I first heard about IHOPKC in 2002, during my senior year of high school. I attended the 2002/2003 onething conference, and every onething after that, until about 2013. Twice in that time I went on a week-long pilgrimage of sorts to the prayer room, crashing with different friends. I tried to go to FSM right out of high school, but was talked out of it by my Baptist pastor, and ended up going to a Baptist bible college. Again in 2005, I wanted to drop out of bible college and move to KC, but was talked out of it by another pastor, in the Assemblies of God, whom I greatly admired. I stayed heavily committed to IHOP teachings and philosophy, however, until around 2013, when two issues soured me on the organization. Somewhere in the 2004-2005 period, I found a compilation track on the Fire on the Altar website of clips from a sermon by a prominent worship leader, superimposed over one the leader's songs. It was all about loving God by loving people, and I would listen to this comp on repeat, over and over, while I worked. It's not an exaggeration to say that message shaped my Christian life. So I was shocked when, at the 2012 or 2013 onething, I heard a leader tell a story in a main stage session that was so opposed to what I had come to believe. The leader was saying they had a new neighbor of Arabic descent moving in, and they had helped him move things, but hadn't explicitly shared the gospel with this man. One interaction, helping him move in. The next day, he was arrested and deported, because he was on some kind of terrorist list. The leader proceeded to say that the Holy Spirit then told them "every act of kindness without an explicit gospel presentation is preparing the way for the antichrist." I was appalled and walked out of the session and just hung around in the bookstore. The other event that happened was in that same time period, '12 or '13, but I'm not sure which year. I was serving as children's worship director for a multi-site church back home, and went to a onething breakout session about CEC. They seemed to be suggesting that all children could fully operate in the gifts of the Spirit. at any age. I was very concerned with the order of salvation back then, and didn't understand how they could find a biblical basis for children who had not first believed the gospel to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I didn't think such a thing was even possible. So I went up after the session and asked the main leader how children who don't even necessarily have faith in Jesus can prophecy or heal the sick, and his 10-second response was "why don't you come to the children's session later today and see? Tell them I sent you." So I did, I walked up to the CEC section of the convention center, no staff lanyard or vest or anything, no child to drop off, and told the person at the door that the leader had invited me to sit in on the service. I went inside and it was kids worshipping and breaking out into groups to practice the spiritual gifts. Needless to say, I received no biblical or theological answer to my question. I couldn't believe the head of the children's department of an international ministry with a reputation for biblical teaching would do such a thing. Only later did I reflect on the fact that I WASN'T VETTED OR ANYTHING. Thirty-thousand strangers milling around in this convention center and after a 30-second interaction with the leader I'm invited in to the children's ministry. Unbelievable. I skipped onething in 2014, and got invited to 2015 to hear a famous evangelist speak at the conference. I told myself it would be honoring to IHOP for all their influence in my life if I went, but that was the last time.
When I attended my first ever prayer and worship conference it was in 2002. I was 17 years old everything about IHOPKC said Freedom in the spirit but I would soon be blindsided. I wouldnt start attending the IHOPKC prayer room until I was 18 years old. When I turned 18 I started my journey of attending IHOPKC and then Forerunner Christian Fellowship. I attended the One Day Seminars of "Growing in the Prophetic", "Harp and Bowl Spiritual Warfare Seminar", Healing Ministry Training" and "Deliverance Ministry Training". I didnt know I was in a cult in the start. I always defended the International House Of Prayer- Kansas City to anyone. My family thought I was crazy for giving myself to this movement. NOW I SEE. I served in many different areas at IHOPKC.
