MinistryWatch Top 25 Stories of 2024
Methodists, "Shepherds For Sale" top list
Below is a list of the Top 25 stories of the year, as ranked by the number of page views at the MinistryWatch website, plus the first few sentences for each story.
By Kim Roberts. Stonebriar Community Church, a Dallas-area megachurch that was founded in 1998 by Chuck Swindoll, told its congregation via email this week that it dismissed one of its associate pastors for a “moral failure.” Former Associate Pastor Tony Cammarota “confessed to church leadership of a moral failure” on July 7, read the email obtained by the Dallas Morning News. “He is deeply remorseful but his sin disqualifies him from serving on our staff as a pastor,” it added.
By Tony Mator. In late July, the congregation of Calvary Chapel Cary in Apex, North Carolina, was shocked to discover its own church listed for sale online for $11.5 million with a pending buyer. Then, as mysteriously as it appeared, the listing was canceled. Less than a week later, fresh from a five-week sabbatical, Pastor Rodney Finch resigned as senior pastor. “This is our last Sunday,” Finch announced on August 4 during his morning sermon, according to audio provided to MinistryWatch. “Effective today, I’ll be saying goodbye. I’ll be taking a backseat here at the church.”
By Warren Cole Smith. Alistair Begg has been an effective and trustworthy pastor, author, speaker, and Bible teacher for decades. Millions of people – and I’ve been among them – have benefited from his work. But that reach diminished in the past few days. As we reported here, the American Family Association and its 180 radio stations have dropped Begg’s program. Why? Last September, Begg said on a podcast that it was OK for a grandmother to attend her grandson’s wedding to a “transgender person.” The AFA has issued a statement outlining their reasons, which you can read for yourself here.
By Mark Wingfield. Johnny Hunt finally got to tell his side the story about what happened at a beachside condo in 2010, when he is accused of sexually abusing a pastor’s wife the age of his own daughters.
By Christopher Mann. Megachurch Pastor Mark Driscoll got booted off the stage of the Stronger Men’s Conference this past weekend after publicly criticizing the entertainment opening night. “The Jezebel Spirit opened our event,” Driscoll said. The conference, hosted by James River Assembly of God church in Springfield, Missouri, and its pastor John Lindell, was founded to “empower men to rise up, bold and courageous, standing strong and determined to live out God’s purpose for their lives.”
By Daniel Ritchie. Orange released an official statement stating that its founder and current chief creative officer Reggie Joiner has resigned along with CEO Kristen Ivy. “Reggie has admitted to past inappropriate adult relationships, which violated our company policy and eroded trust within our organization,” the statement reads. “During the course of the Board’s investigation, Kristin also disclosed a past inappropriate relationship with Reggie.” Orange is largely known for hosting one of the world’s most prominent family ministry conferences.
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By Bob Smietana. In recent years, author and radio host Eric Metaxas and other conservative Christian supporters of Donald Trump have compared themselves to the famed German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer—who was put to death, in part, for participating in a plan to assassinate Adolph Hitler. In a recent interview on Flashpoint, a Christian television talk show on the Victory network, both Metaxas—author of a bestselling biography of Bonhoeffer—and the show’s host called the current election a “Bonhoeffer moment” and urged Christians to rise up and oppose evil.
By Steve Rabey. Liam Goligher is out as pastor at Philadelphia’s historic Tenth Presbyterian Church, an historic and influential congregation in the Presbyterian Church in America, but critics are asking what took so long. Goligher, who arrived at Tenth in 2011, pleaded guilty in July 2014 to “personal conduct” charges in a city park in Lancaster, Penn., with Susan Elzey. The Lancaster Parks and Recreation Department confirmed to MinistryWatch that “personal conduct” is language often used to identify lewd or sexual behavior. Though the incident took place nearly a decade ago, it was made public in December by a watchdog group called Anglican Watch.
By Daniel Ritchie. American Family Radio (AFR), a broadcast division of American Family Association (AFA), announced it will no longer air Alistair Begg’s radio program “Truth For Life” because of remarks Begg made last year about Christians attending LGBTQ weddings. The controversy stems from a September 2023 interview in which Begg promotes his book “The Christian Manifesto.” In the interview, he detailed counsel he had given a grandmother who was asking for advice on attending her grandson’s wedding to someone who identified as transgender.
By Phil Cooke. Over the years I’ve helped quite a number of churches, ministries, and nonprofits navigate the confusing maze of communicating the news of a fallen pastor or leader to the congregation, ministry partners, donors, and the general public. Then my task becomes helping them craft and share a new vision for how the organization moves on past the crisis. My goal is to never allow a leader or staff member’s mistakes, pride, stupidity, and sometimes criminal behavior to irreparably damage victims, including the innocent members, donors, and supporters of that church or ministry.
By Warren Cole Smith. Below is a list of 100 highly paid Christian ministry executives. The information was derived from the latest available Form 990 prepared by the ministry itself. We are not calling this list the “Highest Paid Christian Ministry Executives” because we know that many pastors and other church leaders who might make more are not on this list, because churches are not required to make their Form 990s available to the public.
