IHOPKC says Mike Bickle’s actions ‘predatory,’ apologizes for handling of abuse claims
International House of Prayer-Kansas City leaders say they believe that founder Mike Bickle sexually abused two women — one as a minor — calling his actions “predatory” and “sick” and apologizing for how they’ve addressed the allegations.
Their statement, the most conciliatory to date in the monthslong scandal, came a day after The Star reported a new allegation by Tammy Woods, a Michigan woman who said Bickle sexually abused her in the 1980s starting when she was 14 and a babysitter for his two young children.
“Words cannot express the anger, shock, heartbreak, and sadness we have experienced as we have learned of allegations and testimonies of sexual abuse and manipulation concerning Mike Bickle, founder of IHOPKC,” said the statement that was posted Thursday night on X, formerly Twitter, and signed by “The IHOPKC Leadership Team.”
“We believe that Mike Bickle sexually abused and manipulated Jane Doe and Tammy Woods, who was a minor at the time. His predatory and abusive actions are sick and violate the Word of God, the marriage covenant, and holiness; we condemn them in their entirety.”
The statement went on to say that words alone “are insufficient to communicate the pain and anguish many have (borne) in this and prior seasons as a result of Mike Bickle’s wrongdoings.”
“Our hope and prayer is that victims in our community, and in any community, find solace and healing through the mercy of Christ.”
An hour before issuing the apology, IHOPKC announced that its Global Prayer Room would continue to operate around the clock but that “in light of this season of mourning and repentance, we will not be live-streaming all sets.” It told followers to “join us in the prayer room or online daily at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. CT beginning February 12.”
Woods, using her maiden name, told her story exclusively to The Star this week. She said the abuse occurred in the early 1980s in St. Louis, where Bickle pastored a church before moving to Kansas City and later founding the 24/7 global prayer ministry IHOPKC in 1999. She said the abuse took place in Bickle’s car, at her home, in the church and in his office, and that it involved sexual contact but not intercourse. And, she said, Bickle had told her multiple times that he believed his wife, Diane, would die young and that they could then be together.
Now 57 and a mother and grandmother, Woods said she didn’t tell anyone for 43 years. But after watching the details unfold about a woman identified as Jane Doe, whose sexual abuse allegations were made public in October and led to Bickle’s removal and upheaval in the international prayer movement, Woods said she couldn’t keep silent any longer.
She told her husband, some family members and her pastors last week. And on Saturday, she said, she called St. Louis police and filed a report.
Woods said she hoped that by speaking out, “somehow it helps the others to find their voice and say, ‘You know what? We don’t want to have a life sentence of shadows and lies. We don’t want to be given a script, like we can be manipulated as some pawns.”
Woods’ story contained several similarities to that of Bickle’s primary accuser, Jane Doe, who has said in interviews, including with The Star, that Bickle sexually abused her from 1996 to 1999. She said it started 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. During that time, she said, Bickle had sexual interactions with her that included everything except intercourse.
Bickle, when contacted by email several times on Wednesday, did not provide a comment and has not yet responded to Woods’ allegations.
‘We are committed to do better’
Reaction to Woods’ revelation was swift and intense, prompting thousands of posts on X, with many comments supporting Woods and expressing disgust and anger toward Bickle.
In their statement Thursday night, IHOPKC leaders also apologized for allowing Bickle to preach at the ministry’s Forerunner Church on Oct. 13 and Oct. 20, shortly before they announced that he was stepping aside while they investigated the allegations.
The focus of Bickle’s Oct. 20 message was on false accusations. He made reference to the “black horse,” a story that is part of IHOPKC’s prophetic history taught by Bickle over the years. When accusations had been leveled against IHOPKC in the past, Bickle had used the “black horse” prophecy to explain them as demonic attacks.
When IHOPKC leaders first made the allegations against Bickle public at the end of October, they came under sharp criticism for giving Bickle a platform to preach that message when they were well aware of the claims against him.
“In hindsight, we realize that Mike’s two Friday night messages on October 13th and 20th were manipulative attempts to construct a narrative of innocence concerning himself,” they said in their Thursday night statement. “We deeply regret allowing him on the platform, and we acknowledge and apologize for the pain and confusion this caused.”
The leaders also apologized for their handling of an Oct. 27 staff meeting, where they said the accusations against Bickle involved “misconduct.”
“… Our staff meeting on October 27th lacked the necessary disclosure and candor to meet the gravity of the situation,” Thursday’s statement said. “For this, we also apologize.”
Some who attended the Oct. 27 staff meeting were visibly upset at the lack of transparency. Dean Briggs, who had just resigned from IHOPKC’s leadership team, shouted that the explanation of the allegations was “well-intended, righteous bull----.”
And the next day, the three former IHOPKC leaders who had reported the accusations to leadership issued a statement saying they involved clergy sexual abuse by Bickle that spanned several decades and were “credible and long-standing.” Those former leaders and others who support the accusers have become known as the “advocate group.”
The current IHOPKC leaders said in Thursday’s statement that “many in our community have been pained by our communications regarding these allegations.”
“We are sorry we fell short in this area and left you feeling unseen, unheard and unappreciated. We thank you for your patience and perseverance in spite of our shortcomings,” the statement said. “As a leadership team, we are committed to do better.”
Shortly after the statement was posted on X, Isaac Bennett, senior pastor of Forerunner Church, issued an apology of his own.
“My heart is breaking for the broken,” Bennett wrote. “Oh God, have mercy and forgive us for our sins and the sins of our fathers. I ask healing and restoration for all the afflicted and mercy on all who have come short.
