Bethel Church has finally responded to longstanding accusations of platforming and promoting alleged sexual abuser and confirmed false prophet Shawn Bolz, apologizing for their error while stating they are “sad and embarrassed” by their past behavior.
Bethel addressed the issue during their sermon yesterday, following apologist Mike Winger’s recent release of a nearly six-hour exposé on Bolz. The video detailed how Bolz was protected and his sins covered up by church leadership, sparking growing outrage and pressure that even this church, which is accustomed to silencing or ignoring criticism, could no longer avoid.
In a statement posted to their website, which was also read by senior church leadership during the service, Dan Farrelly began by saying:
We take responsibility for the fact that we did not properly and fully bring discipline, closure, or clear and timely communication regarding the gravity of our concerns with Shawn Bolz. This was someone we platformed to preach and prophesy in our house and with our teams on many occasions up until 2019…We are clear that we are not responsible for Shawn’s sin, he is. But we are equally clear that we are responsible for our sins, actions, and inactions after the fact
The truth is, we have hurt and scared people because we did not tell the truth enough, early enough, long enough, or loud enough, and this is a just criticism. Our hearts are grieved, and embarrassed.
Farrelly credits 18,000 Bethel alumni for their role in being confronted, noting “it was their communication and agitation 18 months ago, and since, that drew our attention back, and subsequently other national voices, to the necessity of finally and appropriately addressing this.”
Next, Kris Vallotton, Bethel’s chief prophet, took the stage. While Vallotton struck a far more defiant tone in his message last week, he began by revealing “I have had a change of perspective since my message last Sunday evening, and I’m writing with a repentant heart today.”
In 2019, allegations of sexual harassment came to us through a former member on Shawn’s team. Danny confronted Shawn on this, and he denied any wrongdoing. After further investigation, which included speaking to three of Shawn’s former team members, the accusations were corroborated and showed that this was a culture within Shawn’s team.
After confirming that “Shawn was using social media to get information for false words of knowledge,” he shared that he flew down to confront Bolz, who in a 4-hour meeting denied everything.
I warned him that if someone else must confess his sin, it would be far worse than repenting and doing the right thing. We felt we should give him time to choose repentance, until Shawn stopped engaging with us on the accusations entirely.
It’s at this point that “We decided to remove him from our platforms, take down his resources from our store, remove his sermons from our network, and to communicate to ministry friends that we knew had him on their platforms as well.”
I did not realize until just a few days ago that my approach was merely that of helping a friend, because he was not on our staff or our teams, and we had confronted his board with our findings on several occasions. We did not feel taking things further was our responsibility, and felt that we had done what we could. However, this was a major mistake. We should have told our church and wider community in 2020. We did not. That was wrong.
We platformed him because we believed in him, and when he failed, and failed to repent, it was our responsibility to tell people that we no longer trusted him in order to protect them. That was my decision to not communicate more widely, and my error in judgement.
Commenting on Winger’s video, and the very necessity of it, he remarks:
It grieves me that someone would need to put out a video to prompt us to action. It’s an indictment against my leadership. I should have known better in this situation, and if I didn’t, I should have sought counsel on what to do. I didn’t do that, and I’m very sorry. I take full responsibility for that, but I know that sorry is not enough. People took prophetic words from Shawn, and I did not step in to support their journey of how to process them in light of these revelations.
It wasn’t just that, however. Bethel’s chief prophet laments:
When one of the victims of Shawn’s sexual allegations reached out to me for help in this crisis, after several conversations and phone calls, I made a decision to remove his access to me without compassion due to my personal overwhelm. I am grieved by my actions.
I specifically want to apologize to victims of Shawn: those who experienced Shawn’s inappropriate and sexually harassing culture, and those who struggled to process or made life decisions as a result of prophetic words that they’d received. I am very sorry.
Vallotton explains that he regrets his attitude during his last message, and that as a result he wants to “shift” Bethel’s “cultural values” so that they come to “care more about character than we do about gifting in the leaders who grace our podium and are promoted by us.”
Finally, Bill Johnson apologized for the initial response to Bolz, saying “My great strength, and in this instance weakness, is that I believe in people when they don’t deserve it. But in this situation, it became unsanctified mercy.”
Johnson apologized for appearing on TBN to promote Bolz’s book even after he knew about the allegations:
Doing the TBN show, after learning of his damaging experience, and then promoting Shawn and his book was a slap in the face to Shawn’s former team member, and to those who suffered from Shawn’s behavior…
It was incredibly careless. I realize now that I contributed to their trauma, and I am deeply grieved by this and am sorry.
Collectively, as a result, Bethel Church publicly affirms:
“We would like to clearly state that the evidence we have seen concerning Shawn’s prophetic integrity has produced broken trust with his ministry. We believe that Shawn was not truthful in how he received his words of knowledge and prophetic words. We also acknowledge our belief that he engaged in sexually explicit and harassing behavior towards some members of his staff. We do not condone his actions, or endorse his ministry. We strongly advise you to take our position into account if you choose to interact with his materials.”
For his part, Bolz has been silent, though he did send a letter to supporters, saying:
While that’s all well and good, not all of Mike Winger’s six-hour video was about the Shawn Bolz allegations. Bethel Church has a ton of strange and aberrant beliefs that they dismiss and ignore all criticism of, and by making everything about this issue, without being open to others, it’s a convenient excuse to suppose this is the sum of what they have to answer for.
Their diverse beliefs include teaching ‘Little God theology,’ using prophetic Uno cards, going on satanic treasure hunts, teaching that Adam created the animals in Eden, that Michael the Archangel wears tights and is always grumpy, that angels sit around the throne of God having “farting contests,” and possessing and using the infamous ‘Honey Barrel,‘ it’s a hotbed of strange fire burning uncontrollably throughout Christendom. (see endnotes for many more)
Furthermore, Bethel Church never addressed the fact that they shut down all their “healing houses” during COVID-times and in October 2020, Bethel and its School of Supernatural Ministry had so many cases of the novel coronavirus linked to outbreaks at their school and church – none of which were healed by the numerous gifted apostles and faith healers- that it caused the county with over 175,000 people to go into lockdown mode, prompting the Chief Executive Officer for the Shasta Community Health Center to call out Bill and Beni Johnson by name for being ‘super spreaders.’
Commenting on the statement, apologist Justin Peters says it’s not good enough by half, writing on X:
“Only when Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and every single person on staff at Bethel (they all knew) shut down the “church,” liquidate everything the ministry owns, gives the money to doctrinally sound ministries and churches, permanently step down from any kind of ministry and join a doctrinally sound church will they be demonstrating true repentance. Anything short of that is not repentance. Bethel never has been a true church and it never will be.”
More information on Bethel Church/
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