Reflecting on Bethel Church & Their Admissions ![rw-book-cover](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Sgy7E7gMJzA/maxresdefault.jpg) Well, we have had a pretty wild past couple of weeks in the charismatic movement with Mike Winger dropping a nearly 6-hour video addressing some serious allegations about Shawn BS, who was data mining social media to come up with prophetic words for people. There were also numerous allegations about sexual abuse that he had carried out, as well as an alleged cover up that took place by Bethl and Bethl's leadership, which included Bill Johnson and Chris Valatin. Uh the following day after that video went viral on social media, uh Chris Valatin got up at Bethl's Sunday evening service and he delivered a message that was a response to Mike. And honestly, it was bad. It was really, really, really, really, really bad. Uh, leaders all over the body of Christ. Uh, many who are charismatic were quick to point out that in the message, Chris hardly mentioned victims. He misused scripture or overlooked scripture. He denied, he attacked, and he reversed the victim and the offenders or darvoed. He also ignored the importance of, I think, protecting people. And just, well, like I said, it was it was really, really bad. uh the collective response from a lot of thoughtful and concerned leaders and again many of them are charismatic like me uh the people who responded to Chris's message uh felt like it was watching a defensive leader make excuses for his failures while having a full external session of processing in real time uh what he was going through in his mind and his heart. Uh but then um Bethl went silent and um I'm sure that that was probably because a lot of people called him and said, "Chris, Bill, that was not good." So while the internet continued to process Chris's verbal processing and while everyone speculated on how Bethl would respond or even if they would respond, Bethl was pretty much silent. There was no social media posts, just pretty much quiet. But this past Sunday on January 25th, leaders from Bethl got up and addressed the entire situation as well as released a public statement and it was a lot better than what I expected for sure. You see, their track record, Bethl's track record, hasn't left me very hopeful when it comes to how they handle constructive criticism or serious concerns. But when this past Sunday came around, uh Dan, who is their lead pastor, and Chris Valatin and and Bill Johnson, they took turns to address Shawn BS. They addressed Mike Winger's detailed allegations and a host of other issues. Now, my initial thoughts were that their responses did seem authentic. They did seem remorseful and they did seem pretty transparent about some very specific ways in which they had made both poor and harmful leadership decisions. I think we need to give them credit for that. Uh while I have concerns about some of what I've seen and heard from Bethl over the years, I think this was a far better response than I was expecting and I want to acknowledge that. But I also think that there needs to be a serious overhaul within the charismatic tradition of which again I am a part. You know make no mistake I am a card carrying charismatic who not only believes in but also practices spiritual gifts and I have a tremendous value for the work of the Holy Spirit and a belief in miracles and supernatural events being a part of our reality. But the question is where do we go from here? you know, what should Bethl and and I'm thinking specifically about churches that are influenced by Bethl. What should we do in order to move forward in a way that honors Jesus uh in a way that creates and maintains space for the Holy Spirit's work that equips the church to continue the ministry of Jesus, but also protects the church from abusers and false prophets and false teachers. you know, a a basically a way to move forward that we have healthy communities of God's kingdom. Well, here are a few of the things that I think need to happen and some thoughts on kind of like where do we go from here? Well, first, I think a very long and hard look needs to be had at the influence and implications of Danny Silk's culture of honor. You know, there are some helpful things in this book, but there are some really problematic ideas as well. When I first read this book, and it was probably over 12 years ago now, I remember reflecting on the fact that after I had finished the book, as I was thinking about the downstream consequence of its application, I thought it would basically become an abuser's playground. That's what it would create in a church. And it's steeped in in the seedbed for what Bill Johnson acknowledged as being a problem, unsanctified mercy. Why is it that the honor tends to only extend to influential church leaders? Why doesn't it extend to victims or to those being abused and manipulated? culture of honor needs some serious revision because even if Bethl continues to maintain the approach to apostles and prophets as offices uh of the church and and maybe less like the vineyard's functional approach, they can still develop a much more robust and holistic understanding of what those roles are called to do and completely remove the superstar personalitydriven culture