Bethel Church addresses allegations Shawn Bolz used social media to generate ‘prophecies’
After years of online allegations that Christian minister Shawn Bolz was fabricating prophecies and words of knowledge in his ministry, leaders at Bethel Church in Redding, California, where he was frequently platformed, revealed that they confronted him about the allegations more than five years ago and distanced themselves from him when he didn't provide a satisfactory response.
Leaders of the California megachurch said that around the time they confronted Bolz about his alleged fabrication of prophecies, one of his employees also accused him of engaging in behaviors that “seemed to fit the descriptions of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment,” according to a statement Bethel published Monday.
Bolz insisted in a recent response published on his website that his ministry did not engage in data mining on social media for his prophecies.
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“As a ministry we would never condone and we would refute that we would ever find information online to prophesy over people,” he said.
The Pastor Bill Johnson-led Bethel Church, which recently announced the planting of a new church in Sydney, Australia, said they were prompted to address their relationship with Bolz in light of an ongoing debate about his ministry on social media platforms like X and YouTube.
“We are aware that a conversation is happening regarding Shawn Bolz, and our confrontations with him that took place more than five years ago. We have delayed in an effort to reflect our recollection accurately, as the issues are important and complex,” the Bethel statement began.
“Shawn Bolz had ministered with us many times for many years and had a great impact on our house. We deeply valued and trusted him and appreciated his prophetic gift. Many of us have received important, accurate prophecies, and words of knowledge from him (prior to social media being so pervasive) that we had great confidence in,” they added.
Around 2019, however, Bethel leaders said respected international leaders raised concerns with them about “irregularities in Shawn’s word of knowledge gift that caused them to wonder if he may have been using social media to generate them.”
“We believe that these concerns and the evidence to support them were gathered and shared in good faith and out of concern for the global Church,” they noted.
Bethel said the international leaders presented more than a dozen instances out of hundreds of words of knowledge shared by Bolz which were “validly concerning” but insufficient to establish consensus among Bethel leaders that there was wrongdoing.
“For some of our team, the evidence felt conclusive but for others it was not. We did not have a consensus, but we were very concerned and sought clarity from him,” Bethel leaders said.
The megachurch noted that two of their leaders, including Kris Vallotton, a senior associate leader, met with Bolz on two separate occasions about the data mining allegations and “each time, Shawn absolutely denied using any social media in his words of knowledge or prophecies.”
“Shawn still maintains he never used social media in any words. And truthfully, unless something changes, only he and the Lord really know what took place,” the Bethel leaders continued in the statement.
They contend that they chose not to make a public statement about the situation at the time because they didn't have a consensus or any definitive proof of the allegations. The church did, however, begin distancing its ministry from Bolz.
“In the absence of clarity about both what really happened with some of the words of knowledge, and having addressed the issues with his former team members and found his response lacking, we made the decision to step back from our ministry connection,” Bethel said.
Leaders at the charismatic ministry said after the confrontation with Bolz, they stopped promoting his materials in their store and no longer allowed him to minister to their congregants or movement.
Among other things, Bethel leaders said they “firmly admonished and warned” Bolz and he made some changes.
Bethel further noted that even though Bolz is not under their authority, one of their leaders also confronted him about the sexual harassment claim from his employee and “he indicated to us that the behaviors that had taken place had stopped.”
“Though we are not experts, these behaviors seemed to fit the descriptions of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment as commonly taught in HR training, and had potential legal ramifications,” the church leaders said.
“We recommended they take action in seeking a remedy through the justice system (such as the labor board, arbiters, or courts) as there was no real movement from Shawn to address the past situations, and we had done what we could given the limited level of knowledge we had at the time.”
In his recent statement, Bolz indicated that although his ministry is now more focused on “media/entertainment” he still wants to support the prophetic ministry.
“Although I, Shawn Bolz, do not do a lot of traveling ministry and our focus has turned to media/entertainment, I still want to help support the prophetic ministry and movement and steward my relationships that have been for over 30 years in this ministry in the healthiest way possible,” he said. “That is our commitment as a ministry to you and to the body of Christ.”
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