I am a little confused about Bayless' ministry. I am not here to pass judgment on him or condemn his ministry at all, in any way. Here's where my confusion lies. I was raised Mormon and by the grace of God, I was born again nearly 3 years ago. The two people that I believe God used the most to lead me to a real relationship with Jesus Christ are 1) my lovely sister in law who has been very active at Cottonwood (w/ pastor Bayless), and 2) Hank Hanegraff who exposes Word of Faith teachers and other cultlike or heretical groups.

My sister in law has been deep into the Word of Faith movement (loves Joyce Meyers, Joel Olsteen, even Kenneth Copeland, etc), practices name it and claim it, prosperity teaching, health and wealth teaching, positive confession, etc. She really really believes this stuff and seems to also be open to the idea that Jesus partially atoned for our sins AFTER the cross, by suffering in hell.

That being said, she LOVES JESUS, is Christlike, does not fear, just trusts Jesus so much, knows her Bible, prays without ceasing, and is overall a very good Christian example for me. I don't, however, view faith as a force or believe in the unique WofF teachings. I've visited Cottonwood about 3 times, and noticed the bookstore stocked full of Word of Faith publications. On Cottonwood's site, their statement of faith does include the belief that through the atonement, we have the provision of physical health (I'm sure I'm wording that wrong, but its basically affirming that health and wealth prosperity false teaching, as far as I understand it). You know, how God wants all believers to be financially wealthy (I don't see this as Biblical).

However, I've not heard Bayless teach anything unBiblical, he seems to love Jesus and the Word, be a Spirit filled man of God, and for some reason, he seems to fly under the radar of the Evangelical ministries that expose cults and Word of Faith false teachers. He's included on sites like Oneplace.com, with all the orthodox teachers. Even though Hank prides himself on exposing these false Word of Faith teachers, Hank's ministry has ZERO online articles or information over the phone in their resource center, about Bayless' ministry.

This confuses me because Bayless is a very well known, internatally broadcasted televangelist. Sorry this is so long, but it really perplexes me. Should we consider Bayless' ministry to fall w/in the pale or orthodoxy or not??

-Roxanne