1 sexual abuse allegation against Mike Bickle has 'some credibility,' ministry says
A week after announcing that International House of Prayer Kansas City founder Mike Bickle is being investigated for “serious allegations including sexual immorality” made against him by multiple women, leaders of the organization said one decades-old claim has “some credibility” so far, but they have hired an outside law firm to help them make sense of the situation.
“Regarding the allegations so far, there has been one allegation from 26 years ago that has some credibility. There are other allegations that have been more difficult to ascertain due in part to the fact that they are either anonymous or represented by third parties,” Stuart Greaves, executive director of IHOPKC, read from a statement to congregants at Forerunner Church in Grandview, Missouri, on Sunday.
“Some of the alleged events predate the founding of IHOPKC. Additionally, some of the women that were named in the allegations have publicly refuted that they were ever victims of abuse, and even denounced the representatives of the alleged victim group for using their names without permission,” Greaves said.
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Due to the current nature of the allegations, Greaves said the ministry has retained the services of the law firm Stinson LLP “to conduct an impartial examination of these allegations, with the goal of assessing their merit and advising the ELT regarding appropriate steps to take.”
“This work will start immediately, but it will take time to complete,” Greaves noted.
Dwayne Roberts, a founding member of IHOPKC; Brian Kim, a former IHOPKC executive leadership team member; and Wes Martin, a former pastor of Forerunner Church, previously revealed in a joint statement that they were the ones who first confronted leaders of the charismatic Evangelical Christian movement and missions organization based in Kansas City, about the allegations against Bickle spanning “several decades.”
“Without going into details to protect the privacy of the victims’ identities, we have found these allegations of clergy sexual abuse by Mike Bickle to be credible and long-standing,” they began in their statement. “The credibility of these allegations is not based on any one experience or any one victim, but on the collective and corroborating testimony of the experiences of several victims.”
They allege that before meeting with IHOPKC’s leadership team, they attempted to discuss the allegations directly with Bickle “in the spirit of Matthew 18:15-17” but were rebuffed. They claim Bickle attempted to intimidate, isolate, manipulate and discredit his victims.
“When these allegations were brought to our attention, we were shocked. We could never have imagined that inappropriate conduct with women as something we would ever need to be concerned about,” the former IHOPKC ministry workers said. “The allegations seemed out of character to the man we thought we knew, but they were so serious we could not ignore them.”
Bickle, they allege, used his position of leadership over the women to manipulate them.
“We believe that Mike Bickle’s actions were not above reproach and fall short of biblical standards for leaders in the church. To be clear, the allegations made about Mike Bickle’s misconduct were sexual in nature where the marriage covenant was not honored. Furthermore, the allegations made also reveal that Mike Bickle used his position of spiritual authority over the victims to manipulate them,” the former IHOPKC workers said.
Greaves challenged the account of the former IHOPKC workers, noting that once the ministry’s leadership team was officially notified of the allegations against Bickle, they acted “within 24 hours” and agreed with Bickle that “it would be best for him to step aside” from ministry.
Within 48 hours, he said they also began “a deliberative process of seeking how to move forward.”
“As previously disclosed, there have been several allegations raised, and we are taking this process very seriously,” Greaves said. “To the women who have anonymously communicated allegations, we want to say that we value you, and we pray you feel safe to come forward.”
Greaves noted that once the independent review of the allegations against Bickle is complete, “we will be able to determine what next steps should be taken towards healing.”
“As this continues to unfold, we want to be clear that our leadership team is open and not in any way opposed to getting even more additional outside independent help in the future. We are starting first with this step to help initially assess the situation but plan to continue to pursue the truth with integrity, guided by care for the alleged victims, the IHOPKC family and the Bickle family,” he said.
“As always, continue to pray. And if you are experiencing shock, pain and confusion, we want you to understand that we understand and that this response is valid. Many are grieving. But at the end of the day, we are choosing to fix our eyes on Jesus. And we invite you to do the same. We, as a leadership team, love you deeply.”
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