I’m going to list it all for my own catharsis. During my internship a male leader repeatedly tried to get young women alone and was a “hands on” pray-er. I got reprimanded for asking for help and reminded not the partner with the accuser like from Mikes messages. Working at forerunner I was groped three times. Once in front of a higher up staff member. I recently found out my reports to hr were never even recorded or maybe they were but somehow don’t exist now… So I don’t have proof. Eventually one security guard got on my side and started watching, but other people labeled me as difficult because I needed the extra help. Another current (as of oct ‘23) male internship leader sneaks young women out of the apartments at night. I watched Internship house leaders be treated like dirt. I also saw Bob Hartley harass numerous women while slain in the spirit, no one did a thing. David Sliker regularly spoke so harshly to people that they quit asking questions about God. So many students expressed feeling defeated and like they could never know God because of how David taught them to view themselves and little and dumb. I was once shoved so hard in the head while someone was “praying” for me that I had significant neck pain. The lady who hurt me said “some people don’t want it” referring to falling out in the spirit. Mike Bickle took a special interest in a 18 year old from my internship, had one on one meetings with them and gave a special invite to join staff. Creepy. I watched them get so tired and sick looking as they worked late nights and early mornings. Somehow they brain washed me so much that I apologized to leaders for most of the things that happened above as if I caused them. For the record I’m not sorry anymore. I’m not sorry that I said Bob Hartley is a creep. Im not sorry for being an accuser when the accusation is correct. Im not sorry I said Mike’s one on ones with a young women are grooming or the way he gives young kids money. I’m not sorry that I exist in a body, I’m not the reason creepy men grope women. I’m not sorry for asking for help when myself and my friends were being SA-ed. I’m not sorry. You should be sorry. There’s a culture at ihop that punishes people who tell the truth until there’s no one with a voice left. Everyone at ihop who ever claimed to care about me or you was a liar in my opinion. You don’t leave those you care about to be SA-ed repeatedly. Everyone who stayed silent is just as bad. I hate reading all of these false sympathy posts from current ihopers apologizing for the negative experiences people have had. They’re not sorry it happened to us, they just don’t want to look like the bad guy who benefitted from our harm and did nothing while we were being SA-ed. They care about themselves and their image and climbing the ladder.
I lived in a house in Grandview with three graduates of the IHOPU program for about two years. I also went to a charismatic university in a nearby state before moving to KC. I never did a theological deep dive on their teachings, but my social life in KC was predominately IHOPU graduates. People who drank the kool-aid, and then went on to do truly incredible things with their lives. People I looked up to, who seemed to really love God and to love people and who cared about life-giving justice in the world. I remember going to the prayer room several, at the suggestion of the roommates. And I remember sometimes the worship sets would be all about just... worship. And those seemed so healing. But the sets that were for spiritual warfare type things, I'd always leave when they started because they made me feel kind of empty and uncomfortable (I have a severe chronic illness, and during this time my life was consumed by a kind of charismatic-Christian induced guilt that I couldn't "faith" my own illness away. So "spiritual warfare" type stuff made me feel disassociated, paralyzed with shame, and depressed, tbh. But I digress.) I no longer live in KC, but I've been absolutely engrossed in these IHOP stories because about a year ago, I experienced the breakdown of a co-dependent relationship with a narcissistic individual who spiritually abused me in a way that I see mirrored in these IHOP stories. She's more all-in with Bethel, but she's made week-long trips to the IHOP prayer room before. I moved to a new part of the country and didn't know anyone but her, so she offered for me to live with her while I sort of figure things out. Before living with her, I'd been experiencing some of the most joy and freedom in my life that I'd ever known. The longer I lived with her, the more her "dreams from the Lord" or prophetic words about my life would 1) scratch my unhealed personal wounds in a way that only a licensed professional shold have (and it just caused me to become SEVERELY re-traumatized and depressed) and 2) make me believe that she really heard the voice of God in a way that I did not. I now realize that, EVEN THOUGH I think she was operating from what she saw was real love.... she was gaslighting me, causing me to question my own reality, and causing me to believe that the only interpretation of reality, of God's truth, was viewed through her specific and unique relationship with the voice of God. She was one of my best friends for over ten years... and now I think maybe she actually struggles with clinical narcissism, and calls it "hearing the voice of God." I used to be one of the most insecure people I've ever met. The more I actually 1) read the Bible for mysel fand 2) have friends who aren't Christian in any way, the healthier my relationship with God, my own voice, and TRULY loving others becomes. I hope this for anyone who has been affected by all this trauma. I'm so sorry for what has happened to you.
