MinistryWatch’s Top 25 Stories of 2023
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 Warren Cole Smith, Oct. 6, 2023 | Andy Stanley and I are almost exactly the same age, and I met him when we were both just out of college. Andy’s sister Becky and my sister Jackie were housemates at the University of Georgia in the early 1980s, and that brought our families into cordial, though not intimate, relationship. I have fond memories of attending parties at the Stanley home in the posh Vinings area of Atlanta, a short stroll from the Chattahoochee River.
By Chris Moody, Oct. 4, 2023 | After the dramatic implosion of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church in 2014, its co-founder and pastor — Mark Driscoll, an unapologetically confrontational preacher who resigned when church leaders accused him of abusive leadership — decamped with his family to Arizona. Cast into a ministerial wilderness, Driscoll quickly began hunting for new allies and opportunities. Driscoll had sights on starting a new church, but with his reputation mired in controversy, he would need to cultivate support from local ministry leaders first. And he would need the platform to communicate and grow his large digital audience.
By Ryan Burge, June 20, 2023 | One mistake I make all the time is assuming someone else has probably done the work that needs to be done to get the answer I want. This post was driven by looking for an answer to a pretty simple question: If denominations just managed to grow at the same rate as the general population of the United States, how large would they be today? I mean, it’s readily apparent that denominations are losing membership at an alarming rate. I wrote a deep dive into the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) a few weeks ago. But I wanted to be a little less deep and a little broader in this post. I grabbed membership data on nine denominations.
By Warren Cole Smith, Nov. 1, 2023 | Below is a list of the largest Christian ministries in the MinistryWatch database. We have included every ministry with revenue of $100-million or greater. That’s approximately 45 ministries. Note too that we have also included the rank this ministry held last year. We generally see little movement on this list from year to year. However, this year we have seen significant movement.
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By Kim Roberts, Oct. 30, 2023 | Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC), has been accused of “serious allegations including sexual immorality.” Details about the abuse claims have not been provided, but according to reporting by the Kansas City Star, the allegations involved serious sexual abuse spanning decades.
By Phil Cooke, June 3, 2022 | 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. During that time, I’ve discovered a certain pattern of behavior from leaders who fail. I’m not a psychologist or counselor, so I’m not addressing the sin, emotional problems, pride, or other issues that lead to a moral collapse, but particularly in the case of pastors and ministry leaders, there are six types of risky conduct I’ve seen played out time and time again. These behaviors can sometimes go on for years, but I’ve noticed that at least one of them is almost always in play at the time of his or her fall.
By Kim Roberts, Dec. 6, 2023 | Charles Randall “Randy” Free, former pastor of Cedar Cross Country Church in Alvarado, Texas, was convicted of four first-degree felonies and sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison and 10 years of probation, to be served concurrently.
By Anne Stych, May 11, 2023 | The daughter of former Hillsong Church leader Brian Houston and her husband have resigned as global pastors of Hillsong Young & Free, the Australia-based church’s youth ministry. The resignations of Peter and Laura Toganivalu, nicknamed “The Toggsys,” were announced by Phil Dooley, the recently appointed global senior pastor of Hillsong Church, May 7 during a worship service, Church Leaders reported.
By Dale Chamberlain, Mar. 15, 2023 | Jerry Falwell Jr. is suing Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, claiming his former employer has withheld $8.5 million in retirement benefits that were previously promised to him. The son of the school’s founder and conservative activist Jerry Falwell Sr., Falwell has been credited with bringing Liberty University back from the brink of financial collapse while serving as its president from 2007 to 2020. However, Falwell’s tenure at the school ended amid scandal and controversy in 2020.
By Bob Smietana, May 8, 2023 | The Rev. Scott Sauls, an influential evangelical Christian pastor and author, has been placed on an indefinite leave of absence from the Nashville church he has pastored since 2012. His leave was announced May 7 during a member meeting at Christ Presbyterian, a prominent Presbyterian Church in America congregation. In a video message to the congregation, Sauls apologized for an unhealthy leadership style that harmed the people who worked for him and the church.
By Warren Cole Smith, June 9, 2023 | I found myself both frustrated and mesmerized by the new Amazon Prime documentary “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.” As the title suggests, it purports to be the behind-the-scenes story of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their children, the stars of the TLC hit television series “19 Kids and Counting” and a number of spin-offs. The show was TLC’s most popular. But all was not well in DuggarWorld, as the documentary shows. All of this has, of course, been tabloid fodder for the past dozen years. In the beginning it was a “feel-good” story of a large and happy family, and more recently it was a train wreck from which we could not avert our eyes. The problem with treating the story as tabloid fodder, which this new documentary continues to do, is that it will likely prevent the church from dealing with important issues.
By Warren Cole Smith, Apr. 7, 2023 | MinistryWatch stands for transparency and accountability. That’s why we think it is important for Christian ministries to be as transparent as possible with donors and with the public. So MinistryWatch will grade every ministry in its database based on transparency. Today, we release a list of the ministries who have received a failing or “F” grade — approximately 20 ministries. Our transparency grade evaluates the ease with which donors can see into the finances of a ministry. The ministries on this list have failed to comply with three requirements.
By Mark Tooley, Jan. 2, 2023 | Just weeks ago, 487 United Methodist churches were approved for disaffiliation from the denomination, bringing the total of ratified exits to 1,314. Hundreds more have already voted to exit and are awaiting final approval. Almost all of them are theologically conservative churches anticipating the denomination’s official and enthusiastic liberalization on LGBTQ issues when its governing General Conference meets in 2024. By the end of this year (the deadline for exiting with church property) at least 3,000 and possibly 5,000 churches are expected to exit. United Methodism has 30,000 U.S. churches. Denominational agencies are preparing for a 38% drop in funding for 2025-2028, which implies an approximate expected membership loss of 2.3 million members from the nearly 6.3 million the denomination had in the United States in 2020. That is not a minor exodus.
