Brian Kim, pastor of HOUSE Denver church, is accused of bullying, spiritual abuse, and lying, according to former church leaders and members in a petition posted online.
The petition accuses Kim of 11 types of abusive leadership that span at least 10 years at HOUSE and two other ministries, including the International House of Prayer-Kansas City (IHOPKC).
“Our heart in bringing this charge is not to cause pain, division, or revenge,” the petition states. “Our desire is to protect the sheep and prevent further harm to those entrusted to Brian’s leadership and the leadership team surrounding him” (emphasis in original).
More than 40 people with ministry connections to Kim, including someone who hired him, are calling for either resignations or a third-party investigation of Kim and all of HOUSE’s elders.
“Our goal is to follow a biblical process, with the hope of fostering healthy church leadership, structure, and shepherding of congregants at House Denver,” the petition states.
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The Roys Report (TRR) reached out to Kim and the HOUSE Denver elders through phone and email, but did not immediately hear back.
Until 2023, HOUSE Denver was part of Upper Room, a multi-site church from Dallas that formed out of a prayer room.
Kim is a former Executive Leadership Team (ELT) leader at the embattled IHOPKC. He also was one of three former IHOPKC leaders who signed a letter in October 2023 accusing IHOPKC founder Mike Bickle of clergy sexual abuse “spanning several decades.” The exposure eventually led to a third-party investigation that found that Bickle groomed and sexually abused 17 women, some of whom were minors. Bickle used to be an overseer for HOUSE Denver, according to the petition.
Kim also founded Antioch Center for Training and Sending (ACTS), a training center for church planters based in Colorado Springs.
The petition alleges that Kim’s elders at HOUSE haven’t held Kim accountable when members have gone to them with concerns. Its authors accuse the elder team of “‘protecting the pastor’ and perpetuating a ‘pragmatic’ culture” that put organizational growth over caring for parishioners. “This has resulted in turning a blind eye to sin” (emphasis in original).
The elders include Kim, his wife Grace, Troy Lee, Don and Kathy Shooster, Bradley and Savannah Eigenberg, Corey Russell, and David Townsend.
Kim’s IHOPKC advocacy efforts questioned
When in October 2023, Kim and former IHOPKC leaders Dwayne Roberts and Wes Martin signed a letter strongly calling out Bickle for his abuse, it launched a more than yearlong exposure of abuses at the 24/7 prayer room. But the petition about Kim calls into question some of Kim’s other decisions about misconduct at IHOPKC.
The petition mentions Kim’s knowledge in 2022 of an affair between former IHOPKC ELT member Misty Edwards and Christian musician Kevin Prosch, which TRR previously reported. But even with that knowledge, Kim still brought Edwards to teach at Upper Room Denver in 2022, the petition states.
The petition also notes that Kim pulled back from publicly being part of an Advocate Group calling for accountability at IHOPKC. Three months after Kim’s initial letter calling for accountability for Bickle, he was no longer signing his name to the group’s efforts.
The petition alleges that Kim lied about why he stopped being part of the Advocate Group.
“(Kim) told the IHOP Advocate Group that his elders told him to take his name off and this has been confirmed to be false by former and current HOUSE Denver elders,” the petition states.
The petition also states that Kim and Corey Russell allowed Bickle to serve on their church’s oversight team after learning of his sexual misconduct. Corey Russell, a HOUSE Denver elder who is also being accused of various abuses, used to be the director of the Forerunner Program at IHOPKC.
“They allowed a wolf and a sexual predator to ‘oversee’ our church,” the petition states.
The petition claims Kim and his wife, Grace, “have not taken the time to address the unhealthy traits they learned from their spiritual father, Mike Bickle. If left uncorrected, we believe this behavior will only intensify, leading to more victims” (emphasis in original).
The allegations
From at least a decade of ministry, Kim has a pattern of prioritizing mission over congregants, lying from the pulpit and in person, manipulation, demeaning people, and putting in place “false accountability,” former HOUSE leader Jonathan Wield reportedly told HOUSE elders last May. And “dozens of people” have been hurt, Wield said to elders, according to documentation attached to the petition.
“(T)here are dozens of people from the last 10 years who are traumatized due to Brian’s leadership, including some of us, and we have a responsibility to speak up,” Wield said to elders. “(S)ometimes it is actually loving to ask the hard questions or say something.”
Wield was part of the leadership team who hired Kim at Upper Room Denver.
The allegations against Kim include Kim’s time at ACTS and IHOPKC, according to letters to elders by former HOUSE leaders.
The petition incorporates more than 40 pages of documentation—including Wield’s notes on that May 2024 meeting—and shows growing tensions since Kim’s 2020 hiring at the Denver church. Kim created and disbanded leadership teams frequently. And Kim criticized or pushed out members and leaders who raised questions about clarity of vision, decisions Kim made, or deception from the pulpit, Wield stated.
The petition mentions Kim’s use of nondisclosure agreements tied to severance packages when staff members leave. And Wield also stated that Kim kept a list of the church’s top donors.
In 2023, Kim reportedly told Wield that he no longer wanted to be under the leadership of Michael Freeland Miller, top leader of Upper Room in Dallas.
The petition didn’t explain Kim’s concerns about Miller. A different Michael Miller, podcaster with Remnant Radio, has recently raised leadership abuse concerns about Michael Freeland Miller’s leadership at Upper Room Dallas. Remnant Radio’s Michael Miller also signed the petition about Kim.
When the Denver branch left Upper Room, it got “very contentious,” Wield stated in his documentation for the petition. Upper Room Denver owed money to Upper Room Dallas over brand licensing. Lawyers got involved, Wield stated. The attorneys threatened that if Kim didn’t pay, Miller wouldn’t be present for the transition, according to Wield’s timeline.
