IHOPKC’s early findings on sex abuse claims show rift between current, former leadership
The International House of Prayer of Kansas City has released a report of its initial findings involving sex abuse allegations against the ministry’s founder.
The report discounts some of the allegations brought forth by former IHOPKC leaders last month that prompted the ministry’s current leadership team to ask Mike Bickle to step away from public ministry “to allow for a proper inquiry to be conducted.”
“After three weeks of examination, IHOPKC has identified five of eight alleged victims,” said the report, dated Nov. 15 and released on the ministry’s website. “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 report also criticized the motives of what it referred to as the “complaint group” that presented the allegations to IHOPKC leaders, saying the men “did not have permission to include at least four of the women in their list of alleged victims.”
The release of the findings raises further questions about the allegations and how the investigation is being handled. It also highlights a deepening rift between the former IHOPKC leaders and the current leadership team.
Dwayne Roberts, a member of the group that reported the allegations, said in a statement to The Roys Report, a Christian media outlet, that IHOPKC’s initial findings were “disappointing on several levels.”
“We are firmly convinced that no charge should be made against an elder except in the case of two or three witnesses,” said Roberts, a founding member of IHOPKC. “The fact that around 20 witnesses have come forward with first-hand experience of impropriety was why we could no longer remain silent.”
Bickle, 68, founded IHOPKC in 1999 as a 24/7 evangelical and missions organization with its world headquarters in south Kansas City. He has not responded publicly to the allegations, which surfaced on Oct. 27 when leaders called a meeting to inform staff members. They originally described Bickle’s alleged actions as “misconduct,” then later said the allegations were “unsettling” and involved “sexual immorality.”
The day after IHOPKC leaders told the staff about Bickle, the three former leaders issued a statement saying they had made the leadership team aware of the allegations. They described the incidents as “clergy sexual abuse” and said they found the allegations “to be credible and long-standing.”
The newly released report said that on Oct. 24, the complaint group presented IHOPKC’s executive leadership team with allegations it said were made by eight women it represented.
The report said the leadership team took the allegations seriously and within days began consulting outside legal experts on how best to handle the issue.
“Significantly, at all times, the allegations were treated as if they were credible in order to care for any past or present victim while objective due diligence was to be performed,” the report said. “However, upon review by outside legal counsel, it was determined that the collection and presentation of the allegations by the Complaint Group lacked any semblance of reliability or due process.”
It said the document the group prepared to go along with its presentation of the allegations “does not contain any actual evidence: no statements from the victims, whether sworn or unsworn, and no emails, texts, or other exhibits between Mr. Bickle and the alleged victim to substantiate the allegations (only blank squares acting as exhibit placeholders).”
The group’s claims came with a list of demands, the report said.
“These demands and threats, which included dictating the use of IHOPKC’s funds, generated an atmosphere of concern regarding the true objectives of the Complaint Group,” it said.
The report also said that “it has become abundantly clear over the last three weeks that four of the women were presented as alleged victims without their consent.”
Some of the allegations, it said, were contained in a document and others were presented verbally.
Three women mentioned in the document were identified by their initials, it said. Five anonymous Jane Does were also listed, it said, but the complaint group would not provide their names or any details of the allegations.
“Then, IHOPKC was given the names of two additional women orally during conversations that took place the week of October 24,” the report said. “At that point, a total of five alleged victims had been identified by name.”
The claims of the first woman — that Bickle emotionally pursued and “prophetically manipulated” her more than 25 years ago — could not be verified, the report said.
“The allegation contains only six short lines of text and is non-sexual,” it said. “It contains no first person statements by the alleged victim herself. … It remains unclear if she gave permission for her name to be included as an alleged victim.”
With the second woman, the report said, there was “partial credibility established.” The allegation was from 26 years ago, before IHOPKC was founded, it said.
“The allegations include physical contacts between Mr. Bickle and an adult woman; it is also insinuated that Mr. Bickle may have committed a crime,” the report said. “IHOPKC has not been able to determine whether this criminal allegation has any credibility.”
IHOPKC’s attorney tried unsuccessfully to contact the woman, the report said. On Nov. 10, IHOPKC learned that the founder of GRACE — a Virginia nonprofit whose name stands for Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment — was representing her.
