ABOUT BETHEL CHURCH Bethel Church in Redding, California is a congregation rooted in the love of God and dedicated to worldwide transformation through revival. Our mission is revival – the personal, regional, and global expansion of God’s Kingdom through His manifest presence. It’s our goal for God’s love to be manifest in signs, wonders, and miracles. The atmosphere at Bethel is charged with faith and exuberant joy, which manifests in all we do. We believe we’re on the edge of the greatest revival of all time. It’s our vision to see history become His-story as the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our God. We welcome you to join us in this adventure!
but there are but there are people that
would teach on predestination different
than i would
some would exaggerate
another point but the point is i’m not
afraid of them speaking to our people
it’s important for us to have exposure
to the body of christ who completely
loves jesus
[Music]
so one of the things that was unusual
when i first started working for you was
your
you would let people teach on things
that we didn’t quite hold to
and
and i was raised in a tradition where
the pastor would kind of step up to the
stage sometimes or the next sunday would
kind of do a rebuttal or
a fix it you know we had a guy that said
um
what y2k was gonna totally up and end
everything we should put a tent city
down on our baseball field and so you
know we have all that and we’d already
had this prophetic word from chris it
was actually one of the first big
prophetic words chris gave that i’m like
dude that’s man you’re stepping out
there he’s like y2k’s going to come to
nothing i’m like really that is not what
most of the prophets are saying but we
had this guy give
talk on the stage and then when i was
there we had a guy i won’t mention his
name but he church was supposed to be
over at 12 15.
he preached an offering message until 12
15 and then kept us there until two and
i remember sitting across the aisle
looking like bill
go tell him to shut up i mean
go save us from this guy you know he he
keeps talking so
your
your capacity to like let people have
their ministry was uncomfortable for me
where does that start how do you how do
you think through that um you know even
sharing the stage with people or giving
people your stage you don’t agree with
everything and then how far do you let
that go maybe some of those things
there’s a great difference between being
in a disagreement with somebody
and them being in heresy and not
everything you disagree with is heresy
and so heresy free would be the major
the kind of the creeds of the church
yeah it’s opposed to the creed of
scripture you know uh the blood of jesus
is symbolic it’s you know that’s sort of
that’s that’s heresy no i i won’t i
won’t tolerate anything trying to say
that jesus didn’t really die before sins
exactly exactly if uh those who believed
that i wouldn’t i wouldn’t give them 10
seconds yeah i understand that but there
are but there are people that would
teach on predestination different than i
would
some would exaggerate
another point but the point is i’m not
afraid of them speaking to our people
it’s important for us to have exposure
to the body of christ who completely
loves jesus yeah and i learned that
value system from my dad
he would he would so celebrate anyone
who who loved the holy spirit
who was just this worshiper this lover
of god they were backed by integrity and
character their prayer lives were
powerful and he would bring these people
in to minister to us this is you know 40
some years ago and uh and they would
differ from week to week and the
illustration they used often use often
is uh one week he brought in a catholic
priest
to speak on a sunday morning and the
very next sunday a baptist evangelist so
you can’t get too
different than than those two
perspectives they were in heresy they’re
both jesus christ and him crucified
totally you know they’re both they’re
both love god with all of their hearts
and they’re they’re doing their best to
serve us as a group of people it doesn’t
mean i’m going to celebrate everything
they say
but i for me the priorities i get to
celebrate who they are
and then i get to decipher
through
my view of scripture what it is that i
need to learn from them so
aren’t you afraid though that sometimes
if we give somebody a podium that
they’ll go i get interested and then i
read their other book and it was like oh
we don’t we don’t like the other book or
something like that do
you get worried that that’ll happen
sometimes no
how come
anyone who’s really with us
is going to have a steady diet of what
god gives to us okay
and
they’re they’re not going to not going
to deviate i’ve had this happen for
years this i had this happen in
weaverville as well i’d bring somebody
and and i could tell they were touching
on something that that the church was
was
wondering you know yeah yeah what has
bill done and they’ll i could feel their
eyes will look at me
and if i’m if i’m sitting there in peace
they’re fine
they’re fine and so what i’m wanting is
i’m wanting people to learn
to live out of rest out of a place of
peace in the middle of disagreement
not because we think alike
but because we are we all embrace the
spirit of christ to love and to honor to
humble ourselves and to to celebrate to
celebrate god what god is doing
and uh so i i have been exposed through
the years to so many people that that i
disagreed with it was uncomfortable for
me too yeah it wasn’t but
but it’s not
it’s not
it’s not fatal
yeah it’s not final i
it’s it’s an education
it’s an opportunity to do
everybody says we’ve got to be united
