Bethel apologizes for failing to take appropriate action after alleged sexual misconduct by Christian ministry leader Shawn Bolz

Editor’s Note: Please be aware that this story contains allegations related to sexual misconduct. Read with care. If you have experienced harm, help is available. 

Bethel’s lead pastor Dan Farrelly’s voice broke as he greeted his congregation on Sunday morning. 

“The truth is we did not properly and fully discipline, and bring to closure, and bring out the truth of a very important situation involving a man named Shawn Bolz,” Farrelly told parishioners, during the January 25 service at Bethel’s campus in north Redding.

The same day, Bethel leadership also released a 2,700-word open letter regarding the church’s relationship with Bolz, who Bethel regularly platformed up until 2019. That’s when Bethel leaders say they first became aware of sexual misconduct allegations against Bolz as well as allegations that he misled parishioners about his ability to communicate directly with God. 

The church publicly addressed some concerns about Bolz in a limited way nearly a year ago, but leaders now say they didn’t take proper accountability regarding Bolz’s alleged harm, including failing to publicize the allegations to Bethel’s congregation and school alumni which now total 18,000, they say. 

Yesterday’s letter from Bethel leadership came after a five-and-a-half-hour video related to the allegations was released on Jan. 17 by Mike Winger, a Christian YouTuber and ordained minister.

Shawn Bolz Ministries did not respond to Shasta Scout’s request for comment today regarding these allegations. Bolz describes himself online as a TV host, news commentator, media producer and Christian minister. The organization’s website indicates the ministry is “on a sabbatical” and Bolz’s Instagram and X accounts have been disabled. 

In his video, Winger claimed to have spoken with three unnamed former employees of Bolz, who described witnessing Bolz’s allegedly nonconsensual sexual actions with male staff and spiritual mentees. 

“Bill Johnson and Bethel leadership knew about this for nearly five years, at least,” Winger claimed, characterizing Bethel’s response as “cover-up culture.” 

In yesterday’s letter from Bethel, the church’s highest ranking leadership weighed in. Mentioning a recent video, they agreed they had not adequately responded to allegations of sexual misconduct by Bolz that were brought to them directly. They claimed the allegations were corroborated, but didn’t cite specific details about what alleged sexual misconduct was involved.

A recent change of heart 

On Jan. 18, one day after Winger’s video on Bolz was released, Vallotton spoke to the congregation during a Sunday night sermon in which he claimed that the church was not the appropriate venue to investigate accusations of misconduct. He added that publicly disclosing such allegations would empower “unbelievers” to undermine the legitimacy of churches.

“I don’t have investigators… I don’t have a court system that figures out if a person who says they’re innocent isn’t innocent,” he told his parishioners. 

Yesterday, Vallotton expressed a change of heart, writing that his words last week were a “one-sided message that lacked compassion and awareness.” He also admitted that when an alleged victim of Bolz confided in him some time ago, he ended the communication after several conversations due to “personal overwhelm.” 

Research has shown only a small percentage of sexual assault allegations that end up going to trial are found to be false — around 5.9%, according to a study by the National Sexual Violence Research Center. This data point is compounded by surveys that have found that the vast majority of sexual assaults are never reported at all, partially due to victims’ fears that they won’t be believed or advocated for.

Bethel referenced its failure to prioritize the safety of parishioners in the letter released yesterday. “The truth is we have hurt and scared people because we did not tell the truth enough, early enough, long enough or loud enough,” leaders wrote, indicating that the church should have publicly acknowledged the allegations in 2020 after private efforts to confront Bolz were ineffective.

Though Bethel no longer invited Bolz to speak publicly at Bethel after these allegations were disclosed to them in 2019, Vallotton said he made a mistake in not publicizing the allegations about Bolz’s behavior. “We should have told our church and wider community in 2020. We did not. That was wrong,” he wrote.

“We platformed him,” the letter said, “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.”

Bill Johnson, Bethel’s senior-most leader, described a similar dynamic, as he struggled to come to terms with the allegations and act accordingly. 

“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,” Johnson wrote.

Using spiritual gifts for harm

Bethel leaders also said they have long been aware that Bolz had been accused of sharing “false words of knowledge,” indicating their current belief that the accusations carry merit. 

As is common among churches that researchers and journalists have categorized as part of the New Apostolic Reformation, Bethel teaches that certain people are bestowed with the gift of prophecy. 

According to Bethel, gifted believers can deliver “prophetic words” to other worshipers, revealing a potential solution to a private problem or a sign about the future. In this context “prophets” often use “words of knowledge” to validate their prophecies, sharing information about the person in front of them that they’re not expected to know, thereby proving their ability to receive intel from God. 

In its letter, Bethel said that European church leaders “came forward with evidence” that Bolz Bolz had been allegedly utilizing social media to background those personal details about certain parishioners before a service. Bolz’ knowledge of those characteristics — such as a worshiper’s mother’s name or address — would then allegedly be used as he delivered prophetic messages, allowing him to appear as he had divined the information through a miraculous intuition.

One alleged victim of this kind of prophesying recently shared a video on Facebook. Jubilee Dawns claimed that one of Bolz’s prophecies encouraged her to marry her former abusive husband, because she believed Bolz’s words were “God’s will.” 

“He called out where I worked, he got my information off of Facebook,” Dawns alleged.  

Bethel’s next steps 

Bethel’s letter also announced a new process within the church that facilitates the ability of  potential victims to report alleged abuse. “When we are pursuing justice,” Bethel stated, explaining the change in perspective behind the new approach, “we must place the victim as the first priority, followed by serving the church, and then we work to restore the victimizer.”

Known as Safe Church, the process utilizes a third-party reporting service called Syntrio so that parishioners are able to report if they’ve been subject to verbally, physically or sexually abusive behavior. 

According to Bethel’s site, after allegations are submitted via the reporting service, “members of the Safe Church team” will review the report with staff from Syntrio to decide whether an investigation is appropriate. 

If the church does move forward with an investigation, the website says that it “may involve contacting law enforcement and/or legal counsel, conducting interviews with the reporter, any individual(s) named in the report, or others as deemed necessary (i.e. witnesses).” 

Bethel did not respond to Shasta Scout’s inquiry on whether members of Safe Church are Bethel-affiliated or how they’ve vetted. 

Bethel’s Safe Church page does state that the new reporting process “[is] not intended in any way to limit, alter, or interfere with any mandated reporting requirements as defined by state and federal statutes.” California law requires clergy members to report suspected child and elder abuse.

If you have information to share related to misconduct by church leaders and would like to speak to a reporter, reach out to editor@shastascout.org. Your information will be kept completely confidential unless you provide explicit permission for Shasta Scout to use information you’ve shared in future reporting. Available resources for sexual harassment victims can be found on the California Attorney General website.

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