MinistryWatch’s Top 10 Stories for the Month of March
The following stories had the most page views at the MinistryWatch website during the month of March. We present them here in a “countdown” format, from 10 to 1. The first few sentences of each story are reproduced below. To read the entire story, click on the link. To read the Top 25 stories of 2024, click here.
By Tony Mator. Ministers who regret opting out of Social Security may soon get to reverse that decision. In a move lauded by Evangelical leaders, U.S. legislators have reintroduced the bipartisan Clergy Act. The act offers a way out for clergy experiencing buyer’s remorse after taking advantage of a special exemption in the tax code.
By Bob Smietana. In mid-February, Southern Baptist Convention leaders received grim news. The denomination’s Executive Committee was essentially broke. Over the past four years, the committee has spent more than $13 million on legal fees and other costs related to a historic sexual abuse investigation by Guidepost Solutions, draining its reserves and leaving it unable to pay its bills for the following year. Among those bills were $3 million in additional legal fees for the upcoming year, with more likely to come. “Those bills are due,” Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, said in his speech to SBC leaders meeting at a Nashville, Tennessee, airport hotel in February. “And they must be paid.”
By Kim Roberts. Two pastors in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), one from Mississippi and one from Florida, are facing serious criminal charges for statutory rape and vehicular homicide respectively. On March 11, Christopher Willett, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, was charged with statutory rape, sexual battery, unnatural intercourse, computer luring of a person, and child pornography, according to reporting by ByFaith, the PCA Magazine.
By Bob Smietana. David Dummitt, who became pastor of Willow Creek Church at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, announced March 23 that he is stepping down as leader of the influential Chicagoland megachurch. Shawn Williams, the campus pastor of Willow Creek’s South Barrington, Illinois, location, will succeed Dummitt as senior pastor starting April 1. Dummitt will remain on staff until July 31 to help with the transition.
By Bethany Starin. The Charlotte-based megachurch Elevation Church fired its youth pastor, Tim Somers, in late February for alleged sexual misconduct. Somers’ accused misconduct is with a student or students in the youth ministry of Oaks Church in Red Oaks, Texas, where he served about 12 years ago. “As soon as Elevation learned about these allegations, we reached out to local Texas authorities and immediately placed Tim on leave,” a spokesperson for Elevation Church told The Christian Post. “No charges have been filed.”
By Kim Roberts. According to its annual report for 2024, Elevation Church led by Steven Furtick had less income in 2024 than it did in 2023. Total revenue from tithes and offerings for the multi-campus megachurch was $91.35 million and the year-end offering brought in $10 million. This represents a decrease from the $108 million in tithes and offerings reported the previous year. The church reported that the largest portion of its budget — $31.88 million or 35% — went to personnel expenses.
By Kim Roberts. Gateway Church founding pastor Robert Morris has been indicted by a grand jury in Oklahoma for five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. Last year, Cindy Clemishire came forward with accusations that Morris had sexually abused her in the 1980s, starting when she was 12 years old. Morris was allegedly a 21-year-old visiting evangelist. In reaction to the indictment this week, Clemishire said, “After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child. Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable.”
By Jessica Eturralde. After six months of silence, pastor and theologian Steven Lawson, 73, who stepped down from ministry following an adultery scandal, has published a public confession admitting his sin and repentance. On March 12, in his first tweet on X since before the scandal broke, Lawson addressed his followers in a nearly 500-word tweet disabled for comments. “It is with a shattered heart that I write this letter. I have sinned grievously against the Lord, against my wife, my family, and against countless numbers of you by having a sinful relationship with a woman not my wife,” the tweet began.
By Kim Roberts. With the new Trump administration making news with its federal funding freeze proposals, the issue of nonprofits, and specifically Christian ministries, receiving government funding has been in the news and a matter of conversation. Recently, MinistryWatch added government grant funding information to the ministry profiles in the MinistryWatch 1000 database. This month’s list is a compilation of the 50 Christian ministries who received the largest government grants based on their I.R.S. Form 990 from 2023.
By Tony Mator. Samaritan’s Purse has confirmed that $19 million in frozen USAID funds has been released to the ministry. Payments to the North Carolina-based evangelical aid organization had been stalled since January, when President Trump ordered a 90-day pause on all federal foreign aid. News of the release follows the Supreme Court’s March 5 ruling that the Trump administration must unfreeze nearly $2 billion for foreign humanitarian work already completed at the government’s behest.
Access to MinistryWatch content is free. However, we hope you will support our work with your prayers and financial gifts. To make a donation, click here.
