Living Waters Publications

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Living Waters Publications is a Christian evangelism ministry headquartered in Bellflower, California. Its founder and head is evangelist Ray Comfort, formerly of New Zealand.

Their ministry's mission, according to their Web site, is

to educate God’s people in the principals of Biblical evangelism; to encourage the Body of Christ to faithfully fulfill the Great Commission; and to equip every individual believer with the necessary resources to practically proclaim the everlasting gospel. We do this through the teaching and preaching of God's Word and through the production and dissemination of various printed and audio/visual mediums."

Their online store contains approximately 75-80 gospel tracts, designed as varying forms of illusions or gags to draw attention, such as their "Million Dollar Bill," "Giant $100 Bill," and "Ten Commandments Coins." They encourage open-air preaching; until September 2005, when the Los Angeles County court system barred all public demonstration at their courthouses, staff members at their ministry went to the Bellflower courthouse most weekdays to open air preach to those waiting in line to go into the building. Comfort and others, including his son-in-law, go to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica Friday nights to street preach.

Comfort and the ministry teach that modern Christian evangelism has gone astray from the preaching of sin and God's law, the Ten Commandments, as done frequently in the Bible and by Christian preachers such as Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley, and George Whitefield up until the dawn of the 20th century.

In 2001, actor Kirk Cameron heard Comfort's message "Hell's Best Kept Secret," a teaching on this principle, and contacted their ministry. Eventually, Comfort and Cameron collaborated to create a new ministry program, The Way of the Master. Its materials includes a TV show (available on DVD), books, tracts, Web site and a radio show, which debuted on January 2, 2006. Other endeavors of their ministry include a "School of Biblical Evangelism".

In December 2005, following the discovery of many of their audios and other free materials being sold on eBay and similar sites (including by some non-Christian resellers), Living Waters established a copyright policy, something which previously had not been instituted since Comfort's first itinerant years in the 1970s and 1980s. The copyright policy reads in part,

"All Living Waters Publications and The Way of the Master resources are copyright protected. With the exception of the Hell’s Best Kept Secret and the True and False Conversion audio messages (along with any other resources that might appear in the 'Free Duplication' section of our website), duplication of any ministry resources, whether intended for sale or free distribution, is strictly prohibited. This includes books, tracts, study guides, videos (DVD and VHS), CDs, MP3s, etc. We thank you for your cooperation and understanding." [1]

They have established satellite offices in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Europe (specifically, the British Isles), and South Africa, to provide citizens in those regions with materials in local currency without the high shipping costs from the United States, as well as local training events.

[edit] Million Dollar Bill Seizure

On June 1, 2006, the United States Secret Service seized 8,300 copies of their "million-dollar bill" tract from the Great News Network headquarters in Denton, Texas, because, they claim, a woman in North Carolina attempted to deposit the tracts as legal tender. The Secret Service also stated that they would seize all copies in Living Waters' California headquarters. [2] Comfort has stated that he will refuse to turn over the tracts without a warrant, which was not given during the raid on GNN. [3] In a news interview, GNN founder and president Darrel Rundus stated that he will continue passing out the bills, stating that "until I hear different, I don't believe what the Secret Service did yesterday was lawful," and is expecting a "cease and desist" order from the USSS Monday, with possible legal action to follow. [4] In an official statement on the GNN website, he said that "the USSS was overzealous in their seizure of our property and they violated our constitutional rights by depriving us of property without due process. Without a court order, warrant or any legal precedent, they barged into our office, disrupted our daily activities and illegally seized our property." Rundus further suggested that the message on the "money" was the reason why they were seized. [5]

In anticipation of the "cease and desist" order, on June 5, 2006 the following statement was posted onto the million-dollar bill entry on LWP's online store:

The Secret Service is going to be very busy if they want to be consistent in their pursuit of justice. Typing "Million dollar bill" into Google gets 35,800,000 results--sites that say things like, "It looks real, feels real and even smells real." If we are issued with a "Cease and desist" order, we will immediately do so until this is sorted out. In the meantime, we have our printers ready to run off 100,000 million dollar bills that comply to their requirements (1 ½ times larger). So these will be bigger and better than the bills that were seized by the Secret Service, as we have since improved the artwork. We will keep you updated. Thank you for your prayers and encouraging emails. [6]

[edit] Proposed Move to Texas

On Friday, November 24, 2006 it was announced that Living Waters Publications intended to move out of California and base themselves in Denton, Texas. In a press release Comfort said,

"Up until about the year 2000, Living Waters Publications consisted of my wife, Sue, myself, Daniel and Jacob (our two sons) working out of our garage. About that time, we moved into a much-needed and larger building. We soon outgrew that, and last year we moved into another premises that was five times larger, with a workforce also fives times as large.

"The new building was perfect . . . for about a year. Then there was talk about having to make another move. That made me nervous. With our present growth rate, it was unrealistic to think of purchasing anything less than a building three times the size of what we have. In California, that would cost upward of ten million dollars, and because of California's Worker's Compensation laws (we pay $6,000 a month, just in case one of the computers attacks a worker) and other financial pressures, it was unthinkable."

The reasons given for the phenomenal growth are the success of their TV and radio shows. Comfort also said that being stationed in Dallas would save money in freight costs, and their staff will have more affordable housing compared to southern California. ^[1]

However, on December 14th, Comfort sent an email to those on the ministry's mailing list:

"In a recent news blast, we informed you all that our ministry would be relocating to Texas. Unfortunately, due to recent circumstances beyond our control, this is no longer going to happen. We are just as surprised as you are by this recent development, and we thank you in advance for your prayerful support." ^[2]

As of January 2007, Livingwaters and Way of the Master are no longer endorsing or partnering with the Great News Network, of Denton, Texas, an organization they previously developed and supported in order to organize evangelism "bootcamps". They have withdrawn their affiliation and are in no way connected to the Denton ministry.