EGN NEWS DESK
(CP) Eight outstanding Charismatic elders, together with theologian and media character Michael Brown, have declared embattled International House of Prayer Kansas City founder Mike Bickle “unfit” for ministry, warning that the 24/7 prayer ministry has some “harmful cult-like tendencies” that have to be addressed.
In a joint assertion revealed Thursday on the web site of his syndicated “Line of Fire” radio programme, Brown, together with elders within the Charismatic motion — Jack Deere, Dan Juster, Patricia King, Joseph Mattera, Sam Storms, Michael Sullivant, and Terri Sullivant — declared Bickle “unfit” for public ministry.
They cited mounting proof, together with reviews and public testimony of Bickle’s alleged clergy sexual abuse. Those testimonies embrace Tammy Woods, who alleged final month that Bickle groomed and sexually abused her within the Eighties when she was simply 14.
“First, we’re deeply grieved for many who have offered testimony that they have been manipulated and sexually abused by Mike Bickle. We can consider few sins extra damaging and harmful than that of manipulative, clergy sexual abuse, all of the extra within the case of a minor,” the elders wrote.
“We are additionally deeply grieved for these whose private religion has been shattered and whose worlds have been turned the other way up due to the alleged agonizing occasions. This is a non secular tragedy of worldwide proportions, affecting thousands and thousands of believers worldwide and bringing nice dishonor to the title of Jesus in addition to shame to the popularity of the Spirit,” they added.
“After contemplating the reviews we now have reviewed, we should state categorically that he’s, sadly, unfit to guide a ministry. Even with full repentance and private restoration within the Lord, he’s disqualified from public ministry. (Restoration to full fellowship is in fact potential.) Mike himself, in his assertion of December 12, 2023, acknowledged that his stepping down from ministry ‘could also be lengthy and it could even be everlasting,’ and that was earlier than probably the most severe fees in opposition to him had even been raised.”
Mere hours earlier than Tammy Woods alleged in an interview with The Kansas City Star that Bickle abused her within the Eighties when she was simply 14, her former pastor allegedly sought her recommendation amid mounting abuse allegations from a number of girls.
In posts highlighted on each X and Facebook, former IHOPKC staffer Ben Anderson shared a replica of a script Bickle was reportedly planning to make use of for himself and his spouse, Diane, to create a video on Jan. 30.
The video would have responded to allegations that he, for instance, routinely informed his alleged victims that his spouse would die younger, suggesting that he would have the ability to have a future with them sooner or later.
Using her maiden title, Woods informed The Kansas City Star that Bickle abused her in St. Louis, the place he pastored a church earlier than shifting to Kansas City and beginning IHOPKC in 1999.
Woods mentioned Bickle abused her in his automotive, at her house, within the church and his workplace. She mentioned the abuse, which started when she began babysitting his two sons, concerned sexual contact however not intercourse.
“He would kiss my neck, he would kiss my cheeks, he would kiss my brow,” Woods was quoted as saying, recalling the primary time Bickle kissed her romantically at her home when she was simply 14. “The first, like, ‘kiss’ kiss was in my home. He form of pulled me into my rest room. And he kissed me like a person kisses a girl.”
Woods’ story emerged after an impartial report was launched to the general public on Jan. 31 and ready by lawyer Rosalee McNamara. In that report, Bickle confessed to participating in “consensual sexual contact” with a girl related to the 24/7 prayer ministry along with a beforehand confessed relationship with a main Jane Doe, who alleged she was his saved lady for a number of years.
Another lady, recognized as “TH,” informed The Roys Report that Bickle started grooming and sexually abusing her when she was 15 and he was a 20-year-old church intern within the mid-Seventies.
“We say this with agony of coronary heart, as Mike has been an expensive buddy to a few of us and a revered co-worker for years, and it’s laborious to imagine that the person we knew was able to main such a double life,” Thursday’s assertion from the Charismatic motion leaders acknowledged. “Yet we can’t deny the proof that spans many a long time, and which continues to build up, a few of which has been confirmed and a few of which awaits a proper investigation and the adjudication of a panel of elders.”
The assertion famous that whereas there are a lot of honest supporters of IHOPKC, “we acknowledge that the proof factors to some harmful cult-like tendencies that emerged over time that have to be addressed and adjusted.”
“There has additionally been an absence of a proper construction of accountability for these serving in numerous capacities at IHOPKC, overseen by native elders, leading to a failure to deal correctly with severe sexual sins, and never simply pertaining to Mike,” they mentioned.
“We don’t deny that the broad define of the IHOPKC historical past was credible, however it seems that, in some methods, it has crossed over into areas of non secular elitism. IHOPKC has additionally admitted that its construction was woefully poor in dealing with severe sin allegations and now professes to be altering its complete construction to handle this.”
The leaders known as for a extra formal accountability construction within the bigger impartial Charismatic church world and hope to handle it with a “united, biblically primarily based, Spirit-led effort” over time.
“Having mentioned this, we decry the exalting of individuals and personalities. There aren’t any superstars within the Body, solely servants. And irrespective of how a lot fame or public affect any of us might have, we’re all utter wretches outdoors of God’s remodeling grace and there’s not a single factor we are able to do of everlasting worth that has not been birthed and empowered by the Spirit. Apart from the Lord, we are able to do nothing, and we’re nothing (John 15:5; 1 Corinthians 3:5-9),” the Christian elders wrote.
“It is one factor to offer honor and respect to non secular leaders who stroll worthy of God’s excessive calling. It is one other factor to show servants into celebrities and to look to them as in the event that they have been in a special class from the remainder of the Body. This isn’t solely harmful, however it’s one other type of non secular idolatry.”
Bickle has publicly admitted to previous “ethical failures” however denied committing sexual abuse or “the extra intense sexual actions that some are suggesting”.
© The Christian Post