I was 11 when my parents moved me and my older brother to Grandview to be close to the headquarters of IHOP. I experienced extensive fear based brainwashing/teachings and became a very disturbed and anxious child. I attended a small school that was highly regarded by IHOP owned by a local couple. For 4 years I was taught ancient greek, catechism, bible verse memorization and that I would be one of the many children that would battle the antichrist when the “end times” came. They neglected to teach me math, science and literature which greatly hindered me later on. As for my relationships with worship leaders and other members there are several instances that stick in my mind. In the summers I would attend IHOP camps, one night I remember there was an hours long worship session (like any other night) and I was exhausted being only 11 or 12 and having done camp activities all day. I had sat down during the session and then was forced to stand up and move to the front to worship. I was ostrocised by this camp counselor and was treated like I was turning away from god and being a bad follower. I was unable to get anyone to contact my parents to pick me up. Another time when I was also 11 I was approached by a prominent figure of the church and was accused of letting the devil possess me after my parents had mentioned in passing that I amused them by pretending to be an alter ego named “Jessica” that I made up who had a raspy voice and crawled at them on the ground (really I was inspired by seeing the character gollum on lord of the rings lol). I was crushed and convinced myself that I was an evil child, I never did it again and never told my parents why. I was manipulated at 13 into doing manual labor at a horse ranch that specialized in “horse therapy” where I fed them and mucked large pieces of land in freezing temperatures in exchange for a measly 30 minute “riding lesson” where I never even sat on the horse once for a 5 month period. I became very anxious and plagued for years by the ideologies taught in my time there: that everyone I knew who did not believe (my extended family) was going to die an awful death and burn for eternity, the devil hated woman the most and would target them in the end times, I should be willing to die and be tortured if someone should force me to choose between that or rebuking christ, homosexuality is disgusting and evil, abortion is murder even if the woman was under danger of medical conditions, and many more intense fanatical ways of thinking. My parents, my brother and I all left the religion together in 2015 and moved out of state. We left behind long time family friends and my aunt, uncle and cousins who refused to speak to us again. It took me years of healing and mental work to move forward and even at 23 I struggle. I still think of my time at IHOP often and my memory of everything before that period is nonexistent probably from trauma and the brainwashing. I’m sharing my story to spread the truth and to confirm that IHOP KC is a cult and is very dangerous. They take advantage of young and vulnerable people and control their time, finances and their bodies.
I was a 21-year-old camp counselor for the IHOPKC Summer Teen Internship(STI) in ‘05. I emailed a person to express my interest and I was in. A close friend of mine also signed up. All I had to do was go to Hickman Mills police station to print off my own background check. The kids would be staying at ‘Host families’ homes around the city. The host families were any IHOPKC adjacent families that were willing to give sleeping bag space and pop tarts to a few kids each day. Some kids were in Belton, Lees Summit, or in the nearby South KC area. My friend and I were assigned to live in quarters with around 10 kids in a large living space. There was an IHOPKC family that just finished building a large house on some nearby IHOPKC property with a large open basement with its own bathroom/shower and private entrance. So, we set up 5 sets of bunkbeds and single beds for myself and two other camp counselors. The teenage son of the family had his own bedroom in the basement next to the space where the camp kids stayed. He was around 15-16 years old at the time. We’ll call him John. There were three of us camp counselors staying in the room with the teens. Myself and my friend that had been students/staff with IHOPKC for two years, and another guy from out of town. Let’s call him Mark. Mark was a college student out of state. He had never done anything IHOPKC except for attending a conference. He had met a well known IHOP worship leader and their so when they led worship in his town, and that’s how he got connected with STI. Mark was a really nice guy. He was a musician and worship leader and often led worship for the teens. Our personalities worked well with each other. We all got along well living in close quarters. We had fun with the teens, ministering, and staying up late goofing off together. John, the teenage son of the family that owned the house where we stayed, would often hang out with all of us. He was not enrolled with the internship, but he was present and knew everyone. He became friends with some of the teens and Mark. Mark rented a movie one night to watch with the teens on a laptop. I believe a group of the teens, Mark and John watched it in John’s room. After a long day of camp sessions, prayer room time and Bible