well here’s your chance to display it
yeah
so and that for me yeah that’s the
higher lesson the higher lesson is
how are we going to respond to this
disagreement
are we going to respond with the
character of christ can we still love
and be devoted to a person i’m going to
take a love offering for him can he
still be generous because of who he is
or who she is instead of
you know what they don’t agree with with
us
and so that’s a huge part for me is is i
want
i want more than just our agreement with
a lesson i want our agreement with with
the fact that they’re devoted to jesus
and they deserve our honor yeah and you
early on we’re saying like you’re
you that the people of god are our sheep
that’s certainly a metaphor but that
also that you’re we’re trained for
battle as well so that yes the capacity
if we only have the sheep metaphor keep
me safe give me places you know good
clean food good clean water we’ve missed
the other metaphors of scripture whereas
actually we’re supposed to love god with
all our mind that we are in a spiritual
battle
that we are supposed to think we’re
supposed to be thinkers and i would say
the other deal is that when you if you
can’t get along with your brothers and
sisters in christ and then you try to go
out into the world and to work with a
muslim you know
or an atheist it’s you don’t have the
you don’t have the faculty for it if you
are just so freaked about who’s kind of
coming into your environment that’s true
that’s one of the ways is we’ve been
able to kind of
how i don’t raise the bar of maturity in
our environment it toughens us up it
does it’s confusing though too i mean
for people who want church never to be
confusing that that’s not us
no
sorry about that i know yeah we can
choose ourselves i’d be confused
sometimes so like it that is part of the
deal when you’re trying to think and
innovate and move ahead um and also be
faithful to scripture or you do get into
some interesting spots like yeah yeah
that’s true so
a little bit it sounds like we have kind
of the council culture now and we have
this political spirit i won’t share the
stage with you because that tacitly says
i agree with you and i’m canceling you
and and so this is a way that you work
against that yeah absolutely that
political spirit and that cancer that
cancel culture that we’re kind of seeing
but you’ve been doing it for a long time
it’s not new yeah
i actually learned it from my dad i
learned it back uh it’d be 47 48 49
years ago so
that’s that’s when i saw i saw him
illustrated
and i saw these people because these
speakers would come in because i was my
dad’s son who was the pastor i would go
out to dinner with them i would be in my
parents home when these people were
there and i could see the genuineness of
their love for god and their love for
people
and so it’s like what they said that i
didn’t quite understand or agree with
just dissolved
just it dissolved under the weightiness
of the character of christ
now
i think you know this about me but i
mean i’ve certainly had conversations
with people that have spoken in the
school that like you’re you’re more
gracious and maybe won’t address it but
i’ve had a couple times said hey that
thing you teach about hell
we’re not fans
i mean like if you could not like i love
what you’re bringing here
that’s not for us yeah um so i mean like
i’ve made those sorts of distinctions
with some people that have come
where we can kind of clearly say you are
you’re
in a doctrine like of that size not one
of the biggies that we’re in a different
so please don’t coach our folks up in
that yeah and i think good speakers will
come and say is there anything i should
stay away from and it’d be like yeah
yeah that thing you do here
uh that’s not great now i love what you
say because you’re like be cautious of
bringing somebody in to be themselves
and then controlling them when they come
in right so those are the two things i
try to hold in balance like giving a
clear message and not trying to control
the speaker but i i think it’s i think
that’s wisdom i don’t have a problem
i’ve i’ve had it done to me i’ve i went
to a church once in the uh on a sunday
morning the pastor said i didn’t know
what you what you did or i wouldn’t have
asked you to come
i’m there for like three for like three
years
no
he said i didn’t know what you did i
wouldn’t have had you come and i said i
said okay i said
tell me what it is you don’t want me to
do yeah or what you don’t want me to
speak on and i am happy and i told him i
said i’m here for you
i’m here for you
i’m not here for the people yeah i mean
obviously i’m going to serve yeah yeah
my primary role is for you so you tell
me what you don’t want me to do you tell
me what you don’t want me to speak on
and i will
honorably do whatever you say it’s
beautiful and he was just silent for c
mike forever but it’s probably only a
minute he finally just looked at me he
said
all right do whatever you want
but i i would have zero problem yeah
with uh with confining my message my
you know the ministry things whatever
that he would object to it’s no problem
there’s no problem there’s so much of
christ that you can do
you know absolutely yeah so it’s not a
problem and that’s something we tell
some of our younger ministers even a
beginning question like is there
anything that you would rather not
address with your congregation and so
it’s just a way of humbly kind of uh
yeah submitting to the leader because
like i said we’re there to serve that
leader
and uh to make that leader look like a
genius in front of the eyes of his
people like if we roll in and undermine
their leadership we’re not helping the
body of christ exactly no that’s right