Weekly Review
ECFA Membership Changes, MinistryWatch Database Changes, What’s on the Podcast? On This Date at MinistryWatch
ECFA Changes
The following organizations have had membership status changes in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. 
ADDITIONS: NONE. REMOVALS: Sojourn Church (Traverse City, Mich.), Ablelight (Watertown, Wisc.)
On This Date at MinistryWatch
THREE YEARS AGO. Megachurch pastor Darrin Patrick’s cause of death has officially been ruled a suicide, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department. Patrick died May 7, 2020, in Pacific, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis. The cause of death was a gunshot wound. Patrick was a teaching pastor at Seacoast Church, a multisite megachurch based in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and the founding pastor of the Journey Church in St. Louis, where he lived. Read more here.
TWO YEARS AGO: A petition calling on Kanakuk Ministries to show greater transparency and accountability reached 15,000 signatures. (Today, the petition has more than 26,000 signatures.) Read more here.
ONE YEAR AGO: A report on an 18-month investigation by the independent group Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) details how Dove Award-winning Christian musician Chris Rice groomed and sexually abused a teen boy at Tates Creek Presbyterian Church, a Presbyterian Church in America congregation in Lexington, Kentucky. Rice declined to speak with GRACE investigators. Read more here.
On The Podcast: What Happens To A Teaching Ministry When The Teacher Dies? PLUS: Belmont University Cancels Promise Keepers
On today’s program, we look at how ministries who depend on the teaching of their founders – ministries such as Charles Stanley’s In Touch Ministries – are able to survive years or even decades after their founders have died.
We also look at The Inspiration Networks. It has gone from being a small religious network to being one of the biggest cable networks in the nation. We explain how, and what the network aims to do next.
We begin today with Promise Keepers. The men’s ministry was set to host an in-person event at Belmont University this fall—but Belmont canceled that event this month.
You can listen here.
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MinistryWatch Database Changes
MinistryWatch now has more than 1,000 ministries in its database. These ministries represent more than $41 billion in total revenue, most of that donor revenue from evangelicals. The following ministries have their profiles updated with the most recent year’s financial data. The Financial Efficiency rating of each ministry is in parenthesis. If this rating represents a change from the previous year, that change is noted:
Ananias House (Up 3 to 4 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A)
Biblical Ministries Worldwide (From 5 to N/A Stars, Transparency Grade: D, DCS: Down 32 to 38)
Children of the Nations (Up 3 to 4 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 96)
Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) (Up 4 to 5 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A)
Christian Missionary Fellowship (From 5 to N/A Stars, Transparency Grade: C, DCS: Down 67 to 63)
City Rescue Mission Inc (Up 2 to 3 Stars, Transparency Grade: C, DCS: 90)
Clarks Summit University (5 Stars, Transparency Grade: From A to C, DCS: 86)
Compassionate Hope Foundation (Up 4 to 5 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A)
Destiny Rescue USA (Up 2 to 3 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 88)
Doulos Ministries, Inc. dba Shelterwood (3 Stars, Transparency Grade: From A to D, DCS: 96)
E3 Partners Ministry (3 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 96)
Eugene Mission (4 Stars, Transparency Grade: D, DCS: 65)
Forward Edge International (Down 3 to 2 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A)
Free the Oppressed dba Free Burma Rangers (4 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 92)
Good News Communications Inc / MOVIEGUIDE (1 Star, Transparency Grade: D, DCS: 79)
India Gospel League Inc. North America (Up 4 to 5 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 100)
International Messengers (Down 4 to 3 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 90)
Jewish Voice Ministries International (1 Star, Transparency Grade: C, DCS: 81)
John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation (Up 1 to 2 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: Up 74 to 78)
Life Training Institute (Up 3 to 4 Stars, Transparency Grade: D, DCS: 75)
Mighty Oaks Foundation (Up 2 to 4 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 83)
Phoenix Rescue Mission (Down 3 to 2 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 100)
Pioneers, Inc. (Up 2 to 3 Stars, Transparency Grade: C, DCS: 71)
Reaching and Teaching International Ministries (Down 5 to 4 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 92)
Shepherd’s House Ministries (Down 3 to 2 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: 92)
The For All Mankind Movement (Down 4 to 3 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A)
The following ministry has been added to the MinistryWatch database with the most recent year’s financial data:
Hope Center Ministries (3 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A)
New Generations (2 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A)
Standing Stone Ministry (2 Stars, Transparency Grade: A, DCS: N/A)
MinistryWatch and Sex Crimes. We write a lot about pastors and ministry leaders involved in sex crimes. That’s why I thought it might be a good time to re-post this story, which explains why we think covering these crimes are necessary: Why MinistryWatch Reports on Sex Crimes. As always, your feedback is welcome.
Drop A Dime On Us. Do you have a story idea for MinistryWatch? If so, send us an email. A lot of the stories we do originate from our readers and listeners. They send us news tips, press releases, emails, questions, and links. So, if you have a story you’d like us to cover, or a ministry that you think needs a closer look, please email us. Our email is [email protected]. That will come directly to my desk, and we’ll take it from there.
Salary Data Now In MinistryWatch Database. We now have salary information for 4,000 executives in our database posted in our profiles. So check out this new addition by clicking on the red button at the top of this page, or here. That takes you to our database. The search engine is right there, and you can type in the name of a ministry you’re interested in and our profile will pop right up – now, with compensation information for the top executives.
If you’d like to see who the highest paid executives are, take a look at our recently published lists of Highly Paid Ministry Executives and Highly Paid Christian College and University Executives.
Audio Version of Faith-Based Fraud Now Available. Thanks to those of you who made my new book Faith-Based Fraud a best-seller in several Amazon categories this week. It’s now available in paperback and e-book versions. To get your copy, click here. This week, the new audio version released. You can get that from Audible by clicking here.
MinistryWatch Video. In closing, a reminder that we have created a new, short (3.5 minutes) video that explains what we do here at MinistryWatch, and why. If you’re new to MinistryWatch, I hope you’ll check it out. To find it, click here.
A Guide To Giving For Disaster Relief. When disaster hits, Christians give. But where they give can make a big difference? Which organizations are most effective in these post-disaster situations? MinistryWatch has published a list of organizations that are doing relief work and which have an “A” Transparency Grade and a 3-, 4-, or 5-star rating for Financial Efficiency. It’s a list of about 30 ministries, and you can find it on the front page of our website. I’ll also include a link in the show notes to this program. Link to list HERE.
Ukraine Giving. If you want to give specifically to ministries working in and near Ukraine, click here. We posted this link before, but we’ve added a few new ministries recently.
