Over 70,000 people gather annually in the Nevada desert for a festival known as Burning Man. These attendees, known as “Burners,” seek spiritual connection and a sense of community. Yet, it’s God’s love that meets them there.
Revivalist Philip Renner and his team of evangelists have attended in recent years with one goal: to shine light in the darkness as they’re moved by the compassion of Jesus.
“Compassion is the key to miracles,” Renner said.
In 2025, his team has seen so far 22 salvations, 11 healings and 17 baptisms. All this among a barren desert of self-indulgence and satanic rituals.
Burning Man is a week-long celebration where the “Burners” gather for a festival of art, self-reliance and self-expression, devoid of God’s love. The culmination is a ceremony in which a towering wooden structure, known as Burning Man, is set ablaze. Burners throw their pain, disease and trauma from the past onto Burning Man.
According to Renner, the Burning Man statue is to the Burners what the cross is to Christians. The community is a pagan one in the middle of the desert that makes altars to different religions. The festival has become one big sacrifice to the devil.
Despite the satanic rituals and spiritual darkness that you can tangibly feel, Renner said that the people his team have encountered are some of the nicest and most welcoming people. It’s this openness that enables his team to share the gospel in a language the Burners understand—gift-giving.
Burning Man is a culture focused on acts of gift-giving. “Oftentimes, those gifts are sexual exchanges,” Renner stated. “We bring a different kind of gift: God’s love.”
Words of knowledge flow as Renner’s team ministers to the people, and many Burners are set free from years of trauma and bondage. The transformation is visible, with some choosing to be baptized, even as satanic rituals are happening around them.
It’s an encounter with God’s love which cannot be denied.
Strong Team, Large Impact
A week of ministry like this is not an inexpensive endeavor. At Burning Man, there is no electricity nor running water, and attendees must camp in tents or RVs.
For his team of 11, this means having two RVs, a 24-foot trailer to carry supplies, 125 gallons of drinking water, 360 frozen meals, a deep freezer to store the food, generators to provide their own electricity, and well-built bicycles to navigate the large festival in the desert sand.
This happens, thanks to the support of KCM ministry Partners. “You’re only as strong as your team,” shared Renner.
Because of a strong team of Partners, they are enabled to have a large impact by sharing God’s love at a festival devoted to darkness.
Burners go to Burning Man for the spiritual connection and community. Because of what Renner and his team can do, they find something so much better: God’s love and an invitation to receive the light that brings them out of darkness.
© 1997 – 2025 Eagle Mountain International Church Inc., DBA Kenneth Copeland Ministries. All Rights Reserved.