“Tammy and Jane Does, I am so sorry for what you’ve been through. The pain and agony is great. I am praying for the love and peace of Christ to rest on you and your families.”
Bennett also addressed the IHOPKC community.
“… I love you so very much. Your lives are precious and your hearts sincere. The labors of love that pour forth are like water in the midst of a dry and weary land. We enter a season of mourning to grieve the loss and sins of a spiritual father, continue to seek the Lord, bring to light deficiencies, defend the vulnerable, and prepare a better future for our children.”
‘A deeply disturbing theme’
On Wednesday, IHOPKC attorney Audrey Manito said in an email to The Star that the ministry didn’t know about Woods’ allegations until a Star reporter reached out to ask about them. She said the information “remains a deeply disturbing theme” and noted that “while the timeframe of the claimed misconduct is more than 40 years ago, and decades before IHOPKC was even in existence, the claim still resonates, and even much louder so, because it is the claim of an individual who was a minor at the time.”
Manito said IHOPKC had immediately reported the information to Rosalee McNamara, an attorney with Lathrop GPM who was hired to conduct what the ministry’s leaders described as an independent investigation of the Bickle allegations.
Last week, McNamara issued a report of the findings of her investigation, which concluded that Bickle “more likely than not” engaged in inappropriate behavior that included sexual contact and clergy misconduct.
That behavior was “an abuse of power for a person in a position of trust and leadership,” the report said. It also revealed that in addition to Jane Doe, Bickle had engaged in inappropriate contact with a second woman in 2002 and 2003.
Bickle, 68, issued his only public statement on Dec. 12, admitting that he had “sinned” and “my moral failures were real.” But he was vague on details. In a lengthy note posted on X, Bickle said his “inappropriate behavior” occurred more than 20 years ago, but he did not admit to engaging in any sexual misconduct.
On Dec. 22, IHOPKC announced that it was “immediately, formally and permanently” separating from Bickle, saying it had confirmed “a level of inappropriate behavior” on his part.
In her report last week, McNamara said that “the evidence is clear that MB has publicly admitted that 20 plus years ago he ‘sinned by engaging in inappropriate behavior. My moral failures were real.’” The report said Bickle also admitted to inappropriate contact on three occasions with another woman connected to IHOPKC.
“He described the contact as ‘consensual sexual contact that involved her touching me but not me touching her,’” McNamara wrote in the seven-page report. “He said they both agreed it was wrong and the conduct stopped. MB’s account and the account of the individual are very similar, including that it occurred in 2002 to 2003, and I find the individual’s account credible.”
Regarding the primary Jane Doe, the report said: “MB admitted that ‘over 25 years ago, prior to the [May 7, 1999] formation of IHOP, I recall five occasions where I engaged in inappropriate behavior with [her] (which includes two occasions when we kissed). We both repented and agreed that those actions were wrong. Our friendship has been entirely appropriate for decades, over which time I have received dozens of friendly emails from [her] …’”
Critics have complained that the investigation was far from impartial and have demanded what they say would be a true third-party investigation.
Woman says third-party investigation contains misrepresentations
On Thursday, a woman who McNamara’s report described as being someone who didn’t want to be included, issued a statement calling that “an overt” mischaracterization “of the truth.”
The woman, going by her initials, T.H, said she spoke to the advocate group and gave permission to use her story in the group’s initial report to IHOPKC leaders in October. But, she said, the McNamara report claims she didn’t want to be included as a possible Jane Doe.
“My understanding is that this woman does not want to be on any list,” the report said. “The only available evidence is that this may have occurred over twenty years ago. Her ex-husband expressed how he learned his ex-wife was very upset that she was identified on any list because she did not want to be involved, and he said she would have stood up for herself and told him if there was a relationship or anything of that nature.”
T.H. said in her statement Thursday that she had communicated with McNamara on Jan. 3 “and told her that I would happily share my story as soon as the advocacy group and IHOPKC were able to agree upon an independent third party investigation.” Her statement included a screenshot of the text message exchange with McNamara.
But the report, T.H. said, “proceeded to include false assertions made by my ex-husband on my behalf.”
“In no way do the words of my ex-husband, who himself was recently banned from the IHOPKC premises over his own sexual misconduct allegations, reflect my experience,” she said. “To seek out and give credence to his claims was extremely negligent and resulted in an audacious misrepresentation of the truth.”
T.H. noted that in another section of the report, McNamara wrote that there was credible evidence to support Bickle’s statement that “he did not tell anyone his wife was going to die and he would be with them or married to them.”
“This is simply not true,” T.H. said in her statement. “As I testified to the Advocacy Group in October, in 1983 Mike explicitly told me of a prophecy regarding the death of his wife Diane. He believed Diane’s death would happen in an earthquake in Saint Louis, and the implication of sharing the prophecy with me was that her death would open up a path forward for him and I to pursue a romantic relationship together.”
McNamara did not respond to an email Friday asking for comment on T.H.’s statement.
T.H. told The Star on Thursday afternoon that she came forward to “set the record straight and clear up the confusion” over what was said in the report.
“I had no idea he was speaking on my behalf,” she said of her ex-husband. “I haven’t talked to the man in a couple of years.”
She said when she read The Star’s story about Woods on Thursday, she immediately recalled a time when Bickle told her about a “special” person he knew back in St. Louis.
“I distinctly remember him talking about a girl in St. Louis that he referred to as someone like me,” T.H. said. “There was someone special, she was godly. This was when he came to Kansas City and started the church. So I knew there was someone in St. Louis. But I had no idea what that meant — how special she was.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2024 at 2:00 PM.