studies we would all get home later in the evening and hang out as a group and stay up relatively late in our living quarters. One time a few of the teens were shirtless while hanging out. Somehow, Mark ended up sitting on a bunk bed with 4 teens all giving each other shirtless shoulder massages. The two of us other counselors were uncomfortable. We cautiously suggested they stop, without drawing attention to it or accusing anyone. When at the house, Mark would hang out with John more and more. We all generally hung out in the large room, but they hung out together sometimes in John’s bedroom. One night everyone had gone to sleep and I noticed that Mark’s bed was empty. I looked around and found him asleep on John’s bed next to John himself. I woke up Mark and strongly suggested he go to his own bed. He woke up and didn’t think anything of it. It was very uncomfortable for me and stayed with me. My friend and I didn’t really know what to make of it, but we knew it had to be passed up to the leader of STI. I think maybe my friend told him about it. STI Leader approached me about it. He asked about the shirtless massages and finding Mark asleep in a teen’s bed. I confirmed it and he thanked me for saying something. I believe within the next day, Mark was let go from the camp. The staff got together and explained what had happened and that it was best for Mark to leave. That was all that was said and we agreed and accepted it. I was talking about it with worship leader’s son that had met Mark in his hometown since he was the one that connected Mark to STI. He was saying how weird that was and that he never vouched for him because he hardly knew him. He met him one weekend while traveling. Mark had asked for a way to come to IHOPKC for a bit and he suggested the STI. And it was never talked about again. I have my doubts that the parents of John were brought into the conversation about Mark. Today as a father, I cannot imagine putting my children in any situation even close to what I described. And if I had found out a counselor was sleeping in my kid’s bed and giving massages, I would lose my mind and would have kicked all of the STI kids and staff out of my house at the very least.
I have been a part of the prayer and worship movement since I was 13 years old. I am 35 now. I wanted to share some of my experiences with IHOPKC that were troubling. I have known for years now that the experiences I had there were not okay but with everything coming to the light in recent days, I feel it's important to give some more glances into the dysfunction. I moved to KC to attend IHOPU and was there between 2007-2008. 18-year-old me arrived in KC with great anticipation and excitement. I remember thinking it was a dream come true. I met some amazing friends and not all memories are bad but many things were questionable, to say the least. Even my 18-year-old self had inklings that the way the community was handled was very odd but I was trusting and all in. Unless you were on staff, an intern, a student, or led worship/prayer, you had no real connections to others. I remember feeling grieved by this dynamic. So rewind to my first week at IHOPU, it's orientation week. I just finished taking my photo for my student ID, and they bring us to a room to be encouraged and prophesied over. I was encouraged but then we were told the men and women would be separated for a "talk." I was cattled into a small room with way too many people. Instinctually, I was like: "Oh, they're giving us the purity talk." Needless to say, the female leader proceeded to tell us that we need to strongly refrain from wearing t-shirts or clothing with letters across the chest to avoid bringing attention to our breasts, to instead be modest and avoid wearing tight or revealing clothing, and we were strongly encouraged to not dance, jump, bounce, or jiggle in the prayer room because we would cause the men to stumble into sin. I remember being so uncomfortable in that talk. Inappropriately, the leader even modeled to us with gestures and movements what we were and were not supposed to do with our bodies with particular emphasis again on NOT making the men in our community stumble. As one who grew up in the purity culture, this wasn’t wildly foreign. In addition to the expectations around clothing and other restraints, we were instructed to not date in the first 1-2 years of internship/university. Many interns and students did anyway. It was presented as a blessing to focus on the Lord and not be distracted but it was overboard, controlling, and I believe was a ploy to control. We were also required to download a monitoring accountability program on our computers and laptops and identify accountability partners to whom we were instructed to confess if we watched pornography or engaged in sexual sin. If any of us visited a site that was pornographic or in the slightest bit inappropriate, our identified accountability partner would get an alert in text or email with that disclosure and we were encouraged to have an honest conversation to confess the sin we committed. I am not against accountability, honesty, and confession but for years, I have been detangling from the mess of these experiences. I now know it was a saving grace that I had to return home to Florida to care for my family. I was saved from years of heartache if I had remained there in that unhealthy environment.
