The following stories had the most page views at the MinistryWatch website during the month of May. 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 2023, click here.
By Theresa Abell Haynes. A Houston-area church has fired its longtime pastor after local police arrested him on child pornography charges. In a public statement, Calvary Chapel of The Woodlands announced its board had unanimously stripped 63-year-old Bruce Hollen of his lead pastor role on May 8, the same day that Montgomery County authorities arrested him.
By Bob Smietana. A former Southern Baptist seminary professor and interim provost has been indicted on a charge of obstructing justice in a sexual misconduct case, the Department of Justice announced May 21. Matt Queen, who was previously an administrator and professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, allegedly gave the FBI falsified notes during an ongoing investigation into alleged sexual misconduct at the seminary, which is in Fort Worth, Texas.
By Jessica Eturralde. Christian nonprofit World Vision has agreed to pay $120,000 as part of a settlement to help move an employment dispute through the appeals process, according to a motion filed jointly with a candidate whose job offer was withdrawn in 2021.
By Christopher Mann. On May 7, Robeson County Sheriff’s Office released a statement ruling the death of pastor’s wife Mica Miller a suicide. The ruling came a day after the Robeson County Medical Examiner determined that Miller, 30, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. “A death investigation that has tugged on the hearts of people across the nation has been ruled a suicide,” the statement reads. “The decision was based on surveillance footage, interviews, physical evidence, and the examination of the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office.”
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.
By Jessica Eturralde. Kadapilaril Punnoose “K.P.” Yohannan, founder and director of one of the most prominent missions organizations in the world, has died following a severe accident near his ministry headquarters in Dallas, Texas. On Wednesday morning (May 7), Yohannan, 74, was struck by a car while taking his morning walk. A church spokesperson Father Sijo Pandapallil said in an official statement that Yohannan usually walked on the church campus, but that day he chose to walk along a county road. Then, an unidentified vehicle struck him.
By Warren Cole Smith. The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is a small Christian denomination, with about 390,000 members. That makes it about 1/20th the size of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest evangelical denomination. But the PCA always punched above its weight, in part because the denomination is home to some of the most high-profile pastors and churches in the country.
By Yonat Shimron. Over the past two years, more than 25% of the United Methodist Church’s congregations have disaffiliated from the denomination. The departure of these mostly conservative congregations cleared the path for United Methodists, meeting for their top legislative assembly May 1, to overwhelmingly overturn a measure that barred clergy who identify as LGBTQ from ordination in the denomination.
By Kathryn Post. The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office have been asked to assist in an investigation into the death of Mica Miller, a pastor’s wife whose apparent suicide in North Carolina has been the source of fierce controversy and widespread speculation among her friends and former church community in South Carolina.
By Bethany Starin. Wayne Grudem, research professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary in Arizona, announced his teaching career is coming to an end. “I walked out of the classroom with a kind of weariness that I don’t remember feeling before,” Grudem wrote in a recent letter. “The combination of my Parkinson’s disease, my prostate cancer and its treatments, and my 76 years of age all are combining, and the result is that I don’t have the energy that I have previously had.”
By Jessica Eturralde. Little Rock police have arrested another person associated with Immanuel Baptist Church, the center of ongoing questions about whether the church and its former pastor appropriately handled sexual abuse allegations. Authorities charged Immanuel Baptist Church volunteer Reagan Gray, 26, with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old student attending the church’s youth group.