IHOPKC founder Mike Bickle’s sister doubles down on his defense during sermon
After causing a stir over a sermon last week in support of IHOPKC founder Mike Bickle, his sister doubled down in a new message Sunday, raising further questions about whether a comeback is underway for the fallen charismatic leader.
In a 51-minute message that many observers described as disjointed, Lisa Stribling, a pastor at HopeCity KC in Kansas City, acknowledged that she’d created a firestorm over her Aug. 3 sermon.
“The conflict is over whether I can say Mike Bickle can be pardoned,” Stribling said. “The argument then began over whether I said Mike could return to the pulpit. That’s not what I said. I said that a pardon was being issued to Mike Bickle, and it was going to be issued for the church at the same time.”
Sunday’s message was a sequel to Stribling’s sermon the previous week, during which she declared that God had pardoned Bickle, called the sex abuse allegations against him a “false narrative” and “exotic trash” and ordered critics to “knock it off.”
She also implied that Bickle should be allowed to return to ministry, saying that ministries and churches who wanted to have Bickle or any of his former International House of Prayer-Kansas City leadership team to minister to them “should feel free to do so without any further harassment.”
It marked the first time a Bickle family member had 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.
HopeCity KC, a house of prayer and community center, is run by Stribling and her husband, Ray, on Kansas City’s east side.
During her Sunday sermon, Stribling showed a video clip from around 2015 of Bickle sharing the stage with former IHOPKC associate director Allen Hood and Deborah Perkins, the original Jane Doe whose sexual abuse allegations against Bickle surfaced in late 2023.
In the decade-old video, Hood and Perkins shared personal incidents that Bickle used to reinforce his narrative of IHOPKC’s prophetic history.
A page from Bickle’s playbook?
Former IHOPKC staffers, leaders and supporters said Stribling’s message was like a page from Bickle’s playbook, further bolstering speculation that Bickle is planning a return to the ministry.
“I feel like I’m listening to a Mike Bickle sermon,” wrote Tom Cole, a former IHOPKC staffer whose comment was among hundreds posted on HopeCity KC’s Facebook page.
Hood issued a harsh statement Sunday night in response to Stribling’s message.
“I have long appreciated the many years of ministry to the poor by Lisa and Ray Stribling,” Hood said. “That history makes it all the more grievous to witness Lisa’s recent false prophecy and spiritual manipulation — actions that now serve to empower her brother, Mike Bickle, to resist honest confession and repentance for his sexual abuse.”
Stribling’s message, he said, “mirrors dozens of prior moments when Mike used leaders — specifically Deborah and me — to rally people’s belief in IHOPKC’s prophetic history, affirm his unique leadership, and recommit to 24/7 prayer.”
“This is one of the dynamics I have grieved and repented of in my apology earlier this year,” he said. “To anyone harmed by my words played in Lisa’s message, please forgive me.”
Stribling’s decision “to use a victim’s prior video in this context amounts to prophetic gaslighting — wounding not only the victims but also their advocates, IHOPKC staff, and the wider Body of Christ,” Hood said.
“The truth remains as clear today as when Deborah Perkins came forward in October 2023 and Tammy Woods in February 2024: Mike Bickle must publicly repent of a longstanding pattern of sexual predation and deception. Until he does, the harm to the Body of Christ will continue.”
Other former IHOPKC staff members and followers sharply criticized Stribling’s actions as well.
“I have personally not said much about the IHOPKC/Mike Bickle crisis over the past 2 years,” former staffer Josh MacDonald posted on his Facebook page Monday morning. “For several reasons, I have chosen to have these conversations more in a private context, including with leadership and with MB himself.”
But MacDonald said he was stunned at Stribling’s recent tactics.
“I am dumbfounded by the way Mike’s sister, Lisa, has chosen to speak out in the past few weeks — from messages that are as manipulative and gaslighting as humanly possible, to cryptic Facebook posts that, in all honesty, sound like something written after one too many drinks,” he wrote. “And then, to see her use old clips from Allen Hood and Deborah in her most recent message is beyond me.”
One person, however, said it was time for Bickle’s critics “to shut your mouths and pray.”
“I wonder if you have prayed continually for Mike and the people involved?” wrote Dorothy Murray Elder on HopeCity’s Facebook page. “Or do you just throw stones. One of the duties of the church is to pray and rebuke demonic spirits. We are not ignorant of his devices. Those with negative stones in your hands, have you continually done this or invited God to fix it? No, but you are exalting your own feelings!”
Stribling said she knew critics would denounce what she did Sunday.
“They’re going to make me look like a crazy woman, and that’s OK, because we’re talking to a room full of people who’s already went to Hell and back,” she said. “Most of them have faced death in their life 30 times. So we’re not afraid to die.
“So we lay down our life for the cause because we’re not afraid to die. And those who aren’t afraid to die for Christ, the devil will have no control of you at all.”
Third-party investigation found 17 victims
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.” In a lengthy note posted on X, he 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. https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article283459528.html
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. The examination was conducted by Firefly Investigations, a Pennsylvania company with law enforcement expertise.
HopeCity KC was mentioned as a “concern” in the Firefly report.
“We have received reports from several interviewed witnesses about alleged sexually abusive misconduct within this organization,” the report said. “Testimonies from witnesses revealed a consistent pattern of not reporting sexual misconduct incidents and highlighted the absence of clear reporting policies.”
‘However, we realize that Hope City was a startup from IHOPKC and is a separate independent organization. Any further investigation would be outside the scope.”
