The announcements have a dreary familiarity to them.
The name of a major Christian leader is blasted in the headline. In the text below are phrases like “sexual abuse;” “investigation,” “scandal,” “unwanted touching,” “sexual misconduct” and “disgraced megachurch pastor.” (For instance, type in the words “Australian church” into Google and the word “scandal” automatically pops up (no doubt due to the many searches involving the Sydney-based Hillsong Church).
Which is why the recent news about Mike Bickle, the founder of the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City, received next to no attention outside of Christian circles. Which is a shame; Mike Bickle is a major figure in the Pentecostal/charismatic movement and the fact that his church’s 24-hour prayer rooms have lasted nearly 25 years is a major feat.
Bickle is also known as a major teacher in the movement on the end times (aka eschatology), intimacy with God, worship, prayer, prophecy and more. He’s a man who claims encounters with the Archangel Michael and insight as to how the world will end.
I first heard him at a 1990 charismatic conference in Indianapolis and was impressed. When other speakers were exceeding their time limits and boring the wits out of everyone, Bickle stuck to his and enthralled everyone with his clear, concise delivery. Agree with him or not, you didn’t fall asleep listening to him.
I next saw Bickle in 2001, when I visited Kansas City as part of a series I was working on for the Washington Times. Whereas the charismatic renewal was on life support elsewhere in the country, it was fresh and vibrant at IHOP. Bickel told me they were “an oasis in the desert” in terms of the use of the prophetic “gifts” of the Holy Spirit.
And in 2013, while living in Tennessee, I drove to a conference at IHOP, which had grown tremendously over the intervening 12 years. The 24-hour prayer room was a much more sophisticated set-up in a separate building; as for Bickle, I only saw him from a distance.
There’s been little-to-no secular media coverage about this scandal (I’ll get to Kansas City media in a minute), so I’ll start with what Christianity Today published:
Mike Bickle, the founder of the International House of Prayer of Kansas City (IHOPKC), is facing allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse spanning decades and involving multiple women.
Bickle, 68, has been accused of sexual misconduct “where the marriage covenant was not honored,” according to a statement released Saturday from a group of former IHOPKC leaders who investigated the claims.
They said, though they were initially shocked, they found the allegations credible based on the “collective and corroborating testimony” of “several victims.”
The numbers of accusations seem to change by the day, it seems.
Bickle’s charismatic megachurch—which has offered round-the-clock prayer and worship since its founding in 1999—was informed of the allegations on Friday, according to The Kansas City Star, which obtained a recording of the announcement.
Stuart Greaves, executive director at IHOPKC, told staff that the leadership team is “taking the situation very seriously.”
The leaders who released the statement—former executive leadership team and board members Dwane Roberts and Brian Kim, along with former Forerunner Christian Fellowship pastor Wes Martin—said they first attempted to bring the allegations directly to Bickle, as the Bible instructs in Matthew 18. They said Bickle refused to meet with them and then tried to intimidate and discredit the victims.
The Kansas City Star piece, which did lead with text from the leaked video, included more statements from the leaders who admitted the allegations “seemed out of character to the man we thought we knew” but were too serious to ignore.
Although the staff writer who did the piece has been with the paper for longer than the church has existed, there was little sense in the article of what the place is like. I expected a lot more quotes from sources, more background about the church itself and the numerous ministries it operates.
Instead, I’ve seen more colorful and detailed coverage from national publications that have dropped by to do hit pieces on the place when people connected with IHOP have gone rogue or when a cultic group showed up at IHOP in 2012, making headlines when one of its members died in the vicinity. But very few have understood the place, including the New York Times, which totally misnamed the place as a “Missouri sect.”
Anyway, the first Star piece was colorless and dry. Its most recent piece was better, if only to show what a confusing mess the whole case has degenerated into.
The local ABC affiliate, KMBC-TV, has been following the story, but with most of the details and names left out, the coverage comes across as vague. When stories like this come out, people have the right to know exactly what is being discussed here. Is this one incident? Many? What are we talking about?
Which is why we go to The Roys Report at JulieRoys.com for the most complete story we’re going to get at this point. The lengthy article by Rebecca Hopkins obviously took a truckload of time to put together. It begins with a 19-year-old “Jane Doe” who Bickel was clearly grooming, by saying he had a prophetic dream about her. Then he called her from overseas.
“He begins to tell me that the Lord has spoken to him and that Diane is going to die and that we’re going to get married,” she said. “As he’s talking to me, I’m thinking, ‘Is he drunk?’ And he did start talking about the alcohol that was in the fridge that he had been drinking.”
From 1996 to 1999, Doe said Bickle put her up in an apartment by herself, gave her a key to his office, engaged in sexual interactions with her, and told her about the dream, again and again. He also began establishing the International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC).
“That line that Diane, his wife, is going to die and that we’re going to get married—he at least said that to me 100 times,” Doe said. …
Diane’s supposed impending death is mentioned more than once in this story. What must this poor (apparently) cuckolded woman be thinking? Talk about public humiliation.
Until this year, Doe hasn’t spoken publicly about what happened with Bickle, heeding his alleged warnings to her that if she did, no one would believe her. But beginning in March, she said she realized the gravity of her situation and began talking—first to family, and then, through the 50-page report, to a watching world.
All this happened in the 1990s and she waits until now?
What really happened in March to galvanize “Doe?” Further down, we read:
In March 2023, Doe said she listened to a podcast about Bill Cosby’s alleged abuse and saw herself in that situation.
“I fell to my floor and began to wail,” she said. “That was a moment of trauma unearthed.”
“Doe” began telling her story to more people, then — as the months progressed — to former IHOP leaders.
On the day this was published, Julie Roys came out with an update on l’affaire Bickle where he’s now saying “bad judgments and bad mistakes” were made. Surveying the whole tawdry spectacle of male Christian pastors gone bad, one wonders: Why can’t these guys keep their pants on?
All sorts of leaders in the movement have been commenting on this emerging scandal. As Stephen Strang of Charisma News (a Baby Boomer who supports Bickle) notes, some of the women first named as victims are now saying they definitely weren’t.
Jump down two generations to some millennials running a podcast called Wake Up and Win and they are a lot less embracing of Bickle and much more concerned about NDAs and #MeToo. Their take on what’s happening at IHOP surely reflects what everyone at the church under 40 must be thinking. It’s worth a listen.
(My prediction: Bickle is past retirement age. He will be eased out the door as soon as the leaders can graciously make it happen, and a search for a new pastor will begin at lightning speed. If the elders there are smart, they’ll rope in as much new blood as possible and push the re-set button. The place was filled with a ton of creatives when I visited 24 years ago; it’s possible to lure them back.)
Meanwhile, I’m curious if any news media beyond the Kansas and Missouri state lines are willing to dig into Bickle’s pre-IHOP past (which is also very colorful; look up itinerant prophetic ministers Bob Jones and Paul Cain or the Kansas City Prophets, for starters) as part of a longer story. Getting to the truth is going to be tough at this point, with a zillion social media posts out there, so I’d start with the Roys Report story.
Be sure to read the link to Bickle’s six-page email that characterizes the accusations against him as part of a satanic “black horse” foretold in the Book of Revelation and his belief that his current problems are a spiritual attack resulting from a prayer campaign he led on behalf of Israel this past May.
FIRST IMAGE: Uncredited photo of Mike Bickle with news report at the Ministry Watch website.