Prominent Worship Leader Leaves Lineup of ‘Arise Conference’ After Allegations of Spiritual Abuse
Prominent worship pastor and leader Jeremy Riddle has been removed from the conference he was set to headline after allegations were made against him of spiritual abuse.
Riddle made a name for himself as Bethel Music’s longtime ensemble leader and is perhaps best known for his song Sweetly Broken. He left Bethel after nearly a decade and joined Dwelling Place Anaheim as their Worship, Creativity, and Prayer Pastor, but it was not to last.
Last year, his former drummer Noah DeBolt claimed that Riddle and Dwelling Place Pastor Alan Scott were spiritually abusing him, releasing a series of videos and recorded audio from his time there where he went from “being a full-time professional drummer to being deeply traumatized, depressed, barely able to eat or sleep or go outside or take a shower.”
If that church sounds familiar, it should. In 2018, Alan and Kathryn Scott became the lead pastors at Vineyard Church in Anaheim, the flagship church which began the Vineyard movement in 1977 under the leadership of John Wimber.
The Scotts led the church until 2021, when the couple suddenly announced that the Holy Spirit told them to split from the denomination, taking with them over $7M in the bank and a $55M property that is debt-free and paid off.
The Scotts never told the denomination why they did what they did or offered a sufficient reason, giving them the silent treatment as they renamed the church Dwelling Place Anaheim and began making it in their own image.
Scott has been plagued with allegations of spiritual abuse at every church he’s led, lending the credence that he’s a terrible pastor who has left broken bodies and crushed souls in his wake.
Debolt’s series of videos gained some traction and was enough for the heat to cause Riddle to resign from his post in January. Still, it wasn’t enough to keep him off the circuit. He landed a gig to perform at radiant Church’s upcoming Arise Shine conference. However, Debolt contacted conference organizers about it, recounting on Twitter:
I privately asked @Calebculver & @leemcummings to reconsider hosting Jeremy Riddle as a speaker/worship leader at their upcoming church conference. They declined. So I wanted to ask publicly. Jeremy has manipulated & abused many under his care and has yet to repent.
Their defense to me was that hosting Jeremy would give them an opportunity to hear about Jeremy’s “examination process” 1-on-1. When I asked why they needed to pay him an honorarium and give him a platform just to hear about this process, I didn’t hear back.
The public call out and pressure eventually resulted in the parting of ways, with the event’s Instagram page sharing “After a discussion between Jeremy and Katie Riddle and Radiant Church along with prayerful consideration, it has been decided that Riddle will not be joining us at the Arise Shine Conference this year
While he’s finished this conference, he has more on the way Riddle is slated to perform at the Holy Spirit conference in August alongside Dr Michael Brown and Vlad Savchuck.
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I listened to this spurned worker’s audio and frankly, I was hard-pressed to find ‘spiritual abuse.’ This came off more like a sensitive snowflake easily bruised by an employer expecting his people to be prompt and devoted.
Glad someone else caught what I did. Our culture has produced so many wussy, effeminate, shallow and scared snowflakes. I listened to it also and this story is ridiculous. He was a typical wussy snowflake that was “abused” because he was going to be held accountable to the group for being there. Oh, the horror of it all! (sarcasm for those that don’t get it.)
Can you imagine these men going off to fight in battle? Compare these men to the brave men who went to enlist after Pearl Harbor or even 9/11? These men today are a disgrace.
Nothing screams a faithful shepherd quite like stealing millions of dollars and real estate….
Glad someone else caught what I did. Our culture has produced so many wussy, effeminate, shallow and scared snowflakes. I listened to it also and this story is ridiculous. He was a typical wussy snowflake that was “abused” because he was going to be held accountable to the group for being there. Oh, the horror of it all! (sarcasm for those that don’t get it.)
Can you imagine these men going off to fight in battle? Compare these men to the brave men who went to enlist after Pearl Harbor or even 9/11? These men today are a disgrace.