A virtually six-hour investigation released by Christian apologist Mike Winger sent shockwaves through charismatic Christian circles, raising allegations of deception, sexual misconduct and institutional failure centered on prophetic minister Shawn Bolz — and prompting a response from Bethel Church leadership.
In the video, “The Skeletons in Bethel’s Closet are Now Going to Speak,” Winger details what he describes as a decade-long pattern of fraudulent prophetic practices and sexually inappropriate behavior by Bolz, claims of which he said are backed up by interviews with former employees, ministry associates and insiders.
Winger also accused distinguished church leaders of failing to warn congregants and the worldwide Christian community after learning of allegations years earlier.
“This is cover-up culture,” he said. “The elites all knew about it. … I’m doing [this video] for the profit and blessings of the Charismatic Church. I’m exposing a complete bunch of corruption contained in the Charismatic Church. It needs to be done.”
Winger’s investigation focuses first on Bolz’s public prophetic ministry, which for years drew large crowds through highly specific “words of information,” including birth dates, addresses, family names and private details, delivered as divine revelation.
According to Winger, former insiders alleged Bolz obtained such information through natural means, particularly social media, after which presented it as supernatural insight.
“I began to get birth dates and anniversary dates of strangers, grounding them within the knowledge that God knows them and cares about what they care about,” Bolz himself said in a 2016 interview cited by Winger. “I started to listen to where people went to high school and the sorts of careers they’d, right, almost prefer it was information on their ‘about’ tab.”
Winger said the pattern intensified after 2013, coinciding with the widespread adoption of social media platforms. He described the practice as a deliberate strategy that allowed Bolz to deliver increasingly detailed prophetic words with minimal risk of being exposed.
Winger stressed that the outline closely mirrored online research quite than prophetic revelation, adding: “Almost like he was reading them off of something like Facebook.”
More seriously, Winger said multiple former employees and associates accused Bolz of sexually inappropriate and abusive behavior spanning greater than a decade.
“What these guys describe is sexually domineering behavior,” Winger said. “I might call it grooming. I believe it qualifies as sexual deviancy that disqualifies an individual from ministry. … it’s sick and dark.”
According to Winger, witnesses described repeated incidents of Bolz’s nudity in front of younger men and his self-gratification in front of subordinates, often during ministry travel in hotel rooms or vehicles.
“This is the pattern, ongoing, continual behavior in trapped conditions without consent,” Winger said. “Consent would not make it OK; it will still be morally mistaken. But it’s different.”
Winger said some alleged victims described long-term psychological harm, including suicidal ideation and symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“One of the lads told me this led him to suicidal ideation and PTSD episodes,” Winger said.
Winger emphasized he interviewed witnesses individually and said their accounts corroborated each other across different time periods and locations.
A significant portion of Winger’s investigation centers on the role of church leadership, particularly Bethel Church, a globally influential charismatic congregation in Redding, California, that platformed Bolz for years. He alleged that Bethel Church leadership was aware of sexual allegations against Bolz for years but didn’t act publicly.
“Bethel leadership knew about this for nearly five years, not less than,” Winger said.
He criticized what he described as a pattern of quiet distancing quite than public accountability, emphasizing that such an approach left congregants and ministry participants vulnerable.
“Discernment kills momentum,” Winger said.
In a Jan. 25 statement in response to Winger’s video, Bethel Church leadership publicly acknowledged failures in the way it handled allegations involving Bolz, admitting the church didn’t act with sufficient clarity, urgency or transparency.
“We take responsibility for the indisputable fact that we didn’t properly and fully bring discipline, closure, or clear and timely communication regarding the gravity of our concerns with Shawn Bolz,” the statement said.
“The truth is, we now have hurt and scared people because we didn’t tell the reality enough, early enough, long enough, or loud enough, and this can be a just criticism. Our hearts are grieved, and embarrassed.”
The statement was signed by senior leaders Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and Dann Farrelly, who said Bolz had been platformed to evangelise and prophesy at Bethel and with its teams on multiple occasions until 2019.
According to Vallotton, Bethel leaders first received allegations of sexual harassment in 2019 from a former member of Bolz’s team. He said subsequent conversations with three former team members corroborated the claims and revealed what he described as a problematic culture inside Bolz’s ministry.
“We platformed him because we believed in him,” Vallotton said. “And when he failed, and didn’t repent, it was our responsibility to inform people who we not trusted him with the intention to protect them. That was my decision to not communicate more widely, and my error in judgement.”
Bethel leaders also said they received evidence Bolz had used social media to acquire personal information presented as prophetic revelation.
“We imagine that Shawn was not truthful in how he received his words of information and prophetic words,” the statement said.
At the conclusion of the statement, Bethel leadership said it not endorses Bolz’s ministry and warned others to contemplate its position.
“We also acknowledge our belief that he engaged in sexually explicit and harassing behavior towards some members of his staff,” the statement said. “We don’t condone his actions, or endorse his ministry. We strongly advise you to take our position under consideration if you happen to decide to interact together with his materials.”
Bethel leaders said the church has since implemented additional accountability measures, including a third-party Safe Church reporting system and expanded leadership oversight. The church invited anyone affected by Bolz’s prophetic words or alleged misconduct to hunt support through counseling and pastoral care.
“I showed mercy in a single area and never the opposite,” Johnson said in a separate message included within the statement. “And that seriously affected those that shouldn’t have been traumatized any greater than they were.”
Johnson acknowledged that his reluctance to confront Bolz publicly delayed accountability and contributed to further harm.
“It was incredibly careless. I realize now that I contributed to their trauma, and I’m deeply grieved by this and am sorry. Sometimes it’s your motion, and sometimes, your lack of motion, that causes harm, and I do know that I failed.”
In his video, Winger framed the Bolz case as emblematic of a wider problem inside certain Charismatic movements, one he said rewards spectacle, suppresses discernment and minimizes accountability. Still, he stressed his goal was to not attack charismatic Christianity as a complete, but to call for reform.
“I’m doing this for the Charismatic Church. I like you guys. I feel within the gifts,” he said. “ I’m hoping to bring positive reform into the charismatic church. … please consider stop these things from happening again inside your individual fellowships and to your individual people, because it isn’t price revival culture to victimize your individual people and put them in front of faux prophets and tell them about fake healings and all this other stuff. It has to stop, and it has to stop now.”
Bolz was contacted for comment regarding the allegations raised in Winger’s investigation, but didn’t respond by time of publication.
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