Crisis (mis)management in action: Double-down theology

Volz reappears, Taylor prioritizes Israel over victims. And one AG member makes a sincere apology

“People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”- old proverb

Since my post almost a week ago revealing a forthcoming IHOPKC announcement, a whole slew of them have come—though not quite as scheduled as previously planned.

First, there was no announcement Friday night. None. Nada. Zilch. It was as if the announcement of an announcement never happened. Some people attributed the “leaks” as the cause. I obviously contributed, but by the time these things reach me, I can assure you, they have been leaked so much there are soaking cloths on the ground; by then, it’s too wet to mow. (I’ll return to this metaphor shortly.)

What really happened inside the ever-so-secretive walls, it seems, is that the leaders decided they needed to be more prepared—now we know why since it’s been announced that the prayer room is closing (Wait! Don’t say closing, as Kansas City Star reporters Judy L. Thomas, Laura Bauer, and Katie Moore discovered in writing their story. Despite the verbal announcement made Monday saying IHOPKC was closing, and the written email using the word closing, the Star report says they received an emailed statement from IHOPKC attorney Audrey Manito insisting:

“In a word, IHOPKC is NOT closing. To state the obvious, the last six months have been a test to the strengths and fortitude of our missions-based organization.”

Okay, Audrey! Whatever you say. I’m not sure if we’ve heard Manito speak publicly or not, but she does write like an attorney… also a PR maven.

But let’s go back to these announcements. And let’s be real here, Dr. Dénouement does not have the power to control what is or is not announced at her former ministry. In fact, after revealing the new LLCs and quitclaim deeds, methinks the IHOPKC bigwigs would take pleasure in doing anything the opposite of what I desired—just to prove they could. (If you somehow missed it, the big announcement came Monday.)

You see, the old IHOPKC we all believed was the real deal (until it wasn’t), vanished. With it went any illusion of humility, walking two miles instead of the one, or any general Sermon on the Mount theology. Now the spirit perpetuated by IHOPKC is The Spirit of Double Down.

The Spirit of Double Down goes like this: I said what I said, and I meant it. If you didn’t hear what I meant that I said, even if I did not say it like you thought I said it, then listen again as I repeat what I think I meant no matter what I said, and I’ll drive the hammer in harder so you get it. Got it?

If that was really confusing for you to read, you’re not alone. That is the brain processing of all of us since the shifting narrative from Sermon on the Mount theology to Spirit of Double-down theology. Never give anyone an inch. Ever.

That’s why we see Manito backtracking, and—wait for it: It is also why, believe it or not, a sudden post over the weekend by everyone’s favorite Whippersnapper, Eric Volz, on Saturday night, actually produced another classic example of this.

But let’s back up a bit.

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The Whippersnapper Returns

Volz’s foray back to IHOPKC began innocently with a tweet about rock climbing. Saturday night around 8 p.m., he posted this on X, which was followed by the comment that he simply could not resist:

Some weren’t sure why Volz posted his “crisis” comment initially, but this was the context that prompted it.

Most of us didn’t immediately see X user Hunter Jones’ post in our feeds since X prioritizes its algorithms by a variety of factors, and Jones has fewer followers (so far). Thus, we first witnessed Volz reply without context:

Indeed, he did just that:

However, a mere six days later on Feb. 7, Tammy Woods’ story went public, and the real crisis started.

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Mowing on wet grass

As I alluded earlier, Volz actually created (no doubt with the edict of IHOPKC leaders) an environment in which it was impossible to manage the crisis because doing so was akin to mowing wet grass that grew more saturated by the day.

Volz, of course, opened his David House agency after finding himself assisting other Americans in international crises. He was released from a Latin American prison after rape and murder charges were overturned by an appellate court. Here’s a bit about what his agency does as an international crisis management agency (beware, there is a flashing yellow “report a case” bar on every single page, and it never stops):

Volz's agency is listed as an “international crisis resource agency,” which declares it provides several services.

