(Opinion) – I am increasingly grieved by the destructive impact that the IHOP stream, Bethel culture, and the broader NAR–prophetic movement are having on a generation of young people who sincerely want to know God and follow Jesus.
These are not cynical rebels. They are earnest seekers. They are hungry for God, longing for purpose, prayer, depth, and meaning. And that hunger is precisely what makes them vulnerable.
And as the latest exposés on Shawn Bolz’s fake prophecies and Bethel Church’s cover-up show, what they are being offered is not historic Christian discipleship. Nor is it the slow, faithful formation of Christlike character rooted in Scripture, community, and suffering love. Instead, they are being drawn into a spirituality built on emotional intensity, spiritual elitism, constant “new revelation,” and unaccountable authority figures who claim a direct line to God.
The result is not maturity, but confusion. Not freedom, but dependence. Not resilience, but fragility.
Young believers are being trained to chase experiences rather than submit to the way of Jesus. To trust “anointed voices” over the wisdom of the whole body. To interpret disappointment as a lack of faith. To spiritualize psychological harm. To equate God’s presence with atmosphere, volume, and spectacle.
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Even worse, many are taught — implicitly or explicitly — that questioning is rebellion, discernment is unbelief, and walking away is apostasy. That is not revival. That is control dressed up as passion.
We should not be surprised when burnout, disillusionment, moral collapse, and faith deconstruction follow close behind.
The tragedy is that many of these young men and women don’t abandon Jesus because of secularism or atheism; they abandon Him because they were given a distorted version of Him, wrapped in spiritual hype and prophetic certainty.
My concern is not stylistic. It is theological. It is pastoral. And it is generational.
If we truly care about the next generation, we must stop confusing intensity with depth, charisma with authority, and “God told me” with the humility of Christ. We owe these young believers something better than spiritual theatrics and untested prophets.
We owe them Jesus as He actually is — and the kind of leadership He actually modeled.
So, what must we do about this?
First, we must tell the truth — clearly, calmly, and without fear. Silence is not neutrality; it is consent. When spiritually abusive systems are left unnamed, they continue to shape young faith in destructive ways. Pastors, parents, mentors, and elders must recover the courage to say, This is not the way of Jesus, even when it costs us popularity or platform.
Second, we must recover a thicker, truer gospel — one that forms people over time rather than intoxicating them in moments. Young believers need to be grounded in Scripture read communally, not filtered through prophetic personalities. They need to see a Jesus who is present in suffering, hiddenness, faithfulness, and obedience — not only in emotional highs and dramatic encounters.
Third, we must model healthy leadership. That means visible repentance, shared authority, real accountability, and leaders who refuse special perks and adoration. The next generation does not need more “anointed” figures. They need trustworthy shepherds, who walk among them, not above them.
Fourth, we must create safe off-ramps and healing spaces for those already wounded. Many young people leaving these movements are not leaving because they want less of God — but because they were harmed in His name. We must receive them without suspicion, without pressure to explain themselves, and without rushing them back into another system that looks different but operates the same way.
Finally, we must re-anchor discipleship in the slow, ordinary, often unglamorous way of Jesus — prayer without hype, community without control, mission without ego, and formation without manipulation. This will never trend. It will never scale quickly. But it will endure.
The future of the Church will not be secured by prophetic certainty, spiritual spectacle, or constant claims of “the next move of God.” It will be secured by humility, truth, love, and leaders who are willing to decrease so Christ can be seen clearly again.
If we truly care about the next generation, we must stop offering them spiritual shortcuts, and invite them instead into the narrow, beautiful, life-giving way of Jesus.
Lance Ford, pastor and author of many books, including Unleader and The Atlas Factor, serves as director of restoration resources at The Roys Report.
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13 Responses
Good words. Thank you my friend
This is excellent! It’s a very clear demonstration of Ephesians 4:15. Thank you for speaking the truth in love so the body may truly grow and mature to be more like Jesus.
It’s not just these groups, but the whole American Body of Christ in general is dealing with some major exposure and correction right now. So many denominations, congregations,
ministries, and well-known individuals are experiencing exposure of corruption and/or perversion that has been happening, correction occurring, and an increasing call for character and accountability in leaders. We ALL need to be looking at ourselves because there are some major gaps and issues in how Christianity has been and is being taught and demonstrated by the older generations and we have all played a part. It’s not just the charismatics, it’s everyone. God is cleaning house, and it is sobering and humbling. He will have His pure and spotless bride and she will be united and known by her love.
“God is cleaning house”. the problem is, it takes decades between abuses and justice or exposure.
That is hardly justice for victims, don’t you think?
Too many people in Pentecostalism seek the gifts over and above the giver. The same thing goes for many in non-Pentecostalism who attend megachurches that give them a spiritual high in the worship experience over and above everything else.
