Pioneer Ministry's Revival Night

Mark Honeychurch - 21 July 2025

On Friday evening Bronwyn and I, rather than running our usual Skeptics in Cyberspace meeting, visited the Johnsonville Community Centre to experience the signs and wonders of a Christian Revival event, where we were promised healing, hope and miracles.

The evening started off with a short introduction into Pioneer Ministry and the work they do overseas. The group had just been to both Japan and Indonesia, and we heard many fantastical stories of the wonders that happened. We were told that Japanese people have never heard of Jesus, and so the visiting healers had been introducing them to this new idea. We were told that there was a suicidal woman in Japan who they had bumped into, shared the Word of God with, and through doing so had saved her life. We heard of a large Hindu family in Indonesia who were all Saved and brought to Jesus over the course of a single dinner.

Then we had some music, to get us in the mood. All the songs had fairly simple lyrics and, as is often the case for these kinds of evangelical services, they were chosen to build up people’s emotional state, with the keyboard player front and centre controlling the flow. To be fair, he could play well, and he could also sing really well - it’s just a pity his talents are being used to emotionally manipulate people in this way. As the music became more and more upbeat, several helpers around the room, including lead pastor Joseph Lee, quietly walked through the audience and ushered people to move into the aisles and down to the front of the room to dance.

The singing and dancing went on for quite a while, and eventually Lesley Lee, the wife of lead pastor Joseph, took over the singing. It seemed that she was playing it by ear rather than singing a pre-determined song, and she kept switching between singing in tongues and riffing on the idea of Jesus as a lion, eventually settling on the single line “bringing back the roar of the lion”, which she sang dozens and dozens of times.

After this last song, and about an hour into the sermon, the healing started. I was surprised to see that it was Lesley, and not her husband, who started the healings, transitioning seamlessly from singing to preaching. I really want to talk about how this is a win for equality, but given that the idea of faith healing is unproven nonsense it’s hard to get excited about a church allowing a woman to take part in something that’s so obviously detrimental to the crowd that were there.

In contrast to other faith healers I’ve seen, who usually ask people to decide for themselves if they want to come forward to be healed, Lesley’s modus operandi was much more direct. She would pick people out of the audience (of maybe 100 - 120 people) and tell them that God wanted them to come to the front. This made me pretty uncomfortable at first, as it’s hard enough just looking convincing in a worship situation - singing along to the songs, clapping away, and raising my hands to the Lord once in a while. On top of all this I really didn’t want to be called to the front and have to pretend that I was being healed - apart from anything else, I’d be worried that people might see what happens to me and think it’s real. But, after a while, I noticed that everyone Lesley was calling up was female, so I started to relax a little.

Personally I think it’s a little too pushy to force people to come to the front to be healed in this way, although I guess from the organisers’ perspective it ensures a steady supply of “miracles”. I can imagine many people in the audience were likely a little nervous at the prospect of being singled out, as not everyone looked like the eager, happy-clappy sort. Sneakily, Lesley told people that this nervousness, the “flutter in their heart” before she called them up, was God telling them that He was choosing them. Genius!

Once someone had been singled out and walked up to the front of the room for healing, Lesley would prophesise about their lives. Using simple Barnum statements (claims that feel profound, but are likely to resonate with most people), she made those being healed feel like they were being understood, like God was talking to them through the preacher. One woman was told that she had a guard dog protecting her heart, and that she would choose who to let in and who she kept at a distance. She was told that God could help her to open up her heart to everyone. Another person was told that she had been through hardship, but that God was going to bless her in the future.

During each of these healings, one or two of the helpers would position themselves behind the person being healed. And then, after the 5 minute prophecy - which felt a lot like a psychic reading - Lesley would step forward and place her hand on the person’s forehead and push. The reason for this, as I’m sure you’ve seen before, is to make the person fall over backwards. The claim within Christianity is that these people are not being pushed, they are instead being “slain in the holy spirit” - that God is possessing them and overwhelming them, causing them to fall over. After a healed person finds themselves on the floor, different manifestations of this Godly possession can occur - people might appear to be having a seizure, or laugh or cry, or maybe just lay there quietly. Of course, given that many of us non-Christians have seen these different behaviours in online videos or even in person, it’s pretty likely that most if not all of the crowds at these events have also seen the variety of acceptable responses available to them. On top of this there will doubtless be a psychological pressure to conform to these norms, and so it’s no surprise that many Christians will toe the line and behave as expected. For the few healings that we witnessed, we saw some crying, some laughing, and someone just lying there for a minute or two before getting up and going back to their seat.

After half a dozen or so of these healings, Bronwyn and I had both seen enough. We exited stage left and headed for the nearest pub for a debrief.

Checking out Pioneer Ministry’s website the day after the event, I was unsurprised to see that it’s filled with videos of these wonders - lots of people making claims about miracle events, but no actual hard evidence. The intro video to the church is a good example of selected footage suggesting that a healing miracle has happened, but without anything beyond people with crutches or a wheelchair being able to stand or walk for a short period without them. Sadly the church isn’t performing any long-term checks to ensure their healings aren’t just wishful thinking.

More worryingly, the website also makes some serious claims about being able to treat serious health conditions like HIV:

Everywhere Joseph and Lesley minister they see the hand of the Lord in demonstrations of power, with signs and wonders following. They have seen Witchdoctors saved, Cyclones rebuked, HIV healed and many more miracles. They minister as a family, with their 4 kids, Judah, Ocean, Olive and Lily-Joy by their side. One of the strong manifestations they see are children getting touched by the power of God in their meetings, often as young as 5 years-old, weeping, shaking and crying under the Presence of God. The children then pray for the sick and see many miracles happen. In 2020 they came back to New Zealand during Covid-19 lockdowns they travelled the nation doing over 30 revival meetings in 2 years.

In 2024, with confirmation from Prophet Lynley Allan, Pioneer Ministry began a new phase of their ministry, opening a Apostolic Revival Hub in Auckland city.

And also some less serious health conditions, like excessive burping:

On a personal level, I was sick. They said it was ulcer because I had the tendency to burp nonstop every now and then and it affected my breathing at times.

Following the crusade, I can state that I have been healed in the name of Jesus!

If you’re in Auckland and want to experience something similar to our evening, but potentially even more out-there, I’d recommend signing up for the church’s upcoming Demonology Seminar on the 2nd of August. If you visit, feel free to write an article for the newsletter about your experience!