Shawn Bolz

One of the biggest things we want to acknowledge is that Bethel's ministry platform carries real weight and responsibility to be used consistently with our biblical principles. We also understand that restoration and reinstatement are not the same thing. Restoration is about healing, repentance, redemption, and helping someone be made whole again in Christ. Reinstatement is about returning someone to a previous position of leadership, influence, or responsibility, which requires rebuilding trust with those impacted, those they lead, and those responsible for oversight and accountability, along with demonstrating the fruit of repentance which reflects Godly character, wisdom, and accountability. We should always pursue restoration, but reinstatement must be approached with wisdom, because grace offers forgiveness, but it does not remove the need for stewardship, consequences, and rebuilding trust.

As we review platforming, we want to follow clear biblical standards for public ministry leadership. Scripture calls leaders to live above reproach and to show self-control, faithfulness, humility, integrity, and care for those they lead. Public ministry influence is a responsibility, not a right.

1 Peter 5:2–3 reminds leaders to shepherd God’s flock, not lord over those entrusted to them, but to be examples to the flock.

We will not make decisions about platforming based solely on rumors, pressure, or unverified claims. At the same time, credible concerns may lead to further review, discernment through appropriate reporting, and accountability processes. If there are proven patterns of behavior that do not align with biblical standards, we cannot continue to platform, endorse, or support that person for ministry leadership here.

During this time, we also want to be clear about our relationship with some outside ministry leaders we have worked with or platformed in the past. We believe clarity is an important part of accountability, and we want our church family and community to understand our current relationship, level of support, and status regarding these individuals.

Following internal review and discussion, we’ve made the decision to confirm publicly that we no longer platform the following individuals: 

• Todd Bentley
• Mike Bickle
• Shawn Bolz
• Bob Hartley

Specifically regarding Bob Hartley, Bethel took action after concerns were raised in previous years. We restricted his ministry involvement, informed our church community, and later limited his access to Bethel’s campus. As part of our current review, we want to clearly state that Bob Hartley is not endorsed, platformed, or permitted to serve in ministry influence at Bethel.

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Dear Alumni,

We know this feels very late for some of you. Sorry this has taken so long. We are aware that a conversation is happening regarding Shawn Bolz, and our confrontations with him that took place more than five years ago. We have delayed in an effort to reflect our recollection accurately, as the issues are important and complex.

Shawn Bolz had ministered with us many times for many years, and had a great impact on our house. We deeply valued and trusted him and appreciated his prophetic gift. Many of us have received important, accurate prophecies, and words of knowledge from him (prior to social media being so pervasive) that we had great confidence in.

In 2019, some significant concerns came to us from respected international leaders regarding irregularities in Shawn’s word of knowledge gift that caused them to wonder if he may have been using social media to generate them. We believe that these concerns and the evidence to support them were gathered and shared in good faith and out of concern for the global Church.

Their presentation of over a dozen words amongst the hundreds he's given was a small sample size, but regardless, was validly concerning and needed to be addressed. For some of our team, the evidence felt conclusive but for others it was not. We did not have a consensus, but we were very concerned and sought clarity from him.

Two of our leaders met with Shawn on two separate occasions about this. Kris flew down for his meeting with Shawn at Bill Johnson’s request. Our leaders also met with Shawn’s board and shared the evidence and our concerns. Each time, Shawn absolutely denied using any social media in his words of knowledge or prophecies. Shawn still maintains he never used social media in any words. And truthfully, unless something changes, only he and the Lord really know what took place.

We ended up in a stalemate, without a satisfactory resolution of our concerns. Without definitive proof, repentance, and/or team consensus, we made no public statement because we weren’t sure. The leaders who previously investigated and gathered the evidence were, of course, free to do what they thought best going forward.

Around the same time, one of Shawn’s employees made allegations concerning inappropriate behavior and an unacceptable work environment. Though Shawn was not, and is not under our authority, one of our leaders found another impacted former team member, went to Shawn and confronted him on those issues over several difficult conversations and admonished him that this behavior was completely unacceptable and that he should take responsibility. He indicated to us that the behaviors that had taken place had stopped. Though we are not experts, these behaviors seemed to fit the descriptions of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment as commonly taught in HR training, and had potential legal ramifications. We recommended they take action in seeking a remedy through the justice system (such as the labor board, arbiters, or courts) as there was no real movement from Shawn to address the past situations, and we had done what we could given the limited level of knowledge we had at the time. We spoke to his board regarding this area of concern.

Romans 13 teaches us that God has placed civil leaders in place as ministers of God for the kinds of issues his former team member brought to us. Furthermore, their experience was absolutely important and personal, and as such was their story to tell, not ours, and to take action if they desired. This is the general context to which Kris was speaking in the text messages that were posted on social media.