that brought about a lot of the coverup. This is an ecclesiology and it's not a good one. Second, we'll take Bethl serious about their commitment to be safe if they actually follow up and address the numerous people they have platformed that have raised serious concerns from multiple allegations. And I'm speaking specifically about Todd Bentley, Bob Hartley, and Allen Scott. I mean, I know I'm like one of the only people still mentioning Allan Scott in the Anaheim Vineyard, but when victims of Allan Scott's uh of his alleged abuse uh which included John Wimber's daughter, when they went to Chris Valatin to get some support, they were told by Chris that John Wimber would be rolling over in his grave if he knew how public they were going. Um, but they were talking about the abuse they had experienced and and if Bethl is serious about changing the culture of their movement, they need to come clean about the people they have platformed and they need to get their hands dirty and stop trying to be everyone's friends. People's lives have been seriously hurt by some seriously harmful actions and they have a responsibility to use their influence to not only bring correction to these harmful leaders but also to protect people from becoming more victims. People are still going to Allan Scott's church even though he has this massive track record of abuse allegations. Third, at the very minimum, Bethl's leaders who participated in covering up, platforming, and ignoring these abuses need to step down for a season at least. Bill's admission of promoting Shawn BS's character on TBN after he not only knew of credible accusations of sexual abuse, but also after having interacted with one of his victims, is simply so serious. that's hard to wrap my head around. And for Chris to have not only manipulated scripture, um he blocked victims who were seeking justice uh from being able to communicate with them. It's just all kinds of bad. Uh I can't say that there are things these things have disqualified them forever. And I'd like to suggest that there are others who can help them maybe discern that. But at the very minimum, they should step down and remove themselves from the system so that the culture can become healthier without their influence. and they obviously need some help doing that. Fourth, and this uh I guess this whole healthy engagement of the prophetic and in in prophets, you know, as we've been thinking a lot about that, it's got me thinking a lot about the history of the vineyard cuz back in the early 1990s, the vineyard, we welcomed a group of charismatics known as the Kansas City Prophets, which included Mike Bickl and a number of people considered prophets. And at that time there were a lot of concerns about those profits. And after doing a lot of investigation and discussion, John Whimber in the vineyard came out with a set of corrections for Kansas City. Many of those corrections seem relevant today in this situation with Bethl in the global apostolic and prophetic movement. Those corrections included the fact that there was a lack of accountability for prophecy. uh they were allowing prophetic men to teach who were not gifted to do so. Some of those prophetic leaders were attempting to establish doctrine on the basis of prophecy. The way in which the prophetic words were delivered included many dogmatic assertions. I mean Kansas City uh they were they were manifesting an attitude of superiority through the information that was gained in prophecy. I mean the details related to this vineyard history which are detailed in Bill Jackson's the quest for the radical middle u I I think that a lot of that is still happening in the charismatic movement and we could avoid a lot of the problems we have right now if we just learned lessons from both how like the Assemblies of God dealt with the latter rain movement or how the vineyard engaged with Kansas City. And I say that knowing full well that even those of us in a vineyard, we didn't really learn those lessons all the time, too, because we've been wrestling with many of these same issues for the past 30 plus years. Now, lastly, I want to say that we do need to continue to pray for Bethl and their leaders. While I still have some strong concerns about Bethl's theology and practices, and I am cautious about what is going to happen in the future, and I do think that trust has to be earned, especially given what they have themselves admitted to, I do want to recognize the tremendously positive steps that they took in their public statements. Both Bill and Chris were far more transparent than I expected, and they took ownership with detail on things that did not make them look good. While some may think this is all damage control and PR, it's also possible that it is authentic and the start of some positive changes. We will have to wait to see. At any rate, I guess uh I just think that theology plays a bigger role in this situation than many people may realize. It isn't the only reason why these things happened, and good theology certainly doesn't fix everything. But when theology becomes the framework and justification for harmful practices, we need to make some changes., Reflecting on Bethel Church & Their Admissions, YouTube, 01kg2aj52a7386wk9vpy6hv5zc.