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Abberant Doctrines of the Kansas City Prophets
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 Exposing the Kansas City Prophets

The following material by Pastor Ernie Gruen is used by permission

The following introduction to this document was taken from http://www.dtl.org/shield/latter-rain-1.htm Kansas City Fellowship (now Metro Vineyard Fellowship), was severely challenged from within the charismatic fraternity itself, by a group of concerned pastors in 1989-90, led by Pastor Ernie Gruen. The resulting expose (Documentation of Aberrant Practices and Teachings of KCF/GM, Gruen et al.) was so frightening that it led the KCF leadership to reorganize and place themselves under the authority of the Vineyard's John Wimber, who was called in to do damage control.

Despite the rumor that Gruen "apologized" for inaccurate statements, no such apology ever occurred, and his criticism still remains intact, and he stands behind all of it. Nevertheless, trusting Wimber to sort it all out, Gruen promised to stop circulating the tapes and printed criticisms of problems at KCF, summarized in about 240 pages of material. But the evangelical public at large had now been warned what the Neo-Prophetic Movement could be like close-up, and KCF, now part of the Vineyard, was widely recognized as a prime example of it. 

  

Documentation of the

 

Aberrent Practices and Teachings of

the Kansas City Fellowship

(Grace Ministries)

originally prepared by

Pastor Ernest Gruen

and members of his staff

 

Download pdf document here 

Then read the this response from Pastor Gruen himself below

 Tuesday, May 06, 2008

 
It has been spread around Kansas City and on the Internet that I sent out a letter saying that I was deceived and that I had retracted the document “Documentation of the Aberrant Practices and Teachings of Kansas City Fellowship (Grace Fellowship). 
 
[Actually, they have been known by many names in the KC area, switching elders and church names on a regular basis. For a while they were known as Metro Vineyard. Interestingly, John Wimber told me that he regretted getting involved with Mike Bickel, because he discovered that I was correct in the “Aberrant” document.]
 
I sent out no such letter; I issued no retraction; I did not issue an apology!
 
Statements’ asserting the above are total lies!
 
The “Aberrant” document was and is exactly the truth of what happened. It was accumulated from tapes purchased from Bickel's own ministry.  The report is genuine!
 
Who originated these new lies, I have no idea?           
 
Who decided to spread these lies on the Internet and throughout KC, I do not know.
 
But it is Mike Bickel’s responsibility to see that these lies are repudiated by him and also publicly at          I-Hop--since it purportedly is regularly stated to newcomers to I-Hop.  Of course it is to Bickel’s advantage to keep THE LIE going to increase his numbers and growth of his ministry.
 
Be sure and read Footnote 2 entirely.
 
Pastor Ernie Gruen
erniegruen@yahoo.com                       
 
Footnote 1:
Why did Full Faith no longer send out the “Aberrant document”?
Originally when every thing came to ahead, there was a meeting with the elders of Full Faith with the elders of KC Fellowship.  For the sake of unity in the Body of Christ and peace in the city, the elders of Full Faith Church of Love agreed to stop sending out the document.  The elders were simply being magnanimous, nothing was retracted.  A pastor’s wife, without our knowledge or consent, posted the current copy on the Internet. 
 
Footnote 2:
Paul Cain and other prophets discredited by Mike Bickel and Others:
 
Footnote 3:
The original “Documentation of the Aberrant Practices and Teachings of Kansas City Fellowship.  Download here 
 
                                                                                                         
Footnote 4: Copy of e-mail received showing the effects of I-Hops lies:

Hello pastor Gruen. my name is ……………….I am a pastor in North Carolina. of a fellowship called………Our church used to be a part of a bigger fellowship that dissolved as the leadership became more into the prophetic and eventually moved to IHOP with several of our group. It has been a hard year but God has been faithful. I have read your report on the K.C. prophets. However numerous times have been told that you recanted and admitted to being deceived and a deceiver. I have just learned through a mutual acquaintance that this is not the case from my friend ……..who emailed you last week. Mr. Gruen when you wrote this report I was in elementary school. Many of the young people who go to I-hop or Morningstar or any of the numerous churches where Bob Jones still speaks were not even born, and when they do stumble upon your report they are told that you recanted in a city wide letter. A lie can make it half way around the world before the truth gets its boots on--which leads me to the reason I am writing this letter. Pastor Gruen I would like the opportunity to interview you via email and then post it on my blog site which gets a lot of traffic from young I-hoppers and others. This interview would only be ten to fifteen questions long. And would be so useful to folks who do have questions about this movement of prophets or folks who have read your report and now think it is a lie. Please pray about this there is a whole new group of young people being sold the generation stuff all over again. And they would benefit from hearing you set the record straight about what happened then and where you are now.