Chuck Swindoll, one of America’s first high-profile megachurch pastors, will soon begin a new role at the church he founded near Dallas. Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, announced that on May 1, Swindoll will become the founding pastor, with Jonathan Murphy stepping into the senior pastor role.

Swindoll, 89, helped launch Stonebriar in 1998. Before that, he served as senior pastor of First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, California, for more than two decades. The preacher, whose “Insight for Living” Bible-teaching program airs on more than 2,000 radio stations globally, has written 70 books. Swindoll is repeatedly named one of America’s most influential pastors.

Murphy serves as a department chair and professor of pastoral ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary. The native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a married father of four.

Chuck Swindoll Is ‘Excited’ About His Church’s Future

Stonebriar has an average weekly attendance of more than 3,000 in-person and 16,000 online worshipers. A special announcement on the nondenominational church’s website explains the “new chapter” that is approaching.

“Pastor Chuck will continue to preach God’s Word at the pulpit on Sundays, while Jonathan will shepherd our day-to-day ministries and fill in at the pulpit when requested,” according to the announcement. “Pastor Chuck will continue to serve as mentor and advisor to Jonathan, and at the appropriate time in the future, Jonathan will then assume primary pulpit duties.

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Stonebriar emphasized that Pastor Chuck Swindoll “is not retiring.” Instead, he’ll keep preaching “as much as he desires and is able” and will remain one of the church’s nine male elders. When Murphy officially becomes the senior pastor, he too will become an elder.

In a video accompanying the church’s announcement, Swindoll and Murphy discuss how their mentoring relationship and ministry partnership have unfolded naturally. “You’re easy to love,” Swindoll told Murphy. “I hope you feel full freedom to be you. And that works its way toward the most natural and truly spiritual future and health for our church.”

Swindoll said he appreciates the absence of any feelings of competition or frustration during this pastoral transition. “We’re in the same family, we’re working on the same team, we’re serving the same Lord, we’ve got the same ideals and goals in mind,” he told Murphy. “Our purpose is to glorify our God.”

Chuck Swindoll’s Successor Is ‘Honored & Humbled’

According to the church, elders began considering Murphy as a future senior pastor about two years ago. During combined worship services at Stonebriar on April 28, Murphy will be commissioned through prayer.

“I’m honored and humbled,” Murphy said about his new role. “What a privilege to serve Jesus alongside my ministry hero, mentor, and friend, Chuck Swindoll.”

Dallas Jenkins, creator and director of “The Chosen,” gave a few updates Thursday, April 11, from the set of Season 5, right before he and the cast and crew began filming the show’s next round of episodes.

“Hey there! It is Day 1. In the midst of all the craziness of us trying to get Season 4 to you…and in the midst of all the craziness of ‘The Chosen’ in general, all over the world, we are officially commencing Day 1 of 68 days of filming, here in beautiful Utah,” Jenkins said in a video showing him walking outside with the set behind him. “We have done our first rehearsal, and we are about to get going. It is unbelievable.”

‘The Chosen,’ Season 5, Begins Filming

“The Chosen” is a television series based on the life of Jesus and a global phenomenon. It has exploded in popularity in the U.S. and around the world, with its viewership recently reaching 200 million and with many sharing stories of how the series has personally, sometimes dramatically, impacted them.

RELATED: At ‘The Chosen’ Season 4 Premiere, Dallas Jenkins Reveals What He Learned From Dad’s ‘Left Behind’ Success

Starting Feb. 1, “The Chosen” became the first streaming TV series to release an entire season in theaters, and the eight episodes of Season 4 extended their run at a discount in U.S. theaters during the three days before Easter. 

Jenkins shared that not only was the release in theaters successful but also “the theatrical release is continuing right now all over the world.” What’s more, the first four episodes of Season 4 are currently being shown in churches and prisons throughout the U.S.

The show’s director had hoped that Season 4 would have been released to streaming by now but shared on March 10 that legal issues had delayed the streaming release. In his Thursday update, Jenkins said, “I’m sad to say that the legal matters that we are dealing with for Season 4 are still happening.” 

He addressed speculation that Season 4 won’t be out for months or even come out this year. “That is not the case. It will be well before then,” he said. While Jenkins cannot give an exact date, he is “hopeful that it will be some time in the near future.”

“It’s not going to be three months, ok?” said the director. “We are working on it actively. We are working on it every day.”

This Saturday (April 13), Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, will host an emergency summit to address the urgent foster care and adoption needs in America and around the world.

The one-day event, titled CHOSEN Conference, is expected to be the largest of its kind and will feature speakers Sadie Robertson Huff, Korie Robertson, Jack Graham, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Scott Turner, Gregg Matte, and Shane and Kasi Pruitt.

The CHOSEN Conference will equip attendees through plenary sessions and breakout sessions, teaching people how to provide children in need with loving homes, as well as how to support families who have made the choice to foster or adopt.

An estimated 400,000 children in our nation are in foster care. Of those in foster care, 100,000 children are waiting for a family to adopt them. Nearly 20,000 of those children will age out of the foster care system without ever receiving a forever family or home.

