Bethel Church has announced it had a falling out with Shawn Bolz, a well-known Christian prophetic minister, over concerns he fabricated his prophecies using online resources.
The megachurch based in Redding, California, shared in a statement that it distanced itself from Bolz five years ago. The declaración was released this week as online allegations from various blogs y influencers, labeling Bolz a false prophet continue to grow.
Bethel also alleged Bolz was accused by one of employees of behaviors that “seemed to fit the descriptions of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment,” according to the statement.
Bolz is known for both creating prophecies that call out specific people during sermons, according to Prophecy Today UK. He regularly identifies a specific individual during a sermon, then lists several personal details about the person before sharing a “prophecy.”
Bethel, an 11,000-member church famous for its charismatic and elaborate healing services, said in its statement that the church parted ways with Bolz over concerns that he found these personal details using social media.
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Bolz denied in a January declaración that his ministry has used data mining online to create his prophecies.
“As a ministry we would never condone and we would refute that we would ever find information online to prophesy over people,” he said.
Bethel said it is now addressing concerns with Bolz’s prophecies because “a conversation is happening” regarding him online. The church noted that Bolz spoke at the church numerous times for many years and previously “had a great impact on our house.”
“We deeply valued and trusted him and appreciated his prophetic gift,” the statement noted. “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.”
Around 2019, the church said “respected international leaders” shared concerns with them that Bolz used social media to generate his prophecies.
“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,” the statement said. “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.”
The megachurch said its leadership was divided over whether this was conclusive evidence, so leaders went to Bolz to seek “clarity” from him.
Two Bethel leaders, including Kris Vallotton, a senior associate leader, met with Bolz on two separate occasions about the data mining allegations, according to the statement.
“Each time, Shawn absolutely denied using any social media in his words of knowledge or prophecies,” the statement continued. “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.”
Bethel did not make a public statement about Bolz at the time because they didn’t have “definitive proof” about the allegations or a consensus from church leadership.
However, the church made the decision to “step back from our ministry connection,” the statement said. They stopped allowing him to minister to church members, removed his materials from their store, and “firmly admonished and warned him” about their concerns.
Employee alleges Bolz engaged in ‘inappropriate behavior’
Around this time, Bethel leaders learned that an employee of Bolz alleged the prophet had engaged in “inappropriate behavior and an unacceptable work environment,” according to the statement.
“Though we are not experts, these behaviors seemed to fit the descriptions of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment,” the statement added. “We recommended (the victim) take action in seeking a remedy through the justice system.”
The statement noted that even though Bolz was not under the megachurch’s authority, one of Bethel’s leaders confronted Bolz and informed Bolz’s ministry board about the allegation.
The statement acknowledged that Bethel’s actions five years ago 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.”
In Bolz’s recent statement, he indicated his ministry is now more focused on “media/entertainment” but that he still wants to support his prophetic ministry.
“Although I, Shawn Bolz, do not do a lot of traveling ministry and our focus has turned to media/entertainment, I still want to help support the prophetic ministry and movement and steward my relationships that have been for over 30 years in this ministry in the healthiest way possible,” he said. “That is our commitment as a ministry to you and to the body of Christ.”
Bethel criticizes Bolz’s board, which includes Sean Feucht
According to Bethel, the church would have pushed for more accountability for Bolz if he were under their authority when the allegations surfaced in 2019.
“If Shawn worked for us, or was truly or officially under our covering, the situation would have been handled much differently,” Bethel said in its statement. “We would have not just appealed to Shawn, we would have required a comprehensive and righteous response.”
However, Bolz was under the authority of Bethel worship leader Sean Feucht in 2019, according to Bolz’ ministry’s 990 tax forms.
De acuerdo con la Formularios IRS 990 filed by Bolz’s ministry, Love Coalition Ministry, Sean Feucht served on Bolz’s board in 2019. Feucht also is listed as a member of Love Coalition’s Board in 2022, the last year Bolz’s ministry filed a 990.
