In effect, the senior pastor is the church. Besides, pastors charismatic enough to gain large followings frequently have the ability to effectively deflect criticism and keep their elder board firmly on their side. Elder boards are supposed to create this accountability in these situations, but in many cases these boards are no more than rubber stamps.īecause evangelical megachurches are typically formed around a single charismatic individual, elder boards are generally loathe to consider letting this individual go. These churches do not usually belong to any denominational body this means that these pastors have no body above them that they are accountable to. Such lack of accountability is often a problem at megachurches, which tend to be founded by charismatic individuals who quickly amass a large following. Mahoney and Bryant shared concerns about Harvest’s financial dealings, and provided a platform for other former Harvest members, who accused MacDonald of a controlling and abusive leadership style and pointed to an overall lack of accountability for MacDonald at Harvest. As happens in evangelicalism, Harvest effectively became its own denomination, with MacDonald at its head.Ĭriticism of MacDonald begun to surface on The Elephant’s Debt, a blog founded in 2012, run by Ryan Mahoney and Scott Bryant, former members era of Harvest Bible Church. Harvest launched a radio show founded a Christian school with over 700 students built its own retreat center produced feature-length films wrote its own worship songs and created its own church-planting ministry, Harvest Bible Fellowship, with 170 member churches.
It quickly became one of the 50 largest churches in the country, with over 12,000 members and eight campuses in the Chicago area. James MacDonald founded Harvest Bible Chapel in 1988. So here I am, piecing together a years-long scandal for you. The moment I read about someone saying something about planting child pornography on the Christianity Today computers, I knew I had to figure out what the heck was going on. I kept seeing little hints of questionable goings-on at Harvest Bible Church, a large megachurch in suburban Chicago, but didn’t really pay attention until last week, when the issue blew up in the most bizarre way.
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