IHOP, APEST, and The Danger of Playing Para-Church

(Note: this post was written several months ago after the release of the Rolling Stone article "Love and Death in the House of Prayer." I hesitated to publish it then but am publishing it now that time is passed and I feel good about it. Understand it is coming from a place of love for both IHOP and the Church, desiring "to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son.")

I have spent a lot of time at the House of Prayer lately.  Not the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City, which has been doing 24/7 prayer and worship since 1999, but the local off shoot here in Des Moines.  IHOP Iowa (IHOPIA, which is almost just as long as far as abbreviations go) is open 4 hours a day during the week and features live musicians occasionally, but mostly plays a live feed of the IHOPKC worship room.  Lately, I have been spending 1-2 hours there a day and playing guitar once a week. 

There a lot of things I really like about IHOP. I attended One Thing, their big conference every year, this past December and had some profound encounters with Jesus. Since then, I've really been learning a lot. The greatest thing I enjoy is the chance to break out of the usual routine of 15 minute spiritual disciplines and instead take the time to spend an hour or two in the presence of God.  It forces you to actually engage with a God usually relegated to the margins of our schedules.  In a time when I am beginning to raise support for my new job with InterVarsity, this time has deepened my intimacy with Jesus and trust in Him in profound ways.  


I really support their vision of 24/7 prayer and worship "in the spirit of the tabernacle of David."  I love the attempt to reclaim God's house as a "house of prayer for all nations."  The emphasis on Song of Solomon as an allegory of the intimacy between Christ and the Bride is, while odd at first, striking and comforting.  The emphasis on end times eschatology, while unusual these days, is important for people to understand and place themselves in Biblical chronology.

But there are other aspects of IHOP that give me apprehension.  

The way they approach praying and singing in tongues appears to be a direct contradiction of 1 Corinthians 14:27-28 - "If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and one must interpret; but if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God."  But that is a minor thing. 

Primarily, I believe their culture and structure may lend itself to fanaticism without much accountability.  Recently, the story broke and was even featured in Rolling Stone magazine about a group of students attending IHOPU (their, sort of, Bible college) who basically branched off into their own cult.  The crazy story includes all your tragic cult elements: a charismatic leader, shaming, secret homosexuality, sexual abuse, and ending in a suicide/ alleged homicide.  From what I can tell, as concerns about the group arose, IHOPU leadership did the best they could to curtail unhealthy behaviors and they had no idea what was going on behind the scenes.  Once the suicide happened, they appeared to handle things well by kicking the leader out and sending the other students back to their family, providing emotional and financial help as best they could.

But I can't help but conclude that there was something special about IHOP's teaching and structure that lent itself to a self-appointed apostle getting visions from God that gave him authority to manipulate and control others.  In the fury of teaching about being an "end-times forerunner" and leading the army of God against the antichrist, it was easy for a gnostic fanaticism to grow in a mentally ill kid with a God-complex and no accountability.  You just don't get that in the context of your average mainline protestant church. 

But here's the rub: there is very little in what IHOP teaches or does that I outright disagree with.  I have a pretty good Biblical discernment and everything I have heard or read so far lines up.  I do believe that the Holy Spirit is still alive and well, I believe in apostles and prophets, I believe in supernatural healing, I believe in tongues, and I believe we are closer now to the end times than we are away from them. Aside from 1 Cor. 14 and tongues, they look pretty solid.

But if in one sense what they are doing or teaching is solid, what they are not doing or teaching is going to destroy them.  Fundamentally, they have an APEST, Ephesians 4 problem.  It takes all 5 roles (apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, and teacher) to create a mature and edifying church.  If most mainline protestants place too much emphasis on shepherding and evangelicals place too much emphasis on evangelism, IHOP places too much emphasis on the apostolic and prophetic.  In response to a church without any apostles and prophets, IHOP has created a movement with only apostles and prophets.  Thus you have unceasing action that borders on legalism.  You have supernatural priority bordering on mysticism.  Everyone is having great God encounters in the prayer room, but no one knows each other and there is no community.  Prophets speak in tongues out loud because there are no teachers to hold them accountable to 1 Cor. 14.  Apostles unjustly pull rank and control others because there are no shepherds to hold them accountable to gentleness and love.  They released the APE and it may be out of control. 

The annual One Thing Conference

Mike Bickle never sought to create a church, he wanted to create a para-church.  But that is exactly the problem with IHOP.  In seeking to separate and be something distinct from the local church, IHOP is lacking exactly that which it needs.  In the same way, the local church continues to lack apostolic and prophetic leaders because they all go to IHOP or start their own thing.  They have only created a new church movement that gets it wrong (and right) in different ways.  Perhaps that is really an indictment of the para-church model in general. But that is for another time. What is certain is that the church is most edified and matured when the different APEST callings work together within the local church. 

So for all that I love about IHOP, my own prophetic and teaching gift leads me to be concerned.  Perhaps in a time when the prophetic and apostolic has been ignored for so long, it is a good thing to swing a little too far the other direction.  Perhaps these seasons of over-emphasis (we are just coming out of the over-emphasis on evangelism) on one gift or the other is simply how God works and uses these callings to edify the church.  But I must believe that the hurts and pains that come along the way must point to another, better way where the gifts fit together cohesively.  I must pray that IHOP stops playing para-church and starts getting serious about the responsibilities they have as leaders of God's people.  Thankfully, I've learned a few things about praying recently. 

Seth