The other members of Bolz’s board—both then and in 2022—are Bolz and his wife, Cherie Bolz, as well as Dr. Robert Zoellner and Alvin Chun. Both Zoellner and Chun also serve on the three-member board of Sean Feucht Ministries, according to the ministry’s 2020 990 tax form. The third member of Feucht’s board is Sean Feucht.
It appears Feucht stopped serving as a worship leader at Bethel sometime after 2020. But videos on YouTube show him leading worship at Bethel in 2019 y 2020.
El Informe Roys (TRR) reached out to Bethel for clarification about Feucht’s connection to the church but did not immediately hear back.
Online allegations rise against Bolz
Bolz has faced growing allegations of fabricated, harmful prophecies from online blogs and social media influencers in recent years.
The online publication Prophecy Today UK claims that after analyzing 15 of Bolz’s prophetic messages, all of the personal information he provided could be found on social media.
Influencer Jubilee Dawn has said in several of her publicaciones en redes sociales that Bolz prophesied over her while she was interning at Bethel Church. She said he found personal information about her, like her job, which Bolz used to call her out in a church message a decade ago.
Bolz said God wanted her to marry her boyfriend at the time, Dawn said. After Dawn married her boyfriend, Dawn said she discovered he was abusive.
On Bolz’s social media page, many people have comentado on his posts, asking about Dawn.
Along with his individual-focused prophecies, Bolz had given prophecies about national events. In 2020, he incorrectly predicted that COVID-19 would end quickly, Relevant Magazine reportado.
“We’re going to see it come to an end,” Bolz said at the time. “It’s not going to be the pandemic that people are afraid of.”
Julie Roys contribuyó a este informe.
Liz Lykins is a correspondent covering religion news for The Roys Report, WORLD Magazine, and other publications.
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17 Responses
Funny, Bethel finally figuring how the “prophetic” works!
It’s Bethel Redding.
Maybe Bolz got a little too blatant and/or he was unwanted competition to Bethel’s Prophets.
“If you ever encounter a preacher who had titled himself “Apostle” or “Prophet”, RUN!”
— my main writing partner (the burned-out country preacher)
You know you done messed up when Bethel cuts ties with you. LOL! I thought that dude was off 15 years ago when he came on my small blog to belittle and mock a certain people group. He’s always been obnoxiously narcissistic and it’s sad it took people so long to find out.
Bethel needs to denounce Sean Feucht. He’s a narcissist and is horribly denegrating to non believers online all the time. A pathetic, Christian Nationalist.
I understand Feucht is either a Bethelite or closely associated with Bethel, i.e. “One of Us! One of Us! Gooble! Gobble! One of Us!”
During the first year or two of COVID, Feucht got the name “Jesus Christ Superspreader” when he went down to Greater LA to lead a series of public concerts (deliberately going against any COVID precautions) as a “Worship Ministry”.
I agree with Frederick Buechner’s wry comment years ago when he said, “One of the funniest things to behold are people who try to be more spiritual than God.” This now sums up my opinion of most NAR and Latter Rain practitioners. Charisma, salesmanship, mega-churches and “christian” cable TV programs fail as proofs of God’s blessing.
My father was an Assemblies of God pastor who helped develop a position paper in 1949 on the Latter Rain movement. Though I am not affiliated with the AG or any other pentecostal body I find it interesting that the AG does not officially approve of these movements. There are at least two official statements that they have published: 1) The Believer and Positive Confession, Aug. 19,1980, and 2) Apostles & Prophets, Aug. 6, 2001. Both these papers are fairly comprehensive and might give some reasonable historical perspective. They can be found at the AG official website.
“Bethel Church Raises Concerns that Shawn Bolz Fabricated Prophecies”
fixed that for ya – all prophecies are fake but I’ve YET to see a church enact discipline for being a false prophet – not talking about Deuteronomy 18:20 level but it should certainly be disqualifying for you know…lying.
