KELOWNA (CANADA)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
August 28, 2025
By Rebecca Hopkins
It’s ChurchToo porn: A middle-aged man in front of a mirror taking a selfie of his naked butt while wearing a black sweatshirt emblazoned with the name of a major Canadian Christian ministry.
“Jane Doe,” 60, a former volunteer for Battle for Canada, a revival ministry founded by Kelowna pastor Art Lucier, says the man with his pants down is Lucier himself.
The selfie photo, which the volunteer says Lucier sent her in 2022, appears set in a mocha polyvinyl-paneled bathroom of a private residence. A white enamel vessel sink is in the background. The man’s genitals are not visible, but the entire left side of his face is.
The selfie is the most current of the many abuse allegations made against the popular pastor since earlier this year.
In a brief phone call with The Roys Report (TRR), Lucier acknowledged a photo that he sent as a “prank I did on somebody” that was “photoshopped.” He wouldn’t comment on the specific selfie.
“There’s so much crap out there,” he told TRR. “It’s hard to keep up with it, so I’m really going to not comment on it.”
But in a secretly recorded meeting obtained by TRR, an oversight committee member said Lucier admitted to the committee he sent inappropriate photos to Doe.
In May, Harvest Ministries International (HMI), a five-fold revivalist ministry Lucier founded in 2003, issued a statement saying the ministry is experiencing “malicious attacks.” The ministry stated that “fabricated visual content” is being circulated and HMI may sue anyone who shares it.
Lucier stepped down from active public ministry in April after a Change.org petition of 600 names called for a third-party investigation of other allegations. The petition, which now has more than 1,000 signatures, alleges spiritual abuse, sexual abuse of “young girls,” and public shaming of whistleblowers.
Despite the allegations and the imminent publishing of this piece by TRR, HMI announced late yesterday that they’ve reinstated Lucier to ministry at HMI, beginning Sept. 1.
“After further review, the HMI board, in consultation with the pastoral leadership of Kelowna Harvest Church and several trusted apostolic advisors and leaders . . . have reached a unanimous decision to invite Art Lucier to resume his leadership role,” HMI stated.
Aware that TRR was about to publish, Lucier also took to Facebook, going live on Wednesday evening with accusations against whistleblowers, journalists, and podcasters. He called one whistleblower a “witch,” TRR a “dirty, dirty rag,” and claimed a YouTuber critical of him had lost her credentials.
“The only whistleblower is Satan in the Bible,” Lucier added.
Canadian journalist Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson, a former member of Lucier’s church and now a whistleblower, told TRR the Independent Assemblies of God in Canada withdrew her ministry credentials because she refused to stop reporting on ministries’ wrongdoing.
Lucier said people shouldn’t listen to “gossip,” which he likened to “toilet water.”
But Doe called Lucier’s Facebook live “damage control,” saying he’s intentionally trying to get ahead of TRR’s reporting on Doe’s allegations.
Doe told TRR Lucier sent her “hundreds” of photos and memes, many of which were crude jokes about women’s private parts and a handful that were suggestive selfies. Doe also said Lucier “groomed” her with long daily phone calls and an invitation to meet alone, which she declined. She and her husband told TRR they made several attempts to report the matter to Lucier’s oversight committee, starting a year ago.
They have tried to maintain some privacy. TRR has a policy of not identifying victims of sexual harassment or abuse. Colleen Hancar, co-founder of Lucier’s Canadian Firewall prayer ministry, and Lois Popplestone, a former Canadian Firewall leader, both confirmed Doe’s identity.
Past allegations
Lucier has been pastor of Kelowna Harvest Church in Kelowna, a lakeside town in British Columbia’s scenic Okanagan Valley, since 2018. Previously, he pastored Kitimat Harvest Church 800 miles to the west in the coastal town of Kitimat.
Lucier is also still listed as HMI’s apostolic overseer. Through his fellow Canadian revivalists and friends, Wes and Stacey Campbell, Lucier is connected with prophetic networks in the United States.
Lucier is being sued in Canadian civil court by two women who allege Lucier began sexually abusing them as children in 2001 when they were foster children, ages 11 and 14. The suit states Lucier was pastoring in Kitimat and the abuse continued until 2016. The suit also alleges HMI was complicit in enabling Lucier, which the ministry’s board has denied.
Ruth Hird, another former member of Kitimat Harvest Church, previously told TRR that Lucier kissed her on the lips in 2008, when she was 18, and he was in his 40s.
Earlier this year, Lucier admitted to “past sins” against his wife and others but blamed the timing of the exposure of the sins on Satan. Oversight committee member Marc Brisebois stated in May that Lucier made mistakes when he was a younger leader and not as mature.
Doe said she hopes that her current story will help bring healing for other victims.
“Part of me is afraid to do this,” she said, adding, “I know it’s the right thing to do.”
The photo and the woman who kept it
Doe said she began volunteering for Battle for Canada in 2018, working long days. From 2020 to 2022, Doe said she often worked closely with Lucier. He would share personal details, such as his grief over the death of his daughter from an earlier relationship than his current marriage.
“That was the biggest thing that drew me in,” Doe said.
The long conversations were two to three times a day. Using an app where his messages would disappear shortly after he sent them, she said he sent oddly intimate photos. They ranged from pictures of himself in a steamy shower to crude memes of women’s private parts.
One of those photos was the pants-down selfie. She can’t remember now why, but Doe said that she made a screenshot of it on Dec. 6, 2022, and filed it away.
“When he sent sexualized memes, at times he would ask, ‘Is it too much?’” she told TRR.
Doe told TRR it was too much, but she went along, rationalizing that she was Lucier’s “buddy.” She said their relationship never became physical.