I was introduced to IHOPKC as a college student (2007), by a girl on my freshman dorm floor. I regularly attended weekly prayer meetings and worship nights that were significantly influenced by both the music and teachings of IHOPKC. Prayer meetings, worship nights, local evangelism and church involvement were my entire life during my college years and early 20s. I followed the teachings and even more so the worship music of IHOPKC for many years. I regularly tuned into the prayer room stream and/or recordings from the stream. I always wanted to attend OneThing but it never worked out (as I lived very far away, out of state). I became very interested in Exodus Cry and even raised money for the ministry and raised awareness about EC within my community. I was beyond a Jesus freak in those days. And looking back I can acknowledge now that I was very afraid to question things and think for myself - which makes me ‘vibes’ at IHOPKC even more interesting. In the fall of 2013, I got a job on the west coast. I had a friend who sang at IHoPKC and offered to drive part of the trip with me cross country. I stopped at IHOPKC for a Saturday service that was specific to Exodus Cry (she was even singing on stage that night). The plan was to stay with her and her housemates and leave the next morning. From the moment I stepped into the building (which I believe is now FCF?) something felt very off to me. The entire service felt very off to me. My gut kept saying ‘this is weird, something is off, leave.’ I could sense a genuine spirit in many of the people there but it felt off - insular, even cultish. (And this is coming from someone heavily involved in a Vineyard church and other charismatic groups at that time.) After driving cross country and taking up a new life in Santa Barbara, I never tuned into the prayer room stream again. I didn’t listen to any of the IHOPKC teachings again. Like I said, I had met very genuine and kind people connected to IHOP many times over the years, but the campus felt cultish. It has been heartbreaking to see things unfold the way that they have these past few months. It’s reminded me that these insular communities detach you from your gut and intuitive instincts and do everything to adopt you into the ‘collective consciousness.’ For those who are leaving and have no sense of self, community, identity or meaning beyond IHoPKc please know that there is hope.m and life beyond it. Please know that you can feel joy again, that you can connect to your intuition again, that you can think for yourself again. Please know that the world is not full of evil and darkness but many loving, kind, warm and genuine people.
I was told by a leader that I should be thankful he did not abuse the power he had over me. He said I trusted him too much and that he could have abused his power if he wanted to…
We attended ihop for 5 years. We did intro to ihop and then settled our family around the prayer room. We were drawn in by the initial intimacy with Jesus message. Over time the end times message came to the forefront and began to cause me severe depression. The idea that a my children could become martyred for “the cause”, people were stock piling food like crazy and mapping out routes to leave town when disaster/tribulation struck. Constant fear and negative “prophecies” began to pull my faith out from me. Where was the Gospel? Where was the victory in Christ? I felt tremendous pressure to not leave or I’d be “missing out of the best version of Christianity”. It was killing me. When my husband had an opportunity to get a new job in another state we left and it was the best thing we could do. It took us a long time to heal but I’m so very thankful the Lord helped us leave. IHOPKC was built on perversion and prophetic manipulation. I really believe the best course of action is for it to close down. If you’re still there and wrestling, please get out. Get healthy. The Lord will not leave you.