William Graham Tullian Tchividjian ( born July 13, 1972) is a pastor and author of more than a half dozen books about Christianity and current issues, including One Way Love and It is Finished (David C. Cook, 2013 and 2015). He is a grandson of Christian evangelist Billy Graham. Prior to 2015, Tchividjian blogged for some time for The Gospel Coalition, contributed to a variety of secular and Christian publications, and appeared on a variety of major televisions news programs. Tchividjian founded an Evangelical Presbyterian Church congregation. In 2009 he was invited to merge churches and become the second senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (after the church's late founder and longterm leader, D. James Kennedy). In 2015, Tchividjian resigned from Coral Ridge after admitting to an extramarital affair. In 2019, Tullian Tchividjian planted a new church in Jupiter, Florida, called "The Sanctuary"
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Disgraced Pastors Start New Podcast with Tagline, ‘You Can’t Cancel the Cancelled’ Tullian Tchividjian and Byron Yawn both engaged in sexual misconduct with parishioners — something experts classify as clergy sexual abuse. Now they plan to talk publicly about it on a new podcast called “MisFit Preachers” whose irreverent trailer advises you to “clutch your pearls” because “you can’t cancel the cancelled.” “In the history of bad ideas, this might just be the baddest,” the trailer states. Kate Roberts, co-director of Restored Voices Collective, an advocacy group for survivors, agrees. And she notes the mocking tone is especially concerning, given that men who engage in adult clergy sexual abuse don’t just abuse women. They silence, inappropriately blame, and traumatize them, she said. (Julie Roys 9/26/24) READMORE>>>>> July 8, 2021: Crosswalk: Why Are Christian Leaders Falling?
But it’s not worth it just because of that one situation. It’s worth it because of so many other demises of late: Bill Hybels, Ravi Zacharias, James MacDonald, Darren Patrick, Tullian Tchividjian, Perry Noble, Ted Haggard, Carl Lentz… the list is gut-wrenching Sept 8, 2019: Daytona Beach News-Journal: After sex scandal, Billy Graham's grandson to start a church "I am standing here today because in my darkest moments, God never stopped holding onto me," Tchividjian said. A few cries of "Amen" answered him from the congregation of roughly 60-80 people at the Hilton Garden Inn, which is serving as a spot for worship before they can find a permanent home in the area. Nov 28, 2016: Christian Post: Tullian Tchividjian Allegedly Tried Reconciling With Ex-Wife Before New Marriage, Asked Woman to Pray for Brother's Death
Tullian Tchividjian, the Rev. Billy Graham's grandson who lost his church and wife last summer to an adultery scandal, almost reconciled with his now ex-wife, Kim, in August but failed after she found out he was still in a relationship with the woman he married in September. Mar 17, 2016: Religion News Service: Tullian Tchividjian fired from Florida church over ‘previously undisclosed failures’
Tullian Tchividjian, who resigned as the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church last year after admitting to an affair, has been fired from his new position at Willow Creek Presbyterian Church in Winter Springs, Fla. Aug 22, 2015: Christianity Today: Tullian Tchividjian Files for Divorce Tullian Tchividjian, Billy Graham’s grandson, filed for divorce on Thursday in Broward County, Florida. June 21, 2015: NBC: Billy Graham's Grandson Resigns From Florida Megachurch After Affair Tullian Tchividjian, 43, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, confessed to church leaders several days ago and resigned effective immediately, the church said. The Washington Post quoted Tchividjian as saying in an email earlier Sunday that he had had an affair. Feb 27, 2015: Warren Throckmorton: Note to Evangelical Culture Warriors and Pastor Tullian Tchividjian from Benjamin Rush
I thought of Rush after reading a World Net Daily article today by John Aman criticizing Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church pastor Tullian Tchividjian for avoiding culture war issues in the pulpit. Oct 15, 2014: Mockingbird: Salvation by Sweat Alone
Cue this weekend’s speaker, Tullian Tchividjian, writing about the hazards of “cheap law” in his book One Way Love Sept 15, 2014: Youtube: The Gospel is a New Operating System - Tullian Tchividjian Pastor Tullian says that the work of the law is to break down our old operating system, and the work of the Gospel is to rebuild us with a new operating system May 24, 2014: Gospel Herald: Tullian Tchividjian Refutes Tim Keller, D.A. Carson's Statement on His Gospel Coalition Exit - Tullian Tchividjian Refutes Tim Keller, D.A. Carson's Statement on His Gospel Coalition Exit
May 22, 2014: Gospel Herald: Reformed Pastors Respond to Tullian Tchividjian’s Explosive Exit From The Gospel Coalition - Following Pastor Tullian Tchividjian's explosive exit from The Gospel Coalition, several reformed pastors have taken to social media to address their take on the situation. May 22, 2014: Christianity Today: Tullian Tchividjian on CJ Mahaney and the Sovereign Grace Ministries sex abuse scandal: 'Of course he knew' Nathaniel Morales, now 56, was convicted on May 15 this year of sexually abusing three underage boys between 1983 and 1991 during his time as youth pastor at Covenant Life. Sovereign Grace is a coalition of 80 Reformed evangelical churches. |
October 10, 2024: Belief Net Reported: Tchividjian revealed that the phrase “goddamnit” — often used to express anger or frustration — holds deeper theological significance for him. “Let me give an apologetic for the word ‘goddamnit,’ which is my favorite cuss word,” he said during the sermon. “I think it is the most theologically accurate cuss word on planet Earth.” He argued that the phrase, typically considered offensive, could actually be understood as a prayer calling on God to rectify a situation. “In other words, what you’re saying is, ‘God, you are the only one that is capable of cleaning up this mess, damn it, get rid of it,'” he explained Jan 21, 2023
— Tullian Tchividjian (@TullianT) January 21, 2023 Oct 12, 2022: The Roys Report reported: Former megachurch pastor, Tullian Tchividjian, who has admitted to sexual misconduct with multiple women, is set to headline a men’s conference this Friday in the Dallas, Texas, area. The “Man Up” conference, featuring Tchividjian, who’s Billy Graham’s grandson, is hosted by Casey Stone. Stone leads Stone Ministries and serves as senior pastor at Generation Faith Center, a small church in Quinlan, Texas, near where the conference will be held. March 16, 2016: Tchvidjian was fired from the position at Willow, following the disclosure of a second extramarital affair, one predating his earlier admitted affair, one that had also occurred during his previous position in pastoral leadership at Coral Ridge.
