MinistryWatch’s Top 10 Stories for January

By The Editors

The following stories had the most page views at the MinistryWatch website during the month of January. 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 2025, click here.

10. Asheville Christian Academy International, Cooperating Ministries Drop into Bottom 20% for Financial Efficiency

By Christina Darnell. Here at MinistryWatch, one of our goals is to equip donors with the information they need to make wise decisions with their giving. That’s why we manage our database, which rates more than 1,300 of the country’s largest ministries based on their financial efficiency, financial transparency, and their donor confidence. Each week, we highlight ministries in our database that have had rating changes, plus a brief explanation about why it matters.

9. WA Court Throws Out Micahn Carter Defamation Lawsuit

By Jessica Eturralde. The Washington State Court of Appeals has issued a consequential ruling rejecting former Together Church Pastor Micahn Carter’s defamation suit against a former assistant who claimed he raped her.

8. Cities Church Considers Legal Options After Sunday Protest

By Bob Smietana. Leaders of Cities Church, the Minneapolis congregation whose worship service was disrupted by anti-ICE protesters, are considering legal action against the activists, saying the group that invaded the church on Sunday (Jan. 18) “jarringly disrupted our worship gathering.”

7. Arise Vineyard Pastor Rick Olmstead Resigns

By Kim Roberts. Rick Olmstead, pastor of Arise Vineyard Church in San Luis Obispo, California, has resigned his post at the church after allegations resurfaced that Olmstead had taken photos of the backside of young women at a local Trader Joe’s years earlier. Olmstead was also a former national leader in the Vineyard USA movement.

6. Finishing Well

By Warren Cole Smith. The idea of finishing well has been on my mind a lot lately. The nature of our work here is that sometimes we cover Christian leaders who do not finish well. We got another tragic example this week—Philip Yancey, a Christian leader whose books have sold at least 15 million copies. Yancey, who is 76 years old and has Parkinson’s disease, was in sight of the finish line of his race. But he will now be remembered — following his confession of an eight-year extramarital affair — as a man who did not finish well.

5. Apologia Church Sues Former Parishioner for Defamation

By Kim Roberts. The complaint alleges that Merris, through her Tik Tok videos, defamed the church when she criticized its leadership for publicly discussing her private affairs, namely marital difficulties she and her husband were experiencing.

4. Abuse Lawsuits Pile Up Against Greg Laurie, Harvest Christian Fellowship

By Kim Roberts. The number of lawsuits filed against Harvest Christian Fellowship’s founder Greg Laurie—related to alleged abuse of young men at a children’s home in Romania—now stands at 12. The original lawsuit was filed in September by two men claiming that Paul Havsgaard abused them at a children’s shelter in Bucharest, Romania.

3. 125 Highly Paid Ministry Leaders—2026

By Warren Cole Smith. Below is a list of 125 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 many pastors and other church leaders who might make more are not on this list.

2. Philip Yancey Retires After Admitting Affair

By Bob Smietana. Philip Yancey, a beloved evangelical author and speaker, will retire from public ministry after admitting to a long-term affair. “My conduct defied everything that I believe about marriage,” Yancey, 76, wrote in a letter to Christianity Today. “It was also totally inconsistent with my faith and my writings and caused deep pain for her husband and both of our families.”

1. More Lawsuits Filed Against Greg Laurie and Harvest Christian Fellowship for Mishandling of Abuse Allegations

By Kim Roberts. Another group of plaintiffs, this time including seven women, have filed lawsuits against California megachurch Harvest Christian Fellowship and its lead pastor Greg Laurie for sexual abuse they claim to have suffered at the hands of Paul Havsgaard.

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