Bethel Church (Redding, California)
Bethel Church is an American, non-denominational charismatic megachurch that was established in 1954 in Redding, California. The church, which is currently being led by Bill Johnson, is notable for their music label Bethel Music, and the ministry and music label Jesus Culture, which have gained large popularity within contemporary worship music. Bethel is also known for their teachings on miracles and the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry with over 2,000 students annually, and has been criticized for some practices.
Senior leaders
- Bill and Beni Johnson – senior leaders
- Kris and Kathy Vallotton – senior associate leaders
- Eric and Candace Johnson – senior pastors of Bethel Redding
Beliefs and practices
One of the most well-known phenomena is a cloud of what is claimed to be gold dust or gold glitter that has been seen falling from the roof of the auditorium. The church has uploaded videos of it to their YouTube channel and calls it a "glory cloud". Many have questioned the authenticity of these occurrences suggesting that glitter in the ventilation system may have played a part.
Many, like Gary Hal Graff feel that Bethel-produced book, The Physics of Heaven, is out of line with the teachings of scripture. One Bethel leader says it is "a foretaste of things to come". The book also states, "It wasn't that I wanted to become a New Ager. I just wanted to find out if maybe they had discovered some truths the churches hadn't."
Senior pastor Bill Johnson is referred to as an apostle by his followers. Some, including sociology professor Brad Christerson at Biola University and Richard Flory, a sociologist at the University of Southern California, have identified the church and Johnson as part of the New Apostolic Reformation, or Independent Network Charismatic Christianity, as they have called it in their research. The NAR is an evangelical movement that seeks to take over "seven mountains of culture", including business, government, and media, to prompt the return of Jesus. Bill Johnson himself however, has stated in an interview with Christianity Today that the church has no official ties with the movement, and that he is "not completely clear on what it is."
History
Robert Doherty began the church in 1952 and the congregation was an affiliate of the Assemblies of God beginning in 1954. In February 1996, the congregation invited Bill Johnson from Weaverville, California, to lead the church. Johnson, the son of former pastor Earl Johnson, only had one stipulation before he was voted in: that the message would always be about revival and that the subject of revival would never change. The church lost 1,000 members over Johnson's vision after he joined, but has since seen considerable growth. Bethel had nearly 9,000 attendees a week as of 2016, and 11,233 people who "call Bethel Redding home" as of their annual report in 2018.In November 2005, the membership of Bethel Church voted unanimously to withdraw the church's affiliation with the Assemblies of God and become a non-denominational church. However, the Assemblies of God's bylaws required Bethel to invite the leadership of the Northern California-Nevada District to speak to the congregation. On January 15, 2006, Bethel's membership voted to rescind the withdrawal and invited the district leadership to Redding. The district leadership met with the congregation on January 17, but the result was a near-unanimous vote to withdraw. In a letter, Johnson points out that this action was "...not a reaction to conflict but a response to a call... we feel called to create a network that helps other networks thrive – to be one of many ongoing catalysts in this continuing revival. Our call feels unique enough theologically and practically from the call on the Assemblies of God that this change is appropriate."
In December 2019, the 2-year-old daughter of a Bethel Music recording artist and worship leader in the church died. As a response to this, the church publicly called for congregants and global followers to pray for the girl to be resurrected. They hosted a prayer service and spread social media hashtags for this purpose, which aroused controversy and criticism. These efforts concluded six days after the passing, when the church put out a press release that the family would transition towards a memorial service. During the prayer efforts, a GoFundMe page was set up that raised over $74,500 as of January 2020.
In 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, Bethel Church closed their healing rooms and moved their healing operations of 700 people online. The church also suspended faith healings at hospitals. The church's official position was to follow the recommendations of health officials, and that "wisdom, modern medicine, and faith are meant to work together", but the church simultaneously upheld their belief in God's ability to heal supernaturally. Some in the church community held differing views. One longtime teacher of the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry stated that "there is no way this thing can live in the presence of God", and "we declare no fear and we declare healing in Jesus' name."
