International House of... Money?
IHOPKC's claim to live simply; betrayed by IRS reports, Covid funding
This is part 1 of what will be a multi-part story of the financial labyrinth of IHOPKC’s many nonprofit endeavors. The ministry, which claims to focus on a simple lifestyle of prayer and fasting, demonstrates through numerous records that it may not be practicing what it preaches.
Listening to any of IHOPKC’s messages, especially those from founder and former head Mike Bickle, it would be impossible not to know the claims of simplicity Bickle purports to make foundational to his earthly life. In actuality, however, many non-profits related to IHOPKC, the number of Bickle family members serving on their boards or running them, and the sheer profit these have shown over the years certainly begs the question: Just how simple is this simple life?
To listen to Bickle here, God has told him he would have wealth not for himself, but to help the poor and spread the Gospel to all nations.
Helping the poor should start at home, many IHOPers say. And since this scandal has broken out, sexual abuse is far from the only accusation levied against the house of prayer; it’s simply the most serious. And Bickle promotes this poverty by spiritualizing it up one side and down the other. In fact, a typical sermon from Bickle might be this one from 2009, as most are aware Bickle repeats his messages often. In it he says the following:
Those who receive finances are filled with joy and thanks, knowing that God’s eyes are on them…. At age 18, I committed to live a simple lifestyle so I could give extravagantly to the kingdom. At age 22, I married Diane. Immediately, we committed to double tithe and to seek to increase our percentage of giving. We committed to reduce our lifestyle before we reduced the percentage of our giving. We determined to have a smaller house before we gave a smaller percent away. I do not buy into the “American dream” that I am supposed to have more while I give less. We must not confuse the difference between a spirit of poverty and a spirit of generosity.
Catch that first line. He says receiving finances equates with God’s eyes being on someone. This doesn’t sit too well with a number of former IHOPers, who lived below the poverty line (I’ll be covering this more in an upcoming post in this series).
That said, the average IHOPKC staff member receives zero pay from IHOPKC for working almost 50 hours a week, which I’ll explore more in another part of this series today I am going to dive into the non-poverty spirit side of IHOPKC.
Departure from accountability
On Jan. 31, 2021, IHOPKC departed from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), leaving many questions. As Julie Roys’ The Roys Report covered at the time, “Since churches are exempt from filing Form 990s with the Internal Revenue Service, ECFA’s annual accreditation serves to signal members’ commitment to upholding financial best-practices.” IHOPKC had been a member of the ECFA since 2016. And then it wasn’t.
Quite literally, when IHOPKC removed its membership from the ECFA, it signaled it would be removing accountability for how it manages its finances. However, between 2016 and 2021, several changes, financial and otherwise, occurred behind the scenes according to the hodgepodge of financial records available.
Hold on to the roller coaster bar because IHOPKC is not just one organization with one name. In fact, the Bickles alone steer multiple nonprofits and corporations. In some cases, one Bickle is a board member while another Bickle gets a stipend or compensation. The maze is a tale of financial inbreeding.
Some of the names associated with the Bickle ministry include:
International House of Prayer
International House of Prayer—Forerunner Christian Fellowship
Friends of the Bridegroom
House of Prayer Ministries, Inc. - See quit-claim deed below for Shiloh property. This is a newer one I’d not heard of; however, Diane Bickle is the president. This ministry was granted tax-exempt status in 2016, but until 2021 only filed 990N (postcards), indicating assets no greater than $50,000.
IHOPKC- Chinese Ministry- Granted tax-exempt status in 2021. The registered address is a private home in Grandview (the town where some of IHOPKC’s properties lie, adjacent to Kansas City). So far little activity exists.
Glad Heart Properties - Diane Bickle’s real estate agency, wholly owned by FOTB according to IRS returns; it closed Dec. 31, 2023.
Glad Heart Insurance- A Glad Heart arm that provides home and auto insurance.
Cyrus Resources - This is a corporation used for “oil and gas exploration.”
More exist, with some folded, some simply extensions of IHOPKC-FCF, etc. Most of the point here is the absolute size and reach of this ministry and the businesses that accompany it, not that all of them are somehow doing something wrong.
Forerunner Training Center -This is how Forerunner Christian Academy (FCA) is listed with the IRS. FCA is a private Christian school and does what it says.
