A safer Church - what we must learn from the Bolz-Bethel bombshell?
It’s embarrassing to write about massive leadership failures in the church because we all expect Christian leaders to be better than that, and because we all know we all aren’t.
Speaking as one of those leaders, it’s not just that we make mistakes or have more to learn, it’s that we also are broken sinful people in constant need of grace and transformation. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put so well, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart - and through all human hearts.” (The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956).
We know this. We know the flaws in our hearts and the planks in our eyes. We hear the words of Jesus’ to the pharisees in John 8.8 to the woman they dragged before him “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” We don’t want to be the whistleblowers or stone throwers, but if we were, the truth is, we’d be throwing them at ourselves. We get torn between our own failings and calling out those in others. And yet, silence is even more problematic.
This past Sunday Kris Vallotton, Bill Johnson and Dann Farrelly, some of the most familiar and influential leaders in the global charismatic movement finally stood before their church, and a global streaming audience to acknowledge both the grievous misconduct of Shawn Bolz, and confess their own failure as church leaders in calling it out (you can check it out by watching the YouTube recording of their Sunday service on Sunday January 25th here).
I say finally because the evidence compiled by Mike Winger (https://www.youtube.com/@MikeWinger) is irrefutable that Bolz was not only a fraud but Bethel leadership, the people who arguably gave Bolz a global platform, had known of allegations against Bolz since 2019, which they investigated and verified, but then not only failed to discredit him publicly in the past 6 years, but even on occasion continued to publicly endorse him.
This was not an issue of ignorance but of negligence.
Kris also acknowledged that his apology to the church was years too late and may not have ever happened if not for the work of whistleblowers like Mike Winger. Kris points this out in his apology saying “and by the way it’s so sad that somebody (Mike Winger) has to put out a video, that creates a firestorm to get someone who is 70 years old to do something…that’s an inditement against my leadership. I should have known better and if I didn’t know better I should have went and got counsel and I didn’t do that and I’m very sorry. I take full responsibility for that.. I’m very sorry.”
Bill Johnson’s apology was more personal, admitting he was “blinded by loyalty and friendship (with Bolz)” such that he did not believe the allegations or the issues to be addressed. That “believing in people” when they don’t deserve it can move into “unsanctified mercy.” And as a result, Bill Johnson, the most senior leader of the church, slowed or even stalled the process which might have brought Bolz to account.
I’m glad that the truth is out there and that Bill and Kris have publicly owned their mishandling of the truth and insensitivity to the victims. They know they screwed up and I felt like they were both sincere and repentant. But as Kris rightly pointed out, sorry is not enough. What must come from this is a “shift in cultural values on safety and security of people.” For Bethel, the opportunity now is to identify and shift the systemic and cultural issues that got them here.
I'm sure plenty of people will offer their own judgements over the coming weeks as this news spreads. I will say that Bill and Kris' leadership negligence reflects badly on the whole church and will harm some who deeply trusted Bethel. But what they do next is really critical, and we need to give them and their leadership time to work that out, hopefully with independent external advisors. This is not a quick fix.
Kris Vallotton, expressed how he failed in his responsibility to protect victims of Bolz because “I struggled with what is our responsibility.” After all says Vallotton, “he (Shawn) was on many platforms, we weren’t on his board, and we went to his board on a couple of occasions, and they did nothing. And I wasn’t thinking of it like I was thinking of a staff member….if that happens on our staff that’s not going to go.” So Vallotton’s fresh realisation is that the responsibility for the church leader doesn’t end in the church carpark.
He now recognises, “We put him on a global platform and as soon as we did that, other people believed in him because we believed in him and consequently when he failed and then failed to repent after giving him time to repent, it was our responsibility to tell the people that we told to trust this man to tell them we don’t trust this man…… and that didn’t happen and that’s on me and I made that decision.”
Bolz has a long list of allegations against him which are not my focus here. His, are sins of commission – intentional, premeditated actions that were blatantly fraudulent and harmful. But Kris and Bill rightly point out that their sin is that which is far more ubiquitous – negligence, the sin of omission. It’s what they did not do – which was to protect the vulnerable and champion truth. Vallotton admitted he not only didn’t do this publicly, but stonewalled individual victims who had previously come to him for help.
Bolz has a long list of allegations against him which are not my focus here. His, are sins of commission – intentional, premeditated actions that were blatantly fraudulent and harmful. But Kris and Bill rightly point out that their sin is that which is far more ubiquitous – negligence, the sin of omission. It’s what they did not do – which was to protect the vulnerable and champion truth. Vallotton admitted he not only didn’t do this publicly, but stonewalled individual victims who had previously come to him for help.
