IHOPKC staffer investigated in 2018 for sexual misconduct has left the organization

An IHOPKC staff member who was the subject of a 2018 independent investigation into sexual misconduct allegations has left the global, round-the-clock prayer organization, a spokesman told The Star.

Brad Tebbutt’s last day at IHOPU was Dec. 8, said Eric Volz, the recently hired spokesman for the International House of Prayer of Kansas City. IHOPU is the organization’s university.

Tebbutt’s departure “was a mutual decision made in the best interest of the IHOPKC community and Mr. Tebbutt’s family,” Volz said in an email to The Star on Wednesday. “Not once during Mr. Tebbutt’s time on staff at IHOPKC has there ever been a report of misconduct or inappropriate behavior by him.”

Tebbutt’s exit further highlights the turmoil within the 24/7 charismatic prayer movement, which on Friday announced it was “immediately, formally and permanently” separating from founder Mike Bickle, saying it had confirmed “a level of inappropriate behavior” involving the well-known leader.

Tebbutt, who had been on staff at IHOPKC for more than a decade, could not be reached for comment. He has never spoken publicly about sexual misconduct allegations against him that were at the center of the independent investigation.

In February 2018, Jennifer Graves Roach, of Washington, accused Tebbutt of sexually abusing her for 2 ½ years starting when she was 14 and he was a 27-year-old youth pastor at a Baptist church in Modesto, California. When Roach came forward, Tebbutt was the director of the Simeon Company Internship at IHOPKC, a ministry for those 50 and older.

IHOPKC put Tebbutt on administrative leave and hired GRACE, a Virginia nonprofit whose name stands for Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, to conduct a third-party investigation. GRACE was founded by Boz Tchividjian, a former child abuse chief prosecutor and grandson of the late Rev. Billy Graham.

The investigation was completed in early 2019, but IHOPKC did not release the results. Last month, however, a 15-page executive summary of the findings was leaked. The report, dated Jan. 31, 2019, warned IHOPKC leaders that additional allegations against others associated with the ministry had surfaced that needed to be immediately investigated.

Failure to do so and to implement recommended changes, the report said, “is likely to result in continued missteps when handling and responding to misconduct issues at IHOP.”

Tebbutt’s leaving IHOPKC comes as the ministry continues to wrestle with sex abuse allegations against Bickle that surfaced in late October. Those allegations prompted IHOPKC’s leadership team to ask Bickle to step away from public ministry “to allow for a proper inquiry to be conducted.”

On Friday night, Volz announced on multiple social media sites that “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.”

“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 also announced that IHOPKC Executive Director Stuart Greaves had resigned and stepped down from the organization’s board of directors. No explanation was given for the resignation at the time.

On Wednesday, Volz told The Star that Greaves’ resignation “was a mutual, amicable decision made in the best interest of his family and the IHOPKC community.”

On Dec. 10, IHOPKC leaders announced the hiring of a third-party firm to conduct an “independent and impartial investigation” into the allegations against Bickle. But that investigation has been bogged down in controversy, with alleged victims and their advocates questioning how the law firm IHOPKC hired — Lathrop GPM — could be impartial. They pointed to a list of accomplishments on the firm’s website, saying it “proudly touts its representation of defendant organizations (including but not limited to the Catholic Church) in sexual abuse related litigation.”

Why, asked Tchividjian — who now is in private practice and is working with some of Bickle’s accusers — would reported victims of sexual abuse and misconduct meet with an attorney “from a firm that represents churches in sexual abuse matters and then boasts about its successes?”

But Volz countered Wednesday that Lathrop was capable of conducting an independent investigation. IHOPKC’s 2018 engagement agreement with GRACE, he said, is the same as IHOPKC’s current agreement with Lathrop.

“Yet, somehow, the 2018 GRACE engagement is considered an ‘independent investigation’ by the media, Boz Tchividjian and the Advocate Group,” he said, referring to those who support Bickle’s accusers. “Further, in contrast to the 2018 GRACE investigation, IHOPKC has confirmed that it will release the report upon completion of the independent investigation.”

When asked Wednesday about the status of the third-party investigation, Volz said it was “well underway and still pending, and as such, we cannot comment further on the matter.”

Bickle, 68, issued his first public statement on the allegations on Dec. 12, admitting that he had “sinned” and “my moral failures were real.”

But he was vague on details. In a lengthy note on X, formerly Twitter, Bickle 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).”

Allen Hood, IHOPKC’s former associate director who also was head of IHOP University for 16 years, said he and former Chief Operating Officer Jono Hall led an internal investigation of Tebbutt in 2018 and strongly pushed for an outside, independent investigation.

Hood said, however, that “there was pushback at every point.” And during the GRACE investigation, he said, Tebbutt refused to be interviewed: “He said something to the effect that Jesus told him that he didn’t have to do the interview.”

“I was adamant that he must be interviewed or be released from staff,” Hood said.

After the GRACE report was completed, Hood said, the leadership disregarded its recommendations, putting Tebbutt in charge of recruitment for IHOPU.

“It was just morally reprehensible to me,” he said. “I voted for the removal of Brad from staff. I protested their keeping of him on staff at every turn, verbally and in writing to the executive leadership team and board.

“And after I left and Jono (Hall) had left, there was no one stopping the exec team from putting him in whatever position they wanted.”

The 2019 GRACE report said that during its investigation into the Tebbutt case, it found other disturbing allegations as well.

“GRACE also noted that several different individuals brought concerning information to GRACE relating to specific instances of alleged sexual misconduct reportedly committed by other individuals associated with IHOP,” the document’s final paragraph said.

“This information falls outside the scope of this investigation regarding Brad Tebbutt and is therefore not included here but will be addressed in a follow-up communication with IHOP in the coming weeks.”

Volz told The Star on Wednesday that “IHOPKC can confirm through current leadership and those in leadership at that time, that the matters mentioned at the end of the GRACE report were addressed completely and appropriately.”

The 2019 GRACE report said that it “has received no information pertaining to Mr. Tebbutt’s engaging in sexual misconduct or sexual abuse while at IHOP.” But it said that Tebbutt refused to talk to the investigators during the process.

It found that when Tebbutt applied for an internship at IHOPKC in 2012, the application asked about any previous allegations of physical or sexual abuse. Tebbutt answered that while an intern in youth ministry, he “moved outside of (his) marriage to find emotional fulfillment” with a 16-year-old girl that “went no further than inappropriate touch.”

“Despite this admission, Mr. Tebbutt was admitted into an IHOP internship,” the report said. In 2013, it said, Tebbutt was elevated to director of the Simeon Company Internship.

Tebbutt’s admission alone, the report said, “regardless of whether he committed the act of sexual penetration, should have been enough to prohibit him from working in a leadership and/or pastoral role.”

It added that his “vague” responses to the matter when Roach reported it in 2018 and his explanation of those events on his internship application in 2012 “demonstrate that Mr. Tebbutt minimizes or fails to appreciate the gravity of his potentially criminal and clearly destructive sinful behaviors.”

Among GRACE’s recommendations was for leaders to decide whether Tebbutt would be permitted to return to IHOPKC.

“Without a proven demonstration of authentic repentance, Brad Tebbutt’s employment and association with IHOP should be terminated,” the report said. “Should he be permitted to return to IHOP, he must never be allowed on the property when minors are present. In addition, he must never be allowed at, or granted participation in, any off-campus IHOP activities in which minors are present.”

But current and former leaders said that Tebbutt was placed in a position in which he helped recruit minors ages 14 to 17 to attend IHOPU and the organization’s youth camps. He remained in that position, they said, until he left.