*Please note that while FCA did lease space from IHOPKC-FCF, as well as another church, for a brief time, coming out of Covid, according to school director and founder, Suzanne Clough, Clough wanted to emphasize that the school is entirely separate from IHOPKC-FCF and has never at any time received financial support or had any formal affiliation with the ministry. While some of the school’s staff and board have either been on staff at IHOPKC now or in the past, there is no actual affiliation or connection.*
SHILOH
Shiloh was IHOPKC’s retreat center, in a secluded area near the prayer room, at the dead end of an otherwise residential area. I drove a member of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) down there once for a staff retreat. Other IHOPKC events were held there. Shiloh has a house on the property. A source shared with me how it had become overrun and neglected. For a while a leader from another ministry was renting the house (he is now in another state). But further research shows that at least a portion of the area was sold in 2021.
GLAD HEART
The Glad Heart family of businesses has several iterations. While the real estate company formally closed EOY 202, it’s unclear if any of the other namesakes remain open. This list is from Bizapedia, which tracks business registrations and contacts. The Bickles’ son Paul also runs another company called Premium Property Management, LLC. It owns and manages rentals around the area.
The Bickles’ other son, Luke, also spent some time in Vanuatu in his role in oil and gas. His LinkedIn profile details this history, as well as his current role as Project Manager for Cyrus Resources. Cyrus is registered to Eric Oppriecht, a name you may recall from the appeal IHOPKC filed to avoid paying property taxes for its apartment complex, Herrnhut. Contacts for Cyrus include Mike and Diane Bickle.
Taxes tell stories
The history of tax filings open for public inspection is a fascinating journey through a giant corn maze with multiple false leads. The actual main body, IHOPKC itself, stopped filing a Form 990 a decade ago, but here’s a list of who appeared as board members, leaders, and others who received compensation. :
As you can see, when IHOPKC filed the last Form 990 for tax year 2014 disclosing financial information, many people received compensation. It’s obvious that some of them were hard workers earning money for their labor (for example, anyone around IHOPKC saw the dedicated work people like Allen Hood were doing, and some who knew the ins and outs understood that while they might not know the names of all the pieces of the clock, people kept it ticking.) Note the number of family members of people who also received compensation and for how much. In no way am I suggesting these people were not working. And clearly IHOPKC disclosed these relationships, too.1
But nepotism at IHOPKC often runs as wild and free as a feral cat.
Nepotism is not illegal, but it’s nothing to be proud of either; in ministry, especially, it reeks of a lack of trust. IHOPKC is not some small “mom and pop” business venture, where having the whole family working together running the offices is worthy of acclaim. Instead, this is a place that has the opportunity to train competent leaders and teachers, but there was a ceiling that stopped all but the most elite—and only the Bickles and their bros decided who got to be elite.
Taxing transitions
From 2014’s final filed Form 990 from IHOPKC itself, the organization was wrapped into IHOPKC-Forerunner Christian Fellowship (IHOPKC-FCF) and/or Friends of the Bridegroom (FOTB). You can all the IHOPKC-FCF Form 990T reports here. Even more interesting is the Friends of the Bridegroom filings, available here. On the same year’s filing, tax year 2014, we see FOTB listed most of the same people as IHOPKC did:
However, by 2017’s filing, members are suddenly not paid reportable compensation:
Bickle is listed this way until the 2019 tax year:
The ProPublica summary of each year’s reported revenue from FOTB is especially fascinating,
2011- $22,687,293
2012- $20,096,652
2013- $5,573,280
2014- $933,746
2015- $1,303,443
2016- $428,821
2017- $201,578
2018- $2,794
2019- $6
2020- Postcard
2021- $926,800
2022- $273,478
And 2019 is not a typo. FOTB actually reported $6 in revenue.
2020 brings blurry financials
For the fiscal year that fell between July 1, 2019- June 30, 2020, FOTB only filed Form 990N, according to available records. This is known as the “postcard.” Curiously, this is the only FY in which the organization filed this.
FOTB’s entire disclosure of the board and their roles changes in its full filing for tax year 2020.2 There’s suddenly been a dramatic change in structure here, and the new trustees for FOTB don’t include names we know from IHOPKC, though a familiar last name remains:
Paul Bickle is on this board—but daddy is not far away. Hang tight because it gets very interesting during the time that we know a lot of drama is happening behind the scenes as well.
