MinistryWatch Podcast

I’m Natasha Smith, and today you’ll be listening to a special episode of the MinistryWatch podcast.  We’re calling it “Just How Broken Is The Bible Translation Industry.” Over the course of the next month, we’ll be releasing a companion episode, “Fixing The Bible Translation Industry.”  Stay tuned for that. To read more of MinistryWatch’s coverage of the Bible translation industry, just go to the MinistryWatch website and use the search engine to type the words “Bible translation.”  More than 50 articles will show up, showing the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Bible translation world. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s program, we look at an innovative Bible translation process coming from the African nation of Chad. We have new developments on a story we’ve been covering for several months, the story of the campus group Chi Alpha, which is associated with the Assemblies of God denomination. It’s been wracked by scandal, and there are new developments. We begin today with news from the Southern Baptist Convention. Nearly 13-thousand members of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination traveled from around the country to New Orleans this week for the 20-23 annual meeting—and a lot happened. We’ll hit on some of those key issues. We start with the SBC presidential election. FINAL THOUGHTS: I do want to mention that this is our 25th anniversary. Rusty and Carol Leonard founded MinistryWatch in June of 1998. I sat down with Rusty and Carol and that podcast interview is now available on our website, and I hope you’ll listen to it. I think you’ll be blessed by these two extraordinary people and the story they tell of the early days of MinistryWatch. Also, a reminder: I’ll be doing lunches for readers and donors in Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles, in June, in part to celebrate the 25th anniversary of MinistryWatch. So keep an eye on your in-box for invitations to those events. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Emily Kern, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Emily McFarlan Miller, Aaron Earls, Anne Stych, Steve Rabey, Kim Roberts, Adelle Banks, Bob Smietana and Rod Pitzer. Until next time, may God bless you.

In June of 1998, 25 years ago this month, Rusty and Carol Leonard officially incorporated MinistryWatch. To celebrate that occasion, and all that God has done to keep MinistryWatch alive and thriving over a quarter-century, we have Rusty and Carol on today’s podcast to talk about why they decided to found MinistryWatch, and some of the successes and trials they’ve experienced with MinistryWatch over the years. You’ll hear from Rusty and Carol in a bit, and they share some of their biography, so I’ll keep my introduction of them short. But you should know that Rusty is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a CFA, which is one of the financial world’s highest and most rigorous designations. He was an analyst and portfolio manager for the legendary investor Sir John Templeton before founding Stewardship Partners, which is an investment firm committed to investing according to biblical principles. Carol, who has an accounting background, currently serves on the board of MinistryWatch. Rusty rolled off of the board several years ago, and now has emeritus status. We had this interview via zoom last week. Rusty and Carol spoke to me from their home in eastern Pennsylvania. You can find out more about Rusty’s firm, Stewardship Partners, at StewardshipPartners.com As I mentioned at the top of the program, we are celebrating our 25th anniversary this year, and over the course of the next year we’ll be rolling out more content and interviews that will help highlight our history and our plans for the future. If you’d like to help make those plans come true, we’d love to have you on our team. One of the things that is unique about MinistryWatch is that we are donor supported. We don’t take money from the ministries we cover, and we don’t accept advertising on our site. We serve the donors to Christian ministries. We give them the information they need to make informed stewardship decisions. If you’re one of those donors who has benefited from our work, would you please consider a donation? It’s easy, just go to MinistryWatch.com and hit the DONATE button at the top of the page. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database, editorial, and technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Kim Roberts, and Casey Sudduth. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s program, popular radio host and personal finance guru Dave Ramsey is being sued for $150 million over some of his advice that allegedly turned out badly for those who followed it. Also, one of the largest Christian broadcasters in the nation, Daystar Television Network, lost $25-million in the cryptocurrency market. Now they’re suing to get it back.  We’ll have details. Finally, we remember the remarkable life and career of Pat Robertson. We begin today with Rick Warren’s media campaign to have Saddleback Church reinstated in the Southern Baptist Convention. FINAL THOUGHTS: I want to mention that this is our 25th anniversary. Rusty and Carol Leonard founded MinistryWatch in June of 1998. We’ll be featuring an interview with Rusty and Carol next week, and I hope you’ll listen to it when we post it, probably on Tuesday. I think you’ll be blessed by these two extraordinary people and the story they tell of the early days of MinistryWatch. Also, a reminder: I’ll be doing lunches for readers and donors in Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles, in June, in part to celebrate the 25th anniversary of MinistryWatch. So keep an eye on your in-box for invitations to those events. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Emily Kern, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Eric Obernauer, Anne Stych, Kim Roberts, Adelle M. Banks, Bob Smietana, Amy Julia Becker, Jessica Eturralde, and Rod Pitzer. Special thanks to The NonProfit Times for contributing material for this week’s podcast. Until next time, may God bless you.

