MorningStar Ministries founder Rick Joyner believes disgraced International House of Prayer Kansas City founder Mike Bickle should be restored to ministry leadership despite an independent investigative report concluding earlier this year that he used predatory tactics and spiritual manipulation to sexually abuse at least 17 females, including minors.
The South Carolina minister’s praise of Bickle came during a 42-minute rant published on his ministry’s website, where he argued that despite his failures, Bickle is too great of a leader to be thrown away.
“He messed up, and he’s paying the price. It’s going to take a while for the Body of Christ to fully trust him again, but I believe they will. I believe there’s going to be a change of that, but we can’t just throw away great people like that,” Joyner argued.
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“We are told in Galatians 6:1, if a man is caught in any trespass, anything, you who are spiritual, restore them. And restoring is a lot more than just forgiving; it’s getting them back to where they were. So I’m believing for Mike’s full restoration without penalty. That’s how the Lord does it,” he insisted.
Joyner argued that restoration or church discipline should not be seen as “punishment.”
“Restoration or going through discipline, all that stuff, it’s not punishment. It’s just helping close the gaps, the gates of Hell, where Hell got into your life,” he said. “It’s for discipline, sure, but discipline in the right sense where we are so disciplined, those things can’t trip us up again. But I have that hope for everybody.”
Joyner said Bickle “may just be coming to what he’s ultimately supposed to do,” while claiming that “he has been one of the great leaders in the Body of Christ and in our time.”
“His time is not up,” Joyner argued.
“I so appreciated IHOP[KC], and I think Mike helped to raise up one of the greatest prayer movements in Church history. It may be the greatest. I’ve done a lot of studying of Church history, and I’ve never seen anything like what Mike moved up and what he inspired,” he added. “I don’t think that work is dead. I think neither have we heard the end of Mike Bickle’s ministry.”
In February, independent sexual abuse investigation firm Firefly published a 68-page report called Investigation of Mike Bickle and the International House of Prayer Kansas City, which paints Bickle as a seductive predator who used his influence, gifts, money and position as a spiritual leader to bend particularly young and vulnerable women to his will.
One of his alleged victims claims in the report that she was so gaslit by Bickle he made her read Psalm 51 after sexual encounters.
“Throughout the investigation, we have identified and interviewed seventeen (17) Survivors who were either sexually abused or experienced sexually abusive misconduct, including sexual abuse, rape, clergy abuse, and spiritual abuse, perpetrated by Bickle beginning to our knowledge in the mid-1970s,” investigators wrote.
“These acts of abuse have had profound and lasting impacts on the lives of the victims, causing significant emotional, psychological, and spiritual harm. The survivors have shown immense courage in coming forward to share their experiences despite the fear and trauma associated with these events.”
Among those survivors is Deborah Perkins, the first of Bickle’s victims to go public with her account of alleged abuse. She told investigators that Bickle made her read Scripture after their sexual encounters.
“Bickle’s actions in having Deborah Perkins pray Psalm 51 […] after sexual encounters was another layer of his manipulation. By invoking a prayer of repentance, he further distorted her understanding of the situation, making her feel complicit in the abuse,” investigators wrote.
Like Joyner, a pastoral team, identified as the Pastoral Recommendation Team (PRT), cited Galatians 6:1 in a report released in March commissioned by Tikkun International, as support for how Bickle could be restored if he’s willing to submit to their recommendations. They did not recommend that he return to the same position he last held prior to his fall, however.
“Using Galatians 6:1 as a guide, ‘Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted (NKJV).’ The PRT worked from an assumption that God wants to restore Christian brothers and sisters. The primary goal was to facilitate and enable every person involved, both perpetrators and victims, to be all the persons God intended them to be,” the pastoral team wrote.
“While this restoration may not include a restoration back into the same position, at the same location or among the same people harmed by their sin, we believe it certainly does include a restoration back to healthy spiritual fellowship within the Body of Christ elsewhere.”
In May 2024, IHOPKC’s Forerunner Church was forced to shutter as a result of Bickle’s sex scandal. IHOPKC permanently cut ties with Bickle in December 2023.
The ministry also told The Christian Post in an earlier statement that they planned to continue with the 24/7 prayer room for which it is known globally.
“We are NOT closing the 24/7 prayer room; it remains a main stay of our existence. We do intend to review the functionality of various operational locations and will likely consolidate several. We have also decided to conclude the operation of IHOPU, our ministry school, after this year’s graduation,” the ministry noted.
Officials with the ministry also appeared to deny claims that they were seeking to escape liability connected to the allegations of sexual abuse against Bickle.
“We have supported and will continue to support any and all victims of abuse, sexual or otherwise, whether here within IHOPKC, or anywhere in the community,” they said. “To be clear, there have been no lawsuits filed against IHOPKC; the allegations of prior misconduct pertained to an individual, not our organization.”
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