, work with me,
OK? Just work with me. If someone falls right in front of you, help them
down to the ground."
Hill goes into the audience, touches people on the forehead
with one or two fingers. In some cases, he uses his whole hand or puts
his hands along side of people's heads as he shouts: "Now Lord! More! More!
More! Jesus! Now Lord! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Now! Now Jesus! Fire! Now!
Now!"
Hill continues this for several minutes. He touches dozens
of people. Most stand still. Nine fall down.
Just a trickle
Hill gets back on stage, gestures to the choir to stop
singing and says:
"Listen, this is happening exactly like every one of our
services. What is happening? It's just a trickling going on. It's almost
like there's a river going by and some of us are doing this (he demonstrates
treading water).
"Stay with what the Lord is doing. We've had the Lord
move like this gently, and then the power of God hits, friends, and I want
to tell you, it is the most spectacular presence of the Lord!
"How many of you believe in the power of God? There's
people already down here, receiving from the Lord! Wait on the Lord right
now! Go after the Lord!"
Hill goes back in the audience and repeats his anointings
and chants for several more minutes. No one moves or falls down.
He gets back on stage.
Hill: "The Lord just spoke to me right here in this section.
I want everyone right here to go after the Lord right now. Go after the
Lord."
Hill again goes back down into the audience and rapidly
moves around, touching dozens of people on the head. Six fall down. Most
watch curiously or continue praying.
Confusion reigns
Kilpatrick takes the microphone from the pulpit and announces
he is seeing something wonderful occur. "I've never experienced anything
like it!"
Many in the audience look confused.
Hill hurries back on stage and says:
"Pastor! Some of you, if you had any idea what the Lord
is about to do for you! Just get back! I've had God hit people already
in this place thrown them to the ground! They're in heaven right now! They're
not in Pensacola they're in heaven right now! Just stay open to the Lord!"
A number of people start to leave the church.
Hill shouts: "Don't leave! Don't leave!"
He hurries into the audience and again begins laying on
hands. Four people fall down.
He gets on stage again and says: "Hey! It's getting deeper,
friends! It's getting deeper! Getting deeper! Don't leave! We've had the
Lord pour out His Holy Spirit en masse! He just came down in the meeting!
Don't leave! Sweet Jesus! Sweet Jesus!"
Hill goes back into the audience. Two men and one woman
fall after his touch. He takes hold of a man, puts one hand on his head,
the other on his shoulder, and shakes him.
Kilpatrick falls
It is at this point that Kilpatrick falls down. The videotape
shows that he trips as he steps backward up onto the stage. He puts out
a hand to break his fall, drops into a sitting position, pauses a moment,
then lies back. He does not get up until after the video ends.
Hill pays no heed. He goes up to a man who is shaking
and shouts into his face, "More, more!"
Hill leads the man up onto the stage and backs away from
him. He waves his hands at him, and yells: "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!
Jesus! Jesus! More! More! More! More! More! More! Fire! Fire! Fire!" for
several minutes.
The man does not fall down. Instead, with his head bowed
he walks past Hill toward the steps. Hill and another man grab him and
take him back to the pulpit.
Hill asks him: "What's happening?"
The man, eyes closed, speaks unintelligibly.
Hill walks away, and the man leaves the stage weeping.
Hill then says: "Friends, let me explain something. We
may pray with you, and you think, 'Well, nothing happened.'
"No, no, no, no, no, no! No, no, no, no, no, no! That's
not what God is into."
Hill talks some more, referring to some of his previous
services when people did not think anything was happening but "the voltage
of electricity was just flowing there."
"Some of you are thinking, 'The way this thing is going,
I'm never going to get prayed for.' Friends, let me tell you what I've
seen happen. As the people wait on the Lord as they wait on the Lord there
have been times when I have turned to a crowd, and literally just walked
through, and everyone was just hit everywhere by the power of God, 'cause
they waited on the Lord.
Hill talks some more, touches a child and she falls down.
He immediately lifts her back to her feet and says: "Did you lose all your
strength?" The girl nods. Hill gets back on stage and motions the singers
to stop.
Hill says: "I want all the children! Make room right here
for all the little kids.
"Now, kids. I want all you children to look at me. ...OK,
I'm going to be praying for you, OK? Some of you are going to be filled
with the Holy Spirit!
"One little girl who was 8 years old her parents brought
her to me I touched her, she went to the ground, her hands went up, she
began speaking in tongues, and her mom and dad went bananas! I mean they
just they were sitting there watching her, filled with the Holy Ghost instantly!
"I'm going to pray for you, you're going to fall to the
ground. Don't worry about it. You're going to love it. The Lord is touching
your life.
Hill begins touching the heads of the children, occasionally
touching some adults. After several minutes, five adults and one little
girl fall down.
Hill leaves the children and goes back to the adults.
This time, more people begin to fall.
The crowd has thinned. Many have left the building or
returned to their pews.
Hill suddenly falls down with a loud cry. He moans and
cries out, then quickly gets up. After some more anointings he goes back
to the platform.
He says: "I like it when the crowd starts thinning out.
Then the Lord starts coming down.
Praying for the people
Pointing to his left, Hill says: "God has just moved over
here! Lord, have mercy! I want to pray with every single person now! How
many of you kids have been prayed for? Did God touch your life?"
Nobody responds.
Hill points to someone out of view and says: "Reconstructed
his life!"
Again, he goes back into the audience.
Since Hill began, two hours have passed.
Most of the congregation has left.
The tape fades to black.
Kilpatrick and Hill's ecstatic reports about the wonders
of that day have gained nationwide attention and since that time have brought
hundreds of thousands of people to the revival.
Kilpatrick says: "When I fell on the floor, it was the
most life-changing experience. Steve was beside himself because he was
under a powerful anointing.
"It may look foolish when watching the video, but a nation
will not come to a place if the Lord is really not there.
"Every night we walk into that church we say: 'Lord. Will
you do it one more time?' If we could manufacture that, we would be really
hot items."
Albert James Dager, who writes Media Spotlight, a Christian
watchdog newsletter, based in Redmond, Wash., said he closely viewed the
video of the Father's Day service and observed that "nothing really extraordinary
happened."
Media Spotlight is nondenominational, nonprofit and independent.
For 20 years it has been providing a Biblical analysis of Christian messages
appearing in the media. University religion departments, Bible scholars,
theologians and some 5,000 pastors of many denominations subscribe.
Dager said that viewing the tape, "I felt sorry for Steve
Hill. He was working so hard to get something to happen, prompting the
people, telling them what great things they were going to witness and experience.
"Any objective person would have been embarrassed for
him."