The Editors, Jan. 3, 2023 | 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. Also, MinistryWatch has identified a growing trend among Christian ministries to identify as churches and thereby withhold their Form 990s.
By Steve Rabey, Dec. 7, 2023 | 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.
By Emily McFarlan Miller, May 9, 2023 | United Methodist bishops have proposed a five-day meeting of the denomination’s global decision-making body, the General Conference, in May 2026. The announcement came at the end of the Council of Bishops’ spring meeting in Chicago and a weekend that saw hundreds of United Methodist churches in the United States leave the denomination. The 2026 General Conference would focus on re-establishing connection within the United Methodist Church, lamenting, healing and recasting the mission and vision for the mainline denomination after years of strife over LGBTQ issues, according to a press release published May 8 on the Council of Bishops’ website.
By Steve Rabey, July 24, 2023 | “Sound of Freedom,” the independent film about Tim Ballard, who founded the anti-trafficking nonprofit Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), is a big hit in theaters. But Ballard, OUR’s former CEO, quietly left the nonprofit before the film was released amid an internal investigation, according to Vice, which was first to publish the news. Ballard has done extensive publicity for the film, which opened July 4 and has earned a surprising $100 million at the box office. But he never mentioned or explained his departure from OUR. Vice has since reported that Ballard has also left The Nazarene Fund, the anti-trafficking organization founded by Glenn Beck where Ballard was also CEO. Neither nonprofit has explained when or why Ballard left.
By Adelle Banks, Feb. 22, 2023 | Saddleback Church, the megachurch long led by Rick Warren, has been ousted from the Southern Baptist Convention for naming a woman to its pastoral team, against SBC teaching. The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee decided on Feb. 21 to approve the recommendation from the denomination’s credentials committee that the Lake Forest, California, church “be deemed not in friendly cooperation with the Convention, on the basis that the church has a faith and practice that does not closely identify with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith, as demonstrated by the church having a female teaching pastor functioning in the office of pastor.”
By Kim Roberts, Feb. 10, 2023 | Reports from Asbury University say that a revival has broken out in the chapel of the small Christian college campus in Kentucky. On the morning of February 8, a seemingly normal chapel service took place at the campus’s Hughes Auditorium. It included a message about confession and repentance, according to reports. After the service was over, a group of students stayed behind to continue worshiping. Then more joined them. According to reports being shared on social media, students have been in the chapel for over 24 hours reading scripture, praying, singing, and sharing personal testimonies.
By Emily McFarlan Miller, May 11, 2023 | Last year, White’s Chapel, a large congregation in a wealthy suburb outside of Dallas, overwhelmingly voted to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church. Today, the church, which draws more than 2,000 people on a Sunday, belongs to a denomination of one, a network it is calling the Methodist Collegiate Church. The Rev. John McKellar, the church’s co-pastor, told Religion News Service they decided not to join the more conservative Global Methodist Church, in part because congregants, who hold a diversity of views, want to be a healing agent among Methodists.
By Bob Smietana, June 1, 2023 | A group of former followers of Dave Ramsey has sued the Christian finance guru and radio host, along with his company and a marketing firm, for endorsing a failed timeshare exit company that allegedly defrauded customers out of millions. Seventeen former Ramsey listeners filed a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington alleging Ramsey was paid as much as $30 million from 2015 to 2021 to endorse Timeshare Exit Team, a Kirkland, Washington-based firm that collected $200 million from clients — many of them Ramsey listeners — in exchange for a promise to free them from their timeshare obligations. That promise came with a money-back guarantee.
By Kim Roberts, Sept. 18, 2023 | North Point Community Church, led by pastor Andy Stanley, is hosting the Unconditional Conference, which is billed as a “premier event for Christian parents with LGBTQ+ children, ministry leaders, and health care professionals.” Stanley is a featured speaker at the conference put on by Embracing the Journey, a ministry started by Greg and Lynn McDonald, parents of a son who identifies as gay. They have written a book, also called Embracing the Journey, that is a guide to help parents learn “to love God, the people He created, and the church, even when they seem to be at odds.”
By Warren Cole Smith, July 7, 2023 | Angel Studios’ “Sound of Freedom” pulled off a slick marketing coup this month. Capitalizing on the fact that none of the major studios would be debuting a movie during the July 4 week, it dropped SOF when most moviegoers were at the lake or the beach. That allowed it to slide into the number one spot for 24 hours, giving it bragging rights that will likely show up in marketing materials during its entire theatrical run. This sleight-of-hand is a fitting tribute to the subject of the film, Tim Ballard, whose talent for self-promotion has earned him headlines and head-scratching from those who fact-check his claims.
By Jessica Eturralde, May 15, 2023 | Former Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz announced on social media that he is no longer “in ministry,” despite having recently joined Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Last week on Instagram Lentz wrote, “Even though I’m at an amazing church that loves and supports us, I’m no longer in ministry.” He told followers he is “not preaching, not overseeing people” and said his role is now to help give perspective and insight where he can.
By Warren Cole Smith, June 4, 2021 | Lonnie Frisbee is a name mostly lost to history, but he could be one of the most influential persons in the modern evangelical movement. There’s no doubt that he is the man who put the “freak” in “Jesus Freak.” And in his life we see some of the best and worst of evangelicalism. And in the way evangelical leaders dealt with him we see a pattern of cover-up that extends even to today. But to understand that, a bit of his biography is helpful.
