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Why the fall of Shawn Bolz and Bethel’s leadership failure is a net win for the Kingdom

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 21:32:33 GMT

Why the fall of Shawn Bolz and Bethel’s leadership failure is a net win for the Kingdom

On January 17th, apologist and BibleThinker ministries leader Mike Winger, released an extensive expose on both the fall of Charismatic, self-proclaimed prophet Shawn Bolz and the subsequent leadership failure of Northern California’s, Bethel Church leadership. He cited significant evidence that Bolz’s ministry was fraught with issues, including allegations of false prophetic ministry practices and sexual harassment toward team members, among other concerns. Bethel Church is implicated because of its long-term support and promotion of Bolz and its failure to disclose what ultimately led them to privately break fellowship with him and his ministry in 2019. Under increased public pressure, Bethel leader Kris Vallotton attempted to explain their role in the situation during a Sunday service on January 18th, but his comments only made matters worse. Thankfully, on Sunday, January 27th Bethel offered a much clearer and more helpful response, both in their services and in an online statement. They appropriately owned their failure to be more open, forthcoming, and transparent about their findings regarding Shawn Bolz.

Although it’s easy to view these events as simply another dark chapter in a long history of Christian leadership scandals, I truly believe they will lead to greater good. As a member of the Charismatic movement and a pastor of over 30 years, I’ve seen my share of scandals - some of which I had to handle within my own church. These situations are complicated and messy. There are no easy answers and no perfect ways to navigate them, but there are better and worse ways.

When scandals are handled well, they send a shockwave of accountability through the rest of the kingdom of God. This is what I believe can come out of this terrible situation.

The Charismatic Christian community has become infamous for scandal and low accountability. With a good-hearted desire to create room for the Holy Spirit to move freely, and with an emphasis on grace for messy people, we have too often created environments where bad characters can thrive. Since Pentecost, conservative Christian leaders and skeptics who have aggressively criticized the Charismatic movement and demanded stronger accountability. The more they raise their voices, the more Charismatic leaders often dig in their heels, convinced that such critiques are simply another attempt by the enemy to quench the Spirit.

But when a significant leader within the movement admits to getting it wrong and publicly acknowledges a failure of accountability, the movement listens. Instead of just another scandal we must be embarrassed by - and another reason to feel defensive about our distinctives – we are invited to pause and consider how we have handled similar issues in our own churches and ministries.

I deeply believe God is going to use this as another wake-up call to His Church. In no way do I excuse Shawn Bolz for his choices or minimize the harm he has done both to the Body of Christ and individuals. Nor do I pretend that there is no real damage from Bethel’s decisions. But I do know that God can take garbage and turn it into gold.

We have needed someone in the upper echelons of the Charismatic movement to speak clearly about accountability. Many in the “lower tiers” have tried and only been partially heard. But when a mothership like Bethel acknowledges that they failed to follow through on proper accountability, discipline, and correction, it may finally penetrate the minds and hearts of those who would otherwise continue with business as usual. Bethel is not responsible for policing every leader they partner with, but they are responsible to communicate clearly when a leader they have platformed has been found to be dangerous.

It is unfortunate that Bethel into greater transparency by pressures from wounded people. However, as mentioned, I understand the complexity of handling an issue like this and feeling like you have done enough internally to safeguard your immediate congregation. I understand the conflicting opinions and voices - even within the same staff - on how things should have been handled.

Bethel could have doubled down on Vallotton’s initial perspective that they had done their due diligence. They did not. They regrouped, reconsidered, and chose to walk the difficult road of exposing evil. If you know Bethel’s culture, exposure and public accountability are not their norm. They have intentionally created a shielded environment for spiritual discovery, expansion, and freedom to pursue the radical things of God. What they have now come to terms with are the limits of that culture if they want to remain healthy and safe for the broader kingdom of God.

My prayer is that the rest of us learn the same lesson without having to walk through the pain of more broken lives.

Is it "sinful" to still crave substances after being sober?

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 22:59:18 GMT

QUESTION:

I used to be addicted to a substance that is fairly common in today’s age. It was controlling my life and I decided to quit and have been sober for 9 months. Is it sinful to still have cravings for that substance?