The legal aspect is particularly interesting, as it appears that—according to wording directly on the agency page—David House is there to work with legal counsel:

“David House is retained by in-house or outside counsel and we work closely with our clients [sic] legal teams to ensure that our work furthers the clients objectives.” (“Clients”)

Looking back at the introduction of Volz to “manage” the IHOPKC crisis, we can easily conclude from this statement that some of his expected duties were to work alongside Lathrop GPM, and especially IHOPKC’s attorney Manito (hence Manito sounding like a PR maven). Volz and Manito worked closely together during their joint operation at IHOPKC, and Dr. Dénouement has talked with someone who personally attended a meeting with them both.

But crisis manager or not, double speak or not, the original poster, Jones, was having none of Volz’s double-down pushback. As per usual when dealing with anything IHOPKC, Volz, as with IHOPKC leaders, it has become like an unwritten bro-code (for all genders) that we never admit our missteps, never declare we were wrong. Nope, nope-ity, nope. I did not blow it. You see, Hunter, I was speaking for the great IHOPKC; therefore, you just misunderstood me. Volz:

“You might not understand the difference, but the individuals that statement was directed at understood it perfectly well. I’ve never stated the ‘crisis was over’ as you misquoted me here.”

Not only is Volz’s response lacking in humility, but it is patronizing and demeaning, as if Jones just doesn’t “get” the big, bad world of crisis management. Jones, however, isn’t taking it:

But what is crisis management and how does it work?

Crisis management is an extension of the public relations field. As I’ve stated here before, as a journalism student and then reporter, we felt as far away from the “PR people” as possible. My favorite survey reported that a large number of journalists likened public relations folks to “piranhas.”

Today, continued surveys from organizations like Muckrack, which provide research on both journalism and public relations (distinctively different fields with oft-clashing objectives) show that while the two are still not quite BFFs, the connections have grown closer; this is no doubt due to lowered journalism budgets, and the fact that PR people send in stories that, as one of my editors used to say, “walked in off the street.” But the fact remains that a PR person exists to promote a brand, and a journalist exists to tell the truth about a person or situation. These rarely meet.

In our 24/7 media world, no brand is safe, and image is money. Likewise, human failure, and genuine disaster run parallel to life in the 21st century.

Enter crisis management.

You know who probably has hired a top crisis management firm currently? I’ll give you two guesses.

If you guessed Boeing and United Airlines, you understand why organizations employ agencies for “reputation repair.” Here’s one article that details what CEOs of Boeing, United, as well as Alaska Airlines did to address the reputational disasters facing them recently. Poor United has a history of articles about its PR disasters.

Then why is a business class ticket from its home base of Chicago to London’s Heathrow airport and back more expensive than its biggest competitor in the Windy City, American Airlines? It’s all about how you spin things—especially 40,000 feet in the sky.

A crisis handled well can have a plane crash blamed on geese instead of the airline, and make a man a hero (see slides 12-19), or it can lead to a $1 billion lawsuit for a door panel flying out while midair.

Thus, when The Whippersnapper found himself in a spin doctor tale yet again, instead of doing what the big league spin doctors do in order to hasten an emergency surgical repair, he doubled down and used defense semantics—again.

Nobody but the IHOPKC loyalists who cannot see “the forest through the trees,“ as my mom used to say, was buying it.

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I’m not an expert in crisis management, but John Guilfoil is. He’s the founder and principal owner of John Guilfoil Public Relations LLC, and the author of this concise and explanatory presentation: Crisis Mode: Coming out on top, even in a crisis or scandal. This is publicly available on a website via the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. As we reflect on IHOPKC, Volz as the former crisis manager, and what organizations should do in crisis mode, let’s examine some of his highlights first. Here are Guilfoil’s “10 Steps to Manage Crisis.” Compare these to what we have seen IHOPKC do since October’s painful revelations, which were only the beginning.

1. Make sure everyone knows who’s in charge. Chain of command.

2. Know who has what information.

3. Know who will speak on behalf of the organization.

4. Understand the feeding needs of the media. You have to feed the beast sometimes.

5. “First beats better” – while you’re delaying, scrambling, and not ready to talk to the media, someone probably leaked already. Reporters are competitive.

