EGN NEWS DESK
(CP) After months of deliberation, the board of the embattled International House of Prayer Kansas City has determined that the vaunted 24/7 Prayer Room is not going to be operated below the umbrella of any church. This determination follows the shuttering of a number of arms of the ministry, together with the Forerunner Church, within the aftermath of a sexual misconduct scandal involving founder Mike Bickle.
The board introduced the choice Wednesday in an electronic mail replace on the restructuring of the ministry despatched to members of the IHOPKC group. A replica of the e-mail was shared by The Roys Report.
“Another supply of confusion has been the method of evaluating whether or not to maneuver the governance of the Prayer Room below a church construction, and if it needs to be relocated to our Grandview Plaza facility,” the board stated within the electronic mail.
“It is the choice of the Board of Trustees that the Prayer Room will stay impartial of any exterior church and proceed to be the center of IHOPKC. Further, the Prayer Room will stay in its current location on the Red Bride Center.”
While the 24/7 Prayer Room will not operate below the governance of a church, the board famous that it’s going to nonetheless require governance. The board is engaged on a plan to function it independently of a church.
“We notice that the long run well being and wellbeing of the prayer room requires a proper governance construction for oversight, accountability, and religious power,” the e-mail stated. “We are exploring the perfect match shifting ahead and are dedicated to making sure programs are in place for stable determination making and accountable management.”
In April, IHOPKC introduced that the ministry could be restructured, together with the shuttering of some features of operations this 12 months, together with the IHOPKC faculty of ministry and Forerunner Church, led by Isaac Bennett.
“In April, we introduced that, after a lot prayer and deliberation, we’d wind down a lot of IHOPKC’s ministry and coaching expressions, together with IHOPU, Forerunner Church, CEC, and internships, a course of which concluded May twenty fourth. Since that point, our focus as a ministry has been the 24/7 Prayer Room and Intercession for Israel,” the board’s electronic mail reads. “During the method of planning and finishing up these adjustments, incorrect statements had been made about IHOPKC’s future and causes for shutting down numerous ministry expressions. As we stated earlier, IHOPKC will not be shutting down.”
The Roys Report, citing a leaked recording from leaders at an inside IHOP University workers assembly in addition to an electronic mail from IHOP University President Matt Candler, reported earlier this 12 months that IHOPKC was within the means of shuttering for good as a result of monetary impression of Bickle’s sexual abuse scandal. IHOPKC completely reduce ties with Bickle final December.
In February, a 3rd girl alleged she was groomed and sexually abused by Bickle within the Nineteen Eighties when she was 14.
Using her maiden identify, Tammy Woods, who’s now a 57-year-old mom and grandmother, advised 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 stated Bickle abused her in his automobile, at her residence, within the church and his workplace. She stated the abuse, which started when she began babysitting his two sons, concerned sexual contact however not intercourse. She revealed that the IHOPKC founder additionally advised her a number of instances that his spouse, Diane, would die younger and prompt that she might be the mom to his sons.
Last 12 months, a girl recognized as Jane Doe by The Roys Report alleged that Bickle paid for her condo and gave her a key to his workplace, and that she engaged in sexual acts with him from 1996 to 1999 earlier than he based IHOPKC. She claimed Bickle wooed her with Scripture at age 19 when he was 42.
Bickle initially agreed to step away from the ministry final October when allegations of sexual abuse involving mutliple ladies had been dropped at mild by an advocate group. Bickle confessed to participating in “consensual sexual contact” with a girl linked to the 24/7 prayer ministry along with a beforehand confessed relationship with the Jane Doe, who alleged she was his stored girl for a number of years, in response to an impartial investigation report launched in February.
In December, he admitted on Facebook to participating in “inappropriate behaviour” however not “the extra intense sexual actions that some are suggesting.” The ministry perminantly reduce ties with Bickle two weeks later, saying its investigation confirmed “a degree of inappropriate behaviour.”
© The Christian Post
