MinistryWatch Podcast

Brant Hansen has been a friend of MinistryWatch for a few years now. We’ve had him on the show before to talk about his previous books, and about some of the crazy things going on in Christian radio that we cover here at MinistryWatch. He has a new book out, and I think you’ll find it humorous and helpful – and perhaps even a bit of a “palate cleanser” to go with some of the stories we report on here at MinistryWatch. Brant is a nationally syndicated radio host and podcast of The Brant and Sherri Oddcast. He also works with CURE International, a worldwide network of hospitals that bring healing and the Good News to children with treatable conditions. FINAL WORDS: Make a donation to MinistryWatch during the month of February and receive a copy of Theresa Sidebotham’s book “Handling Allegations In A Christian Ministry.” To donate, click here. The producers for today’s program are Jeff McIntosh and Rich Roszel. Until next time, may God bless you!

On today’s program, another Chi Alpha leader is out at the Assemblies of God college campus ministry. He was director over the regions where convicted sex offender Daniel Savala had access to students. We’ll have details. Joel Osteen is brought to tears during a Sunday service as he announces that his Houston church has paid off a 100-million dollar loan. Also, churches face fines for sheltering the homeless during brutal winter weather. More on that later in the program. We begin today with news that author and pastor Mike Breen has resigned from his role as ‘lead communicator’ at APEX Church in Ohio. FINAL THOUGHTS:  MinistryWatch President Warren Smith will be in California, Colorado, Tennessee, and Texas over the next month, and if you live in those states, he’d like to meet you. Keep an eye on your inbox for invitations to lunches he will be holding in cities there. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Kim Roberts, Bob Smietana, Zach Rivas, Brittany Smith, Steve Rabey, Daniel Ritchie, Adelle M. Banks, Christina Darnell, and Warren Smith. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s episode, I would like to tell you a story. It’s the story of a lunch meeting I had 15 years ago with Mark Dever and Garrett Kell. The lessons I learned that day are lessons that continue to resonate with me and are lessons I believe the church needs to learn. On today’s program I mentioned that Garrett Kell’s daughter Eden is facing severe health challenges. To find out more, please click here. To see a written version of today’s podcast episode, click here. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s program, Doug Wilson—the pastor who leads what some call a Reformed religious empire in Moscow, Idaho—has hired a law firm to protect himself and his organizations from defamation. We’ll have details. Also, Bishop T.D. Jakes has recently been the subject of scandalous rumors—but that hasn’t stopped him from preaching at the annual Maryland revival meetings where he’s been a guest speaker for more than 30 years. We’ll take a deeper look. And, the president of Cru…formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ…is stepping down after just four years in the office. We begin today with news that the faith-based television network T-C-T Ministries is suing four of its board members for abusing their board positions for their own financial benefits. FINAL THOUGHTS:  Last week I promised to give a final accounting for our year-end fundraising. We had a year-end fundraising goal of about $117 thousand, in the months of November and December.  I’m pleased to report today that we met that goal. We now have a final tally, and it is just over $149,000. To those of you who gave to MinistryWatch, let me say thank you. I’m grateful to God, and to you who read, listen to, and financially support our work. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Kim Roberts, Steve Rabey, Brittany Smith, Adelle M. Banks, Fiona André, Rod Pitzer and Christina Darnell. Until next time, may God bless you.

This week MinistryWatch President Warren Smith walks you through some of the recent changes we’ve made to the MinistryWatch website, and why we think these changes will help us serve you better. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database, technical, editorial, and other support from Casey Sudduth, Kim Roberts, Christina Darnell, Rod Pitzer, Stephen DuBarry, and others. Until next time, may God bless you!

On today’s program, one of the early members of the influential Acts 29 church planting network is leaving – and going public with its reasons.  Grand Canyon University, now the nation’s largest Christian college, faces new legal challenges. And we remember Donald Wildmon, the founder of the American Family Association, who recently died at age 85. We begin today with news that the shakeup at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City continues…this time with the exit of another high level executive. FINAL THOUGHTS Last week I promised to give a final accounting for our year-end fundraising. We had a year-end fundraising goal of about $117 thousand, in the months of November and December. I’m pleased to report today that we met that goal. We still have checks coming in the mail, but it looks like we will top out at around $150,000, which is significantly above our goal. To those of you who gave to MinistryWatch, let me say thank you.  I can’t tell you how grateful I am. Four years ago, just weeks after I took over at MinistryWatch, we set a year-end goal of about $15,000. To see how we’ve grown over the past four years has been humbling and gratifying.  I’m grateful to God, and to you who read, listen to, and financially support our work. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Steve Rabey, Shannon Cuthrell, Kim Roberts, Daniel Ritchie, Steve Rabey, and Christina Darnell. .Until next time, may God bless you.