6. Monitor, monitor, monitor the media

7. Make good use of your website and social media channels

8. Talk to your employees.

9. Don’t hide. Be accessible. Answer your phone.

10. Accept that it’s not going to go 100% swimmingly.

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Crisis mismanagement

Perhaps what strikes me most about this list is how little of it reflects the way this worldwide ministry, which purported itself to be transparent, actually handled any of this. At the end of the day, we didn’t even know who was in charge. This is not how to manage a crisis. It’s impossible to bury secrets. It’s more impossible to bury the truth.

At the end of this presentation, Guilfoil concludes with this:

IHOPKC is not a private organization, but a public nonprofit, a tax-exempt church, based IRS classification. This is vital to our understanding because church status not only exempts taxes, but it also excuses an organization from disclosing how it earns and spends money. Churches do not have to file IRS Form 990s. If you are a public nonprofit, your business is our business.

Recently, there has been concern at the IHOPKC base that there are “leaks.” Of course, sometimes fingers point to me as a person leaking information. But where do I get it? I can tell you this much—not from one person.

Guilfoil’s presentation ends simply, with these instructions:

• Control the Communications

  • Tell it all

  • Tell it fast

  • Tell ’em what you’re doing about it

  • Tell ’em when it’s over

  • Get back to work

You see, the emphasis here is not on control the way IHOPKC leaders and Volz may think; it is not about the Bickle idea of “controlling the narrative” in a way that materially changes it. Rather, this instruction means owning up to it, controlling the way people hear the news and that they hear it from the source. The emphasis in crisis management is on telling the truth.

By the time IHOPKC made any statements about Bickle and produced its “grief and sorrow,” the question people had was more like a face palm emoji than any real expression of remorse.

It took Tammy Woods telling her story to even get a reaction that sounded semi-appropriate to the situation, way too late—and certainly not from Bickle himself—as Bickle still produced slimy narratives like “she touched me; I did not touch her” and “we did not have intercourse.” (Did I mention the face palm emoji?)

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The cost of double-down theology

Volz doesn’t work at IHOPKC anymore. But his statement of semantics that he didn’t actually mean the “crisis at large was over” when he said IHOPKC was transitioning out of crisis mode—before Tammy Woods and TH ever came forward with their stories—was completely ineffective communication; he spun a tangled web with that line. Double-down theology doesn’t erase that.

I tried to politely address Volz from the professional standpoint. I didn’t expect a response, and I didn’t receive one. This peer-reviewed journal article from the Southern Management Association (open access) synthesizes a variety of methods of crisis management. It’s a solid overview and introduction to what, no doubt, is a burgeoning field. “Crises and Crisis Management: Integration, Interpretation, and Research Development” explores the number of ways professionals see this “management.” It remains unclear whether Volz has any training in crisis management, or if he simply thinks he is qualified because he has experience personally and has helped negotiate situations in other nations. That’s good work, and it’s commendable, but it’s not the same thing as crisis management.

In fact, in one report on the IHOPKC closure, Boz Tchividjian, who represents some of the Jane Does, told The Roys Report that part of the reason IHOPKC is in its alleged financial crisis is actually because of people like Volz and Manito:

“They’ve been slowly draining funds by navigating this absolute disaster in about a bad a way as you can by spending more money than any of us probably can begin to (imagine) on lawyers and PR people, all who, in my opinion, have done a great disservice to not only victims, but also, quite frankly, in my opinion, IHOPKC.” (TRR)

Touché, sir.

Meanwhile, news from the house of prayer front included double-down speak as Manito’s email to the Star insisted that IHOPKC was not, she repeats NOT, closing:

“We are NOT closing the 24/7 prayer room; it remains a main stay of our existence. We do intend to review the functionality of various operational locations and will likely consolidate several. We have also decided to conclude the operation of IHOPU, our ministry school, after this year’s graduation… we have supported and will continue to support any and all victims of abuse, sexual or otherwise, whether here within IHOPKC, or anywhere in the community. “

Wait, victims?

Many of them are openly wondering where that support is, which is an entirely separate post. Also, note that Manito is now an “us.” She is not an attorney representing IHOPKC; she is IHOPKC.