Answer:

The short answer to your question is: NO! It’s absolutely normal and human for our bodies to crave things that they want, especially things we have given them and then taken away from them. The very nature of addiction is about patterns and the chemicals they release. When we drink alcohol, there are a couple of things happening. One is the effects of the alcohol on impairment, but a very serious part that no one thinks about (unless they are thinking about diet) is the sugar involved. When we quit alcohol after a long time of feeding our body with it, there’s going to be an intense withdrawal of sugar. When you use a substance for 9 months, your body begins to compensate for it and rely on it for certain things. The chemical release in our brains and gut alters how we process information, pain, confusion, emotions, etc. When it comes to weed, for some people, it dulls those reactions, which feels good at the time, but because we don’t have to deal with the full impact of our emotions, we become emotionally stunted. I’ve had a number of buddies who have come out of weed addiction after years, and they find themselves emotionally immature, as if they had been on pause the whole time.

But the bigger reason that substance abuse is so dangerous is that human brains work off mapping and patterns. This means that even if we engage in substances that are allegedly ’non-addictive,’ it doesn’t matter; the human brain has addictive patterns. We can get addicted to ANYTHING in the right environment. We can be addicted to shopping, but buying something isn’t technically an ‘addictive substance’. So, the bigger problem is that we emotionally attach to things that we think can help us and make life easier.

When we make the difficult choice to stop doing those addictive patterns, our bodies fight us on it. We know it’s the right thing to do, but our bodies and brain chemistry are used to it, so it will continue to crave it and demand it.

Is it sinful? No. Temptation is not sinful. How do we know that? Because the Bible tells us that Jesus was tempted in all ways as we are, yet was without sin (paraphrase of Hebrews 4:15). Temptation is the inner drive to do something bad. Jesus had the temptation, the craving, the desire to do things contrary to the Father’s will (while on earth), and chose submission and obedience instead. So, feeling those things, struggling with those things, craving those things is normal. The sinfulness comes when we over-entertain them, lean into them, and act upon them.

I hope that helps.

- Pastor Lance

Reflections After a Mission Trip to Uganda

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 23:02:06 GMT

What the American Church Can Learn From the African Church

I was shooting a promo video for Yaaka Afrika, standing in the jungle of Uganda, when I was asked the question,

"W hat, if anything, can the American church learn from the African church?". The tone in my friend's voice was respectful and seemed to indicate that he was entirely okay with the answer, "Nothing." But he asked the question for a reason.

It was a good question.

Is there anything we can learn?

Of course, there is.

I only wish I had the time, wisdom, and insight to know fully what we could learn and implement in our Bridgeway version of the American Church. Being in the country for only two weeks and having limited access to observe their ‘normal’ church services didn’t give me much to work with. Still, I was at least able to be around Christian African culture (at least Ugandan) for several days. This was enough to recognize at least three things we would be blessed to blend into our American Bridgeway-style church services.

1.) Stop Putting Time Frames on God

Why are we in such a rush to leave church? We got dressed, focused our minds, and drove away from our home at a rather inopportune time when we had a million other things we could have done, so with all that effort, why are we so eager to get the service over and out the door?

I’ll admit this is more of a Caucasian church thing. Other cultures (namely the African-American and Latino/Hispanic) are far more content to go to church and stay there. Unfortunately, the white community tends to design our lives around efficiency, and there are many unintended consequences to that, this being one of them.

I was walking down the dirt road from Pastor Steven Trint’s house in Toggo Village to T.I.C.C (Toggo International Children’s Center) school, about ¾ of a mile away, with one of Pastor Steve’s adult daughters. Imac (short for Immaculate) is a beautiful, serious, and wise young woman and mother. She was my primary translator for teachings at the school. As we walked, she turned to me and said respectfully, ‘Pastor Lance, may I ask you a question?’ ‘Of course,’ I replied, thinking she was about to ask a deeply personal question. ‘Why do you Americans walk so fast?’ I looked up the road and realized that she was keeping up with me, but we were far behind the rest of the team that had left us in the dust.

