Todd Bentley

Todd Bentley
Todd Bentley, in 2008
Born	(1976-01-10) January 10, 1976 (age 41) Gibsons, British Columbia, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Evangelist
Spouse(s)	Shonnah Bentley (May 22, 1995 – 2009), Jessa Bentley (2009 - Present)

Todd David Bentley is a Canadian Christian evangelist. He was a key figure of the Lakeland Revival and was in leadership of Fresh Fire Ministries Canada until stepping down in August 2008.The following year, as part of his "restoration process," he started a new ministry called Fresh Fire USA.

Todd Bentley was born on January 10, 1976 in Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada. He grew up in Gibsons, British Columbia, a small community on the western coast of Canada. As told in his autobiography, his parents divorced while he was a child, and he struggled with drug and alcohol addiction.

Bentley was convicted at age 15 of sexually assaulting a much younger boy two years earlier. Although the criminal records of juvenile offenders in Canada were normally protected from public disclosure under the Young Offenders Act, the nature of his conviction became public when Bentley thought he was speaking off the record to a reporter who later published his remarks in a March 2001 magazine article from “The Report”. Bentley publicly responded to this article in an interview that was published in Charisma (magazine). That article reported the following concerning a "revival meeting" Bentley had held in Kelowna, Canada, "The family of the assault victim had moved to Kewlona, and when they saw the posters with Bentley's name, they contacted local media. Bentley decided to address the local outcry by going on the 6 p.m. local TV-news broadcast. He admitted the crime on-air, asked for forgiveness, told viewers how ashamed he was, and how he was transformed five years after the incident by the gospel's power." Bentley later said the original article, which appeared in The Report Newsmagazine, was, in substance, true: "'They were sexual crimes,' Bentley admits. 'I was involved in a sexual assault ring. I turned around and did what happened to me. I was assaulted too.'" At 17, Bentley was hospitalized again after his fourth drug overdose. At 18, he changed his lifestyle completely, due to his conversion to Christianity. Soon after this, he began his Christian ministry.

In 1998, the Fresh Fire Ministry group asked Bentley to give his testimony at one of their weekly meetings. Soon after, on Mother's Day 1998 Bentley took over leadership of the group, and it became more of a revival movement. He traveled to India, Africa, South America, Mexico and Europe taking part in crusades and revivals. This became Fresh Fire Ministries Canada which was led by Bentley until the time of his resignation in August 2008 after his separation from his wife. That ministry changed its name to "Transform International" in 2009. That same year, Bentley, with the help of Rick Joyner, created a new ministry called Fresh Fire USA. Fresh Fire USA leases space adjacent to Joyner's Heritage International Ministries Conference Center where they have a "FreshFire Healing Center" and a "Secret Place Church."