But weeks later, when Kim announced the transition to the congregation, Kim told a different story, Wield stated. Kim reportedly said the transition was conflict-free and unrelated to money.
“I was shocked and appalled,” Wield wrote. “This was a clear lie.”
Last May 2024, Wield and several other church leaders and members asked the elders for a third-party investigation. But the elders—some also church employees—pushed for mediation involving other local pastors. The mediation quickly broke down, the petition reported.
Then the whistleblowers decided to take their concerns public.
“We feel a responsibility to speak out so that his toxic leadership does not continue to inflict great pain and trauma on those he is supposed to be leading, causing significant harm and even leading some to leave the faith,” the petition states.
Petitioners include people associated with Upper Room Denver, HOUSE, IHOPKC, and ACTS. They’re calling for HOUSE to hire Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) to investigate and for Kim and his wife, Grace, to repent.
“We are also not claiming that Brian and Grace Kim should be permanently disqualified from ministry or leadership positions,” the petition states (emphasis in original). “Instead, we hope they will submit to a process that enables them to learn, quickly repent, change their behavior, and grow in their leadership abilities. We view this as a restorative process, not a punishment.”
*This article has been updated.
Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.
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11 Responses
LIKE DOMINOES THEY CONTINUE TO FALL ON A DAILY BASIS .THE BODY OF CHRIST WILL CONTINUE TO GROW B U T NOT IN THE CONFINES OF A SO CALLED CHURCH BUILDING BUT IN HUMBLE HOME CHURCHES THAT WILL GO FORTH TO THE WORLD. NOT THE OPPOSITE. NO LONGER WILL THE REPRESENTATIVES OF JESUS WARM THE PEWS BUT SET THE WORLD ON FIRE WITH THE GOSPEL OF FATHER GOD TO THIS LOST & DYING WORLD.
JUST LIKE IN THE BOOK OF ACTS, WE ARE COMING FULL CIRCLE TO BRING JESUS BACK FOR HIS BRIDE, WITHOUT SPOT OF WRINKLE.
I know Brian personally from years at IHOP. He is the definition of a bully. He is a Mike Bickle replica. Also lives in a million dollar house and pressures his young congregates to give all their money and time to his church. Corey Russell is the same. Also lives in a nearly million dollar house and if you give him 250$ a month he will talk to you on zoom once a month. https://coreyrussell.org/partners/
These are professional Christians. Run!
There is SO much to unpack with his organization – ACTS. The level of abuse, pain, and suffering that so many of us endured is staggering. I’m still recovering and can barely handle talking about all the things we went through. Please investigate ACTS.
Agreed. HOUSE is the lite version. ACTS was a whole other monster. Dig deep, especially around finances.
Brian would home hack.. live in it for 2/years, sell to avoid cap gains then move into a more expensive home… having “missionaries” move him each time. Good for him, when not living on support…
We also raise over $1mil for missionary house that was sold in old town CoSprings… it was missionary funded. They sold it when kicked out of EHC.. where did those finances go?
Rebecca,
Thanks for this insightful article . So important as the Lord continues to expose sin in the Church leadership.
Could you clarify one point you made concerning Corey Russell(an elder of HOUSE)?
You said he was also being accused of abuse . Can u shed any light on that?
Thanks again
Well well well. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as they say.
It is a comprehensive comment on ENOUGH! We need a CHRISTIAN REVOLUTION. First, Christian nationalism is ‘’ Neo-Pharisaic Mammonism’’. The Pharisees and religious leaders of Jesus time were externally religious, political, self-righteous, self-serving, sectarian, and greedy. (cf LK 16:13-15). Present American and Wordly core values of capitalism, disproportionate inequalities and greed (which led to 2008 economic downfall) are not the Christian Values of spiritual poverty, humility, thirst for righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, and peacemaking gospel proclaimer. Very simple, Corporate America and the World Model is REPRODUCED in most of the visible church, and we see the same type abuse: scamming, sex, etc. There has to be a REPENTANCE and change of heart . Christian Nationalism is no answer. The founding fathers were diverse-Washington Freemason, Adams Unitarian, Madison a Deist, Franklin and Jefferson rationalists. Henry, Jay and Hamilton were closer to orthodox Christianity. But they upheld moral values consistant with christianity.
Even the founding fathers of America had decencies: ‘’And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale’’ (Thomas Jefferson). ‘’Without justice courage is weak’’ (Franklin).
Corey Russell accused of being abusive? I would like more details about that .
I feel well tended as a sheep and have for the past 2 years. Clearly there are disagreements and hurt feelings between the parties, but the Spirit is alive and well in HOUSE on Sundays. I’d say the sustained and or growing population of church attendees proves that.
A sustained and growing population of church attendees proves nothing more than a sustained and growing number of people finding what they want at that church. That the number is increasing says nothing about the efficacy or integrity of the product being consumed. It speaks only to the preferences of those consuming the product. Typically, such consumers will find ways to justify their consumption when others begin to question the efficacy or integrity of the product. That strategy is always about the consumer, not the purveyor of the product. To reconsider one’s loyalty at that point must be preceded by an admission of a possible error in judgement or discernment regarding their initial commitment to consume. Such admission is typically costly to relationships with other consumers and possibly one’s reputation in the consumer group. These issues are never about the entity involved. These issues are always about the person in the mirror.
That’s what people said about IHOPKC, Gateway Church, FAI, Dr Brown, etc. People love a good celebrity pastor. Some good fruit doesn’t negate leaders living double lives, shepherding poorly, sinning grievously, or harming their flock with no remorse. To call this situation “disagreements and hurt feelings”, is a gross minimization, and exactly how such leaders can keep doing the same things over the course of decades with no accountability. Quit enabling spiritual abuse.