IHOPKC confirms ‘inappropriate behavior,’ announces permanent split with founder Bickle

The International House of Prayer of Kansas City is “immediately, formally and permanently” separating from founder Mike Bickle, saying it has confirmed “a level of inappropriate behavior” involving the well-known charismatic leader.

The surprise announcement Friday night by new IHOPKC spokesman Eric Volz came eight weeks after allegations of clergy sexual abuse against Bickle were made public.

“Since taking over management of the crisis, the Executive Committee has received new information to now confirm a level of inappropriate behavior on the part of Mike Bickle that requires IHOPKC to immediately, formally and permanently separate from him,” Volz said in a statement posted on multiple social media sites.

Volz also announced that IHOPKC Executive Director Stuart Greaves had resigned and stepped down from the organization’s board of directors. He gave no explanation for the resignation.

Volz described the announcements, addressed to “all the IHOPKC community here in Kansas City and to the extended spiritual family across the world,” as “sobering.”

“People will surely wonder about the details, but IHOPKC does not have permission from those individuals to share details where they are being vetted further by an independent investigator,” Volz said. “The privacy of any person impacted by misconduct is tantamount, and this only amplifies IHOPKC’s conviction that a complete investigation should be conducted into the allegations of clergy abuse by Mike Bickle.”

Volz said that “for some, these words will surely come as a shock and might cause deep pain, confusion, grief or even sadness.”

“Obviously, this is more than a routine church announcement,” he said. “People’s lives and families are being directly affected. And we understand that. We ask that everyone please be considerate and respectful to all the parties involved, especially on social media. There is a way out of these difficulties, but it starts with calming things down rather than ratcheting them up.”

Volz said Greaves had been part of the IHOPKC community for 23 years.

“Thousands of people’s lives have been impacted by his teaching, leadership and love for Jesus,” he said. “His time at IHOPKC included two decades serving as the head of the program’s Nightwatch from midnight to 6 a.m., and for the past three years he served as the executive director.”

Volz said IHOPKC’s executive committee, led by Kurt Fuller, a retired major general who took over management of the crisis on Dec. 10, would be temporarily assuming the executive director responsibilities.

“Our current focus remains a thorough and complete investigation of the reported allegations,” Volz said. “And we pledge to then implement any and all changes necessary to church policies, procedures and culture to ensure that IHOPKC does not travel down this difficult road again. We have met and plan to continue to meet with the advocate group and in an effort to establish trust and common ground we ask the community to pray for this process.”

The so-called advocate group is made up of former IHOPKC leaders and others who are supporting those who have come forward with abuse allegations and are pushing for an independent investigation.

Friday’s announcement was issued just two days after Stephen Magnuson — who resigned Dec. 8 from Bickle’s personal ministry, Friends of the Bridegroom — posted a message to Volz on X, formerly Twitter, saying, “We are about to embark on a journey through witness accounts of specific abuse and illicit sexual activity known to have taken place at @ihopkc, by the leaders of @ihopkc, including @mikebickle.”

On Thursday, Magnuson posted that he had spent 54 minutes on the phone with Bickle that morning.

“I very strongly confronted him with many of the stories we will begin to discuss later today,” he wrote. “I didn’t back down on the need for these to be heard. And not by some independent investigator who will take a year to decide what things the rest of us can know. No, the whole story needs to be laid out before the whole world with great detail and a repentant heart. Then I told @mikebickle either he and the entire ELT of @ihopkc can voluntarily tell the story, or we will.“

That apparently prompted IHOPKC’s Forerunner Church to put out an email to supporters late Thursday afternoon.

“We have been informed that an individual plans to release details of extremely sensitive, private information about members of our community,” the message said. “We don’t know the exact timing, but we understand it will be soon. We felt it was important to make you, as a community, aware of this. This individual has stated online that the ELT (executive leadership team) must come forward and reveal these details, or he will. However, we do not know which incidents he is referring to. We are actively trying to establish communication to defuse this situation.”

The news about Bickle on Friday night drew swift reaction from former IHOPKC leaders.

“I am just hearing the latest update from IHOPKC, and my heart continues to break for and with my many friends at IHOPKC,” said Allen Hood, the organization’s former associate director from 2000 to 2020.