The report said that a third allegation presented to leaders was that a woman had been pursued emotionally and was a victim of “prophetic manipulation” by Bickle from 2013 to 2018. But on Nov. 2, the report said, she publicly refuted that she was a victim.
“The woman also sent a letter to IHOPKC’s attorney stating that the Complaint Group were ‘bullies’ and that she never gave them permission to use her name,” it said.
A fourth woman, who was identified as a victim of Bickle by the leader of the complaint group, issued a lengthy public statement on Oct. 31 that she was not a victim, the report said.
A fifth woman also on Oct. 31 refuted any claims that she had been sexually or spiritually abused by Bickle, releasing a public statement on her social media account, the report said.
A sixth woman, the report said, sent IHOPKC leadership an email on Nov. 3 saying she was hurt to hear that her name had surfaced regarding allegations against Bickle. It said she emphatically denied “that any form of abuse or any inappropriate relationship with Mr. Bickle had ever taken place.”
The report concluded that bringing in a third party to investigate the organization was premature “until IHOPKC can establish the credibility of the allegations and genuine intent of the Complaint Group.”
It added, however, that “IHOPKC remains open to inviting a third party (or even multiple third parties) to examine these findings.”
“It is our sincerest desire that alleged anonymous Jane Does would come forward as soon as possible, either directly to IHOPKC’s attorney, via the Complaint Group or through their own legal representative, so that IHOPKC can then take the appropriate next steps,” it said.
In a note to followers dated Nov. 15, the executive leadership team said IHOPKC was committed to investigating sexual abuse allegations and that “if you are a victim of any form of sexual abuse, past or present, or if you are the victim of or a witness to any crime, please immediately report it to the proper law enforcement authorities.”
It added: “You are encouraged to report any form of sexual abuse to IHOPKC staff as well. We stand ready to provide pastoral care and counseling.”
The note said the crisis “has highlighted things in our organization that need to be improved,” adding that some issues needed to be addressed immediately.
The first change to be implemented, it said, would be to announce “a clear and simple process and protocol for people who want to report any form of sexual abuse.”
The note also addressed concerns that have been raised about hiring a law firm to conduct an independent investigation. Leaders originally announced that they had hired Stinson LLP, a national law firm with an office in Kansas City. But last week, after a change.org petition began circulating that called for them to hire GRACE, they told followers that they had instead decided to retain a local law firm.
Leaders are refusing to provide the name of the firm.
“As you can understand, IHOPKC will not be revealing the name of the law firm in order to protect the attorneys and their families from Cancel Culture,” Lenny La Guardia, a member of the leadership team, said in an email to The Star on Thursday.
They said Stinson LLP was initially hired because it was one of the largest firms in the nation that represents sexual abuse victims in the context of religious organizations.
“Since one of the allegations brought forward would be considered criminal in nature, we believe that attorneys like the Stinson team, comprised of subject matter experts and former federal prosecutors, would be the most skilled at thoroughly and legally examining all the facts,” the note said. “We still believe this, which is why, after many expressed a lack of trust in a national law firm, we decided to choose a local KC law firm with a reputable attorney to conduct interviews with alleged victims.”
The note acknowledged that many in the IHOPKC community and on social media had been demanding that it use an outside party that specializes in church abuse rather than a law firm to conduct a wide investigation.
And it said while leaders were not opposed to using an outside party, GRACE could not be that party because its founder was now representing Bickle’s primary accuser.
“This attorney is also currently listed as a board member on G.R.A.C.E.’s website,” the IHOPKC leaders’ note said. “This represents a clear conflict of interest for G.R.A.C.E. and disqualifies the organization as a candidate to be an objective third party.”
They were referring to Boz Tchividjian, a former child abuse chief prosecutor and grandson of the late Rev. Billy Graham who founded GRACE in 2003. In 2018, IHOPKC hired GRACE to conduct an independent investigation into allegations by a Washington woman who said an IHOPKC missionary had sexually abused her for 2 ½ years when she was a teen and he was a youth pastor at a Baptist church in Modesto, California.
The results of that investigation weren’t made public.
This story was originally published November 17, 2023 at 8:29 AM.
