I began my IHOP journey at my small, local group. I knew many people who were involved there, and I was searching for connection with both Christians and God. I decided to join their version of the Onething internship, which cost $400, I believe. The teachings were basically just regurgitations of Mike Bickle teachings. In 2011, my fellow intern and I decided to go to the Onething conference (which is basically just a huge commercial for their money-making internships). I was so amazed by it and knew I wanted to be involved with a group of fiery Christians. I applied for the IHOPKC Onething internship then and there. When I told the leader at my local IHOP that I would be leaving for Kansas City to participate in the Onething internship, he sent me a very long, unkind message about how disappointed he was that I was leaving and that wasn't he a good enough leader? I was only 21 and he was in his 60s. It felt so wrong to be berated by someone who should have been happy that I was following what I felt God was calling me towards. Fast Foward to June 2011, I arrived at IHOPKC for my internship (which at the time was $5,000). One of the very first things we did as a group (all of us strangers at this point) was to completely overshare incredibly personal information. I remember feeling very uneasy, but everyone else shared, so I explained things in detail that now I wouldn't even share with someone I'm very close to. I shared a small apartment with 4 other women. 3 of us interns to one room, and our leader in her own. One of my biggest critiques of IHOP is the extreme lack of spiritual maturity that is required to be in a leadership position. My leader was only 1 month older than me, and younger than many of the members in my group. It was so bizarre taking orders from someone my age. On top of that, she was clearly in no position to be leading broken, young women due to her own obvious unhealed trauma. She didn't like me, for some reason, and many other women in my group had issues with her as well. I felt picked on by her and knew she was gossiping about me behind my back. She expected us to do the bulk of the cleaning, rarely offering help, and would leave passive aggressive notes to me if I didn't have something cleaned within the time frame she wanted it done. My head leader had to leave for a weekend, leaving my assistant leader in charge. I was sick and new that I just had to rest to get better. I knew staying up til midnight in the prayer room would just exacerbate my illness. My assistant leader refused my request to stay home from that night's service. I refused to put my body through that, and didn't end up going to the prayer room. She was very upset and told me that she wanted me to go to the service so people could pray for me (eye roll). Amazingly, I didn't suffer any repercussions from my horrifying rebellion. I was the only person I know of who thought it was absolutely ridiculous that interns were responsible for the cleaning the common areas of ALL THE APARTMENTS IHOP OWNS...ON THEIR ONLY DAY OFF. I saw right through the shenanigans and realized they just wanted free labor. My fellow interns told me we were just learning how to be servants (again, eye roll). One time I was assigned to go with a group of people to evangelize to people exiting a haunted house. You literally couldn't pay me to do that. I am very anti public evangelizing because I don't think it ultimately does any good. Fortunately, I found someone to swap assignments with, but my group thought it was irresponsible and ungodly of me to back out. I felt very judged by my decision to remove myself from a situation that was incredibly uncomfortable for me. You also ended up feeling judged if you didn't end up participating in weekly fasting. I can't fast without getting really bad headaches and feeling faint. I didn't end up fasting much at all, but every Tuesday the kitchen basically made you fast because they would only serve very light meals like a small salad or a single baked potato. Fortunately, I had enough money to buy my own food, but there were so many interns that had nothing and couldn't necessarily afford to supplement the light meals. One event that still makes me mad was when a high up leader was a guest teacher for a class. He starts off by saying "who wants to sow into my ministry and buy me a coffee?" (We were right next door to the cafe). It was awkardly silent for a moment until an intern reluctantly gets up to go buy him a coffee. I was, and still am, incredulous that this 40+ year old man preyed on and manipulated young, penniless interns to buy him a coffee! The insane prophetic history and the violent and absurd eschatology really made me check out early on. The final nail in the coffin was when Bethany Deaton passed away. Mike Bickle gave a teaching called "The Seven Signs of a Cult" and as he's going through each checkpoint, I realized each one could be applied to his own organization, or the "Family Business" as Mike's family member so moneygrubbingly put it once during class. The last thing I wanted to touch on was how they would punish you when you would break the rules. It could be something as small as being a couple minutes late to class or forgetting to bring your identification badge with you. Leaders would literally punish interns with the Bible. They would make them sit in the prayer room and hand copy word for word chapters from the book of Leviticus. I was incredulous that they would use the word of God in that way. I'm sorry that this is so long, but I feel as though I've been yearning to share some of my experiences for years. I know that these aren't the most traumatic events, but I think we need to paint as broad a picture as possible of incredibly toxic and dangerous IHOP is. It's been 11 years and I'm still to scared to be involved in a church body.
- Onething Intern2012