KANSAS CITY (MO)
Baptist News Global [Jacksonville FL]
February 11, 2025
By Rick Pidcock
“The nation of Israel was born because Joseph went to prison,” former IHOPKC pastor Mike Bickle told the congregation in what would become his final sermon in October,2023. “He’s thrown in prison because of the betrayal of his brothers.” Then he concluded, “The nation of Israel was born in the context of a man responding right in a family betrayal that put him in prison for a while.”
IHOPKC is an abbreviation for International House of Prayer Kansas City, a charismatic church and prayer movement.
Just days later, accusations of sexual abuse were made public and Bickle had to step aside. While the pastor admitted to sexual misconduct, he claimed everything happened more than 20 years earlier and was consensual. But as I asked in the piece I wrote last January, “If he is guilty merely of consensual sex more than 20 years ago, why did he mention possibly going to prison?”
One year later, we are beginning to find out the answer to that question. According to the Independent Sexual Abuse Investigation organization Firefly, which released its report last week, Mike Bickle sexually abused at least 17 women, including minors.
“We have identified and interviewed 17 survivors who were either sexually abused or experienced sexually abusive misconduct, including sexual abuse, rape, clergy abuse and spiritual abuse, perpetrated by Bickle beginning to our knowledge in the mid-1970s,” Firefly reported. “These acts of abuse have had profound and lasting impacts on the lives of the victims, causing significant emotional, psychological and spiritual harm.”
But the problem goes beyond just Bickle. Firefly’s report says, “We have been able to identify and interview 32 survivors who were sexually abused or experienced sexually abusive misconduct during their time at IHOPKC.”
Many of the details in the report are difficult to read. If you might be particularly triggered by the details, this may not be the best article for you to read. But as Firefly demonstrates, the abuse was carried out or covered up by a variety of people in the church and fell into consistent patterns. Also, kids today are being abused by their pastors. But like Bickle, the pastors aren’t going to be caught for another 20 to 30 years. And when they do, they’ll say it happened “30 years ago” to belittle its seriousness. But to the kids who are experiencing the abuse today, that distance in time is no comfort.
So as infuriating and perhaps triggering as some of these stories are to consider, it’s important that we learn to recognize how these abusers operate as part of our effort to prevent it from happening in our own communities.
Drawing them in with worship and prophecy
As we considered a year ago, Bickle named “young 18-year-old drummers, 16-year-old singers and violin players” as who he wanted to recruit for “the greatest worship movement ever in history.”
But his focus on worship ultimately had a prophetic angle. He claimed, “Jesus will give the fulness of his power to release justice only when night and day prayer comes forth from the earth.” Bickle specifically defined this justice as Israel converting to evangelicalism.
He offered these teenagers the opportunity to be paid full-time to sit in a chapel at IHOPKC and participate in a 24/7 worship movement aimed at creating what he said were the conditions necessary for Jesus to return. And he claimed to have four or five people who were willing to “give a billion dollars to the worship movement,” even mentioning the possibility of raising $100 billion.
But at the same time he was attracting teens through worship and prophecy, he was warning them not to listen to accusations that may come out, or else Israel might not be saved. According to Bickle, these supposedly false accusations would be “all about getting you guys all, the global body of Christ, out of sync so you’re not in place to be salvation for Israel.’”
Individual grooming
“Sexual grooming is a manipulative process where an abuser builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a victim to exploit and abuse them,” the report explains. “And it often involves a series of calculated steps to gain the victim’s trust and isolate them from others.”
Prior to starting his 24/7 worship ministry, Bickle began “Friends of the Bridegroom” in 1997, a group made up primarily of 18- and 19-year-old women whom Bickle would lay hands on in prayer. “Victims reported that Bickle often crossed inappropriate boundaries, frequently coming and going as he pleased in the apartment they were staying at, buying gifts and providing money,” the report says.
“Bickle would single out certain women and prophesy over them as Esthers.”
Multiple women said Bickle would single out certain women and prophesy over them as Esthers, while giving them money and gifts and making them “feel special.” They also said he gave certain women their own private apartment and would regularly visit them.
In one case, a woman says Bickle “began to dictate her daily activities, limiting her interactions with others and reinforcing her reliance on him. This isolation further entrenched her dependency, making it increasingly difficult for her to break free from his influence. The special treatment she received was a double-edged sword, as it simultaneously made her feel privileged and trapped.”
Bickle reportedly often commented on the young women’s appearance publicly in ways that embarrassed them. And he would say such things as, “You know how much I love you,” “You’re mine forever,” and offered “Papa time.”
Public displays of intimacy and dominance
Many of the women reported Bickle would create “an illusion of affection and care by whispering in their ear, rubbing their shoulders and caressing their hair.”
One woman said Bickle “would hug and kiss her on her forehead in the prayer room.”
They said he would touch their faces and comment on their makeup in front of others. One said he would kiss her on her forehead while handing her cash.
Then when no one was around, one woman says Bickle’s advances “escalated as he placed his hand on her bare leg, ran it up to her thigh, and made the inappropriate comment, ‘Freshly shaved.’”
Women said they began being terrified of what Bickle might do. One reported that in the prayer room, she was approached from behind by Bickle, who placed her in a chokehold and touched her face with his hands.”
Similarly, another said, “While seated at a table in the prayer room, Bickle approached her from behind, placed her in a chokehold, and smiled at her.”
Sexual behavior in his office and in hotel rooms
A number of witnesses came forward with stories about observing Bickle engaged in sexual behavior in his office. Witnesses reported seeing women in his office with their hands in his pants, sitting on the floor rubbing his legs, or massaging his bare skin with essential oils, including women who were married.
