The charismatic church is undergoing a long-overdue reckoning for several reasons because the misconduct of Shawn Bolz has come under heightened scrutiny, particularly in light of Mike Winger’s diligent YouTube exposés.
On Sunday, the senior leadership team at Bethel Church in Redding, Calif., including Dann Farrelly, Kris Vallotton, and Bill Johnson, admitted their multiple failures and repented publicly for specific actions and inactions regarding Bolz’s misconduct, specifically datamining social media for private information and presenting it as prophecy, and alleged workplace sexual harassment. This got here after many months of pressure from Bethel’s School of Ministry alumni and others all over the world who had been demanding greater accountability after various podcasters, especially Winger, began publishing videos documenting the deception and manipulation.
Also under scrutiny is how those leaders — who promoted and platformed Bolz for several years — presided over a culture of “unsanctified mercy” and lack of accountability, which effectively covered up Bolz’s egregious sins.
In the interest of full transparency, I’m an alumnus of Bethel’s ministry school, a fact I actually have not hidden and has been in my public byline biography for several years, and is noted elsewhere online. Despite some theological differences I actually have with them, particularly regarding ecclesiology and a couple of other issues, as I said in a recent interview with Wanda Alger, my time there was largely positive, and it helped equip me for my next season. But this essay just isn’t about those differences.
Now that my CP colleague, Leah Klett, has independently reported on the Bolz exposure on the news side, the time has come for me to offer perspective as an alum who works in media and, for reasons I’m about to explain, has been watching from afar, and in frustrated anguish, as this unfolded.
Since I’m employed by The Christian Post, because the story emerged, I’ve needed to exercise serious restraint on social media lest anyone interpret any comment I make as indicative of CP’s editorial posture. As an alumnus, because of journalistic ethics and conflict of interest considerations, my editors don’t allow those with personal affiliations and relationships inside ministries to analyze and report under the CP masthead when controversies and scandals of this kind erupt. I’m thus certain by certain rules that podcasters like Winger and JonMark Baker of the Minor Prophets, who’ve been exposing this (and for whom I’m most grateful), usually are not.
Among the various things documented in these podcasts are how, over the course of several years and in several settings, Bolz datamined social media to offer “words of information” as if the non-public details about those who he obtained online was supernaturally revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. There are many victims of this heinous spiritual abuse. Bolz can be alleged to have engaged in gross sexual impropriety that constitutes workplace harassment, of which there are reportedly several adult male victims, certainly one of whom I do know. I first began hearing chatter about this within the spring of 2022, in my final weeks of graduate school.
While I shouldn’t have the bandwidth to talk to each facet of what has transpired and what may yet unfold, it’s important to deal with what I’m intimately acquainted with, particularly in light of the journalistic work I actually have already done.
I actually have written about Elijah Stephens’ documentary film, Send Proof, a couple of times, once as a Patheos blogger before joining The Christian Post in 2016, and two times as a CP reporter. We also recorded an interview on a separate podcast concerning the project. Part of the history of the film’s origin was when Bolz gave Stephens a stunningly specific “word” within the spring of 2015 at Bethel concerning the very project Stephens had dreamed of doing — a documentary concerning the scientific evidence for miracles of healing and corroborating the supernatural with medical testing and physical evidence.
In fact, as Stephens and I discussed within the podcast, I used to be the one who called him to tell him in 2015 that Bolz had called his name out from the stage while speaking at Bethel. Stephens, who was at home on the time, drove there to receive this “word” from Bolz, and it gave the look of a unprecedented, indeed divine, confirmation of his creative vision. After years of diligence and large sacrifice on his part, the film was released in 2021. It was compelling and well-received.
Let me be unequivocal here: I find the evidence that Winger and others have provided that Bolz datamined social media for fake prophecies to be incontrovertible, and I consider what he did to be an appallingly outrageous perversion of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Due to this malpractice, Stephens’ obedience and labor of affection were gravely ruptured as Bolz’s fraudulent words were featured within the film’s storyline. It was especially tainted because Stephens documented within the film the issue of non secular shysters and the way they damage faith, deliberately mentioning charlatans just like the infamous televangelist Peter Popoff, who was exposed giving “words from God” to people when he was the truth is being fed personal details about who he was chatting with through an earpiece. You could say that Bolz is Popoff 2.0. At the very least, Stephens deserves a private apology from Bethel’s leaders for his or her role on this terrible deception. I used to be quite glad to see Winger interview Stephens last 12 months to assist bring further light.
Increasingly troubled as I learned more, but knowing I couldn’t investigate and report on the story in my skilled capability due to my personal affiliations, I started doing what I could — curating op-eds on the larger but related issues from like-minded people, who were similarly troubled and would indicate the structural problems, weak leadership, and lack of accountability inside charismatic circles. I do know I speak for a lot of alums that when Bethel’s leadership team responded to the Bolz fallout in February 2025, the statement fell extremely short, and it got here across as too little, too late. Nor did it adequately address the roots of the spiritual malfeasance and layers of manipulation.
Finally, in late January 2025, a couple of weeks before the February statement, certainly one of the victims who made allegations of Bolz’s sexual impropriety reached out to me by phone to share his story and seek my advice. I told him that if he desired to go on the record, I might gladly connect him with an investigative reporter since I used to be precluded from covering it myself, again, given my alumni status and the conflict of interest and journalistic ethics issues at hand. He understood and ultimately decided that he was not ready to come back forward on the time, and he was still processing tips on how to proceed. I called this man last week, and he confirmed that I could mention on this essay that we conversed roughly one 12 months ago about this. I actually have also spoken with two advocates for victims of sexual misconduct, whom I trust, they usually corroborrated his story and the accounts of several others they knew.
It has been a fraught and heavy burden to hold this dreadful knowledge all these months while operating inside certain skilled constraints, though not nearly as hard as those that have been directly manipulated and harmed by Bolz and ministry leaders who, by their misguided actions and inaction, covered for him.
Much shall be hashed out in the approaching weeks about protocols inside Bethel, its affiliated ministries, and other charismatic streams which have contributed to this grievous morass. Although I used to be grateful to see the senior leadership team’s repentance that occurred on Sunday, this process will take time, especially as more wounded people emerge, and it must not be rushed.
May God have mercy on all of the victims.
Shawn Bolz has been contacted for comment.