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Speaking of victims….

Oh wait! My bad; no one was actually speaking about victims—especially not the new face of IHOPKC, Joseph Taylor, executive director (I could have missed this announcement, but last I knew “The General” was doing that).

Taylor, of course, is the leader I revealed (no leak needed, thank you) exclusively whose name was found on not one, but two LLCs, which appear to exist for profit, after IHOPKC issued quitclaim deeds on them. Taylor, who holds all those assets, issued a tone-deaf statement that shows deep study and anointing in the Spirit of Double Down as he eschews the importance of caring for victims, the monstrous money spent in covering the ministry’s assets, and instead insisted that the priority was on keeping the prayer room open and praying for Israel (Spoiler: One of those properties he was deeded has some “special” ties to the prophetic history and plans regarding Israel, a source tells me). It says, in part:

The financial and personnel losses have not been without consequence, yet they are only a part of the deeper issues we must address in order to continue night and day prayer for future generations. We are in a volatile environment, but we’re working day by day with the Board to finalize details and timelines. 

We care deeply about the IHOPKC staff, our local community, partners, friends abroad, and our relationships with the international community and Israel.

Not one word about the women harmed, not one word about the many losing their paltry, pitiful stipends, not one word about victims suffering or the wasteful and poor stewardship of those finances on attorneys and image-preservers. Not one.

However, the importance of this single ministry being preserved for a relationship for Israel got two mentions in his statement. Double-down theology is strong with this one. Two LLCs, two quitclaim deeds, two mentions of caring about their relationship with Israel.

But maybe as The Whippersnapper would say, only the people to whom his message were addressed would really understand his meaning.

Taylor, my man, you are now my Whippersnapper II.

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Just apologize and make it as right as you can

I get that feelings tangle with some former IHOPKC leaders. It’s simple to classify those still there, and those who committed or conspired to commit heinous acts. Some people (myself included) are upset and/or traumatized by some of the theology, especially the eschatology (and yes, if you break it down, it is absolutely violent. I have written and audio, evidence—one day there will be a very lengthy series on this here). However, on the flip side, some former IHOPKC leaders are the ones who led the charge to expose these terrible acts. And while a person who has committed or covered up a sex crime—convicted or not—should not be in a ministry leadership position, there exist many others who, like many of us, thought they were teaching and leading well, and have since turned.

That’s much of the Advocate Group, which includes Allen Hood, who has been publicly contrite for his own part in the events. It’s complicated, I know. In fact, Hood’s “family meeting” after the Bethany Deaton death was a turning point in my leaving ministry (yep, Dr. Dénouement was there for that too!) But on Thursday, he set an example that those practicing double-down theology should heed.

Recently, as Austin Roberts has continued his highly viewed X-blasts known as “IHOPKC video megathread,” which exposed the manipulative ways Bickle confronted issues, but also showed other leaders including Hood as culpable in some, Hood, part of the Advocate Group, responded:

You see, friends, public actions absolutely need public repentance like this. Hood wasn’t trying to play a get-out-of-jail-free card; it wasn’t the first post we’ve seen from him. He’s clearly been working to ensure he doesn’t repeat the patterns he may have perpetuated. The responses to his apology came quickly—including from his own son, Samuel, who reposted it and said:

“A small (yet significant) part of my heart experienced healing reading this. I was one of the “sincere persons” my Dad mentions that was met by ‘spiritual exhortations’ and calls for ‘resisting bitterness.’ It was wrong. It harmed me. It is healing seeing genuine ownership.”

It’s time for IHOPKC leaders to stop focusing on the property they own and take ownership for the terrible pain, trauma, and offenses they have committed against so many.

It’s time for IHOPKC to stop hiring image managers like Whippersnapper I.

It’s time for IHOPKC to stop employing leaders, attorneys, and others who mangle rhetoric to subtly make itself solely responsible for continuing night and day prayer on the earth.

The roots are rotten.

And no whippersnappers this side of eternity can pluck a rotten weed by pretending it is good fruit.

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