The Shawn Bolz scandal is horrific. But is there more to come?

Shawn Bolz, once regarded as one of the charismatic movement’s most gifted and anointed prophets, now stands accused of defrauding thousands of Christians.

That’s according to claims made by YouTuber Mike Winger in his explosive nearly-six hour video entitled ‘The skeletons in Bethel’s closet are now going to speak.’ It’s already been viewed over one million times and has prompted Bethel Church in Redding, California to apologise for failing to sound the alarm on Bolz when his wrongdoing was first made known to them.

As for Bolz, he has reportedly sent an email to supporters which reads, “I’ve decided to step back from public ministry leadership and enter a season of sabbatical, so this work can continue with care and integrity.” He added he won’t “engage in online narratives or speculation” and has previously denied accusations of abuse and data mining to inform his prophetic words. 

What happened?

Shawn Bolz’s apparent ability to supernaturally receive “words of knowledge” was unparalleled – and led to him being invited to speak at hundreds of large charismatic conferences across the world. He would often call out a person’s name, birthday and address from the front, despite never having met them. After revealing these apparently prophetic insights from the stage – often to widespread gasps – Bolz would go on to give that person a word from God.

Winger presents detailed evidence suggesting that much of this supposedly supernatural information was obtained through prior social-media research, carefully noted and later delivered as prophecy from the stage.

Bolz is on record as stating God gave him a “prophetic upgrade” in 2013 which allowed him to give more specific words of knowledge. That just happens to be the same year that Facebook made itself more searchable – allegedly allowing Bolz to look people up before meeting them. Winger also documents a case where Bolz tries to tell a person their address, but she doesn’t recognise the reference. It turns out that if you search Facebook, there’s another woman by the same name in that town who lived at that address.

Deceiving and lying to your fellow Christians and pretending to have received miraculous knowledge when really you were just up late Googling them in your hotel room is outrageous.

But it gets worse.

Winger’s video also contains allegations of “sexual deviancy”. This involved Bolz walking around naked and performing sexual acts on himself in front of other men who were employed by or volunteering for his ministry. The behaviour is alleged to have been non-consensual and therefore abusive.

At the core of this video is not just allegations against one “prophet”. It’s the claim that high-profile ministries and people knew what Shawn was up to - they had all the evidence - and yet they did next to nothing to stop it.

There is a pattern of prophetic leaders having major falls from grace – and that this often involves both sexual and prophetic abuse

Most notably of all, we now know that Bethel Church was in receipt of serious and credible accusations against Bolz for years. Their attempts at bringing justice were deeply inadequate, as they have now admitted in their statement this past Sunday which followed the release of Winger’s video: “We did not tell the truth enough, early enough, long enough, or loud enough…Our hearts are grieved, and embarrassed.”

Bolz rose to prominence thanks largely to Bethel’s significant worldwide influence (they are perhaps the most famous charismatic church in the world). Yet when the truth was uncovered and victims of both prophetic and sexual abuse began speaking, Bethel “quietly distanced” themselves from Bolz. They stopped inviting him to their church and (eventually) removed his books from sale. But they never warned their people – or the wider Church – about his abusive behaviour. Winger has a phrase for this.

“Cover up culture”.

His argument here is strong and convincing. Namely, that if a prophetic leader has been giving false words in your church, and you know about it, then you have a duty to warn your people and protect your people. See, for example, the story of Jubilee Dawns who thought Bolz was hearing God prophetically when he seemingly supernaturally revealed where she worked (in reality it seems he’d found the details on social media). Bolz went on to give her a prophecy which affirmed her relationship with a man she was with. She married that man, whom she says later turned out to be physically abusive. “He ended up nearly taking my life and I didn’t leave for the longest time because I thought it was God’s will,” she later said.

Jubilee’s testimony is a shocking and sobering example of what can happen if church leaders fail to call out false prophets. How many others, like Jubilee, may have remained trapped in dangerous situations because they put their trust in a word from an apparently trusted prophet. As Jubilee explains, the moment she discovered Bolz was a “con artist”, a weight was lifted. Finally she realised she wasn’t being “disobedient” to God by not acting on Bolz’s “prophecy”. But the injustice was blatant: “It angered me so much that Bethel never made an announcement – they never protected anyone from him.”

Bethel had multiple opportunities to intervene and to, as Winger puts it “warn the world” about Bolz. They failed to.

If Winger is to be believed, this is all just the tip of the iceberg. He’s alleging firstly, there’s widespread fakery within the charismatic church – others like Bolz are operating in a similar way. And secondly, that “cover up culture” is just as widespread, meaning the wolves are protected while the flock is harmed. Is it really possible that Bethel (and others in the charismatic movement) are continuing to protect other abusers? 

Hard questions

Importantly, Winger is at pains to point out that he does believe in the charismatic gifts of the Spirit. He thinks prophecy and miracles can be genuine and from God. The problem is, according to him, almost all of the well-known speakers, churches and ministries are either fraudulent, or have tolerated fraud for decades. At this point, Winger risks overreach. He’s a little too eager to “name names” whether they be IHOP, Morning Star or Benny Hinn - and this isn’t always done with supporting evidence.

Nevertheless, there have been more than enough confirmed scandals in the charismatic church (Mike Bickle, Paul Cain, Bob Jones, Mike Pilavachi) for us to state with confidence there is a pattern of prophetic leaders having major falls from grace – and that this often involves both sexual and prophetic abuse. What should we make of this?

Cessationists have an easy answer to the problem. They believe the gifts of the Spirit (prophecy, tongues, words of knowledge etc) were solely for the early Church and are no longer in use today. So when stories like this emerge, their answer is clear cut: of course Bolz is a fraud – the whole movement is fraudulent.

Charismatics, of which I am one, reject this and would be keen to point to biblical evidence that these gifts are given for the good of the Church and have not “ceased” (the origin of the word cessationist). Nevertheless, very difficult questions remain for us: If the gifts are real, then why are the most prominent examples of people with them seemingly up to no good? We say we believe in the gift of discernment. Why then have prominent charismatic leaders been so seemingly undiscerning in who they have platformed and endorsed as “prophetic”. 

Bolz has reportedly decided to “step back from public ministry leadership and enter a season of sabbatical”

Listening to Winger, you come away with the impression that if a prophetic ministry or church is big enough that you’ve ever heard of their existence, they’re probably suspect. I can only hope he’s overstating it, but who knows? Only time will tell. 

Winger is seeking to hold two beliefs in tension. On the one hand, charismatic gifts are real and genuine. On the other hand, many prophets are false, and many leaders in the church know it. He even claims that if all the frauds were to be unveiled, the whole movement would struggle to cope under the weight of it.

Winger’s observation that for the movement to thrive, wrongdoing must be called out is undoubtedly accurate. He has done the Church a major service in exposing what needed to be exposed (although why this needed to be almost six hours long will forever remain a mystery to me. Someone get that man an editor!).

Winger’s most important point is spot on: Rather than fear the truth, charismatic Christians must embrace it – even if it’s painful in the short term. That means calling out the frauds, as public sin must be confronted publicly. It means putting a stop to cover-up culture. It means excommunicating the persistently unrepentant. All of this requires joining with the Holy Spirit himself in bringing into the light what needs to be brought into the light. It will be difficult. It may even be horrifying. But it’s God’s work, and it needs to happen. Or else this pattern will keep repeating.