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Rodney Browne
The ad in the New Man magazine reads be part of the largest soul winning crusade to hit New York since 1957, first time in 40 years. (How does he know this? Because he is a prophet?) Advertised as 6 straight weeks at Madison Square Garden the Evangelist who has the
anointing to make people laugh, be struck dumb and frozen has been directed by God to reap
in the harvest next year.
Well one always hopes for the best but even the best intentions can't bring results. Despite their own PR campaign it just didn't produce what his laughter did just a few years before. Good News America Is A Flop! No Signs or Wonders! The Tampa Tribune reported that South African Evangelist's Rodney Howard Browne New York Crusade is a flop. Rodney taught pastors that "sheep needed to be fleeced or they would have too much hair and could not see where they are going. It was the pastors job to fleece the sheep." NEW YORK - You know what they say about New York: If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. That said, Tampa evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne, in the final days of his multimillion-dollar, six week crusade in Madison Square Garden, is scaling down his plans for next summer. "We're going to Shreveport,'' he says. The mainly black and Hispanic crowds average about 3,000 a night in the famed 19,000 seat arena. Even though the free meetings include entertainment, Howard-Browne's "Good News New York'' campaign has failed to attract the size audience he wanted. They didn't even come for Carman, the popular Christian singer from neighboring New Jersey who drew more than 25,000 fans to a 1996 concert at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Only 5,600 showed up for his 40 minute music set Saturday. "New York's a hard place, even when you have support,'' says the Rev. David Epstein, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan. Howard-Browne's goal was to "shake the Big Apple to its core'' by sharing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But he's had many obstacles along the way: a blistering heat wave, New York's obsession with the sudden death of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Howard-Browne's association with the controversial "holy laughter'' movement. That movement is how Howard-Browne, known as the "Holy Ghost bartender,'' made his reputation. At services in the Tampa area and around the world, followers are overcome with the Holy Spirit and laugh uncontrollably. Howard-Browne stuck to his promise to keep the crusade strictly evangelical. However, that may have contributed to the low attendance. "Rodney Howard-Browne coming into the Garden without holy laughter is like David Copperfield putting on a show without magic tricks,'' said one New York writer. Browne said "We’re believing for 150,000 souls to come to Christ," (7/5/99 Sky Angle broadcast.) On the first Friday night of the crusade (which ran from Wednesday through Saturday for 6 consecutive weeks) around 2,000 people occupied the 20,000 seat arena. This proves Rodneys dream was just that only a dream. but what do you expect when he imagined Billy Graham speaking to him in it."It just dropped in my spirit and I knew it by the Holy Ghost" Was more like it just flat dropped. There was no biggest soul winning crusade since Graham's 1957. No 2,000,000 people came through the doors of Madison Sqaure Garden, and 55,000 people were saved. Not at all, it was barely 2,000. considering the fall away rate in these crusades he may have lost more than came through the doors! Looks like no one is laughing now, at least not with him. What can I say, N.Y. is a hard town to play for.
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