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Dr. Jeremiah Johnston, Prestonwood’s associate pastor and pastor of apologetics and cultural engagement, told ChurchLeaders that the “why” of this conference can be found in Mark 9:33-37:

And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

“The greatest people in God’s eyes are those who do for others what they cannot do for themselves in Jesus’ name, and that is why we believe the CHOSEN Conference is essential,” Johnston said.

“In a Christian worldview, every child is a wanted child,” he added. “There is no such thing as an unwanted child in the eyes of God.”

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Johnston went on to share that historians frequently point out that “children were held in little regard in late antiquity.” In other words, “listening to ‘children’s talk’ was thought to be a waste of time.”

A Miami pastor has been accused of collecting the social security benefits of someone who died nearly 12 years ago. Michael Gene Bryant of Greater Sweetfield Missionary Baptist Church in the Coconut Grove neighborhood faces multiple charges, including theft of government funds and making false statements to a federal agency. 

According to the federal indictment, Bryant became the representative payee for an individual referred to as “H.L.G.” in December of 1996. 

Representative payees are designated for individuals who are not able to manage their Social Security benefits on their own. The representative payee is required to use the payments to care for the needs of the beneficiary. 

The individual for whom Bryant was the representative payee died in October 2012. However, the indictment said that Bryant continued to receive benefits until January of this year and that he lied on several reports by claiming that “H.L.G.” was still under his care. 

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The indictment did not reveal how much money Bryant had allegedly received illegitimately from Social Security over the past 12 years. 

Bryant has been serving as pastor of Greater Sweetfield Missionary Baptist Church since February 2021. In December of that year, the Coconut Grove community published a story about Bryant on its website, praising him for carrying on “a legacy of faith and service.”

He told the publication that his “super power” was his “gift of discernment. To make a spiritually conscious decision on behalf of the people I’m in contact with.”

The article also said that Bryant was the founder of Agape 4 Orphans International, “a non-profit that helps at-risk children and young adults with disabilities and special needs prepare for life beyond the classroom.”

The homepage of Agape 4 Orphans’ website says, “launching soon,” but provides no other information.

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One former member of Greater Sweetfield Missionary Baptist Church told Local 10 that she was “shocked” by the allegations against Bryant. 

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Two decades after the Vatican was first forced to reckon with the clerical sexual abuse crisis, church experts on Thursday (April 11) addressed the institution’s failures to safeguard victims, promote transparency and guarantee a safe trial.

For years, sexual abuse victims lamented that church trials under canon law fail to inform them about not just the proceedings but also the sentence. Despite Pope Francis’ efforts to reform church law and inject transparency into the institution, church officials and experts agreed much more still needs to be done.

“The church is called to speak the truth and to be true. It can’t play hide and seek with itself,” said the Rev. Jordi Pujol, a theologian teaching communications at the Pontifical Holy Cross University in Rome. The excessive prudence in addressing sexual abuse cases, he added, has led to many mistakes and made it so that “too often church leaders treat the faithful like perpetual minors.”

Vatican experts, canon lawyers and theologians addressed the push for transparency in the church, weighing the need to protect victims with the right to a just defense, during a conference titled “Penal Justice in the Church: Safeguarding the Victim and the Safety of the Accused” on Wednesday and Thursday at the university.

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After The Boston Globe’s 2002 Spotlight investigations revealed a shroud of secrecy surrounding sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church, the Vatican has had to grapple with creating safeguarding measures and ensuring transparency.

Pope Benedict XVI met with victims at the time and created the framework for how the church should address these issues, drawing from his experience as the head of the Vatican’s department on doctrine, which also handles cases of abuse. Pope Francis picked up the torch, creating commissions and appointing experts, which resulted in the March 2019 document “Vos Estis Lux Mundi,” that established new procedures for reporting and combating sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults in the church.

Statues on Bernini’s colonnade at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. (Photo by Marco Verch/Creative Commons)

The document was published after Francis convened Vatican abuse prevention experts and survivors to the Vatican for a summit on abuse in February 2019. But victims’ advocates have maintained that the institution still lacks transparency and accountability for prelates who are guilty of abuse or cover-up.

“The need for transparency is undeniable at this point,” Pujol said, adding that the right to information has not yet been established in the church, unlike other fundamental rights, which has been very damaging for victims.

A canonical trial rarely offers any punishment to convicted abusers, who are often removed from the priesthood and ordered to live a life of prayer and penance, Pujol explained. Victims hoping to see the crime vindicated are often left disappointed.

“It’s important for the church to build bridges, which is what Pope Francis has done, between the church and state laws,” Pujol told Religion News Service. “Things are not all solved within canon law.”

Listening centers for abuse victims in dioceses have a responsibility to encourage victims to report the abuse cases to civil authorities, he continued, even though they often are past the statute of limitations.

Lawyers at the conference also said the secretive nature of the canonical trials makes it difficult for them to correctly inform victims and defendants. Canon Lawer Alessia Gullo admitted during the event that lawyers could perform “a synodal function,” especially during the early stages of the proceedings, by meeting with all those involved and explaining what the options are and whether the case has a chance in court.

“A meeting between the victi