“There is only one way forward — a renewed commitment to holiness in the fear of the Lord that demands honesty and accountability at every level. Today’s announcement makes it more clear than ever that the ELT at IHOPKC and the Advocate Group should join in pursuing an agreed-upon, independent, third-party investigation that honors what the larger body of Christ has learned in the last 30 years of navigating these unfortunate matters of clergy abuse.”

Bickle, 68, founded IHOPKC in 1999 as a 24/7 charismatic prayer ministry with its world headquarters in south Kansas City. The allegations against him were presented to IHOPKC leaders on Oct. 24 by former leaders Dwayne Roberts, Wes Martin and Brian Kim. The current leadership team then called a meeting to inform staff on Oct. 27.

They originally described Bickle’s alleged actions as “misconduct,” then later said the allegations were “unsettling” and involved “sexual immorality.” The leaders said Bickle had been asked to step away from public ministry “to allow for a proper inquiry to be conducted.”

The day after IHOPKC leaders told the staff about the allegations, Roberts, Martin and Kim issued a statement describing the incidents as “clergy sexual abuse” and said they found the allegations “to be credible and long-standing.”

But on Nov. 15, IHOPKC leaders released a report of their initial findings involving the case. The report discounted some of the allegations brought forth by the former IHOPKC leaders.

“After three weeks of examination, IHOPKC has identified five of eight alleged victims,” the report said. “Three of those five have publicly called the allegations lies, a fourth has not wanted to communicate with IHOPKC’s attorney, and the fifth’s allegations relate to incidents that preceded IHOPKC’s founding.”

The former leaders said in a response that IHOPKC’s initial findings and other public statements “have been replete with mistruths and obfuscation.”

“The truth is that multiple witnesses over the last 2+ years have brought concerns regarding wrongful contact with Mr. Bickle and women who are not his wife to the ELT (executive leadership team) and to the concerned leaders, which many eyewitnesses have corroborated,” the response said.

On Nov. 30, The Roys Report, a Christian media outlet, published an online story featuring an interview with Bickle’s main accuser. The woman, whom the report referred to as “Jane Doe,” said that Bickle sexually abused her from 1996 to 1999, starting when she was 19 and he was 42. She said Bickle told her repeatedly that God had spoken to him, saying his wife was going to die and that they would then be married. She told The Roys Report that during that time, Bickle gave her a key to his office, put her up in an apartment and had sexual interactions with her.

Bickle issued his first public statement on the issue on Dec. 12, admitting that he had “sinned” and “my moral failures were real.”

But he was vague on details. In a lengthy statement, he said his “inappropriate behavior” occurred more than 20 years ago, but he did not admit to engaging in any sexual misconduct.

“With a very heavy heart I want to express how deeply grieved I am that my past sins have led to so much pain, confusion and division in the body of Christ in this hour,” Bickle wrote in a letter addressed to “Family and Friends.”

“I sadly admit that 20+ years ago, I sinned by engaging in inappropriate behavior — my moral failures were real. (I am not admitting to the more intense sexual activities that some are suggesting).”

Bickle went on to say, “Some may wonder why I am just now making a public statement 20+ years later? It is because I was recently confronted about things that I said or did 20+ years ago — things I believed were dealt with and under the blood of Jesus. Since this has now become public, I want to repent publicly.”

Bickle issued his statement two days after IHOPKC leaders announced the hiring of a third-party firm to conduct an “independent and impartial investigation.” But that action has been bogged down in controversy.

Volz and IHOPKC attorney Audrey Manito told The Star on Wednesday that the alleged victims and their advocates are hampering the investigation, refusing to speak with the investigator, attorney Rosalee McNamara of the Lathrop GPM law firm.

“They’re fighting us tooth and nail,” Manito said. “But at this point, our path to finding the truth can’t be directed or mandated by any one individual or an outside group. We’ve stated it over and over again. We’ve been willing to pay the very high costs associated with finding the truth. And we can’t please everyone, but our commitment to find the truth remains. We haven’t wavered from that since day one.”

Manito said McNamara has no connection to IHOPKC.

