IHOPKC founder’s sister calls sex abuse allegations against him ‘exotic trash’
The youngest sibling of embattled International House of Prayer-Kansas City founder Mike Bickle defended him during a church service Sunday, calling sex abuse allegations against him a “false narrative” and “exotic trash.”
A defiant Lisa Stribling made the comments during a morning sermon at HopeCity KC, a house of prayer and community center run by Stribling and her husband on Kansas City’s east side, near East 23rd Street and Van Brunt Boulevard. Stribling’s 24-minute message about what she described as “some personal business that we need to take care of” was posted on HopeCity’s Facebook page Sunday, but has since been taken down.
It marked the first time a Bickle family member has spoken publicly about the allegations that surfaced in 2023 and led to his ouster from the 24/7 global prayer movement he founded in 1999. And many believe it signaled the existence of an effort underway by Bickle to orchestrate a comeback to the ministry.
“There has been a narrative that has surrounded Mike’s situation,” Stribling said during her message that elicited several rounds of applause from those attending. “This narrative is a false narrative. The Lord is retrieving this narrative right now, this very minute. The narrative now belongs to Jesus.”
Stribling said she had not talked to Bickle or asked his permission for what she was going to say. She said that “the Lord himself has given me a message, and he will be backing up my words very strongly to everyone; he will be backing up what I’m saying here.”
She said she was speaking “on God’s behalf.”
“There is a pardon being offered right now to the global church concerning Mike,” she said. “It’s being offered right now from heaven to the Body of Christ as a whole, regarding the name of Mike Bickle.”
Stribling’s words evoked a swift response from former IHOPKC followers and leaders.
“Lisa Stribling’s claim to speak for God while dismissing allegations against Mike Bickle as ‘exotic trash’ wrongly paints survivors as liars and itself perpetuates untruth,” said a statement from the Advocate Group, former IHOPKC leaders who supported those who came forward with allegations and pushed for an outside investigation.
“God can forgive all sins, but forgiveness requires genuine repentance and a biblical process, which is absent here. Unrepented sin carries consequences, including disqualification from leadership for those who’ve abused power — unfortunately for all, this is where we are at with Mike Bickle.”
Message was ‘delusional, cult-like’
Former IHOPKC staffer Brittany Hart called Stribling’s words “one of the most delusional, cult-like messages I have ever heard concerning Mike Bickle.”
“This is a perfect example of how Mike and his family spiritually manipulate people into supporting their dangerous belief systems,” Hart posted on Facebook Sunday afternoon. “Mike did the same thing with us: ‘God told me so that’s why I’m right and you have to believe me.’ It is outright spiritual abuse.”
The allegations against Bickle were made public in October 2023. He was accused of using prophecies to groom, sexually abuse and manipulate women over multiple decades, one starting when she was just 14.
Bickle, now 70, issued his only public statement about the allegations on Dec. 12, 2023, 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 earlier, but he did not admit to engaging in any sexual misconduct.
Ten days later, IHOPKC announced it was “immediately, formally and permanently” separating from Bickle, saying it had confirmed “a level of inappropriate behavior” involving the well-known charismatic leader.
In February, an independent investigation found that Bickle committed sexual abuse or misconduct against 17 women — some when they were minors — over decades, amid a thriving culture of systemic abuse and coverups within the prayer movement.
An eight-member Pastoral Recommendation Team provided suggestions in response to the investigation’s findings. Its report said Bickle “should be removed from ministry of any kind until a process of repentance, counseling, healing, and restoration has taken place” and “should be barred for his lifetime from ever holding a paid, professional, public ministry again.”
But the document left the door open for Bickle to return to ministry in an “informal” role, laying out the steps he needed to take in order to do so. That drew strong pushback from sex abuse survivors and former IHOPKC leaders and followers, who said the recommendations were weak and focused more on Bickle’s restoration than justice for his victims.
The report was then withdrawn for “clarification,” and a revised version is underway.
Sister warns critics to ‘knock it off’
Stribling said Sunday that Bickle “has served double what is required for him.”
“I’m saying this very, very strongly,” she said. “It is over. I’m not asking anybody’s permission. I’m telling you from this moment on, these stories are over. They’re over. The pardon has been issued to God by God himself, to Mike and to the church.”
She also addressed “the grooming narrative that has went on about Mike,” ordering those who are spreading stories to “knock it off.”
“Knock it off to the story that is going around, in which they say took place many, many, many years ago,” she said. “I have never read the story, and I will never read the story or ask questions about the story.
“So I’m telling you I don’t have knowledge about the story, and I don’t care. I am going to speak to it anyway. It has been reported to me, however, that the story is exotic trash. That’s what it is. This story and stories like it should never be investigated by the church. I have had people ask me, ‘Does it matter?’ Whether it’s true or not does not matter.”
Stribling said the Bickle family “was set up, lied about, trashed and misrepresented at every level.”
“This family is a righteous family, and has served this city and the globe diligently for 40 years,” she said.
As for the IHOP leadership team that was in place at the time the allegations surfaced, she said, “I’m declaring publicly they have done nothing wrong. They don’t have to go fix anything … these are righteous men and women that have laid their life down for the cause, that they were taken out unrighteously. God saw what happened, and he is going to vindicate you.”
She said Bickle “is the most integrous-filled, righteous man that we know — again, one who has laid his life down so that the prayer movement could go forth across the earth, and one who laid down his life for the cause of Israel to be ignited for the return of Jesus. And just so the record is clear, this information (the allegations against Bickle) went out the same week Israel was attacked.”
She said Bickle is the same person today as he was decades ago — “the most honest and righteous man that we know, his name is being restored from this moment on, thus saith the Lord.”
Ministries and churches who want to have Bickle or any of his former leadership team to minister to them “should feel free to do so without any further harassment,” Stribling said.
She issued a warning to those who continue to speak out against Bickle.
“If you do not stop, I have been given permission by the Lord himself to tell the entire story, the whole story past, present and future …
“And so I’m clear, these would be the stories that took place before, and in addition, the story that served as the on-ramp to get us to this place, and the story that took place during the last two years perpetrated by others concerning Mike Bickle and IHOP.
“It should be noted that one has already stepped forward to apologize for their part of the false accusations … ”
Hart, the former IHOPKC staffer, had a message for Stribling.
“No matter how much you try and threaten us into cowering down, we will keep speaking out on behalf of ourselves and the victims,” Hart said on her Facebook post. “We will not ‘knock it off.’ Or, to put it in language you might better understand, ‘we will not relent.’
“It’s not over. It’s not gone. This is only the beginning.”
This story was originally published August 4, 2025 at 12:16 PM.