Right off the top of my head (or perhaps under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit), I blurted out, ‘Because we design our lives around efficiency, believing that the more we can accomplish, the more valuable we are. We have forgotten how to BE and only know how to DO.’

Church for Ugandans is over when it’s over. You preach until you’re done. You worship until the inspiration dwindles. You dance until you are tired. You pray until there is a breakthrough. At least, that’s how it appeared.

To be honest, they don’t have multiple services back to back to watch out for, nor a huge amount of staff members and volunteers to organize on and off stage.

2.) Simplify

The Ugandan culture is difficult but simple. In the villages, each day consists of a simple routine (the city is a bit more complicated but similar). Each village “center” had the same types of stores: market, hair salon, building material store, cellular kiosk, pharmacy, clothing, butcher. Each was a simple 10x20 storage unit looking concrete ‘store.’ Basic needs, simple items if you can afford them. Each simple home (sometimes a dark mud brick one-room hut, sometimes a small concrete 2-room structure, rarely a small home) seemed to have a goat out front on a rope. Usually, in the mornings, you would see a woman sweeping the loose dirt off the hard-packed dirt front area to clean up for the day.

This simplistic existence in the villages continued in the schools and the church. The classrooms were full of wooden desks with no backs and chalkboards built into the stone wall. Everything in the church (wall hangings, banners, chairs – everything but the walls) had to be set up and torn down each week, so it demanded simplicity. All you needed was a few aesthetics, a few chairs, and the Holy Spirit and church were on. Besides the need to set up a sound system, they brought their own feet for dancing, their own hands for clapping, and their own lips for praying.

Maybe I’m fooling myself, but their simplified approach seemed to allow for freedom to follow the spirit in the air and the Spirit in their heart. I look at our services in America and the tight schedules, the jamming in the information, the quick exit, and wonder whether we have made our lives so complicated that we don’t really have time to do church like church should be done. I’ll have to reflect on that a bit more.

3.) Let Joy Flow

Ugandans dance and sing all the time. It’s kinda stereotypical and odd, I suppose, but it’s so beautiful. When the kids need to stand up and stretch during the school day, sometimes they break out in dance and singing. In the mornings, around Pastor Steve’s house, the young ladies in the adjacent dorm sing worship. In the evening, they sing again. In church, we did just as much dancing as preaching. At the Grand Opening, the whole day was filled with orchestrated dance numbers up front, to ‘let’s all get out there and dance’ free dancing. Even the VBS we set up had lots of dancing involved, but that didn’t stop each day from having added-on dancing at the end. Even I was drug out onto the floor in front of over a thousand people and asked to dance a traditional ‘booty-shaking’ dance, which I did to the hilarious roar of the crowd (nothing funnier than a white tall guy trying to do traditional African dance).

I asked two young ladies the same question: “Why do you dance in church?” I went on to explain my question. Some of the dances just look like they are having fun and enjoying one another. It seems less like worship and more like, ‘I just want to dance right now and get my groove on with my friends.’ What does this have to do with Jesus and the church? Each of them gave me a similar answer – It’s expressing joy before the Lord. One of the young ladies said, ‘I don’t go to discos/clubs. I don’t dance with men. I dance only with my Lord. I love to dance, and dancing with Him is my favorite thing.’ How can I argue with that? The other said that to her, dancing is an expression of joy and that praise to God is partly just appreciating His presence and being thankful and joyful for what He’s already done for us. I suppose it’s like dancing for joy when something exciting happens (i.e., a home run from your favorite baseball team, winning the car on Price is Right, etc.).

As I further reflected, I realized how communal it is. Dancing together. Who would have thought? Connecting at a fun level, enjoying the time together, moving to the rhythm of a worship song (should it always be left at home in the kitchen when no one is around?), and laughing together. What a beautiful community thing to do. I suppose we could play Bunko, have a potluck, AND dance, right? Although I’m quite certain most of us (white folk) need to find our inner groove to not make an abomination of our worship dance.

