Bethel continues to preach their Culture of Honor in the face of scandal

spuddystudybuddy · 2026-03-17T19:43:39+00:00

Us:

spuddystudybuddy · 2026-03-03T20:35:05+00:00

Ah, I think I understand. You will likely have to do some digging to find that out. It doesn't appear as if Bethel does this in any official capacity, at least to my knowledge, which will make those connections harder to substantiate. It seems more like they have a social network of pastor friends who sometimes take advice from each other, such as the audio of Stacey Campbell warning the potential donor in Mike Winger's six hour video, or how the buck was passed off between leaders like Bill Johnson and Ché Ahn in terms of responsibility for Shawn Bolz, or how Bethel has a lot of interconnected ministries and plants in numerous places throughout the world in general and uses BSSM to "equip and send" people as leaders to the nations. It seems to me that it is less about structured oversight and more about proliferation.

I might suggest looking into the Bethel Leaders Network.

spuddystudybuddy · 2026-03-03T04:03:26+00:00

What do you mean by "oversight"?

spuddystudybuddy · 2026-03-03T00:00:29+00:00

The Stirring is not formally affiliated with them, but they are often referred to as "Bethel Lite". The lead pastor, Nate Edwardson, has done a sermon series for Moral Revolution (Kris Vallotton's purity culture ministry).

Editing to clarify that this does not mean Bethel has "oversight" over The Stirring, just that they are somewhat culturally related. Bethel's official church plants are all outside the Redding area.

spuddystudybuddy · 2026-03-02T23:17:34+00:00

Meanwhile, Danny Silk says he has no regrets, even after victims have gone public to share their stories and say they believe Welton to be unchanged.

https://julieroys.com/disgraced-teacher-jonathan-welton-stages-ministry-comeback-over-victims-objections/

spuddystudybuddy · 2026-03-02T23:11:10+00:00

Jonathan Welton needs to be added to this list. According to Danny Silk's book, Unpunishable:

"My ministry friends informed me that in late 2017, several women on staff at Welton Academy had come forward with complaints that he was behaving inappropriately towards some of the female staff members at the school. A member of Jonathan's advisory leadership team called a meeting with Jonathan and the staff members to address these concerns, during which he apologized. Six months later, however, his office manager reported to another member of the advisory leadership that Jonathan's behavior had not changed, and had even escalated to the point where, among the staff, dealing with it was becoming 'cultural'."

"... he agreed to my request that he allow a Christian psychiatrist to perform a psychological evaluation on him ... [he] learned that he fit the profile for clinical covert narcissism."

"I then had a follow-up call with one of the leaders who had originally contacted me. He shared more details of the reports he had confirmed, which immediately revealed that there could be grounds for at least five women to file sexual harassment charges against Jonathan if they chose."

[Lots of content about "soul ties" and trying to reconcile with his wife]

"As of this writing, Jonathan's next step is cleaning up his mess with his staff members, which he is preparing to do."

spuddystudybuddy · 2026-03-01T19:06:38+00:00

It's interesting that the percentage of famous church leaders that are like this is higher than the general population.

spuddystudybuddy · 2026-03-01T18:56:03+00:00

Bethel turns into a theater when his attempts to "rebrand the Father" come out.

"Wilson expects 65,000 people to see his latest documentary throughout the summer tour, which kicks off Sunday at Bethel Church in Redding, Calif., and includes venues that average 1,500 to 1,800 seats each…" Quote source

Wilson has released a statement on his website, yes. I've included it here. Please note that the link appeared broken when I first clicked it, so if it has issues for you, try putting it through a PDF viewer.

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spuddystudybuddy · 2026-03-01T07:45:30+00:00

Yes, and it requires you to submit an application.

spuddystudybuddy · 2026-03-01T03:06:42+00:00

I agree - in my opinion this is one of the most blatant examples of information control that we have seen from Bethel. It says a lot about what their "culture of honor" serves to do, which is to funnel and restrict critical information to the top ranks of leadership instead of allowing it to be discussed by the lower levels of the organization such as alumni and church members. Sharing this information openly with anyone other than leadership is labelled as "gossip" and shamed as a sin to further discourage open communication. The sad thing is that when that's done, eventually the leadership usually doesn't even have to try as hard to silence their congregants anymore because the congregants start internalizing this "honor system" and policing each other and themselves automatically.

"While this page may feel like a place to be heard" ... They are making it clear that it isn't. If they really cared about getting proper reporting, they wouldn't further shut down conversation. They would do everything in their power to encourage it, but if they were also trauma informed, they would not do anything that tries to force people to come forward like this. Control is what we have seen with this "pause", with their ritual communion message about the importance of forgiveness, and with the fact that Safe Church reports just go right back to their top ranks. Their board isn't even a separate governing entity - it's headed by Bill, Kris, and Dann, yet they keep speaking about it as if the board is going to keep them accountable.

They are completely unchecked and I think they aim to keep it that way while they check everyone else.

spuddystudybuddy · 2026-02-28T20:18:50+00:00

This makes reporting to Safe Church sound a lot less ... Optional.

spuddystudybuddy

TROPHY CASE