Mike Bickle: Wikis

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Categories: Christian religious leaders | American religious writers | Living people | Year of birth missing (living people) | Christian mystics

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Updated live from Wikipedia, last check: May 26, 2013 08:52 UTC (42 seconds ago)

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Mike Bickle is the president of the International House of Prayer (IHOP) and president of Friends of the Bridegroom, and co-founder of The Joseph Company of Kansas City.

1 Christian ministry
2 Criticism
3 References
4 External links

Christian ministry

Bickle was formerly the pastor of the Kansas City Fellowship. In that role, during the 1980s and 1990s, he was senior pastor of the group known as the "Kansas City Prophets." This group included Bob Jones, John Paul Jackson, Paul Cain, and Francis Frangipane.

Criticism

Bickle's theology and methods have been criticized by other ministers and ministries as well as cult-watch groups.^[1] Criticism of Bickle has spanned several decades, from contemporary critic Rev. Keith Gibson,^[2] director of the Kansas City office of the Apologetics Resource Center to City Pastor, Rev. Ernie Gruen^[3], who authored a report entitled "Documentation of the Aberrant Practices and Teaching of the Kansas City Fellowship (Grace Ministries)"^[4] in 1990. It was around this time that Bickle and his church affiliated with John Wimber and the Association of Vineyard Churches (AVC)^[5]^[6]

References

^ Maudlin, Michael G. (January 14, 1991), "Seers in the Heartland", Christianity Today 35 (1): 18–21, ISSN 0009-5753 "Several cult-watching groups have expressed apprehension, and a few, condemnation. Even some Vineyard churches have expressed grave concerns about the direction the prophets are taking them."
^ Gibson, Keith (May/June 2007.), "Speaking for God? A Response to the Apostolic and Prophetic Movement", Areopagus Journal 7 (3): 67, ISSN 1542-040X Gibson notes "To Bickle, apparently, the Trinity is one of those "lesser doctrines" around which a true prophet may be misinformed."
^ Grady, J. Lee (Sept/October 1990), "Resolving the Kansas City Prophecy Controversy", Ministries Today (Lake Mary, FL: Strang Communications Company): pp. 50, OCLC 132797310 "Gruen says he first became troubled about some of KCF's doctrines after a disagreement with Bickle during a pastor's retreat in 1984."
^ Beverly, James A. (1995), Holy laughter and the Toronto blessing: an investigative report, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, pp. 180, ISBN 9780310204978
^ Grady, J. Lee (Sept/October 1990), "Resolving the Kansas City Prophecy Controversy", Ministry Today (Lake Mary, FL: Strang Communications Company): pp. 51, OCLC 132797310 "In a surprise announcement, he [Wimber] said that Bickle and his associates had agreed to submit themselves to his oversight and become part of Wimber's Vineyard Ministries. The KCF network of fellowships would become Vineyard churches."
^ Poloma, Margaret M. (2003), Main Street Mystics: The Toronto Blessing & Reviving Pentecostalism, Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, pp. 151, ISBN 9780759103535, http://books.google.com/books?id=JuokG3nJmAYC&printsec=frontcover#PPP1,M1 "Despite the accusations of 'false prophecy and misconduct' directed at Bickle, Wimber stood by the Kansas City prophets and encouraged Bickle to bring his church into the AVC."