All I know there’s been one helluva lot of Prophets and Prophecies coming out of the woodwork in the past few years, a lot of which smell kinda fishy to begin with.
And everybody thinks Prophecy means seeing/fortelling the future; the original meaning of Prophet (a mortal who speaks for a god) and Prophecy (what that god wants said) is definitely a minority view. I think it has to do with a lusting for the Spectacular and Juicy in general. What happened to the Jewish emphasis on the Here and Now and just Living Your Life?
According to Wikipedia: “Bethel Church focuses on miracles. It teaches that all miracles described in the Bible can be performed by believers today and happen regularly, including faith healing of everything from curing cancer to regrowing limbs, raising the dead, speaking in tongues, casting out demons and prophecy.”
Skeptical alert: Since one of Bethel’s supposed focuses is on the “prophetic”, shouldn’t Bethel have seen this coming long ago???
If this isn’t the pot calling the kettle black, I don’t know what is. Shawn Bolz has been a known false prophet for a long time. Bethel is just now finding this out? I also find it ironic that Kris Vallotton is berating Bolz when he is running a school that supposedly instructs students on how to raise people from the dead. And none of them has succeeded yet, including Kris. Bethel should propably fix their own doctrinal problems before the attempt to fix others.
Jesus has provided the most tangible example of the heart and will of God. Nothing and no one remotely comes close to conclusively revealing to humanity the value of faith and godly behaviour which eventually
transcends this short life.
So called prophecies and prophetic ministries are, at best, a distraction from Christ and Kingdom citizenship. 🤔
This letter by Bethel is going to seal their fate. They did NOT distance themselves from Shawn Bolz in 2019. And the lie is coming out.
A recent video by two believers exposes the fact that Bethel’s senior pastor Bill Johnson was still supporting Bolz as recently as 2023. Johnson and Bolz were interviewed together on TBN (it was later removed), and Johnson gave a glowing endorsement of Bolz.
https://youtu.be/TVcyELhiilA
They go on to review a desperate cry for help to Bethel leadership to stop a sexual predator with a reputation as a “prophetic leader” at IHOPKC, who successfully relocated to Bethel Church. The appeal is coming from the predator’s son, and it’s quite detailed.
He ends with this heartbreaking warning:
————
I am honestly at a loss. I shouldn’t have to be stating this publicly. Bill Johnson or @kvministries [Kris Vallotton] should be the ones publicly addressing this, not me. They are the ones who gave my father a platform, and it’s their community my father is preying upon.
But they clearly don’t care.
So if you are in the Bethel community, please warn your fellow congregants! This issue is extremely serious, and it is clear your senior leadership is doing nothing to protect your community.
as many are surely asking, yes I do believe at least a few brave women are pressing charges against my father. An extremely difficult thing to do when your own church leaders don’t take you seriously
It might take a while, but I do believe my father will face criminal charge [sic]
————
I located the original post online. The date was March 2024. So Bethel looks to be the next domino about to fall.
Hannah, Don’t forget that Bill Johnson was 100% onboard with the fraud Todd Bentley and was part of the NAR group that went down to Lakeland to give Todd his special annointing. And his “revival” self-destructed less than a month later. Bethel has never met a Charismatic fraud it didn’t like and Bill Johnson was still singing Bentley’s praises as recently as 2018. Neither Bill Johnson or Kris Vallotton like being exposed as the blatant frauds they are and one or the other is constantly back-peddling about some aberrant practice at Bethel or some weird hack that they are platforming. But they seem to be covered in teflon.
I have compassion for Shawn. May the Lord search out the truth, inspire repentance, and full restore him. We are all sinners! All of us can get off track.
Compassion is not going to help very much when Bolz is actively and willingly working in error and deliberately attempting to scam people. People such as him rarely repent. If he does, Praise the Lord. But his false teachings need to be repeatedly exposed as long as he is attempting to con the flock.
He’s cheating …he is supposed to just make stuff up and call it a Word from God (like the pro’s do!).
….I was on the roof of my gazebo….