In early 2022, Doe said Lucier encouraged her to meet him privately while he was traveling. She declined. He continued to call her and send her messages, but by that summer, he began harshly criticizing her work, while not clarifying her duties.
“That’s when it became evident, I was no longer his favorite,” she said.
Also in 2022, Doe began confiding in Colleen Hancar, founder of Canadian Firewall, about Lucier’s behavior, Hancar told TRR. Hancar said Doe would describe Lucier’s phone calls and texts, which Doe did not perceive as grooming.
“There was a period of real denial,” Hancar said.
Bonnie, a friend who lived with Doe and her husband that year, said Doe would share some of Lucier’s inappropriate memes and jokes about women with her. She also noticed Lucier making many calls to Doe each day and the long hours that they talked.
Bonnie said Lucier’s treatment changed Doe—a devoted Christian, faithful volunteer, and kind friend—into a secretive person. When Bonnie expressed her disapproval, the two women disagreed to such a level that Bonnie decided to move out.
“It was two years before we started talking again,” Bonnie said. (TRR is withholding Bonnie’s last name due to the possibility that identifying her would identify Doe, since they lived together.)
Then sexual abuse allegations involving Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer, were made public in the fall of 2023. Hancar said she pointed out the similarities in that story of adult clergy sexual abuse to Doe. (Experts define adult clergy sexual abuse as a spiritual leader abusing his position to engage in sexual misconduct.)
By then, leadership changes in Battle for Canada eliminated Doe’s volunteer position.
Sometime in 2023, Doe came across the forgotten photo of Lucier’s rearend on an old tablet. It was the only photo of his she’d kept. She decided not to delete it.
“What went through my mind at that time, I wonder if he’s doing this to other women,” she told TRR. “I thought this might come in handy to help somebody someday.”
In 2024, she realized the gravity of Lucier sending her the photo.
“I finally sat back and thought, ‘What if my husband was doing this?’” she said.
She showed it to her husband, who, having trusted Lucier, was outraged.
(TRR ran the photo through Sightengine.com, which examines photos for indicators of Artificial Intelligence-generated content. Sightengine stated that the photo was “not likely” to be a deepfake, with only a 1% chance of being created by AI. TRR also ran the photo through the website, Fake Image Detector, which analyzes a photo’s error level analysis to see if someone has photoshopped or manipulated the photo. The results showed no manipulation.)
Oversight committee excuses photo
By the summer of 2024, Doe said she was trying to come out of the “fog” of what had happened with her and Lucier. Her husband thought they should find a way to report Lucier’s behavior.
She said she contacted Casey Brost, a member of Lucier’s oversight committee, to tell him she’d been struggling. Doe and her husband met with Brost and showed him the photo.
“He was furious,” Doe said. “He wanted to take (Art) off the platform.”
But Brost later changed his tune, she said, telling her the photo wasn’t enough evidence of misconduct, and that she should move on. This reflected a strategy to downplay the significance of the photo, Doe said.
That approach was clear in March 2025 during a meeting between Lucier’s oversight committee, two pastors, and podcaster Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson, who asked about the photo. TRR has obtained audio of that meeting and has posted it on YouTube.
Brost said he was the only committee member who’d seen the photo, so he answered Tyler-Thompson.
“The nature of the butt picture, although egregious, was not sexualized to the extent that I would say that it was grooming,” Brost said during the meeting.
Brost said in the recorded meeting that Lucier had repented to the oversight committee to calls with Doe and sending her inappropriate photos, which he admitted was “foolishness.” But Lucier didn’t admit to an emotional affair, Brost said.
Brost also excused the photo, saying Lucier’s Kitimat church from years ago had a culture where people—men and women—would “moon” each other by showing their backsides. Brost described the photo in the recording, adding, “it was intended to insult (Doe) as a brother would tease a sister.”
Brost told TRR he resigned from the oversight committee a few months ago, made recommendations to Lucier’s board, but has no further comment.
Doe said she also told Wendy Leigh, another member of Lucier’s oversight committee, by phone about the photo. But Doe said she didn’t want to send it electronically to her, concerned about the sensitive photo getting into others’ hands. Doe said Leigh doesn’t live close enough to Doe to arrange an in-person meeting around work schedules. Doe said Leigh initially cried with Doe but later had a different reaction.
In the recorded meeting, Leigh called the dynamic between Lucier and Doe an “emotional affair” and that Doe should also “take responsibility” for her part. But Leigh added that she’d determined Lucier didn’t want a sexual relationship with Doe.
TRR reached out to the oversight committee for comment but received no response.
Doe said she confided in Lois Popplestone, then a Canadian Firewall leader. Popplestone told TRR she’d begun hearing stories about Lucier’s treatment of others, but Doe’s story pushed her to leave the ministry.
In the coming months, survivors and whistleblowers started a Facebook page, wrote an open letter calling for an investigation, and shared their stories with each other. Some also wrote to the oversight committee.
Hearing these stories, Doe’s enraged husband wrote a letter to the oversight committee in March calling for accountability for all the victims. He included testimony from his wife and a letter of support from Bonnie.
“What has come to light through the vast amount of calls between my wife and Art is no small matter,” he wrote. “Art was someone that (Doe) and I totally believed in, followed and supported but now learning of the devastation of years of his actions to so many others has broken me, shocked me to my core.
“This has totally broken all trust, and Art was grooming my wife at a time when (Doe) and I were struggling with many issues, it has brought us to our knees. The crazy communication that was going on was absolutely not what I would have expected. (Doe) and I are both victims, we know this first-hand; we know the truth, so don’t lie, Art.”