Church ministries
Bethel Church has set up ministries in conjunction to the needs of its growing congregation within Redding, California. These ministries span a range of different sections for public service, internal structure, and even products and brands. One of the more well known of these ministries is Bethel Music due to their popular music domestically and worldwide.Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry
In the fall of 1998, Bethel Church began Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, under the direction of Kris Vallotton, Bethel's senior associate pastor. The school trains its students in the supernatural and miracles, such as faith healing, in order that they may become revivalists. The normal program is one academic year and students have the opportunity to return for a second and third year. Approximately 15% of the students stay for the full three years. The school was founded with 36 students, and in 2010 and 2016 the school enrollment numbered over 1,200 and 2,000 students from 57 countries, respectively. They are an unaccredited program and do not offer a degree or credits but a certificate. The school has gotten the nickname "Christian Hogwarts" among students because of its focus on the supernatural.BSSM now has more than 10,000 alumni. In 2016–17, an extensive survey on alumni was carried out by Eido Research by alumni of the program. From a representative sample from all years of graduation since 1999, the survey found that 97% of graduates are still "confident in their faith", and that 90% attend a church service at least monthly. Likewise, graduates reported seeing at least 35,000 salvations since 1999, and 50,000 physical healings over the previous year. The report also showed that BSSM graduates have a divorce rate that is four times lower than the American Christian average.
Student activities in Redding
As a part of the student's education, they get assignments, such as to find strangers in Redding to heal. News articles report that students seek out people in wheelchairs and crutches to pray for in grocery stores and parking lots. Reportedly, the students are banned from prophesying to tourists around the Sundial Bridge after incidents and they have similarly been kicked out of local stores. Another regular practice is "treasure hunts", where they believe God gives them clues that match people they are to find and attempt to heal or prophecy to.2008 lawsuit over attempted faith healing
In 2008 a man fell down a 200-foot cliff in Redding after drinking with a group at the top. The two others that were with him, including one student at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, believed he was dead and tried to find him for six hours in order to raise him back to life, rather than calling the police. The man survived, but was paralyzed from the fall, and later unsuccessfully sued the student in the group. The incident is often brought up as a criticism of the church's teachings, which includes that believers may raise people from the dead with prayer.Grave soaking
The school garnered criticism for a practice among some students termed "grave soaking", where they would lay on the graves of deceased revivalists in the belief that they would absorb the deceased's anointing from God. The school would visit such graves for inspiration and prayer, and there the practice developed among students from an interpretation of the Biblical story of the prophet Elisha. In the Bible, a dead man was put in the grave of Elisha, and when the man's corpse touched the dead bones of Elisha, he was revived. This was interpreted to mean that the same power, or anointing, laid in the graves of later revivalists, and thus the students sought it by laying on their graves. The leadership of the church never endorsed the practice, but did not immediately shut it down. In an interview, one of their leaders, Banning Liebscher, stated that Bill Johnson and the rest of the leadership responded in this way because Johnson "doesn't want to shut down those that are really seeking and those that are really trying to press in for more of God". At the same time, Liebscher said it was possible that revivalist's graves had the same anointing, but called the practice "weird". He further stated that he believed the criticism the church got over this, and other practices such as students attempting to walk through walls, actually stemmed from disagreements on charismatic theology.Some critics allege that Bethel leaders, including senior pastor Beni Johnson, have in fact practiced and promoted grave soaking. Allegedly, Beni Johnson posted photos to Twitter and Instagram of herself laying atop of or hugging the graves of Christians such as C.S. Lewis. The posts appear to later have been removed, and the critics provide screenshots of them. Among these critics are The Gospel Coalition and Baptist apologetics blog Pulpit & Pen.
