Mike Bickle Second Home?

Last month an anonymous poster on our Kansas City Finances article stated "Even when I find out (that) Mike and Dianne (Bickle) had another home huge home in Belton I stayed quiet." Elsewhere in the blogosphere I found a similar comment: "Oh yes and I know Mike Bickle does own another house in Belton that was exposed about 2 years ago but it is all hush hush nobody goes against speaking about Mike." This comment has since been removed from that site, perhaps by the poster. So why mention this? I think it points out one of the weaknesses of the internet- in that stuff is repeated without verification. After a while, it becomes fact. Why would this be a big deal in the first place? Defenders of Mike Bickle make a big point of his austerity. Look at some of these quotes:

"I have lived in simplicity all my adult life and love it," he says, adding he gives away hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual income from his books and tapes. He and his wife live in a nearby duplex, and he raises about $35,000 as an annual salary from friends and supporters. Those earnings, he says, are supplemented by his wife's earnings as a real estate agent. "I want to live as minimally as possible" he says, "to give more away." "Opulence is not part of his message. Bickle and his wife live in a modest duplex on Calico Drive near IHOP. He drives a Toyota."Mike believes he has to live simply if he's going to attract young people," said Hall." "One look at the IHOP director’s closet-size office or modest duplex house (shared with his mother-in-law) and it’s obvious he isn’t too concerned about prestige, money or fame."

The last quotation is from a recent article in Charisma Magazine. If there was any credibility to the assertions of a second more lavish house, it would make it appear that the Calico Drive house was just a front. And some would find that disturbing. What do we know? Diane Bickle is president of Glad Heart Properties, Inc (Mike was Vice-President through 2008) and it is very likely that Glad Heart owns dozens of residences as investment properties. So it would not be unusual to find out that they owned more than one residence. The question is not ownership, the question is use. Mike and Diane Bickle listed a duplex at 813 Cimmarron Trail in Belton, Mo, as their residence on corporation documents (Glad Heart) from 2000 through 2008. In 2009, they switched the address to a duplex 11300 Calico Drive, Kansas City, Mo., which is just a few minutes from the prayer room. Tax records indicate that this duplex (Calico) is owned by Diane and Mike Bickle. Reportedly the mother-in-law shares this duplex with them. The Belton duplex appears slightly larger than the Calico duplex, both appear to be modest residences as reported. So, as the police would say: "move along, nothing to see here." If indeed is was EXPOSED about 2 years ago that the Bickle's maintain a huge home in Belton, it wasn't EXPOSED too well, because the information is not available. If someone has credible information, come forth. Otherwise, let us not be distracted by such accusations, stop repeating the stories, and turn our attention to where it belongs- doctrine and practice.