MinistryWatch Podcast

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.

On today’s program, a bizarre story out of Haiti. Haitian gangs are using churches to smuggle arms into the country.  We’ll explain how that scheme works. And a church in Alabama has to pay back nearly a half-million dollars given to it a decade ago because the man who gave the gift has now declared bankruptcy. And this church is not alone. We’ll have details. Later in the program, we look at the popular bible app YouVersion. It’s released its annual list of the most searched Bible verses of the year. We begin today with news that an engineer for one of the nation’s largest Christian broadcasters has been sued over misappropriation of funds.The Association of Professional Radio Engineers (APRE) has filed a suit against Shane Toven, a senior broadcast engineer employed by Educational Media Foundation. Educational Media Foundation is the parent company of the K-Love radio network. FINAL THOUGHTS As I have said before, we are in the most critical time of the year for Christian ministries, including MinistryWatch, when it comes to fundraising. We need to raise about a quarter of our budget, about $117 thousand, in the months of November and December. We just passed the $78,000 mark, so we are about 2/3 of the way there. Which is great.  But we have less than 10 days to go. If you’ve already given, THANK YOU.  If you have not, I hope you will prayerfully consider a gift to MinistryWatch before year-end. And, of course, MinistryWatch is not alone. Some ministries raise 30 or 40 percent of their budgets during the last two months of the year. 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. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Kim Roberts, Daniel Ritchie, Steve Rabey, Tim Padgett, Kathryn Post, Bob Smietana, and Christina Darnell. A special thanks to WLRN for contributing material for this week’s podcast. .Until next time, may God bless you.

Dr. Russell Moore is editor in chief of “Christianity Today” and previously served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Today we discuss his new book Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call For Evangelical America.” The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh. We get database, technical, editorial, and other support from Christina Darnell, Kim Roberts, Casey Sudduth, and Stephen DuBarry. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s program, Brian Houston of Hillsong infamy is starting a new church. We ask:  is it too soon?  Also on today’s program: Mike Bickle of the International House of Prayer Kansas City has apologized for past behaviors, sort of. We also have an update on the lawsuit against prosperity gospel preacher David Taylor. We finally have a court date. Finally, American Life League has published a list of which non-profit organizations you should not support based on their abortion positions. Some of the ministries on the list may surprise you. We begin today with news from one of the largest Southern Baptist churches in the state of Arkansas. FINAL THOUGHTS: As I have said before, we are in the most critical time of the year for Christian ministries, including MinistryWatch, when it comes to fundraising. We need to raise about a quarter of our budget, about $117 thousand, in the months of November and December. We just passed the $66,000 mark, so we are over half-way there. If you’ve already given, THANK YOU.  If you have not, I hope you will prayerfully consider a gift to MinistryWatch before year-end. And, of course, MinistryWatch is not alone. Some ministries raise 30 or 40 percent of their budgets during the last two months of the year. 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. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Daniel Ritchie, Brittany Smith, Bob Smietana, Steve Rabey, Kim Roberts, Jessica Eturralde, Christina Darnell, and Rod Pitzer. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s MinistryWatch EXTRA episode, we have Tim Alberta. Tim writes for The Atlantic and is the author of a new book that I think will likely cause shock waves in the public conversation about evangelicalism and its relationship to politics. FINAL THOUGHTS: Thanks to Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh for producing today’s program. Until next time, may God bless you.

On today’s program, former Hillsong Atlanta pastors announce their divorce on social media. We’ll have details. And a judge rules that World Vision is liable for discrimination after rescinding a job offer after discovering a woman was in a same-sex marriage. Plus, both David C Cook and Museum of the Bible announce new CEOs. We’ll take a look. We begin today with news that the historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia has ousted its pastor Liam Goligher. Although Goligher is no longer pastoring the influential church—associated with the Presbyterian Church in America—some critics are asking what took so long. FINAL THOUGHTS We are in the most critical time of the year for Christian ministries, including MinistryWatch, when it comes to fundraising. We need to raise about a quarter of our budget, about $116 thousand, in the months of November and December. We just passed the $60,000 mark, so we are over half-way there. If you’ve already given, THANK YOU.  If you have not, I hope you will prayerfully consider a gift to MinistryWatch before year-end. And, of course, MinistryWatch is not alone. Some ministries raise 30 or 40 percent of their budgets during the last two months of the year. 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. Writers who contributed to today’s program include Steve Rabey, Brittany Smith, Jessica Eturralde, Kim Roberts, Daniel Ritchie, Christina Darnell—and you, Warren. Until next time, may God bless you.

The story of the Gaderene Demoniac in Mark 5 is one of my favorite stories. In a celebrity soaked age, it has lessons for pastors and ministry leaders. I identify five of them. By the way, if you’d like to read this episode, complete with links mentioned today, click here. FINAL THOUGHTS: The producers for today’s program are Rich Roszel and Jeff McIntosh. We get technical, database, and editorial support from Christina Darnell, Kim Roberts, Casey Sudduth, and Stephen DuBarry. Until next time, may God bless you.