Shawn Bolz, Prophet of the New Apostolic Reformation—Part 1: A Peculiar Twist in the Data Mining Controversy

Perhaps you’ve heard of the New Apostolic Reformation. This movement promotes the view that certain divinely anointed individuals exercise significant authority for the church in their capacity as apostles and prophets for today. Shawn Bolz is a NAR prophet with close ties to Bethel Church (Redding, California), including the apostle Bill Johnson and the prophet Kris Vallotton.

For quite some time now, Shawn Bolz has been accused of data mining when prophesying about individuals in attendance at his various public events. In 2017, Stewart James Felker explained in detail how he came to this conclusion about Bolz. Felker gave a step-by-step analysis of a single incident during one of Bolz’s prophecy rallies. In our book Counterfeit Kingdom, Holly Pivec and I discuss a different case in Bolz’s prophetic career dating back to 2019. Thoughtful observers have been aware of this data mining dependency for several years.

Recently, further information has come forward that makes it even more difficult to deny that this is Bolz’s modus operandi as a prophet for this generation. And rumor has it that Bethel Church leaders have cut ties with Bolz now that more details have come to light. Bethel’s reaction is indeed further evidence that the allegations are true. Not because NAR prophets at Bethel are keen to expose error in order to protect the flock, but because of blowback against Bethel’s own prophetic pretenses, blowback that must be managed with aggressive action. Wolves in sheep’s clothing are sometimes sacrificed by fellow wolves when their own neck is on the line.

Data mining involves the extraction of useful information from large sets of data, often using internet technology. By leveraging this technology, Shawn Bolz can access a wealth of information about individuals that provides context and validation for his prophecies. But exposure and strained relations with his prophetic pals at Bethel has led to some scurrying behind the scenes. That is a story in itself. But one outcome is an emendation made to the Bolz Ministries website, dated January 17, 2025. The new “Statement of Prophetic Integrity” outlines guidelines that Bolz and associates plan to use in all future prophesying. Without mentioning data mining explicitly, Shawn Bolz seems to have changed his mind about further dependence on this prophetic technique. But get this: the new guidelines are, in effect, prophecies that Shawn Bolz has made recently about how he and his affiliates will prophesy in the future. We’ll see if this prophecy comes true.

Now you may think that calling Bolz’s new prophesying policy a prophecy itself is just sarcasm on my part. But it really is not. He says he will not be issuing prophecies that reveal certain types of personal information about individuals. But how can he know that unless he knows that God will not call upon him (or anyone on his team) to reveal such things? And wouldn’t advance knowledge of that sort have to be prophetic? Bolz purports to know in advance what God will have him prophesy. Who told him that, if it wasn’t God? So Bolz makes a prophecy about what he will and will not be revealing in future prophecies.

Of course, there is another possibility that must be considered. If Shawn Bolz has been data mining for the content of his prophecies, maybe he is data mining now for the criteria to be used in his new policy regarding all future prophecies. If Bolz has formed the intention never to resort to prophesy certain things, he can simply “data mine” his own brain to ground his prediction and issue new and improved prophesying guidelines for future prophesying! Old habits die hard.

But I think Bolz, who’s in the revelation business, revealed a deep truth about himself without intending to. Apparently, he didn’t think people would notice that Shawn Bolz had decided what God could and could not reveal through him if God wanted to keep using him as a prophet.

Most people, especially if they’ve read the Book of Jonah, know that Bolz has it backwards. God decides who the audience is and God decides what the message is. So the new prophesying policy, now available for inspection, lets the cat out of the bag. Bolz is the source of his new revelations.

And if you’ve watched Bolz perform, you realize this kind of makes sense. His prophetic utterances have the same texture as all those mentalism shows you see where the showman acts like he’s getting a vibe about someone in little pieces, starting with vague generalities and then groping from there toward something more specific.

Have you ever wondered why the Hebrew prophets didn’t do that? It has so much more entertainment value.