“This independent investigator and Lathrop have no ties to IHOPKC and they have no ties to anyone on the advocate group,” she said. “By that very definition, they are independent. We’ve asked them to run this investigation to the ground. And we’re not going to ask them to stop until they get to the bottom of everything.”

McNamara did not immediately respond to an email from The Star requesting comment.

IHOPKC leaders had originally hired the Stinson LLP firm to conduct the independent investigation. But they backed off after coming under sharp criticism by those who said the investigation should not be done by a law firm.

After that, they brought in Manito. But that outraged many critics, who noted that she was part of the IHOPKC community and was friends with those in leadership. Then, during the Forerunner Church service on Dec. 10, Greaves announced that the leadership team had hired a different firm. He didn’t name the firm or the investigator at the time, but several days later, after McNamara’s name had been circulated on social media, IHOPKC posted her name and contact information.

Manito told The Star that she turned over all of her files to McNamara.

“I was only helping to conduct interviews, not the actual investigation,” she said.

She said that while IHOPKC is responsible for paying the firm, it will not control the investigation and has no ability to dictate the process or outcome. The results of the investigation will be made public, she and Volz said.

“Everyone has some opinion — social media has allowed that to happen,” Manito said. “But our focus is on these allegations, getting to the truth of them. We’ve hired highly competent investigators to do so. They’ve conducted hundreds of investigations and have found misconduct more often than not.”

But Boz Tchividjian, the attorney representing Jane Doe, and those involved with the advocate group don’t believe the investigation will be impartial.

They point to a list of accomplishments listed on the law firm’s website that include obtaining “a complete dismissal” of a Texas lawsuit against a California diocese and its bishop in a case alleging that a seminary student sexually assaulted the plaintiff when the accuser was a minor.

Another example the firm cited was that it “represented a Roman Catholic diocese in a group settlement of 52 claims and a subsequent group settlement of 32 claims, resulting in per-claimant awards of less than one-third the national average.”

Tchividjian noted those examples as a key reason the accusers and their advocates had concerns about IHOPKC’s choice of the third-party firm.

“...I have had the privilege to work with several individuals who have reported being abused and traumatized while being a part of the IHOPKC community,” he said in a Dec. 16 post on X. “I can assure you that this group wants the full truth to surface with the hope that those who have perpetrated abuse will be exposed and held accountable and that the system which fostered such a harmful environment will be genuinely transformed.”

Tchividjian noted that he was “quite surprised” to get an email on Dec. 8 “from yet another attorney from yet another law firm requesting to interview my client.”

“It was disheartening to many that we were right back at square one with IHOPKC engaging another law firm to conduct what it defined as an ‘independent investigation,’” he said. “Only this time, the law firm is one that proudly touts its representation of defendant organizations (including but not limited to the Catholic Church) in sexual abuse related litigation.”

Why, he asked, would reported sexual abuse and misconduct victims meet with an attorney “from a firm that represents churches in sexual abuse matters and then boasts about its successes?”

“… It cannot represent and defend institutional clients in such cases and then turn around and invite reported sexual abuse victims to meet with its attorneys and to trust them,” he said. “It simply doesn’t work that way.”

On Monday, IHOPKC released two paragraphs of its engagement agreement with the Lathrop firm. According to the document, the scope of engagement “is to conduct an independent investigation into allegations of sexual abuse/misconduct” by Bickle.

The document also said that “we understand that we have been retained to investigate and only make an objective assessment of the facts, including making credibility determinations, free from any influence by anyone with IHOPKC or any of its agents.”

“IHOPKC specifically acknowledges and agrees that our fee is not in any way contingent on the outcome of our investigation.”

Tchividjian said IHOPKC’s actions “simply confirmed my concerns that IHOPKC is in the driver’s seat in a process that they alone have dictated.”

“The approach IHOPKC is taking is clearly focused on maintaining control and protecting the institution,” he said. “It is not too late for IHOPKC to change course and begin working with representatives of the reported victims to come up with a process that is genuinely independent and one that ensures that those stepping forward to share their trauma are made to feel comfortable and safe.

“Until then, it is highly unlikely that reported victims and witnesses will participate in such a fundamentally flawed process.”