In FOTB’s 2021 Form 990, we see the same officers, Kim, Diaz, and Bickle, as above when the dramatic shift occurred. But we also see another change farther down on the form in Schedule L:
Yes, that is $78,000, which is partly for Bickle’s “housing allowance.” Housing allowances for ministers are legitimate. The IRS has specific guidelines for how these work. Here is one relevant section:
If you own your home, you may still claim deductions for mortgage interest and real property taxes. If your housing allowance exceeds the lesser of your reasonable compensation, the fair rental value of the home, or your actual expenses directly relating to providing the home, you must include the amount of the excess in income.
Obviously, we have no access to the personal returns of Bickle, so we can’t evaluate how that $78K is noted. By FOTB listing that as both housing and a “Minister compensation,” they cover a lot. That’s likely smart since the Bickles actually do live in a duplex behind the prayer room, as many talk about frequently.
In fact, they own this duplex. Mike and Diane live on one side, and a family member lives on the other.
Save the drama for yo’… prosecutor
We knew, of course, that FOTB was Bickle’s baby these days because he made that clear in his rambling emails to Jane Doe’s husband.
Most following this saga since the start recall when Jane Doe first told her story to The Roys Report. The detailed story also included the series of emails between Bickle and Doe’s husband. I want to highlight just the part where Bickle points out his shift “three years ago” from IHOPKC to FOTB:
But a deeper look at FOTB, IHOPKC-FCF, and the newer House of Prayer Ministries, Inc. shows a lot of shifting around.
For a few years, IHOPKC and IHOPKC-FCF, as well as Glad Heart Properties and Cyrus Resources, would appear like this sample from a 2015 FOTB 990.
The 990s from IHOPKC-FCF list Glad Heart under “income from controlled organizations”:
By the 2020 tax return, the first full return available, from House of Prayer Ministries, Inc. we see that this ministry now shows IHOPKC-FCF and Glad Heart Properties as related organizations.
Are cookies missing from the cookie jar?
Dr. Dénouement only claims to attempt to untie knots, and makes no claim of understanding US tax codes. That said, there was a lot of maneuvering and moving of money in those years that IHOPKC was part of the ECFA. When it exited in 2021 (in January, if you recall, so basically, the end of 2020 is what we have), most of the changes here had occurred. The one thing that was not glaringly obvious was the massive amount of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans that IHOPKC and multiple related organizations took during Covid. This includes Mike and Diane Bickle themselves, with two separate loans, as well.
Let’s have a look at all the free money this nonprofit received.
MIKE BICKLE
Despite Mike’s $78,000 minister’s compensation and housing allowance, which you may note above he received in FY 2021 (July 1, 2021-June 30, 2022) based on the tax filing from FOTB detailing the 2021 year, apparently Mike needed a bit more money to “protect his paycheck.” Admittedly, with the myriad organizations connected to him, and the lack of a 2020 return, we can’t yet say what he received exactly in 2020, but it’s also worth noting that his ministries received millions.
Bickle took this small loan.
DIANE BICKLE
And he wasn’t alone. Diane took one out also, even though, as shown below, Diane received $48,919 that year in reportable compensation from related organizations. On the tax form, the only related organization listed is “IHOPFCF.”
Diane’s business really was a business, of course. Glad Heart Properties sold houses until Dec. 31, 2023, and donated a portion of the commission to IHOPKC. But while one can see why a real estate business might need some paycheck protection, it’s more of a stretch for a man who claims to live so simply that he spends “twelve hours a day in the prayer room” and lends his car out frequently, as reported in the McNamara report.
IHOPKC
Here incredulity rises with the bigger loans as IHOPKC itself, which does not file a Form 990 and is not a member of the ECFA, took out a $2.5 million loan with no accountability to the taxpayers that support it. It claimed to cover 473 jobs, but seeing as most “staff” at IHOPKC raise their own support and don’t receive a salary, the number is shocking to many.
Some at IHOPKC get small stipends, generally $500 or so a month was the norm. Sierra Noel, a long time IHOP staffer, who received two stipends at one point, for her exceptional skillsets, posted this thread again recently, as the recent scandal broke. Sierra, who prefers not to use her last time, has been questioning the financial aspects of IHOPKC for some time now, and chronicling this on her X and Instagram accounts, resulting in a sort of digital archive of this part of its history. Her legwork has started many-a-ball rolling.
