IHOPKC Cancels Plan For New Church, Says Prayer Room Will Continue
The International House of Prayer Kansas City in Grandview, Missouri. (Photo via Facebook)
Plans for a new church connected to the embattled International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) have been canceled, according to an email sent to the IHOPKC community last Wednesday morning.
Also, former IHOPKC Executive Team member Isaac Bennett and his wife, Morgan, who were planning to pastor the new church, have left the 24/7 prayer ministry.
The email was sent by a reconfigured IHOPKC board of trustees and sought to dispel previous statements that IHOPKC was shutting down. Though many of the “expressions” of IHOPKC have closed, including its affiliated Forerunner Church, pastored by the Bennetts, and IHOP University, the ministry will continue to operate its prayer room, the email stated.
“We are committing to sustaining a vibrant spiritual community of believers wholeheartedly in love with Jesus, and are persevering in a more focused scope because the need for 24/7 prayer in Kansas City, America, and the nations has never been greater (emphasis in original),” the email stated.
However, the board said it had decided that the remaining IHOPKC ministry will operate “independent of any external church.” And it stated that the Bennetts’ previous plans to launch Sanctuary Church in collaboration with IHOPKC “will not be moving forward.”
“Despite the short-term disappointment, we are excited to see how the Lord will lead Isaac and Morgan, and bless any future ministry the Lord has for them,” the email stated.
Since last fall, IHOPKC has been mired in controversy related to allegations that its founder, Mike Bickle, sexually abused multiple women, including two who were minors.
Since the scandal, IHOPKC has faced financial issues, bleeding $500,000 a month due to plummeting donations, according to a leaked email and recording of an IHOPKC staff meeting in April. Bennett said in the leaked recording that closing IHOPKC and relaunching under a new name could limit liability if alleged victims sued the organization.
The Roys Report reached out to Bennett for comment, but he did not immediately respond.
In the email, IHOPKC also revealed its current board members, a list that was previously unknown.
The list includes board Chairman General Kurt Fuller, who served for a short time as IHOPKC executive director. Also on the board is Malachi O’Brien, a business owner and staunch defender of IHOPKC, who called early reports of Bickle’s sexual misconduct “failure porn”; Ed Hackett, who was with Mike Bickle when IHOPKC was launched; Wellington Boone, a pastor and longtime friend of IHOPKC with controversial views on slavery as “redemptive”; Cindy Dodd, an IHOPKC missionary who was named as a director for IHOPKC in 2023; and Steve Brandt, a high-end Canadian donor, according to a former IHOPKC leader.
According to the email, the prayer room will “continue to be the heart of IHOPKC” and will continue to operate at its current location at the Red Bridge Center.
The prayer room will maintain an emphasis on prayer for Israel, training and discipleship, the email said.
Though IHOPKC has determined the prayer room will operate independently of a church, the ministry said it has not yet worked out details of its governance structure.
“We realize that the long term health and wellbeing of the prayer room requires a formal governance structure for oversight, accountability, and spiritual strength,” the email states. “We are exploring the best fit moving forward and are committed to ensuring systems are in place for solid decision making and responsible leadership.”
In the announcement, the board invited feedback and promised to support staff.
“Your thoughts and ideas are important to us, we welcome and value them, and want to hear from you,” the announcement stated. “We intend to serve and support those who have been called as Intercessory Missionaries and the ones God will call in the days ahead.”
But this was met with criticism on X from Jeremy James Whitaker, former IHOPKC director of the School of Worship.
“i dearly love the value of 24/7 worship+prayer, but tbh this is hard to read. last time some of us (worship leaders and singers) tried appealing and giving concerns, a few friends were written up and threatened firing for ‘insubordination and divisiveness’. appeals went unheard.”
This piece is republished from The Roys Report.
Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.