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After stepping down and undergoing a year-long restoration process, Tony Evans will not return to leadership at his Dallas megachurch. |
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As evangelical rhetoric intensifies, when is strong language necessary to wake people up to wickedness—and when does it become sinful itself? |
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What the manosphere misses about true gospel transformation. |
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From senior staff writer Emily Belz: We’ve had to cover a lot of Dallas-area church leadership shakeups in the last year or so. And this past week alone we’ve had two major stories from Dallas: the conviction of Gateway Church founder Robert Morris for child sex abuse and then the announcement from Tony Evans that he will not be returning to lead the church, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, that he founded. |
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Last year I reported a story on the numerous scandals that resulted in pastor resignations at Dallas-area megachurches. We don’t cover every church leadership shakeup or scandal, but Dallas is a major hub of American evangelicalism now. And when we consider what to cover, we look at the scope of impact. |
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When I was working on that story last year with my editor, Kate Shellnutt, she encouraged me to add up the congregants these scandals affected. At that time, it was more than 50,000. Unfortunately, that number grew last fall as even more pastors resigned. We take no pleasure in reporting these stories, but as one Dallas pastor said to me last year, "Healing begins with the truth." |
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The sanctuary is meant to be a place of peace—a refuge for worship, learning, and community. Yet, recent tragedies have reminded us that even sacred spaces are not immune to violence. |
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These events raise urgent questions like: How can we protect our people? What steps can we take—today—to make our churches safer? |
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The Safety Library from Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company offers practical, ministry-minded guidance for church leaders and their safety and security teams facing these challenges. In the article Protect Your Congregation: 10 Steps to a Safer Church, you’ll find actionable steps such as: assigning clear emergency roles for staff and volunteers, identifying medical, law enforcement, and security professionals in your congregation, and more. |
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The article connects you to six more resources that include guidance for forming a volunteer safety and security team, scenario-based training, responding to violence, managing risk, and handling disruptions. Is your leadership motivated to make changes today? Jump-start your planning with these free resources. |
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The Future of the Church Can’t Wait
What do you hope the Church will look like in 20 years? In a time when the Church is often seen as divided, the future depends on what we do now. That’s why Christianity Today launched The Next Gen Initiative—to equip tomorrow’s pastors, writers, artists, and storytellers with wisdom, creativity, and Christ-centered vision. |
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This week, during CT’s Week of Giving, you can help raise up the next generation of leaders—and, good news, this week only your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar. The Church of tomorrow starts today. Give now. |
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Today in Christian History |
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October 8, 451: The Council of Chalcedon opens to deal with the Eutychians, who believed Jesus could not have two natures. His divinity, they believed, swallowed up his humanity "like a drop of wine in the sea." |
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Images from the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack and its aftermath are forever seared in the mind of Israel Pochtar. Pochtar, a pastor at Congregation Beit Hallel in the city…
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Dallas megachurch founder Tony Evans, who stepped back from leading his church due to an undisclosed "sin" he announced last year, apologized to his congregation and his family on Sunday,…
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Last year, I found myself making the rounds of Christian podcasts to publicize a couple of new books I’d written. Most of these conversations were similar, but one ended with…
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Cynthia Gibbs grew up five miles from Taveau Church, a small wooden building weathered by decades of declining membership and a deteriorating physical structure. Outside Charleston, South Carolina, the church…
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The Christian story shows us that grace often comes from where we least expect. In this issue, we look at the corners of God’s kingdom and chronicle in often-overlooked people, places, and things the possibility of God’s redemptive work. We introduce the Compassion Awards, which report on seven nonprofits doing good work in their communities. We look at the spirituality underneath gambling, the ways contemporary Christian music was instrumental in one historian’s conversion, and the steady witness of what may be Wendell Berry’s last novel. All these pieces remind us that there is no person or place too small for God’s gracious and cataclysmic reversal. |
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