MinistryWatch’s annual lists of highly paid executives (one for Christian ministries and one for colleges and universities), just published, are among our most read posts of the year. They also generate the most questions and comments. I’m going to take this EXTRA episode to answer some of these questions, and to ask a few of my own. You can find Kim Roberts’ article about Glory of Zion here. We’ve written about the relationship between IFCJ and evangelicals here.) You can find Warren Smith’s article about ministries who fail to file a Form 990, as well as a list of these ministries here.

On today’s program, the Southern Baptist Convention settles over a sexual abuse lawsuit against influential leader Paul Pressler.  Also, right before Christmas, the International House of Prayer officially cut ties with legendary founder Mike Bickle. We have details of Taylor University’s $30 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to revitalize its local community. And we also unveil our list of the highest paid Christian ministry executives in the nation. We begin today with news that identify theft charges against Memphis pastor Steven Flockhart have been dropped. FINAL THOUGHTS: As I have said before, the end of the year is the most critical time of the year for Christian ministries, including MinistryWatch, when it comes to fundraising. We needed to raise about a quarter of our budget, about $117 thousand, in the months of November and December. I’m pleased to report today that we met that goal. We still have checks coming in the mail, but it looks like we will top out at around $140,000, which is significantly above our goal. If you were able to help us reach our goal, THANK YOU. I can’t tell you how grateful I am. Four years ago, just weeks after I took over at MinistryWatch, we set a year-end goal of about $15,000. To see how we’ve grown over the past four years has been humbling and gratifying.  I’m grateful to God, and to you who read, listen to, and financially support our work. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Kim Roberts, Bob Smietana, Jessica Eturralde, Daniel Ritchie, Steve Rabey, Kathryn Post, Rod Pitzer—and you, Warren. Until next time, may God bless you.

Are we restoring our fallen pastors and ministry leaders too quickly?  MinistryWatch’s Warren Smith things the answer to that question is “yes,” and he explains what he believes are the necessary – and biblical – steps for restoration. To read more on what he has written on this topic, click here.

On today’s program, we take a look at the top 10 stories of the year from MinistryWatch. This list is based purely the number of page views, so in a very real sense, you could say that our readers compiled this list. However, for purposes of this podcast, I’m going to tweak with the list a bit. If you look strictly at the page views of individual stories, you get an interesting picture, but not a complete picture. For example, our #1 story of the year is an article I wrote about Lonnie Frisbee. That story got more than 100,000 page views this year. But it was not really a breaking news story. It was a story that I wrote years ago, but which people who saw the movie “Jesus Revolution” found when they went searching for Lonnie Frisbee’s name. He played a prominent role in that story. But if you look at #2, you’ll see the story of former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz, who had a very public scandal two years ago, but is now on staff in a church in Oklahoma. And if you keep scrolling down the list, to #18, you will find another Hillsong story, the story of Hillsong founder Brian Houston’s daughter and son-in-law resigning from the ministry in protest. And MinistryWatch did a total of more than two dozen stories about Hillsong in 2023. Only two of these stories made the top 25, but most of them were in the top 100 stories of the year.  To my way of thinking that makes Hillsong the number one MinistryWatch story of 2023. So while Lonnie Frisbee’s story came out to be #1 in page views, you’re naming the ongoing scandal at Hillsong the #1 story of the year. And it also means that while the list we publish on our website has 25 individual articles, today we’re going to do a list of the top 10 stories of the year, some of which we covered with multiple articles. FINAL THOUGHTS If you’d like to help us reach our year-end goal, just go to MinistryWatch.com and hit the donate button at the top of the page. But whether you give to us or not, we hope you will use our database to help you make giving decisions. And that you will give wisely and generously during this season. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. I’d like to acknowledge all the writers who had stories in the Top 25 list this year.  They include Bob Smietana, Steve Rabey, Kim Roberts, Phil Cooke, you, Warren. Until next time, may God bless you.