Regular listeners to this podcast, or readers of the MinistryWatch site, you know that we often write about preachers behaving badly. We do so because we believe it’s important to maintain the purity, peace, and unity of the church, and we believe what the Bible teaches, in Ephesians 5:11, that we should have no fellowship with the evil deeds of darkness.  We should, instead, expose them. But the goal is not merely to expose wrongdoers, but to prevent future wrongdoing, and to – whenever possible – to encourage confession, repentance, and ultimate restoration. These ideas were in my mind when I had the conversation you are about to hear with Dr. Rich Kidd. Rich is a Founding Partner at Mission:Leadership, a firm that – among other things – specializes in finding executive-level leaders for key positions in a broad array of industries including Christian nonprofits, large churches, Christian schools and colleges, and mission-minded businesses. I wanted to talk with him about the things he looks for during the search process that deals not with competence issues, but with character issues. If you are looking for a pastor or senior executive, what should you ask to make sure that the person you think you are getting is truly the person you are getting? What safeguards and guardrails can your organization put in place to protect both the organization and the person you are hiring – or the people you already have in place. Rich has had a long and varied career in ministry. In the local church, he has worked in roles from janitor to Senior Pastor (sometimes simultaneously), ranging from small church plants to large multi-staff churches. He has served Director of Campus Ministries for Regent University, where he also taught in the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Divinity. Rich is a graduate of the College of William and Mary where he was a Presidential (Monroe) Scholar, holds an M.Div. from Trinity International University, and a Doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary. Rich is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database, editorial, and technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Emily Kern, Kim Roberts, and Casey Sudduth. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s program, a Christian college group, Chi Alpha, which is associated with the Assemblies of God and operates on 60 campuses, is under scrutiny because some of its leaders sexually abused students. We’ll have important details. And a Christian adoption agency in New York has won important religious liberty protections that will allow it to continue to place children only in families with one-man, one-woman marriages. We begin today with a strange story from right here in North Carolina. Southern Baptists have been dogged by leadership scandals for years. Now they have a different kind of abuse scandal on their hands. A Baptist leader in North Carolina resigned this week after he and his wife were charged earlier this month with three counts of felony animal cruelty and a misdemeanor offense of communicating threats. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Emily Kern, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Eric Obernauer, Anne Stych, Kim Roberts, Yonat Shimron, and Rod Pitzer. Special thanks to The NonProfit Times for contributing material for this week’s podcast. Until next time, may God bless you.