Shawn was a trusted guest minister who spoke often on our platform. If Shawn worked for us, or was truly or officially under our covering, the situation would have been handled much differently. We would have not just appealed to Shawn, we would have required a comprehensive and righteous response. Whether related or not, shortly after we addressed our concerns, it appeared that Shawn took steps to adjust how he operated in words of knowledge. He just recently spoke to some of the changes he has made, which can be found on his website here.

In the absence of clarity about both what really happened with some of the words of knowledge, and having addressed the issues with his former team members and found his response lacking, we made the decision to step back from our ministry connection. This meant: 1. We did not have him ministering to our people or movement, or have his materials in our stores (though we missed some things until recently). 2. We communicated our concern, confusion, and his denials to the leaders who initially raised concerns about the words of knowledge with us, as well as to leaders closely connected to Shawn and made the evidence available to them for them to make their own decision. 3. We firmly admonished and warned him, and he responded by making some changes in both of these areas. 4. We made it clear that global leaders were concerned and watching closely.

These were all clear boundaries that produced some of the necessary changes.

I Timothy 5:20 says to publicly rebuke elders “who continue in sin” (NASB20). We weren’t entirely clear what was happening in the words of knowledge and unaware of the scope of his issues with his former team members, but believed he changed his behavior and the work environment going forward after our confrontations, so we did not make a public statement. In the past, we have only brought public admonishment to those outside of our organization in cases where no acknowledgment and change has taken place after correction.

We empathize with those who are confused and disappointed over this situation; we feel the same—this is a tender, confusing, and complex situation. As it stands, our trust in Shawn is still unrepaired. Having privately admonished him, this letter is only intended to clarify the journey we were on, and the steps we have taken given that it is now a wider conversation.

We receive and value the feedback that our actions may have been too subtle and difficult to decipher, and that it would have been more helpful to at least openly acknowledge that we were creating distance with Shawn due to our concerns. We acknowledge we have more to learn in handling situations outside of our staff environment with greater clarity and have been working for the last several months on standardized procedures for hearing and responding to concerns in order to create an even healthier church culture.

Words of knowledge are a significant and important element of conveying the heart of God, demanding high levels of integrity, accountability and responsibility, and our work environments and team relationships must be full of holiness, respect, appropriate behavior, and safety, such that they reflect the joy and glory of God.

We pray that the Holy Spirit brings wisdom, humility, comfort and instruction to each of us.

Bethel Leadership

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Dear Church,

We’re writing to you today to share about some of our mistakes and failures in the way we navigated our responsibilities to the global Body of Christ. We ask for you to cover us with grace as we seek the Lord for forgiveness in the face of some grievous mistakes. These actions were taken by us (Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton, and Dann Farrelly) along with Danny Silk. We would like to clarify that our other leaders and staff members, including Brian and Jenn, and the Bethel Music team, were not updated on the allegations or the details of the process. We take responsibility for the fact that we did not properly and fully bring discipline, closure, or clear and timely communication regarding the gravity of our concerns with Shawn Bolz. This was someone we platformed to preach and prophesy in our house and with our teams on many occasions up until 2019. 

We are clear that we are not responsible for Shawn’s sin, he is. But we are equally clear that we are responsible for our sins, actions, and inactions after the fact. James 4:17 states, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

The truth is, we have hurt and scared people because we did not tell the truth enough, early enough, long enough, or loud enough, and this is a just criticism. Our hearts are grieved, and embarrassed. When we sin or mess up publicly as we have, it’s important to take responsibility publicly, to listen as people share their frustration, sadness, fears, and corrections. We have been hearing a lot of this, and expect to hear more in the season ahead, as sometimes it takes a while for the frustration to land, and for people to really trust you’ve heard them. We are not rushing past this. 

We want to especially thank our alumni, by God’s grace, there are 18,000 of them all over the earth, and many right here in our church. Frankly, it was their communication and agitation 18 months ago, and since, that drew our attention back, and subsequently other national voices, to the necessity of finally and appropriately addressing this. They were calling us to live up to what we taught them: calling out the gold in us.

We recognize this letter is not the end of this process, nor are we putting a bow on things and moving on. We have had a lot of key conversations this year and expect to continue to have many more. But this is the beginning of making things right as we move to increased accountability and transformation. As you all know, it is not our mistakes or sins that define us, but what our Savior does and how we respond to His amazing grace.
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A Message from Kris Vallotton

Firstly, I want to say that I have had a change of perspective since my message last Sunday evening, and I’m writing with a repentant heart today. Prior to 2019, Shawn Bolz had been a friend who had been to Bethel many times, and had ministered to me even during my own nervous breakdown in 2014. In 2019, allegations of sexual harassment came to us through a former member on Shawn’s team. Danny confronted Shawn on this, and he denied any wrongdoing. After further investigation, which included speaking to three of Shawn’s former team members, the accusations were corroborated and showed that this was a culture within Shawn’s team.

