By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission
An additional thought about that “revival” that seems to be brewing at the the Morningstar HQ in Fort Mill, South Carolina. Evangelist Todd Bentley is twittering that “Fod” er, “God” seems to be on the move and he has now started daily meetings from Tuesdays to Saturdays. Fellow evangelist Rick Joyner, who oversaw the Todd Bentley “restoration process” gave his apparent blessing to what is going on, appearing with Todd Bentley in a  promotional video for the meetings that was released yesterday  (January 7) at Bentley’s website. The services are being broadcast live over the Internet using Joyner’s ministry’s Internet TV service.
You’re probably all too familiar with Bentley’s dismaying 2008 Lakeland revival. During the tail end of the revival, a crew from the ABC TV news program Nightline visited the revival. I remember that their telling expose of Bentley–which started the process of the ignoble end to the “outpouring”–reported that there seemed to be little lasting effect in Lakeland, Florida as a result of the revival. Except for Lakeland’s local hotels and restaurants, which ABC reported were doing a booming business.
There has been talk of rumored layoffs at Morningstar.
While Fort Mill SC is near to Charlotte NC, it is far enough away that you might have to travel a little to get to it. (Interestingly, according to Google Maps, the distance between Fort Mill and Charlotte seems to be about half the distance between Lakeland, Florida and Tampa, the nearest big city there. Fort Mill is closer to its nearest big city, but perhaps not right next door.)
Remember Heritage USA, the huge hotel and resort complex that Jim Bakker opened? Rick Joyner and Morningstar Ministries owns it now.
So, if a new “revival” happens, just like at Lakeland people are going to prefer to stay nearby. And guess which ministry owns a fair-sized, handy hotel/resort facility which I bet  is right across the street from the meetings. Instead of Motel 6 or the Holiday Inn getting the money, Morningstar’s facility and Bentley’s nascent revival might work together.
How convenient, as Dana Carvey’s Church Lady character that used to be on Saturday Night Live would say…
UPDATE: Rick Joyner at 14:20 of his and Todd’s promo video for the “not-a-revival” revival: “There’s a hotel here where you can stay…”
No kiddin’!
Actually, Charlotte, NC is the big city near Ft. Mill, just a short bop up I-77. Fort Mill is just inside the SC border. It seems that Morningstar bought PTL’s old resort/conference center there. A look at the map has it almost as easy to get to the facility from Charlotte’s I-485 beltway.
However, if you’re right, it could be yet another tourist trap just inside the SC-NC border. Along I-95 is one of the classic tourist traps of all time, South of the Border, with billboards every mile or so 100 miles on either direction.
I have a feeling that this one won’t be nearly as big, numbering in the hundreds rather than thousands, but if the Holy Spirit Junkies do come in numbers, they’ll have the facility to handle them.
I”ll make the correction, thanks…
PS Don’t post at night when you are sleepy.
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After witnessing the ‘not so great revival last night’ I am in need of a ‘revival’
Does Morningstar actually “own” that complex or do they have a mortgage on the place?
Morningstar does own most of it, if not all. I think, if memory serves, that they got a bit of a deal on it…but I don’t know if it is still mortgaged.
If it is still mortgaged, maybe the “Great Fort Mill Revival” is planned to be the “mortgage lifter”?