By Jessica Eturralde. Megachurch pastor and Trump’s former spiritual advisor, Robert Morris, is responding to claims that 40 years ago, he periodically sexually abused an underage girl when his family visited her parent’s home. On June 16, the accuser, Cindy Clemishire (54), told WFAA Dallas that Morris sexually abused her on and off for four and a half years in the 1980s.
By Warren Cole Smith. Many Christians have a distaste for hard-hitting journalism, especially when it concerns our own. This distaste sometimes gets wrapped in biblical language. For example, when MinistryWatch writes a story critical of a ministry leader, we sometimes get emails telling us to “touch not God’s anointed.” But by far the most common criticism we get comes from well-meaning people who tell us the person we’ve written about might deserve criticism, but that criticism should be done according to the principles of Matthew 18:15-17.
By Warren Cole Smith. Two faculty members at Appalachian Bible College were fired May 6 after filing a complaint with the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE). The complaint is directed against Rosalie Anderson, the wife of college president Daniel Anderson. It alleges “a pattern of behavior that is inconsistent with Christian integrity and professional teaching standards.”
By Jessica Eturralde. The aftermath of fallen Gateway pastor Robert Morris continues as the church’s leadership team transitions its ministries without him. Elders of Gateway Church—a Texas megachurch claiming 100,000 worshippers per week—and overseers of Pastor Robert Morris Ministries said they are canceling all future radio and television broadcasts upon learning that Morris’ “moral failure” involved a minor. “We are heartbroken and grief-stricken for this woman who has carried this burden of abuse for decades,” the letter says.
By Tony Mator. Faith Church, a multi-campus church in Lafayette, Indiana, announced it has removed its senior pastor, Steve Viars, from leadership due to circumstances surrounding his recent separation from his wife. “The pastors and deacons of Faith Church requested and accepted the resignation of our leader of 37 years, Pastor Steve Viars, on 10/17/2024. His marriage condition does not meet the biblical qualifications for being an elder,” the church said in an online statement.
By Jessica Eturralde. Jonathan Elwing, 43, a pastor from Palmetto, Florida, is facing a minimum sentence of life without parole over harrowing child rape allegations. However, due to an updated Florida death penalty law, he could receive capital punishment if convicted.
By Jessica Eturralde. Thursday evening, Trinity Bible Church in Dallas, Texas, announced its pastor, Steven J. Lawson, has been indefinitely removed from his position due to an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman. “The elders at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas regretfully announce that effective immediately, Steven J. Lawson has been removed indefinitely from all ministry activities at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas,” a statement on the church’s website reads.
By Warren Cole Smith. MinistryWatch, working in collaboration with Calvin Edwards & Company and Strategic Resource Group, have created a free guide for donors who want to do a deep analysis of Christian ministries before they give. The booklet, available as a free download here, is “75 Red Flags To Consider Before Donating To A Ministry.” MinistryWatch President Warren Smith said, “Recent headlines have had far too many stories of scandal involving Christian ministries. Even some of the most respected ministries, pastors, and teachers in the nation have been caught up in them.”
By Warren Cole Smith. Below is a list of 100 highly paid Christian college and university executives. The information was derived from the latest available Form 990 prepared by the ministry itself. In years past, we have included the executives on this list in our annual list of “Highly Compensated Ministry Executives.” However, as our database has grown it became obvious that we had enough data for two lists that provide more of an “apples to apples” comparison. Thus this second list.
By Kim Roberts. Southern Methodist University (SMU) has been seeking to assert its autonomy from the United Methodist Church since 2019. The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of the case to determine whether the university can cut its ties with the United Methodist Church’s South Central Jurisdictional Conference (SCJC), which runs the church’s congregations in eight states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Missouri and Nebraska.
By Adelle M. Banks. Tony Evans, the longtime leader of a Dallas megachurch and bestselling author, has announced that he is stepping back from his ministry due to “sin” he committed years ago. “The foundation of our ministry has always been our commitment to the Word of God as the absolute supreme standard of truth to which we are to conform our lives,” Evans said in a June 9 statement to his Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship church that was posted on its website.
By Kim Roberts. Jason C. Yates, the former CEO of My Faith Votes, has been charged with eight felony counts of possession of child pornography. Each of the eight charges, filed in McLeod County, MN, carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $10,000. They note that Yates has a prior conviction and is a registered predatory offender. According to the court records, Yates was released on his own recognizance on November 4. As a condition of his release, he is to have no contact with persons under the age of 18.
By Warren Cole Smith. Today’s evangelical movement is a mess. Although they might disagree on much else, even most evangelicals can agree on that. The question is: Why? Megan Basham, a writer for The Daily Wire, offers her answer in her new book Shepherds For Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded The Truth for a Leftist Agenda, the tone of which is summarized well right in the title.
By Brittany Smith. In May, the United Methodist Church (UMC) held its General Conference in Charlotte, N.C. At the assembly, delegates voted (692-51) to remove a long-standing measure barring clergy who identify as LGBTQ+ from being ordained in the denomination. While this decision, and the exodus of more than 7,000 churches from the UMC, have been making national headlines, the ripple effects are hitting all the way down at the local church level. One example is out of Western North Carolina.