Shortly after the sexual allegations, some European church leaders came forward with evidence that Shawn was using social media to get information for false words of knowledge. Danny and I then began reviewing those allegations, along with the 14 pieces of evidence given to us regarding the integrity of Shawn’s prophetic ministry.

As Bill navigated Beni’s cancer diagnosis, Danny and I began a series of additional confrontations. I also flew down to Los Angeles to confront Shawn with my findings. He denied the allegations in what became a four-hour meeting, the heart of which was, Galatians 6:1—confrontation to a friend who had sinned. Again, he denied the allegations, and at that time, I warned him that if someone else must confess his sin, it would be far worse than repenting and doing the right thing. We felt we should give him time to choose repentance, until Shawn stopped engaging with us on the accusations entirely.

In the midst of Covid, Beni’s illness, Eric and Candace’s departure, and other personal stresses, our team began to meet to determine what we should do. We decided to remove him from our platforms, take down his resources from our store, remove his sermons from our network, and to communicate to ministry friends that we knew had him on their platforms as well. But here is the challenge and my mistake: I did not realize until just a few days ago that my approach was merely that of helping a friend, because he was not on our staff or our teams, and we had confronted his board with our findings on several occasions. We did not feel taking things further was our responsibility, and felt that we had done what we could. However, this was a major mistake. We should have told our church and wider community in 2020. We did not. That was wrong.

We platformed him because we believed in him, and when he failed, and failed to repent, it was our responsibility to tell people that we no longer trusted him in order to protect them. That was my decision to not communicate more widely, and my error in judgement. 

It grieves me that someone would need to put out a video to prompt us to action. It’s an indictment against my leadership. I should have known better in this situation, and if I didn’t, I should have sought counsel on what to do. I didn’t do that, and I’m very sorry. I take full responsibility for that, but I know that sorry is not enough. People took prophetic words from Shawn, and I did not step in to support their journey of how to process them in light of these revelations. And regrettably, when one of the victims of Shawn’s sexual allegations reached out to me for help in this crisis, after several conversations and phone calls, I made a decision to remove his access to me without compassion due to my personal overwhelm. I am grieved by my actions.

And so now, I specifically want to apologize to victims of Shawn: those who experienced Shawn’s inappropriate and sexually harassing culture, and those who struggled to process or made life decisions as a result of prophetic words that they’d received. I am very sorry. 

During my message on Sunday evening, January 18, I was in a different place with all of this, still not realizing that we had placed Shawn on a global platform and the responsibility we had in that. Adversity introduces a man to himself, and I did not like what I saw in myself by Monday morning. I thank those who pushed back. On Sunday night, I was externally processing and shared a one-sided message that lacked compassion and awareness, and incorporated Scripture in a way that was incomplete and inaccurate. As a result of my conviction from the Lord and challenge from others, I came to realize the truth: Shawn’s sin isn’t our fault, but protecting people from those we platform is definitely our responsibility.

Repentance means taking ownership of your failure. So right now, I am taking ownership of my failure to our Body, our students, and everyone who trusts us. But repentance also requires bringing forth fruit, so we need to shift our cultural values. We need to focus on creating safety and security for our global community. We must do our best to accomplish this, and we didn’t. We must realize that we need to care more about character than we do about gifting in the leaders who grace our podium and are promoted by us. We need to take steps to have greater accountability within our own leadership teams and ensure that together, we live out our core values and call one another to account when we fall short. We are committed to doing this better moving forward. 

We want to remain a place of restoration for leaders, but not at the expense of protecting the flock. We cannot let predators and the unrepentant have our podiums and be among our people. I am sorry that I failed you in this as well. Sunday night’s message communicated that I cared more about the leader than the victim. I have great compassion for those who are broken, but I did not extend compassion to these victims in my message, and I am deeply sorry for this. I hold my leadership team to never again allow me to not honor the responsibility that we have to the Body.

We have spent a lot of time as a team ensuring that we don’t just say we’re sorry without action. Going forward, how we navigate a global movement in these moments and in this hour must be far better than we have done. We pray that others learn from our mistakes, and that the Body of Christ becomes a safe and godly place for victims to be healed and for people to get well. Please forgive me. I know that healing the trust that has been broken will take time, but I give you my word that we will move to maturity in this. 