But what stuck out to me the most was the joy. I don’t care if we dance or not. I don’t really care if we sing per se (although I think that singing to the Lord is one of His favorite things we do), but I do care if we have joy in our hearts spilling over on our neighbor. Why are we so unable or unwilling to express our gratitude outwardly? It’s like we are stuck in the Puritan era of grasping our hands to our chest and just smiling big when God touches our hearts. But King David danced with all his might. Maybe our joy can be a bit more expressive to impact those around us and stir joy in their hearts as well.

Conclusion

I don’t think that the African church is better than the American church. I think that it’s different. But why wouldn’t we be open to learning from one culture to another various ways of honoring the Lord and brightening our atmosphere? I’m sure there are things that they can learn from us as well. Maybe that’s why we need to be as culturally diverse as possible and listen to all the hearts. You never know, what’s weird today may be natural tomorrow.

God-Given Sign or Coincidence?

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 22:56:34 GMT

Question:

Dear Pastor Lance – How can you tell when something is a God-given ‘sign’ versus merely a coincidence?

Answer :

Excellent question and one that I’m constantly trying to grow in and master.

The simplest answer is one word: Resonance

There are a ton of coincidental things that can show up if we are looking for them. For example you may never see a type of car until you are shopping for a car and suddenly you see them everywhere. Or you may not feel something is creepy until someone tells you a scary story and now you are freaked out by everything. Those are all the ways that human minds normally work.

So, how do we know when God’s talking?

The easy and basic answers are: Does it line up with Scripture? Does it violate Scripture? Does it fall in line with what you know about the nature of God? Things like that. But I’m assuming that you are talking about personal messages from God like maybe you are praying about something and suddenly the next song on the radio talks about that very subject. Is that God or not? You can’t verify that with Scriptural analysis per se, and if so it only goes so far.

So, I’m talking about that kind of stuff.

Truth is, usually it’s not very clear. Usually it’s something deep down that resounds with ‘that wasn’t normal, and it wasn’t just me, there’s something deeper here.’ Usually we can determine it easily if it’s not something we normally think, or say, or hear. But sometimes it’s in reflection about a situation. If something ‘resonates’ deep within your heart/spirit, it may be the Lord. It just feels right. It sounds like something He would say. Since those are hard to determine at first, we usually need someone to walk through it with us and help us sort it out. The more mature we are with Him and grounded in His Word and know His nature, the easier it will be to discern.

God is talking, we are just learning to listen.

What is the Balance Between Forgiveness and Righteous Judgement?

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 22:40:39 GMT

Question:

Pastor Lance – I was reading Revelation recently and came across something that seemed very odd. How do we reconcile Revelations 6:10 with forgiving those who persecute us? The souls of the martyrs are calling out for justice, judgment and vengeance, is that okay? If they are in heaven shouldn’t they be able to see the big picture and forgive those who have killed them? Is there a time when we stop forgiving and call down the Lord’s judgment on people here on earth?

Answer:

Fantastic question, my friend. Let’s take a look.

There are a couple of things at play here:

A.) This is metaphorical in nature. This is a vision of heaven where things are playing out to make a spiritual or theological point. It’s not to be pushed literally (that they have to be hidden under the altar, squished in there until the time is fulfilled. Therefore, we need to ask what the point is and then extract out of that what part is literal and which part is not.

B.) What’s the point of being ‘under the altar’? The altar is a place of sacrifice. It’s about death. Heaven is about God. It’s about dying for God. The crying out is about calling for justice . Are they really calling for vengeance? Maybe, but we’ll deal with that in a second. Initially, it’s a metaphor for calling people to account for what they’ve done and making them own up to it. Consider how God told Cain that Abel’s blood was calling out to Him from the earth. It wasn’t really calling, but it was bearing witness against him. Same thing here.

C.) Would knowing the Big Picture shut them up? Not really. There is a time for righteous judgment. Jesus called down judgment, the prophets called down judgment, and the sins of the people who killed the Christians are not saved by Christ, they are still accountable for their sins and will be judged for it, so it’s appropriate. Forgiveness only makes sense in light of 2 things: 1.) its’ paid by someone. 2.) in light of being a sinner and being forgiven yourself. Those rules don’t apply here. The metaphorical souls have not seen it paid for by Christ, and they are cleansed and know the big picture, which means that God’s enemies will pay (eternal smoke rising before Him forever). They are calling not for their unforgiveness but for what was done to them. There’s a difference. One is personal to them; the other is an offense against God. There are some things that shouldn’t be forgiven.

