IHOPKC asks third party to investigate sexual immorality allegations against founder

The International House of Prayer of Kansas City has engaged a third party to investigate allegations of sexual immorality against its founder, one of the organization’s leaders told followers.

Stuart Greaves, IHOPKC’s executive director, gave an update about the allegations against Mike Bickle during a special service at Forerunner Church in Grandview.

“IHOP has officially engaged with a very capable third party to help guide us, build, what the various layers of outside help looks like,” Greaves told those attending the service Tuesday night. “There are just various layers that are involved in this process. And we are going through a significant learning curve in this process, as we’re going through, undoubtedly, just a media swarm, as it were.”

He said the action “is not a giant step, but things are moving forward.” He warned, however, that the investigation would “be a long journey.”

“It takes time to do this responsibly, as there are laws and procedures that we have to honor in terms of how we move forward in this process in order to do it right,” he said.

The allegations against Bickle surfaced on Friday when leaders called a meeting to inform staff members. IHOPKC’s leadership team then told followers at a church service Sunday morning, describing the allegations as “unsettling” and saying they involved “sexual immorality.”

Greaves asked followers Tuesday night to keep the leadership team in their prayers.

“There are times where the feeling is that you’re fighting for and laboring for the survival of this ministry,” he said. “And so we need the Lord’s grace and the Lord’s strength to touch us, yet at the same time, we’re confident that the Lord is with us. We’re confident that what the Lord started here was by his divine initiative and that he is faithful to bring into completion that which he has started.”

Chris Reed, of MorningStar Ministries in Fort Mill, South Carolina, told those in attendance that he was there to stand in solidarity with IHOPKC.

“We believe in you,” he said. “This is not the end, this is a new beginning, a fresh start.”

He said IHOPKC “is bigger than any one person.”

“This is a global prayer movement that the earth is depending on to keep your eyes on Jesus ... just fix your eyes on the hope. The hope has to be renewed.”

He told them to “stick it through the thick and thin.”

“Don’t abandon ship,” he said. “Stay with what God is doing. ... Keep moving forward because hope’s in front of you. It’s not in looking back. I love you guys. You’re gonna make it. You got friends. God’s not done with this place.”

Greaves told followers on Sunday that the leadership team had asked Bickle “to not preach or teach from the IHOPKC platform, attend our 24-hour prayer room or engage his social media channels while we work with others to assess this situation.”

Bickle, 68, has not responded publicly to the allegations. IHOPKC leaders have not said whether they have reported the allegations to police. At Sunday’s service, they urged those who experienced “traumatic events that are of this nature” to seek out an IHOPKC leader or counselor.

Founded by Bickle in 1999, IHOPKC is a 24/7 evangelical and missions organization. With its world headquarters on Red Bridge Road in south Kansas City, IHOPKC draws people from around the world to its university and round-the-clock “prayer room.” For years, it has come under criticism by ex-staffers and former followers who accuse it of being cult-like.

This isn’t the first time IHOPKC has asked an outside party to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct. In 2018, it hired a firm led by a grandson of the late Rev. Billy Graham to conduct an independent investigation into allegations by a Washington woman who said an IHOPKC missionary, Brad Tebbutt, had sexually abused her for 2 ½ years when she was a teen and Tebbutt was a youth pastor at a Baptist church in Modesto, California.

The results of that investigation weren’t made public. In a June 2022 email to The Star, IHOPKC referred to Tebbutt as “one of our missionaries” and directed The Star to a news release it issued in April 2019 when it announced that internal and external investigations into the case had been completed and had found he had committed no “further wrongdoing.”

Also on Tuesday, former IHOPKC associate director Allen Hood issued a statement about the allegations against Bickle, whom he referred to as “my spiritual father.”

“I have been walking closely with one survivor and her husband,” said Hood, who is now director of Excellencies of Christ Ministries. “She is a dear sister who is precious to my wife Rachel, myself, and our family. We are deeply broken for her. She and her family deserve our utmost care, trust, and discretion.”

Hood said he also had learned “of corroborating allegations from other victims.”

“This has broken my heart to an unimaginable level,” he said. “Furthermore, I am dismayed that survivors of abuse and those who advocate for them are being labeled as ‘betrayers.’ Such speech shames victims and is an egregious form of spiritual manipulation.”

Hood said it was imperative for IHOPKC leaders to use “an independent, third-party organization that specializes in handling allegations of abuse in a church context” to investigate the allegations.

“The burden upon my friends in the IHOPKC leadership is too weighty for such a task,” Hood said. “An independent, third-party investigation is the only pathway for a godly and fair process for all parties involved. I have spoken with IHOPKC leadership, and they have assured me this is their intent.”

Hood is among several former IHOPKC leaders who have issued statements about the allegations.

On Saturday, three other former IHOPKC leaders went public.

“A few days ago, we made the leadership team of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC) aware of serious allegations spanning several decades concerning its founder, Mike Bickle,” the statement said, adding that they found “these allegations of clergy sexual abuse by Mike Bickle to be credible and long-standing.”

The statement was issued by Dwayne Roberts and Brian Kim, former members of the IHOPKC executive leadership team, and Wes Martin, former pastor of Forerunner Christian Fellowship and former vice president of student affairs of IHOPU. Roberts was a founding member of IHOPKC and was in leadership there for 14 years before leaving to start the Florianópolis House of Prayer (FHOP) in Brazil.

The men said that prior to meeting with IHOPKC leadership, they tried to bring the allegations and testimony of one alleged victim to Bickle.

“However, we were repeatedly rebuffed by Mike Bickle and we were refused any sort of meeting,” the statement said. “Instead, Mike used manipulating and intimidating tactics towards the victims to isolate them and discredit them.”