The investigation of Mike Bickle, the founder of the International House of Prayer Kansas City, is facing a new allegation. A woman identified only as Jane Doe this week alleged that 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 intercourse.
IHOPKC’s executive leadership said it has not confirmed this or other allegations. “To date, IHOPKC has not been presented with any evidence that substantiates sexual abuse allegations against Mike Bickle,” it said. “Facts matter, and Mike, like anyone else, should be considered innocent of the charges until evidence establishes the contrary.”
Jane Doe said 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,” she said.
She alleges that one Sunday after service, Bickle told her in front of his wife, Diane, that he had dreamed about her and prophesied that she was his Esther and he was like David from the Bible. She said during their encounters, Bickle told her that his wife was going to die. “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 IHOPKC leaders 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 longstanding,” the statement said. “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.”
IHOPKC explained in its “Report on Initial Findings” that it had identified five of some eight women whom 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.
–Alan Goforth |Metro Voice