As James 4.17 says “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”
Bill Johnson’s apology was more personal, admitting he was “blinded by loyalty and friendship (with Bolz)” such that he did not believe the allegations or the issues to be addressed. That “believing in people” when they don’t deserve it can move into “unsanctified mercy.” And as a result, Bill Johnson, the most senior leader of the church, slowed or even stalled the process which might have brought Bolz to account.
I’m glad that the truth is out there and that Bill and Kris have publicly owned their mishandling of the truth and insensitivity to the victims. They know they screwed up and I felt like they were both sincere and repentant. But as Kris rightly pointed out, sorry is not enough. What must come from this is a “shift in cultural values on safety and security of people.” For Bethel, the opportunity now is to identify and shift the systemic and cultural issues that got them here.
I'm sure plenty of people will offer their own judgements over the coming weeks as this news spreads. I will say that Bill and Kris' leadership negligence reflects badly on the whole church and will harm some who deeply trusted Bethel. But what they do next is really critical, and we need to give them and their leadership time to work that out, hopefully with independent external advisors. This is not a quick fix.
So as I process this news today, I'm pondering what all church leaders must learn, or be reminded of from this tragedy? To keep it short, here are just a few of my initial reflections as a leader about making Churches genuinely safer. And I say safer, because you can never get it all right nor you can mitigate 100% of the risk. But you can be way wiser and more prepared to keep people in your care safe:
- The priority of safety is not optional or tangental to gospel work.
- Cultural values of accountability, transparency and truth telling are essential for a safer church. Without them conflicts go unresolved, people remain hurt and the wrong people get empowered.
- Wanting to be Spirit led doesn't mean you can't also be informed by good policies and procedures.
- Safe church policies and processes don’t fix a culture but they undergird the one you want to build.
- Good policies and processes are useless if leaders don't endorse and apply them in practice.
- When something goes wrong, trust the process and stick to it. But if you don't have a process in place you make the problem exponentially more complex to begin with as you try and play catch up on how you will manage it.
- Healthy, effective church governance empowers church leaders to respond well to incidents. When your governance is unskilled or disorganised, your church and all its people are far more vulnerable.
- Dual relationships in leadership (like friend and pastor, friend and employee, pastor and spouse) are inevitable but create probable conflicts of interest that must be acknowledged and managed. Affection and accountability must coexist without compromising the other cultural values.
- Showing compassion, grace, or a desire to restore doesn't negate accountability, confession, repentance and disciplinary consequences, even disqualification from particular ministry.
- Where possible don't be the point person in disciplinary action, delegate that to an independent team so you can retain a role with all parties. An outside independent team can eliminate bias and subjectivity in the process so the outcome or decision is more just.
- Only give people a voice in your context who you can personally vouch for. Character must always trump gifting and if you don't know someone personally, do your homework, seek references from their home church or others you trust within their movement. And if you can't find that, simply don't host them.
- Being a wonderful wise older leader doesn't necessarily make you a competent leader in todays complex Church environment. Times have changed with or without you. Keep learning and as Kris said, when you don't know, seek advice, augment your leadership with skilled others or professional consultants. And if you won't do that then maybe its time to transition out of your role!
- Avoiding confrontation or conflict in the hope that time will fix it is foolhardy. All you are doing is giving opportunity for even more harm to accrue. If you don't know how to address it, again, seek the counsel of scripture (eg Matthew 18:15-20), or engage an organisation like PeaceWise to help you work it through.
- When you are overwhelmed or burning out (as it appears Kris was in 2019), admit it and bring independent help to deal with major pastoral matters. You do this for the sake of those involved, your own mental health and those you love.
- Finally this is why church leaders all need professional supervisors (at least in Australia). These are trained people outside your system, able to ask good questions, enable you to safely process your inner life and work life, and offer wise counsel or a pathway through. If you are reading this and don't have a supervisor/coach/mentor, no matter your age in pastoral ministry, engage one this year! Reach out to me at Partners in Ministry if you like and I can help source you a qualified multi-modal supervisor (Australia and NZ).
Caveat to all these thoughts, some of them I learned late, after I went through a pastoral crisis in my own context, and others I only wish I implemented better. These are all hard, but the alternative, as we have seen with Bethel, is certainly harder.
On the bright side, this crisis at Bethel can be redemptive if it catalyses deep cultural change. God can use it to bring reformation to dysfunctional theology, culture and systems and hope to the body of Christ.
I hope the apology truly was the beginning of so much more.