According to Firefly, “These witnessed incidents, regardless of if consensual, between Bickle and presumably several women highlight a pattern of behavior that is not only unprofessional but also deeply troubling, as it creates an unsafe and uncomfortable environment for those around him. These interactions were inappropriate and demonstrated a complete lack of boundaries inside and outside his office.”
When they went on ministry trips together, women claimed after Bickle paid for their rooms, he would go inside and mention how sweaty he was due to “all the running around” and decided to take a shower.
“You walked out of the shower naked with a full erection and exposed yourself to her.”
One eyewitness confronted Bickle, saying, “You walked out of the shower naked with a full erection and exposed yourself to her.” Then they said Bickle replied, “It was immoral, it was immoral, it was immoral.” Then when asked if he got dressed and left the room, the witness says Bickle replied, “No, I stayed there for maybe another 90 minutes.”
Another woman said Bickle told her about 100 times his wife was going to die and that they were to be married after she dies. She too was referred to as an Esther and was given a private apartment. During a trip to Paris, she says Bickle gave her alcoholic beverages and kissed her, but she blacked out and doesn’t remember what happened after that.
A systemic problem at IHOPKC
One of the problems evident throughout the report is that the abuse involved way more people than just Bickle. Firefly found 16 staff members who had been accused of sexual misconduct.
When such allegations previously were investigated by GRACE, the organization run by Boz Tchividjian, IHOPKC refused to release the report, a decision Firefly said “reveals a significant disregard for transparency and the congregation’s well-being.”
According to witnesses, youth leaders would shower with teens and then “ask personal questions about their sexuality.” One youth leader is accused of taking a teenage boy “into a side room to talk to him about masturbation, his need to confess, and that he wanted to find time to shower with him to wash away his sins.”
Other accusations include female interns being “punched and thrown to the ground and sexually assaulted on multiple occasions” while living in the basement of a staff member’s home.
“Staff members who reported sexual abuse victims to their supervisors often faced retaliation.”
And when the teens shared their stories with staff members they trusted, Firefly said, “Staff members who reported sexual abuse victims to their supervisors often faced retaliation. Instead of being supported, these whistleblowers were frequently disciplined by being transferred to different positions or having their work hours reduced.”
Firefly said IHOPKC leaders often used the statement “You did not speak against the Lord’s anointed” in order to “silence those who tried to report abuse, creating an environment where victims felt powerless and unsupported.”
And when one leader was allowed to remain on staff despite the credible accusations against him, another IHOPKC leader responded by saying, “We never take a guy out of his game when he’s being restored.”
The IHOPKC ‘purity covenant’
In 2008, Bickle released “Making a Purity Covenant: Seven Practical Commitments.” When an intern initially joined their program, they had to share any sexual experiences they’ve had, including abuse as a child. If any intern admitted they had “sexual struggles,” they were to “be reported directly to Bickle.”
As is common in many conservative evangelical churches, witnesses said, “The focus on purity and our sexuality in group settings was unsettling.” They added, “Forced confessions were common, as we were often coerced with music and prayer in ‘pure heart’ weekends, where we were to confess to strangers all of our sexual sins.”
According to Firefly, “In many instances, these deeply personal stories were then used in prophetic words spoken by leaders or were used publicly to humiliate victims in front of other students and staff.”
If an intern made an accusation of abuse, they had to follow Matthew 18, which IHOPKC reportedly interpreted to mean they had to meet face to face with their alleged abuser, a process which often had the effect of intimidating and silencing the victim.
During one of these meetings, one woman says she was instructed to use the term “violate” rather than “sexual abuse.”
In the conclusion of the report, Firefly says Bickle “systematically groomed and developed inappropriate relationships with women in the congregation while using ‘Matthew 18 Meetings’ to conceal, minimize and silence victims of sexual abuse within the church.” They also concluded that Bickle used “prophetic language to speak to victims, isolating victims from others, purchasing gifts, frequent visits to church-supplied apartments where victims resided, controlling behavior, public praise and attention, frequent touching of victim’s bodies, kissing victims, and creating circumstances where victims would observe him undressed and aroused.” And they say IHOPKC demonstrated indifference by “minimizing reports of sexual abuse, requiring victims to confront their offenders and discouraging victims from seeking law enforcement assistance.”
Implementation strategies?
Firefly wrote: “Examining the long-standing culture of systemic sexual misconduct and coverups that have thrived in the 24/7 prayer movement since IHOPKC’s inception in 1999, it is evident that leadership often took it upon themselves to investigate sexual misconduct claims, interrogate victims and discourage them from reporting to the police.”
As a result of these decades of abuse and coverups, Firefly recommended eight specific strategies:
- Create a clear and comprehensive policy
- Background checks and screening
- Training and education
- Clear reporting procedures
- Accountability and transparency
- Support for survivors
- Vulnerable persons policy
- External policy review
While these policy recommendations make sense and would provide a much better way of handling accusations of abuse, at some point you have to wonder if decades of systemic sexual abuse coverups not only disqualifies a handful of leaders from the ministry, but the church itself from the ministry.
Sure, Bickle and some of his buddies deserve a millstone hung around their necks and to be tossed into the sea. But could the same be said for the entire organization?
At this point, all the prophecies about Israel becoming evangelical due to IHOPKC’s 24-hour prayer room are at best a joke. Rather than focusing on saving Israel from a divine hierarchy, they should have been focusing on saving their own teenagers from their church’s hierarchy.
The only family betrayal going on here has been perpetrated by Mike Bickle and the IHOPKC leadership, many of whom should be “in prison for a while.”
So it seems beyond obvious to me there really is only one logical implementation strategy at this point: Shut it down.
Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.