For all the amazing similarities between professional mentalists when they perform and Shawn Bolz when he prophesies about individuals in his audience, there are two main differences between them. First, mentalist entertainers aren’t speaking for God. They don’t claim to speak for God. They don’t launch into soul-stirring messages about how God plans to use specific members in their audiences. They just wow the audience with their amazing knowledge of specific details about strangers in the auditorium. Bolz seems to have decided that he can improve on what the typical mentalist does by making it a religious exercise that has the stamp of God’s authority. It’s a bold idea, but easy to execute. All he has to do is claim that God is speaking through him. With Bolz, you can get all the same entertainment value as you might with any experienced mentalist, but drive home after the show believing that God has spoken. With Bolz, you get wow plus worship.

That sounds like a difference that could catapult Bolz into the stratosphere way above most mentalists in demand today. And it might be, if it weren’t for the second difference.

The second difference between Bolz and professional entertainers in the mentalism racket mitigates the value of what Bolz does in comparison with the best mentalists, who don’t even have God helping them. The best mentalists on TV, the most impressive performers on the Vegas strip, really are convincing. A good mentalist will have you wondering, how in the world does he do that? And even though you know the mentalist does not have a hotline to heaven, you find it hard to think that it’s just clever trickery. This is because the pro performer is so smooth and so well-spoken that you couldn’t figure out what the trick is if your life depended on it.

With Bolz, on the other hand, the performance is very amateur in comparison. His use of his smart phone is not cleverly integrated into his performance as a prop that enhances his persuasiveness. Rather, the device he clutches is wielded like an embarrassing crutch, and, in his execution of the art, Bolz looks like a wannabe magician practicing in front of a mirror at home in his den while his mom shakes her head in despair and suggests that maybe he should get a real job.

I reckon that Bolz, determined to make it work, discovered a way to compensate for his ham-handed showmanship. That gets back to the first difference I’ve mentioned, plus an insight into his mostly Christian audience. By playing the religion card, Bolz cleverly incorporates an ingredient that redirects audience focus in a very natural and convincing manner. This is the “sleight of hand” that isn’t available to the professional mentalist. Bolz is banking on audience expectation and character traits specific to Christian audiences. That’s where the magic comes in.

Because of their religious outlook, most of those attending Bolz’s rallies are expecting a word from God. That will sound amazing to a lot of people, but it’s absolutely true, and it’s critical to Bolz’s success. Those who attend his rallies are among those Christians who think that God has anointed certain men and women today to be prophets to this generation. That gives Bolz a huge advantage. In addition, Bolz’s niche audience is willing to give this minister, who seems to love Jesus and to exude genuine godly warmth, whatever benefit of the doubt they must to help carry off the charade. They are decent people who fear the malice of suspicion. So they check any “critical spirit” that may be lurking in their souls as they enter the revival arena. They aren’t put off by the amateur quality of the performance. Why not? Because they are already primed to believe, and they have committed to suppressing any doubt that might inhibit deeper faith in a miracle-working God. Their very presence at the rally indicates that they are heavily invested in Shawn Bolz’s success as a modern prophet. For many, that was a decision they made before they showed up. If it was entertainment they wanted, they would be in Las Vegas instead. (Not that a prophecy rally isn’t sometimes entertaining.)

Shawn Bolz has a host of NAR leaders to thank for his success, including the tribe of Bethel prophets (in Redding and at large around the world). They have helped to construct a narrative, embraced by many Christians—about the nature of faith in connection with expectation, about the power of God at our disposal today, about God’s plans to mobilize an army of victorious believers poised to wage effective spiritual warfare.

We’ve seen this movie before, literally—recall Burt Lancaster in the film Elmer Gantry (1960) and Steve Martin in Leap of Faith (1992). But the fiction of modern-day prophetic revivals still captivates a segment of the Christian world when practiced in the wild.

Other posts in this series—“Shawn Bolz, Prophet of the New Apostolic Reformation”—will explore the advantages of data mining for NAR purposes and suggest that perhaps Shawn Bolz should stick to data mining rather than resort to a less reliable technique of prophesying That has gotten other NAR prophets into trouble.

Stay tuned.

For more on NAR and the prophetic, see chapter 4, “Jesus’s Overlooked Warning,” in our book Counterfeit Kingdom: The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets, and New Age Practices in the Church.