D.) What’s the application for us about forgiving other people? Is there a time to stop forgiving and ask God to just shut them down or solve it? Yes and no. Yes, it’s appropriate to ask God for a solution and to shut down the badness. However, it’s not healthy to ask God to kill the bad guys unless you have a clear allowance to do so. But it’s always necessary to forgive for personal offenses. Forgiveness doesn’t forget; it just acts differently toward them than you would naturally want to in anger.

I hope this helps my friend.

How can Jesus be both Eternal and Man?

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 22:19:44 GMT

Question:

Dear Pastor Lance — How is Jesus the Son of God, if He’s equal to the Father and Holy Spirit? If he wasn't ‘created’ (He’s eternal), how is He a son?

Answer:

The term “Son” in our modern lingo means you are the younger version of. Jesus was/is God from all eternity. He’s not younger than anyone. He wasn’t born in any true ‘became real’ sense like our babies that suddenly show up from nothingness. So, in what sense is Jesus the ‘Son’ of God? Jesus is the ‘Son’ of God because he was born into this world through Mary by the hand of the Father and the presence of the Holy Spirit. ‘Son’ in Biblical terms means to ‘come from.’ In the Bible, Jewish genealogies call people ‘son of’ when they mean grandson or great-grandson because the person eventually ‘came from’ that guy. Since the 2nd Person of the Trinity is the WORD (logos) and God spoke in Creation (all things made through Christ and for Christ), that word/logos emanated and ‘came from’ God. Jesus ‘came from’ God, so he was called ‘Son.’

Why is Jesus the ‘emanating one’ or the Son? Why Jesus is the ‘emanating one’ or the Son is a mystery to us. God is ONE and SPIRIT, but also three persons: Father, Son & Holy Spirit. I know the three Persons of God are all unique, but I don’t know why they got assigned the roles they did.

How Do I Share My Faith With Others?

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 22:06:47 GMT

Question:

Dear Pastor Lance— It’s so hard to share my faith with other people. I don’t know why I’m afraid to do it, I just am. How do you share your faith with your friends?

ANSWER:

Dear Friend – I completely understand what you’re saying. And yes, I agree with you that sometimes we shy away from sharing our faith out of fear that we are going to do something wrong, or that we won’t know the answers, or we will offend someone. Sometimes, we are fearful that we will be seen as 'uncool.'

My approach to evangelism (sharing my faith with people) has been very simple: Make it natural. What that means is to establish a relationship with someone you want to evangelize so that you have the right to speak into their life.

First of all, make it known up front that you are a Christian, so there are expectations already set.

Secondly, drop hints along the way in conversation that is natural but blatant, i.e., "I was praying the other day and..." or "What can I pray for you about?" Or, "At church, we were talking about...". Those are all hints that set up the conversation.

At that point one of three things can happen:

1.) Chaos can hit their life, and they reach out to you and your faith.

2.) They can take the hints and start asking questions of you.

3.) You can start a conversation with simple questions like: Did you grow up in church? What's your God story? Whatever is natural to you.

I think we get freaked out that we are going to need to be ready to preach a crusade sermon to our friends and feel inadequate when, in fact, it's nothing like that. We are merely sharing real life on our terms.

Hope that helps.

lch-ministriesac83257f

Why the fall of Shawn Bolz and Bethel’s leadership failure is a net win for the Kingdom

Why the fall of Shawn Bolz and Bethel’s leadership failure is a net win for the Kingdom

Is it "sinful" to still crave substances after being sober?

QUESTION:

Answer:

Reflections After a Mission Trip to Uganda

What the American Church Can Learn From the African Church

God-Given Sign or Coincidence?

Question:

Answer :

What is the Balance Between Forgiveness and Righteous Judgement?

Question:

Answer:

How can Jesus be both Eternal and Man?

Question:

Answer:

How Do I Share My Faith With Others?

Question:

ANSWER: ﻿

ANSWER: