Thousands attend Sean Feucht's ‘Riots to Revival’ event in Portland: ‘Church is rising up’
Thousands attended California evangelist Sean Feucht’s “Riot to Revival” worship concerts this weekend in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, two cities that have been gripped by riots and protests in recent weeks.
Feucht, the founder of the “Let Us Worship” movement who is known for his work with Bethel Music, held a “Riots to Revival” event at Portland’s Waterfront Park Saturday and another at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle, Washington’s Capitol Hill district on Sunday.
Feucht, who ran for Congress earlier this year but lost in the primary election, made headlines last month for organizing a “beach revival” attended by hundreds in Southern California in defiance of the state’s coronavirus orders. He has also argued that coronavirus restrictions that prohibit church services are a double standard.
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The church will not be intimidated. ??????????????????????#LetUsWorshippic.twitter.com/xbLPcfT2dZ
— Sean Feucht (@seanfeucht) August 10, 2020
Saturday’s events in Oregon began at 10 a.m. with “training for acts of love & compassion” across the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington, according to a tweet from Feucht.
After “joining city pastors and leaders for the MLK March” at 4 p.m., the revival concert began at 6 p.m.
“People gave their lives to Jesus,” Feucht proclaimed in an interview on Fox & Friends Sunday. “We baptized people in the river behind us … It was so much joy that took over the streets of that city last night.”
“We just believe that the church has the ability to change the narrative,” he added. “All of America has just seen these buildings burning and they’ve seen this destruction and the violence. And the news, the mainstream media seems to be infatuated with this. But, I’m telling you there is another story of what God is doing in these cities and the church is rising up.”
While Feucht was unsure exactly how many people attended the event in Portland, he estimated that there was a crowd of between 4,000 and 7,000.
As “Fox & Friends” co-host Pete Hegseth noted, the rally in Portland marked the “largest gathering yet” of all the events that Feucht has held this summer.
Hours after his appearance on “Fox & Friends," Feucht held the Sunday revival in Seattle. The event in Seattle took place in a part of the city that was once home to the “autonomous zone” known at different times as “CHOP” and “CHAZ.”
Along with Portland, Seattle has also faced violence and unrest in the weeks following the death of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on Memorial Day.
According to a local NBC affiliate, hundreds attended the rally in Seattle, most of which were not wearing face masks or practicing social distancing.
Feucht first founded the “Let Us Worship” movement to protest the restrictions on worship services implemented to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The movement calls on the Church to “rise up with one voice and tell our government leaders and the rulers of big tech that we refuse to be silenced!”
“States across America, including here in California have shut down church services and even outlawed singing in church,” Feucht explains on the “Let Us Worship” website. “Instagram and Twitter [are] censoring Christian voices every single day. And every hour that passes they grow bolder in their efforts to silence the faithful.”
In the interview with “Fox & Friends” last weekend, Feucht elaborated on his concerns about how restrictions have been placed on churches while protest gatherings drawing large crowds of people are permitted with no such restrictions.
“It is a double standard. And I would say at best, it’s hypocrisy. And at worst, it’s bigotry,” he said. “You know, there’s a target on churches.”
In a previous interview with The Christian Post, Feucht described his movement as a “return back to a gritty, raw Gospel, Jesus people movement foundation” spurred by the fact that “we can’t be in our churches.”
“I think what it’s doing is stripping off the sheen and the polished nature of what we’ve built in America and it’s allowing us to return to the simplicity, to the power of the raw Gospel,” Feucht said.
Feucht has many more outdoor worship events planned for the rest of the summer in cities all across the country. Those include Chicago, New York City, Milwaukee, Boston, Colorado Springs, Tampa and Orlando.
The pastor has extended an invitation to Gov. Gavin Newsom of California to join him on the steps of the California Capitol on Sept. 6 for a “Let Us Worship” event.