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A Message from Bill Johnson

I have many things that I want to take ownership of and apologize for in this situation to our church, our students, and to our global family. I firstly want to apologize for the position I took on the initial accusations brought to our team. Kris and Danny were both willing to bring correction in this, and I was the one who slowed things down. My great strength, and in this instance weakness, is that I believe in people when they don’t deserve it. But in this situation, it became unsanctified mercy. In my commitment to wanting to see Shawn in a place of health, I didn’t see what I needed to. I didn’t want to believe the accusations against Shawn were true, and it blinded me to reality in my loyalty to a friend, neglecting that there was a real issue that needed to be addressed. I could’ve chosen to see through the eyes of my team and access their discernment, but chose not to. As a result of my inaction, which slowed this process down, more people were affected, and additional injuries in the prophetic and trauma in Shawn’s own team took place. 

I specifically spent time with one individual that I know from Shawn’s team, who expressed the pain of his journey and the trauma he had faced while on his staff. But not long after this conversation, I was invited to do an interview on TBN only to discover that it was to promote Shawn and his book. Still, I moved forward with the interview—and this was wrong. Doing the TBN show, after learning of his damaging experience, and then promoting Shawn and his book was a slap in the face to Shawn’s former team member, and to those who suffered from Shawn’s behavior. Soon after the interview, I apologized to the team member who had initially shared with me. He helped me to see how foolish my actions were and the pain they caused him. I know if it affected him in this way, it affected countless others. And for this, I am deeply sorry. 

I live in such a way that I willingly rally to those in trouble. But in this instance, I did this at the expense of the victims. I showed mercy in one area of the situation and not the other, and that seriously affected those who should not have been traumatized any more than they were. It was incredibly careless. I realize now that I contributed to their trauma, and I am deeply grieved by this and am sorry. Sometimes it is your action, and sometimes, your lack of action, that causes harm, and I know that I failed. 

Additionally, I am not good at confrontation, and this is something I am committed to growing in, but I am also inviting our team into this space on a greater level. I can no longer afford to delay in confrontation and conflict. Moreover, when we are pursuing justice, we must place the victim as the first priority, followed by serving the church, and then we work to restore the victimizer. I acknowledge this, and my failure, and I want to convey that I, and our house, will do better. We must do better. 

I pray that with the wisdom of our entire team, we will hear from the Lord and create a new and healthier culture. I also pray that the Lord will bring healing to our hearts, our Church, and the greater Body of Christ. 

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At this time, we would like to clearly state that the evidence we have seen concerning Shawn’s prophetic integrity has produced broken trust with his ministry. We believe that Shawn was not truthful in how he received his words of knowledge and prophetic words. We also acknowledge our belief that he engaged in sexually explicit and harassing behavior towards some members of his staff. We do not condone his actions, or endorse his ministry. We strongly advise you to take our position into account if you choose to interact with his materials.

As a team, we recommit ourselves to responsibility, truth, accountability, and transformation in Christ. Because of this, we’re enacting greater levels of oversight within our staff and leadership. Our senior leadership team has grown to over 25 people, and our eldership is taking a more active role in leading and speaking into how we build. We will also be implementing additional training and equipping in the prophetic to weigh prophetic words. Should something happen that needs to be addressed, we are implementing a confrontation model that will include wider communication when substantiated allegations are brought forth and impact the Body, including those met with unrepentance. We have also created and will continue to make paths to provide help and support to those who experience something that takes place that is not healthy, appropriate, or biblical. 

In February of 2025, we introduced a Safe Church process for our alumni community that invited anyone experiencing abuse of any kind in our environment to report it via phone or form to a secure third-party team outside of the Bethel environment. This was done to ensure that Bethel would be held accountable for the information reported to remain unchanged and unaltered when communicated to the Safe Church Admin Team. Safe Church information can be found at bethel.com/safechurch, and is now open to our local and online church community as well. 

Please Note: The above paragraph has been edited for clarity as of February 17, 2026.

While we are committed to doing better in the future, we understand that some are in the midst of working through pain, confusion, and consequences to which we contributed. If you were directly impacted by a prophetic word from Shawn within our environment, or as a result of his sexual misconduct, we invite you to reach out to us so we can offer support, pastoral care, or counseling resources. This is intended to specifically support those personally affected. You can connect with us by emailing us at safe.church@bethel.com.

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In Closing
We took time on Sunday, January 25 at all morning services to share with the Church our heart and repentance. Our time of worship was deep and powerful, and we were grateful to speak during that time. We invite you to listen to the full service here with our statement beginning at 01:05:20.

As we continue in this time of sober reflection, we are allowing the Lord to sift our hearts that we might walk in holiness, righteousness, purity, and the fear of the Lord before Him and before those whom He has entrusted us with. 

With Love and Hope,
Bill, Kris, and Dann on Behalf of the Bethel Church Leadership Team

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