The link to which Sierra refers is this one (excerpt below), which is the Small Business Association (SBA) formula of estimated expenses and payroll. Indeed, it wasn’t just IHOPKC borrowing $2.5 million, but its other entity, IHOPKC-FCF hopped in the PPP race and borrowed $215,900, saying it was protecting 61 jobs.
Here’s that loan in question:
Both IHOPKC and IHOPKC-FCF listed their loans as payroll. Of course, we have no information on IHOPKC itself, but IHOPKC-FCF did file Form 990T that year, July 1, 2020-June 30, 2021, which would be the logical application of a loan approved for payroll in mid-May. Both this tax filing and the one prior are similar. $0 is listed for compensation of Officers, Directors, and Trustees. That doesn’t mean, of course, that many were not paid from this. The IRS nonprofit laws only require listing the highest paid officers anyway.
Sierra’s commentary (which includes more than the small series posted here) is not an unusual take from those who struggled to raise support, ate food that was past the expiration date, and had no access to medical care sometimes. Again, I’ll cover that side more in another part of this series, but context matters to grasp this situation.
IHOPKC-ADJACENT
Meanwhile, other IHOPKC adjacent for-profits also had PPP loans:
Forerunner Training Center (FCA)—as noted above, which is not affiliated with IHOPKC-FCF in an official capacity—took a more modest loan, which doesn’t raise flags like the other IHOPKC-affiliated or adjacent nonprofits. In the case of FCA, similar to the real estate endeavors, the loans are logical and seem to help people continue to do work they need to do.
Of these PPP loans, obviously actual businesses like Glad Heart, Premium Property Management, and FCA as a functioning Christian college preparatory school, would be logical recipients of PPP loans, seeing as they might see lulls in payments of their own during Covid. But others just don’t seem to make a lot of logical sense.
In fact, in drafting this story, I spoke with someone whose husband’s company also took a PPP loan. Their company is a large, nationwide business, with local offices; most people make significant salaries there. I verified the loan in the pandemic loan data base, but I am not posting it here for privacy of the person. The loan was for about $6 million to cover almost exactly the same number of jobs IHOPKC said it was covering with its $2.5 million. What was stunning to the person with whom I spoke—also a former IHOPer—is that the salary differential between this large company, where some employees earn six-figure salaries, and IHOPKC where most earn nothing, is vast. The person also noted to me that this company—based in a very high cost of living area—was also vastly larger in its company operations compared to IHOPKC. The person told me how surprising it seemed that a missions organization, where everyone is supposed to raise support, would need that much money.
Here’s what I know: While I can’t claim to understand the inside story on the many IHOPKC-affiliated and adjacent organizations and their big bucks, I can say that IHOPKC leaders preached often about things such as accountability and integrity in the Christian life. This organization that portrayed itself as uniquely different, focused on simplicity, appears alongside the shiny televangelists of the era. See, other giant ministries, televangelists, and high dollar preachers took out massive PPP loans that they had forgiven.
Certainly some of these cases were justified and likely important. Large ministries that depend on many people would absolutely suffer in the sense that the janitor would not have a need to clean a bathroom at a shuttered church in California. Thus, I begrudge nothing by name. But when I read some of these statistics, it is difficult not to wonder how many hard-working janitors and cashiers lost a lot of income while Joyce Meyer flew her Gulfstream jet somewhere. Taking out loans in the six or seven-figure category and having little to no accountability afterwards should serve a warning to us. Again, I don’t know the details; I can’t know.
That is the entire point of transparency and accountability in ministry.
Hi Dr. D—under the subheading, “Departing from Accountability” I think you may have a typo: International or Internal Revenue Service?
Your welcome! Great article. I am thinking seriously about you becoming my first paid Substacker! Thank you for working on all of this, for our good and God’s glory!
This 👇 might remind IHOPKC to start to care :
Report Labor Exploitation to Missouri Department of Labor and request for possible compensation
https://labor.mo.gov/contact-labor
Report Religious White-Collar Criminal to ask FBI for investigations
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/white-collar-crime
Report IRS TAX Fraud and Money Laundering to IRS:
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/how-do-you-report-suspected-tax-fraud-activity