Bethel Music
is an American record label and publishing company associated with Bethel Church, led by Bill Johnson's son Brian Johnson. Their music was among the most played contemporary worship music in American churches in 2019 and their albums have reached the Billboard 200 multiple times. Bethel Music have many songs with tens of millions of views on YouTube, and two with over 100 million views as 2019. The live performances of their songs are characterized by their extended duration with lots of repetition and emotion.Jesus Culture
Bethel Church is responsible for the formation of the Jesus Culture youth outreach ministry. Jesus Culture Ministry hosts conferences and operates a record label, Jesus Culture Music, to share its message and spread worship. They remain committed to Bethel Church, but were sent out by Bethel in 2012 to plant a church in Sacramento, California.CHANGED Movement
The CHANGED Movement is an organization started by Bethel pastors Elizabeth Woning and Ken Williams in 2019 for people who "once identified as LGBTQ+ and through encounters with the love of Jesus, have experienced His freedom in their lives". Bethel does not financially support the organization but does pay the salaries of the pastors, promote it, and house the organization in the offices of another one of Bethel's ministries. In August 2019, the organization got attention when Bethel promoted CHANGED through a series of Instagram posts, which was criticized by The Trevor Project and Q Christian Fellowship, among others. As a response to this criticism, Bethel Church said that "The message of CHANGED has never been ‘All Must Change’" and "For those of you who feel fulfilled and happy as you are, we love you!".CHANGED uses the term "once gay", and some have noted similarities with the ex-gay movement. CHANGED's slogan is "Changed Is Possible", whereas the now-defunct Exodus International had the slogan "Change is possible". The Bethel pastors behind CHANGED do not use the term "conversion therapy".
Influence on Redding
Redding is a small city in California with 90,000 residents, and is among the state's poorest with a high unemployment rate and high crime rate. Bethel has grown to have over 10% of the population as members, including the mayor, who serves on the Board of Elders, and with this growth, the church's influence in the city has increased, with a mixed reception, which a number of news articles have reported on. The church has brought in many young people for the school that clean the streets and do pro bono work. Many of the students have stayed afterwards and some have started businesses. When the civic auditorium was about to close for financial reasons in 2011, the church started leasing it and put in $1 million for repairs, and now use it for their Supernatural school on weekdays, while still letting it host the usual events on weekends. Bethel donated $500,000 to the city of Redding's police in April 2017, and later lead a campaign to raise $740,000 to fund the salary of four police officers. In 2018, a direct flight from Redding to Los Angeles was opened, and Bethel Church used their business relationship with the airline as leverage and committed $450,000 to a revenue guarantee fund needed to operate the line.However, some Redding residents are worried by the influence Bethel church has on the city. One of their main worries is the belief held by Bethel, the Seven Mountains Mandate, that Christians must influence seven "mountains", including government, media, business and education, in order for Jesus to return to earth. One such alleged instance of influence was the donation to the police force. The offer to donate caused controversy as some in the community thought the church was trying to pay off the city for future building permits, an assertion Pastor Kris Vallotton refuted at a city council meeting. The city ultimately voted to receive the donation. Seven months after receiving the donation, Redding City Council unanimously approved a $96 million new Bethel campus, despite dozens of formally submitted citizen concerns. The city councilperson who is a member of Bethel recused herself from voting. Another instance was when they advertised a seminar for public and private school teachers that mentioned "God wants to come to your school with His presence, His peace and His strategies". A group connected to the church later opened a public charter school, which, according to a teacher job ad, has a "Kingdom culture and all Bethel-connected Board of Directors and principal".
Politics
The presidency of Donald Trump
In 2016, senior pastor Bill Johnson outlined why he voted for Donald Trump in a Facebook post, where he criticized abortion, open borders, the welfare system, same-sex marriage, socialism, political correctness and globalization, all as contrary to God's will. His wife and senior pastor, Beni Johnson, has also supported Donald Trump.The church has continued to be supportive of Trump during his presidency. Bethel Music leaders Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson, and Sean Feucht were among the worship leaders who visited Donald Trump in the Oval Office, where they prayed for him and sang worship music.
During the impeachment process of president Trump, senior associate leader Kris Vallotton prophesied during a sermon, ten days before the impeachment started, that God would end the process, stating "the Lord is gonna step into the impeachment process. I mean I know it’s gonna happen". He went on to say that he believed God would give Trump another term. But according to Vallotton, this was "not about politics", rather it was a prophetic word. He claimed to have prophesied that Obama would win and that he on a biblical basis loved and prayed for Obama as he said Christians are called to do for their leaders.
Bethel leaders Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson and Kris Vallotton were among the signers of the letter from evangelical leaders critical of Christianity Today's editorial that called for Trump to be removed from office.