(CP) Eight distinguished Charismatic elders, including theologian and media personality Michael Brown, have declared embattled International House of Prayer Kansas City founder Mike Bickle “unfit” for ministry, warning that the 24/7 prayer ministry has some “dangerous cult-like tendencies” that should be addressed.
In a joint statement published Thursday on the web site of his syndicated “Line of Fire” radio programme, Brown, together with elders within the Charismatic movement — Jack Deere, Dan Juster, Patricia King, Joseph Mattera, Sam Storms, Michael Sullivant, and Terri Sullivant — declared Bickle “unfit” for public ministry.
They cited mounting evidence, including reports and public testimony of Bickle’s alleged clergy sexual abuse. Those testimonies include Tammy Woods, who alleged last month that Bickle groomed and sexually abused her within the Nineteen Eighties when she was just 14.
“First, we’re deeply grieved for individuals who have presented testimony that they were manipulated and sexually abused by Mike Bickle. We can consider few sins more damaging and destructive than that of manipulative, clergy sexual abuse, all of the more within the case of a minor,” the elders wrote.
“We are also deeply grieved for those whose personal faith has been shattered and whose worlds have been turned the wrong way up due to the alleged agonizing events. This is a spiritual tragedy of international proportions, affecting tens of millions of believers worldwide and bringing great dishonor to the name of Jesus in addition to disgrace to the fame of the Spirit,” they added.
“After considering the reports we’ve reviewed, we must state categorically that he’s, sadly, unfit to steer a ministry. Even with full repentance and private restoration within the Lord, he’s disqualified from public ministry. (Restoration to full fellowship is after all possible.) Mike himself, in his statement of December 12, 2023, acknowledged that his stepping down from ministry ‘could also be long and it might even be everlasting,’ and that was before essentially the most serious charges against him had even been raised.”
Mere hours before Tammy Woods alleged in an interview with The Kansas City Star that Bickle abused her within the Nineteen Eighties when she was just 14, her former pastor allegedly sought her advice amid mounting abuse allegations from multiple women.
In posts highlighted on each XÂ and Facebook, former IHOPKC staffer Ben Anderson shared a replica of a script Bickle was reportedly planning to make use of for himself and his wife, Diane, to create a video on Jan. 30.
The video would have responded to allegations that he, for instance, routinely told his alleged victims that his wife would die young, suggesting that he would give you the chance to have a future with them in some unspecified time in the future.
Using her maiden name, Woods told The Kansas City Star that Bickle abused her in St. Louis, where he pastored a church before moving to Kansas City and starting IHOPKC in 1999.
Woods said Bickle abused her in his automotive, at her home, within the church and his office. She said the abuse, which began when she began babysitting his two sons, involved sexual contact but not intercourse.
“He would kiss my neck, he would kiss my cheeks, he would kiss my brow,” Woods was quoted as saying, recalling the primary time Bickle kissed her romantically at her house when she was just 14. “The first, like, ‘kiss’ kiss was in my house. He form of pulled me into my bathroom. And he kissed me like a person kisses a lady.”
Woods’ story emerged after an independent report was released to the general public on Jan. 31 and ready by attorney Rosalee McNamara. In that report, Bickle confessed to engaging in “consensual sexual contact” with a lady connected to the 24/7 prayer ministry along with a previously confessed relationship with a primary Jane Doe, who alleged she was his kept woman for several years.
Another woman, identified as “TH,” told The Roys Report that Bickle began grooming and sexually abusing her when she was 15 and he was a 20-year-old church intern within the mid-Nineteen Seventies.Â
“We say this with agony of heart, as Mike has been an expensive friend to a few of us and a respected co-worker for years, and it is difficult to consider that the person we knew was able to leading such a double life,” Thursday’s statement from the Charismatic movement leaders stated. “Yet we cannot deny the evidence that spans many many years, and which continues to build up, a few of which has been confirmed and a few of which awaits a proper investigation and the adjudication of a panel of elders.”
The statement noted that while there are a lot of sincere supporters of IHOPKC, “we recognize that the evidence points to some dangerous cult-like tendencies that emerged through the years that should be addressed and adjusted.”
“There has also been a scarcity of a proper structure of accountability for those serving in various capacities at IHOPKC, overseen by local elders, leading to a failure to deal properly with serious sexual sins, and never just pertaining to Mike,” they said.
“We don’t deny that the broad outline of the IHOPKC history was credible, however it appears that, in some ways, it has crossed over into areas of spiritual elitism. IHOPKC has also admitted that its structure was woefully deficient in handling serious sin allegations and now professes to be changing its whole structure to deal with this.”
The leaders called for a more formal accountability structure within the larger independent Charismatic church world and hope to deal with it with a “united, biblically based, Spirit-led effort” over time.
“Having said this, we decry the exalting of individuals and personalities. There are not any superstars within the Body, only servants. And regardless of how much fame or public influence any of us could have, we’re all utter wretches outside of God’s transforming grace and there shouldn’t be a single thing we will do of everlasting value that has not been birthed and empowered by the Spirit. Apart from the Lord, we will do nothing, and we’re nothing (John 15:5;Â 1 Corinthians 3:5-9),” the Christian elders wrote.
“It is one thing to provide honor and respect to spiritual leaders who walk worthy of God’s high calling. It is one other thing to show servants into celebrities and to look to them as in the event that they were in a unique category from the remainder of the Body. This shouldn’t be only dangerous, however it is one other type of spiritual idolatry.”
Bickle has publicly admitted to past “moral failures” but denied committing sexual abuse or “the more intense sexual activities that some are suggesting”.
