Looking Back @ the Toronto Blessing
With friends I met in 1996 Twenty-five years ago today, a supernatural move of God began at a church near the Toronto airport. When guest speaker Randy Clark prayed over congregation members that night, they started shaking, hollering, and doing other things religious folk would consider disruptive. However, there were changed lives as a result of what became known as “The Toronto Blessing” (or “The Father’s Blessing” as Pastor John Arnott prefers calling it). Soon people from all over the world flocked to Toronto Airport Vineyard to experience a fresh touch from God. By 1995, both pastors and lay people from my home church in Minnesota were making pilgrimages to Toronto. One woman who visited there invited a group of us to watch videos of services from Toronto Airport Vineyard. Initially, I wasn’t impressed because the preaching didn’t sound “charismatic” enough. The worship music gradually appealed to me because of its unique passionate sound not often heard in churches b...