(CP) A woman who alleges International House of Prayer Kansas City founder Mike Bickle wooed her with Scripture when she was just 19, and he was 42, then made her a kept woman for several years as he established his ministry, says he did everything with her sexually except intercourse.
The woman, who was identified as Jane Doe by The Roys Report, alleges that for approximately three years, from 1996 to 1999, Bickle paid for her apartment, gave her a key to his office, and engaged in every sexual act with her except copulation.
Jane Doe's allegation comes in the wake of an investigation by IHOPKC of Bickle for "serious allegations including sexual immorality" made against him by multiple women. Leaders of the organization have since said only one decades-old claim has "some credibility" so far, but they have hired an outside law firm to help them make sense of the situation.
In a response to Jane Doe's allegations Monday, IHOPKC's executive leadership team said they are yet to be presented with any evidence to support the allegations against Bickle.
"To date, IHOPKC has not been presented with any evidence that substantiates sexual abuse allegations against Mike Bickle. Facts matter, and Mike, like anyone else, should be considered innocent of the charges until evidence establishes the contrary," the executive leadership team told CP.
Jane Doe alleges that she previously shared her allegations with IHOPKC and in her account to TRR, she explained that her father was a friend of Bickle, and she moved to Kansas City in 1996 to work as his intern.
"I just remember feeling like he knew the same Jesus that I knew," Jane Doe said.
She alleges that one Sunday after service, Bickle told her in front of his wife, Diane, that he had dreamt about her and prophesied that she was his Esther, and he was like David from the Bible.
"He gives me the biggest word of my life," she told TRR. "It was, 'You're not just an Esther, you are going to lead thousands of Esthers.'"
After he delivered that powerful word to her, Jane Doe alleges Bickle called her a few weeks later from Asia with another word from God, but this time, she said he sounded drunk.
"He begins to tell me that the Lord has spoken to him, and that Diane is going to die and that we're going to get married," she said. "As he's talking to me, I'm thinking, 'Is he drunk?' And he did start talking about the alcohol that was in the fridge that he had been drinking."
She said during their encounters, Bickle told her that his wife was going to die at least 100 times.
"That line that Diane, his wife, is going to die and that we're going to get married—he at least said that to me 100 times," she said.
Dwayne Roberts, a founding member of IHOPKC; Brian Kim, a former IHOPKC executive leadership team member; and Wes Martin, a former pastor of Forerunner Church, previously revealed in a joint statement that they were the ones who first confronted leaders of the charismatic Evangelical Christian movement and missions organization about the allegations against Bickle spanning "several decades."
"Without going into details to protect the privacy of the victims' identities, we have found these allegations of clergy sexual abuse by Mike Bickle to be credible and long-standing," they began in their statement. "The credibility of these allegations is not based on any one experience or any one victim, but on the collective and corroborating testimony of the experiences of several victims."
They allege that before meeting with IHOPKC's leadership team, they attempted to discuss the allegations directly with Bickle "in the spirit of Matthew 18:15-17" but were rebuffed. They claim Bickle attempted to intimidate, isolate, manipulate and discredit his victims.
"When these allegations were brought to our attention, we were shocked. We could never have imagined that inappropriate conduct with women as something we would ever need to be concerned about," the former IHOPKC ministry workers said. "The allegations seemed out of character to the man we thought we knew, but they were so serious we could not ignore them."
Bickle, they allege, used his position of leadership over the women to manipulate them.
"We believe that Mike Bickle's actions were not above reproach and fall short of biblical standards for leaders in the church," the former IHOPKC workers said. "To be clear, the allegations made about Mike Bickle's misconduct were sexual in nature where the marriage covenant was not honored. Furthermore, the allegations made also reveal that Mike Bickle used his position of spiritual authority over the victims to manipulate them."
IHOPKC explained in their "Report on Initial Findings," that they identified five of some eight women who the complaint group alleges are Bickle's victims and found the evidence thin. Three of the alleged victims called the allegations "lies.'" One of the alleged victims refused to communicate with the attorneys for the ministry.
Just one of the cases, predating Bickle's founding of IHOPKC, was found to have some credibility. The woman making those allegations is represented by noted attorney Boz Tchividjian, who founded the Virginia-based organization GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), and is a grandson of the late evangelist Billy Graham.
IHOPKC's leadership team noted that even though the advocate group had initially pushed for the ministry to hire GRACE to investigate the claims against Bickle, they could not hire GRACE because of the Tchividjian's representation of the alleged victim.
"The Advocate Group has repeatedly been asked to come forward with direct evidence, but they have refused to do so. As stated in our Report on Initial Findings, the Advocate Group's allegations were also presented along with a list of pre-prepared demands 'to prevent escalating levels of disclosure'. These demands and threats, which included dictating the use of IHOPKC's funds, generated an atmosphere of concern regarding the true objectives of the Advocate Group," IHOPKC told CP Monday.
"In the past few weeks, people associated with the Advocate Group have publicly called for the IHOPKCs ELT to resign and be disbanded. We remain committed to verifying the remaining allegations and are in communication with multiple third parties to assist. We ask for patience. There is much at stake in getting to the truth."
