"Release the anointing! Release the fire of the Holy Spirit!" an impassioned Bickle cries into the microphone. "Beautiful God! Beautiful God!" In the mosh pit, a middle-aged woman jerks her head forward then back between her raised arms as she dances. She opens her eyes and blows kisses toward the rafters from her open palm, drops her head to giggle, then sends Jesus another kiss or two.
"We must have more, Lord! More in your kingdom!" Bickle yells from the stage. "More, Lord, bring us more!"
More converts, more people praying at his International House of Prayer in Grandview, Missouri. Bickle wants an army of young Christians, "a new breed" that, according to a friend's "prophecy," will rise up in Kansas City. The Municipal Auditorium conference -- held in September -- is part of Bickle's holy mission, one he claims the "internal, audible voice of God" told him to begin one day in 1982, while he prayed on a concrete floor by a rickety bed during a tour of Cairo, Egypt.
Like the pancake house that shares its acronym, IHOP's prayer room is open 24 hours. The room is Bickle's brainchild, a place where everyone is welcome to practice "enjoyable prayer" through contemplative music and prophetic expression. It's in a white, modular, 7,000-square-foot building on Grandview Road, sharing space with Bickle's umbrella organization, Friends of the Bridegroom, and another subsidiary, the Forerunner School of Prayer.
The prayer room is the focal point of Bickle's growing religious and real estate empire in Grandview, where his followers are gathering to prepare themselves and the world for Jesus' reappearance and Judgment Day. The neighbors aren't sure what to think. "We've gotten mixed responses," Bickle says. "Some people are fearful we have an agenda. But we're really nice people, and we can't take your house."
Bickle has a knack for making people nervous. He upset local preachers back in the late 1980s and early '90s, when his Kansas City Fellowship church was home to the Kansas City Prophets, a group of men whose claims of visions from God still stir controversy worldwide on dozens of religious, anti-cult and personal Web sites.
The 47-year-old preacher, who says he has been to heaven, grew up in the Marlborough neighborhood, near 80th and Paseo, on a street where several front yards had beat-up cars resting on blocks. His professional-boxer dad and his homemaker mom did the best they could to provide for seven children. They didn't attend church at all.
When Bickle was a child, he would gaze at the star-filled sky over south Kansas City and wonder: Is there a God? He got the answer when he was fifteen and his football coach paid his way to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes conference in Estes Park, Colorado. After hearing Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach speak of his personal relationship with Jesus, Bickle knelt alone in a grassy field in the Rockies.
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My niece is set on going to IHOP in KC for 6 months and, in my investigations, I have become really concerned about this group. She is a 19 year old who is easily influenced about most anything. Her mother, my sister, brought her concerns to me. Any talk so far against her going has been met with extremely negative behavior on her part. Do you have any advice on how to dissuade her from going? Thanks.
Actually, they act weird and they forget that the apostle Paul told the Corinthians who were getting weird as well to do all things decently and in order. But these people and other in hyper-charismatic churches make up their own interpretation to that verse and ignore it. Paul even said that they would look foolish and possibly scare awa y those who might visit. (my paraphrase) but pretty darn close. Acting foolish and weird is NOT being good ambassadors for the King of Kings.
hisprincess, I would like to talk to you. I have the truthspeaker blog .... please email me at wolvesamongthesheep@yahoo.com
thanks!
I was part of the leadership and now am not. I could no longer live with the lies, Mike and many others do draw a salary a hefty salary and they are trustees. There is so much I can share. I know what happens in that place and now that I am free I feel lead to set so many others free from that bondage. I am not the only one there are a few of us that have been there from 9-4 years and have finally seen the light....Scam all I can say huge money scam...and huge huge control cult...
I was forced to move from Herrnhut with several others this past year. I had been there for over 12 years. Others for over 20 years. The only reason the manager gave was that IHOP needed my space for new church members. They refused to renew my annual lease. I had violated nothing in the rental agreement and I had been there before IHOP took over. As you can see from the article, Mike Bickle is a liar.
I was forced to move from Herrnhut with several others this past year. I had been there for over 12 years. Others for over 20 years. The only reason the manager gave was that IHOP needed my space for new church members. They refused to renew my annual lease. I had violated nothing in the rental agreement and I had been there before IHOP took over. As you can see from the article, Mike Bickle is a liar.
I'm confused when people say that they are afraid and do not like the young Christian people because they act weird or strange. Aren't people's actions a better way of judging? If their actions consist of helping people and not rebelling or getting into trouble, let them come to my neighborhood and act weird!
I'm confused when people say that they are afraid and do not like the young Christian people because they act weird or strange. Aren't people's actions a better way of judging? If their actions consist of helping people and not rebelling or getting into trouble, let them come to my neighborhood and act weird!
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