Emotions and experience have their place but not at the expense of growing in the knowledge of God and his word,
Thank you, this is so true! The young people don’t know the depths (generally speaking) of the Word of God like we folks who are older and have walked with the Lord and studied his Word for decades. They are vulnerable and need both the milk AND then the meat of the Word. My heart aches for them.
Add YWAM to that list
Mike Bickle used to claim that IHOPKC existed to honor the first and greatest commandment given by Jesus, to love Him with all of our heart, mind, and soul. We now know that the Mike Bickle portion of IHOPKC existed for him to prey on young vulnerable women using elaborate schemes and subterfuges. As unfortunate as Mike Bickle failures were and are, the more unfortunate part of this situation is that I have never encountered another ministry which claimed to exist to honor the first and greatest commandment, and I will turn 82 in days.
As for manifestations, the church needs more of them, much more. In John 14:21, Jesus promised manifestations of Himself if we loved Him and kept his commandments. I believe Jesus’ promise. Thus, I believe the church lacks these manifestations because the church has not met Jesus’ two conditions. Seeking to love and adore Him and to keep His commandments should be our objective. Not seeking manifestations. On the heavenly Mercy Seat, the precious blood of Jesus covers us if we truly love Him when we fail to keep His benevolent rules for living.
Jesus further promised that it was better for us for Him to go away (John 16:7). Now twenty-four hours every day, everywhere, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is available to be loved and adored or, conversely, to be ignored and rejected. Let us really honor and adore Him.
How true these remarks are, but the real problem with people is their own idolatry and pride. They cannot see Jesus, so they replace Him with someone they can see, to their own great harm! They make an idol out of the people and the system and the endless worthless hype and empty talk about “Revival.” A term that DOES NOT APPEAR IN THE BIBLE ANYWHERE! Even the concept does not appear. All one can see is a single event the day that the Holy Spirit fell for the first time. A one time event does not make for a future goal of endlessly repeating events. There are many events that occurred just once in the scriptures. Those are exceptions and not the rule. We need to be delivered from our religious traditions we have embraced and elevated at and sometime even above the clear instructions of morality and righteousness in our Bible.
Bethel has been referred to as the Christian Hogwarts. After an entire generation grew up reading about a fictional world where magic was possible, an unhealthy appetite for the dramatic was developed.
Enter Bethel and the NAR frauds with their gold dust, glory clouds, and resident psychics, throw in some hypnotic, repetitive music and voila! Little covens pop up all over the country.
It’s no surprise, then, that people become disillusioned when the magic wand doesn’t work in their own hands. The sick stay sick. The dead stay dead. The wealth transfer doesn’t arrive in time to pay the mortgage.
God bless Mike Winger for blowing the whistle and bringing the receipts.
These “churches” are heretical. Bill Johnson believes and preaches a heresy called kenosis. Steven Furtick at Elevation preaches a heresy called modalism like his mentors Joyce Meyers and TD Jakes. They don’t believe in the same Jesus we do, the Jesus of the Bible. Yet we bring their worship songs into our churches legitimizing them to our flocks.
I recall our years in the evangelical church and my constant desire too for it to be better, and as the author concludes; “stop offering them spiritual shortcuts, and invite them instead into the narrow, beautiful, life-giving way of Jesus.”
Then came the church’s descent into the satanic panic, the rise of the mega-church, the contemporary worship songs with eventual staging, screens and smoke machines, and of course politics, politics, politics. Our children, pastor’s grandkids and musicians in the worship team were in church for the first fifteen or more years of their lives in spite of controlling youth and music ‘pastors'(one kept a pistol on the altar bench during practices–at which parents were shut out) At younger ages they had sat through empty boys and girls weeknight programs, unplanned events and finally much criticism as they began to express themselves through casual dress and hairstyles. We finally left when rumors told in the church of our child brought heartache and tears. We could not understand the bullying.
Over the past decades we have seen joy increase with the distance we have placed between ourselves and an artificial system of status and, frankly, empty cliches known often as a church. The grand redemptive narratives we had grown up in from the revivals of the early 20th century no longer inspire except as memories in the family origin stories. We have studied to understand why it no longer matters to us.
Perhaps it is time to let people find their own joy, whether it simply be a satisfying life–or a quiet church service–if someone wants that.
There is a better life–and ethic–than many of these systems offer.
Love the Roys Report shining a light on all of this. It is important.
I attended Bethel 50 years ago when Bill’s dad, Earl, was pastor. God brought godly people into my life to move we away from Bethel to a faith focused soley on the Jesus of scripture. One Bethel leader, who is a friend of mine, confided recently that “our backdoor is as big as our front door.” I have personally interacted with several Bethel young people have been hurt, with some even having left their faith. This last couple of months has been a constant stream of disillusioned people asking, why? Why do some Bethel leaders prioritize fame, money, and satisfying their own lusts over our following the living Christ?