Donors are pulling back on their giving. The reasons for this pullback seem to be varied. There’s a crisis in confidence in institutions. In some cases, the personal circumstances of the donors themselves have deteriorated. Some are nervous about the economy. A new study by the fundraising, marketing, and communications company Dunham and Company has attempted to quantify these factors and more. I found the study fascinating, and I wanted to have Rick Dunham on the podcast to discuss. Rick is the founder of Dunham and Company, and he’s one of the true gurus in the Christian fundraising world. He has an undergraduate degree from Biola University, and a master’s in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. The company currently serves nearly 100 clients in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. He is also on the board of The Giving Institute and is a past board chair of The Giving USA Foundation, which also publishes widely respected research on charity and philanthropy. I wanted to have Rick on the program to discuss the new study his firm did in conjunction with Campbell Rinker, a research and survey company.  That study, Donor Confidence 2023, is available from the Dunham and Company website, and you can find the study here. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database, editorial, and technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Emily Kern, Kim Roberts, and Casey Sudduth. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s program, The Word Network, which bills itself as the world’s largest African-American Christian broadcast network, is in trouble with the IRS. We’ll also have an update on former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz.  He’s now the subject of a television documentary series, and he’s not happy about it. And there have been new revelations in the business dealings of former SBC President Johnny Hunt. And in the last segment of the program, we’ll remember Tim Keller and Harry Reeder, who prominent pastors who died in the past week. I knew both of these exceptional men, and I’ll share a few memories. We begin today with a couple of stories about the National Religious Broadcasters, who had their annual conference in Orlando, Florida this week. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Emily Kern, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Anne Stych, Jessica Lea, Roxanne Stone, Bob Smietana, Alejandra Molina, Kathryn Post, Christina Darnell, Kathryn Beaty—and you, Warren. Special thanks to The Beaty Beat and ChurchLeaders.com for contributing material for this week’s podcast. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s program, the Florida Baptist State Convention has been defrauded of more than $700-thousand. We’ll explain how the fraud worked, and how you can keep your church or ministry from becoming a victim. Former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz is back in the news, and is soon coming to a television near you. And we look at a group of Christian ministries in Nebraska who are withdrawing from the local community foundation over the foundation’s requirements to affirm LGBTQ rights. We begin today with a pair of stories related to Rick Warren and California’s influential Saddleback Church. Final Thoughts: I want all of my friends in Orlando to know that I’ll be there on Monday for the annual meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters, and I’ll be holding a lunch for readers and donors on May 22 at Carrabba’s Italian Grille near the Orlando airport.  If you live in the Orlando area, you should have received an invitation already.  And we already have about a dozen people signed up for this event.  It’s absolutely free, but you do need to sign up to attend. I’ll be doing similar lunches in Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles, in June, in part to celebrate the 25th anniversary of MinistryWatch. So keep an eye on your in-box for invitations to those events. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Emily Kern, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Anne Stych, Bob Smietana, Emily McFarlan Miller, Adelle M. Banks, Yonat Shimron, Kim Roberts, Jessica Eturralde, Rod Pitzer, Christina Darnell—and you, Warren. Special thanks to The NonProfit Times for contributing material for this week’s podcast. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s program, we look at the Lancaster Pennsylvania Community Foundation, which has implemented restrictions that could keep Christian groups from receiving funds.  It’s not the only community foundation in the nation to use non-discrimination policies to exclude Christian groups.  We’ll have details. And we also have updates on two stories we’ve been covering for a while:  Hillsong, and the breakup of the United Methodist Church. We begin today with news of significant membership declines in the Southern Baptist Convention. LINK MENTIONED IN TODAY’S PROGRAM: Here’s a link to the list of the largest missions and Bible translation organizations. FINAL THOUGHTS:  MinistryWatch wants all our friends in Orlando to know that  be there in two weeks for the annual meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters, and I’ll be holding a lunch for readers and donors on May 22 at Carrabba’s Italian Grille near the Orlando airport.  If you live in the Orlando area, you should have received an invitation already.  And we already have about a dozen people signed up for this event.  It’s absolutely free, but you do need to sign up to attend. I’ll be doing similar lunches in Colorado Springs and Albuquerque in June.  So keep an eye on your in-box for invitations to those events. The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh.  We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Emily Kern, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Anne Stych, Bob Smietana, Shannon Cuthrell, Emily McFarlan Miller, Kim Roberts, Jessica Eturralde, Eric Obernauer, Rod Pitzer, Christina Darnell, and Warren Smith. Until next time, may God bless you.