Chuck Swindoll Quits Senior Role, Stays in Pulpit of Megachurch He Founded
Announces overlap plan with incoming senior pastor Johnathan Murphy
Don’t call it a retirement.
On May 1, evangelical pastor, author and Insight for Living radio ministry founder Chuck Swindoll will step down as senior pastor of Stonebriar Community Church.
Video screengrab via Stonebriar announcement
The announcement, made by the elders of the 3,700-member Frisco, Texas, megachurch Swindoll founded in 1998, may surprise those who follow his ministry and know his intention to preach for as long as he draws breath. But the elders insist the 89-year-old minister is not retiring.
“Senior Pastor Chuck Swindoll will take on the role of Founding Pastor, and our friend Dr. Jonathan Murphy will join our staff as Senior Pastor of Stonebriar Community Church,” the elders explained. “[Swindoll] will continue to preach as much as he desires and is able, and he will continue to serve as an elder and mentor to the Senior Pastor.”
The news comes after a series of medical setbacks for Swindoll, who suffered a fall last year, battled low blood pressure and took time away from preaching this January while recovering from a heart procedure.
“One of my great goals in life,” Swindoll said at age 75, “is to live long enough to where I am in the pulpit, preaching my heart out, and I die on the spot, my chin hits the pulpit—boom!—and I’m down and out.”
Having pastored since the 1960s, the former Dallas Theological Seminary president will serve alongside Belfast native Murphy, who will lead day-to-day ministries but only fill in at the pulpit as needed.
The transition began several years ago, when Swindoll befriended and began mentoring Murphy, who currently serves as chair of pastoral ministries at DTS and is a board member for Insight for Living. Murphy had been under consideration by the elders as a senior pastor candidate since 2022, and last month they pulled the trigger.
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Murphy will also join the Stonebriar board alongside Swindoll and will eventually become the primary preacher “at the appropriate time in the future,” the church said.
“This is a very unique way of expanding, of ‘moving into another chapter,’ as we often call it here,” Swindoll said in a video clip.
“We have the founding pastor being able to continue to preach as long as the Lord would have,” said Murphy, “and I can have a season as a senior pastor taking responsibility for the staff and caring for them and the ministry direction of the church at large.”
Swindoll’s transition plan is not unusual, according to Warren Bird, senior vice president of research at the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, who, along with William Vanderbloemen, authored “Next: Pastoral Succession That Works.”
As US clergy age out and 1 in 4 senior pastors plan to retire by 2023, Bird argues that an “intentional overlap plan” may be the best model for transition. What’s more, Bird says, preaching is often the last responsibility aging pastors walk away from.
“Today, many long-term pastors experience a period of overlap with their successor as a way to help both the congregation and themselves adjust to the transition. It also allows a safety net if the transition hit unexpected challenges,” Bird said. “A ‘known’ leader is often the successor, in this case someone who’s been a guest preacher from a nearby seminary much esteemed by the congregation.”
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