Within the wake of extra allegations in opposition to its founder Mike Bickle, the Worldwide Home of Prayer Kansas Metropolis (IHOPKC) has suspended dwell streaming for the 24/7 prayer room that outlined its motion.
On Thursday evening, the show learn: “IHOPKC is getting into a season of prayer and repentance. The day earlier than, The Kansas Metropolis Star a narrative got here out a few girl who mentioned Bickle abused her as a 14-year-old within the Eighties when she was his household's nanny and he was pastor at St. Louis.
IHOPKC issued a declaration condemning Bickle's “predatory and gross” actions, standing by his victims and apologizing for his preliminary response that allowed him to defend himself when the allegations surfaced final fall.
The ministry severed ties with Bickle in December, however that didn't cease additional revelations and considerations about IHOPKC and its management.
In a seven-page report launched final week, the investigative agency employed by IHOPKC to analyze allegations of abuse in opposition to Bickle concluded:
Primarily based on all credible proof, together with his personal affirmation of contact with two Jane Does over twenty years in the past, it’s extra probably than not that [Bickle] engaged in inappropriate habits, together with sexual contact and clerical misconduct, abuse of energy for an individual able of belief and management.
The 2 incidents Bickle acknowledges — one involving “inappropriate habits” together with two situations of kissing and the opposite, which he describes as “consensual sexual contact that concerned her touching me however me not touching her” — occurred in 1999 and 2002 -2003.
The report shouldn’t be exhaustive; no less than two of Bickle's alleged victims didn’t take part within the phrases of the investigation and are demanding a “actually impartial third social gathering” investigation.
The report additionally didn’t embody the newest message from former nanny Tammy Woods, who simply broke her 43-year silence to report the abuse to her household, pastor and police.
Woods mentioned The Kansas Metropolis Star that she met Bickle at church and their relationship grew from pleasant mentorship and religious encouragement to specific emotions for one another. Wooden's childhood pal and youthful sister additionally mentioned the pastor had a unusually shut bond together with her as a freshman in highschool.
Woods mentioned that when she was 14 and Bickle was 25, they kissed in secret and progressed to fondling and sexual touching. She advised the newspaper: “He moved my hand to the touch him sexually. And he touched me in return.”
Woods, now 57, recounted a element shared by different victims: Bickle advised her he believed his spouse was going to die and so they could possibly be collectively.
In response to Woods, Bickle would “worry about failure” and apologize after he bodily crossed the road together with her, and she or he vowed to maintain his secret to the grave when he moved from St. Louis in 1983. Louis to Kansas Metropolis.
They stayed in contact over time, seeing one another a number of occasions in a service setting, she mentioned. Woods, who lives in Michigan, corresponded with Bickle after the allegations surfaced in October and when he made the assertion in December. She mentioned he advised her: “I do know you've mentioned it over time because you forgave me, however I need to say it once more. Please forgive me. I used to be clueless. I might have gone to jail.”
Bickle has not publicly responded to Woods' account.
The advocacy group — former IHOPKC leaders who got here to Bickle and his ministry with the allegations final fall — is standing by their considerations after a number of ladies who name themselves “by no means Jane Does” spoke out in opposition to their inclusion within the first set of allegations and mentioned they weren’t victims of Bickle.
In a single video from the advocacy group, members Dean Briggs and John Chisholm defined that they resigned from main IHOPKC in September over one other incident: the division's mishandling of an alleged affair between Mike Bickle's son and the spouse of an IHOPKC worker. They cited the 50-page testimony of the lady's husband, which they mentioned was introduced to high officers.
Others have left amid the persevering with revelations surrounding Bickle, together with former IHOPKC government director Stuart Greaves and former IHOP College president David Silker.
Eric Volz, a disaster communicator who led IHOPKC's public response, concluded his work for the ministry final week. On Wednesday he he said he was unaware of Woods' allegations “and neither was the IHOPKC”.
Abuse lawyer and advocate Boz Tchividjian, who represents no less than one in all Bickle's victims, criticized the division's response.
“IHOPKC leaders ought to write a e book on the steps poisonous Christian communities can take to fail miserably to guard these with much less energy whereas marginalizing and vilifying others who carry darkness to gentle,” he wrote on Threads. “All of it begins with management that embraces vanity and ignorance.”
The scandal has annoyed former IHOPKC members who say they skilled an unhealthy tradition on the ministry and who’re praying for extra transparency and accountability. In current weeks, even charismatic leaders who had been near the motion spoke out in regards to the scandal.
Lou Engle, founding father of TheCall prayer ministry, spent 5 years at IHOPKC and based the Justice Home of Prayer in DC. He released assertion Tuesday, saying he believed the protection attorneys and “Jane Doe,” that he was praying for a full confession from Bickle and needed to see a mutually agreed-upon impartial investigation.
In a name for “excessive repentance,” Engle wrote that God has eyes “tolerating ethical laxity and sexual immorality—particularly abuse by clergy within the church” and that leaders want to listen to the cries of “many hundreds of girls…have been wounded by leaders within the physique of Christ.”
Two weeks in the past, the prophet Jeremiah Johnson shared a dream wherein he advised Bickle that he had been revealed and that the motion would transfer from Kansas Metropolis to the nations. He urged his followers to wish for the state of affairs in IHOPKC, for the way forward for the prayer motion, and for fact and repentance.
Evangelist Matt Brown, who was one of many many individuals who tuned into the dwell stream of the IHOP prayer, mentioned he was sickened by the allegations in opposition to Bickle and his partial confession.
“I do not know how somebody who was so dedicated to the prayer motion might secretly manipulate and abuse these they take care of. It’s completely mistaken and evil,” he said Brown, founding father of Suppose Eternity Ministry.
“I’ve a sense there might be many 'orphans' within the prayer motion. I pray for therapeutic and luxury for these he abused, for the revelation of all that occurred, and for mercy for the various prayerful people who find themselves left confused and devastated.”