May 7, 2016: It was reported on the Charisma Podcast Network that Tullian Tchividjian's Liberate Network will dissolve, according to a statement from the board of directors. Hear why and what will happen to their conferences. June 21, 2015: Tchividjian resigned as senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church after admitting to an extramarital affair. August 11, 2015: Tchividjian was deposed by the South Florida Presbytery of the PCA, who ruled him "unfit for Christian ministry." Aug. 22, 2015: Tullian Tchividjian, Billy Graham’s grandson, filed for divorce in Broward County, Florida. August 26, 2015: Author-pastor Paul Tripp, a friend and counselor to Tchividjian, said in a statement that for six months much effort was made in "hope of healing the marriage," but he said it was too "deeply broken." September 2, 2015: It was announced that Tchvidjian was hired to a non-leadership, non-pastoral staff position, as Director of Ministry Development at Willow Creek Church (PCA) in Winter Springs, Florida. May 21, 2014: Christian Post reported: Tullian Tchividjian is slamming Sovereign Grace Ministries for its handling of a sex abuse scandal, while announcing this week that his participation with The Gospel Coalition will unexpectedly end on Thursday..
May 25, 2014: Peter Enns Reported: Apparently, one of the bloggers at TGC, Tullian Tchividjian (pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church), has had a season of disagreement with those who run the organization, which led to him being asked to leave the coalition. Tchividjian’s departure seems related to how TGC’s leaders handled allegations of child abuse among two other former members of TGC, C. J. Mahaney and Joshua Harris of Sovereign Grace Ministries. July 18, 2014: The Blaze reported: Pastor Tullian Tchividjian, senior pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, believes that evangelical Christianity has been tarnished by its association with the religious right. May 10, 2009: Tchividjian was approved, with his installation as senior pastor of Coral Ridge, formally succeeding its late founding pastor, D. James Kennedy. |
Tullian Tchividjian
"As many of you know, I and my 'rascally' band of ragamuffins have been hard at work launching and developing a ministry called Liberate. Through an annual conference, a content-based website, a pastors network, radio, writing projects and soon-to-be television program, Liberate exists for one very specific reason: to connect God's inexhaustible grace to an exhausted world.
"Our plan for the past year or so is that we would eventually move all of my 'blog' content from The Gospel Coalition site over to Liberate. I had informed The Gospel Coalition of my plan to make this transition in August when the new Liberate site is launched, but was informed on Thursday that certain members of The Gospel Coalition wanted the transition to happen ASAP.
"I was disappointed and a bit confused. We would've loved to have had more time to get things ready on our end and I have always been open to having any conversations with any of the staff at The Gospel Coalition who had any questions whatsoever about the content I was posting. I would've been happy to answer any questions they may have had and provide robust clarification if needed.
"None of the powers that be, however, ever mentioned anything to me (either by email or phone) before Thursday, when I was simply told that the transition needed to happen now. I know I have had some differences with some of the other contributors to this site but my goal has always been to do nothing but preach the Good News with every post, to bring relief to the burdened and broken, and rest to the weary and heavy laden by fixing the readers' eyes on the finished work of Jesus.
"You'll have to judge for yourself if I succeeded or failed in this regard. So, even though the circumstances are less than ideal for me and my amazing Liberate team, we have managed to pull things together on our end and will have all of my content transferred over to Liberate by Thursday of this week.
"I have long admired the original mission of The Gospel Coalition to be a hallway where Christians from all denominational backgrounds who may disagree on non-essentials could gather and rally around the Good News (hence, the name 'Gospel Coalition').
"But, in my opinion, the messaging of The Gospel Coalition has morphed over the last seven years and I find myself much more aligned with the very specific message of Liberate. So, now is the right time to pull the trigger. In fact, it's probably overdue.
"Frederick Buechner once wrote, 'There are all kinds of pressures on the preacher to be all kinds of other things and speak all kinds of other words.' God has called me (and I would argue, all preachers) to be 'good news specialists'—a phrase my granddad taught me while I was in seminary.
"The job description of the preacher, in other words, is not to say many different things but to say the same thing over and over again in many different ways. We have one main message to declare: 'Christ and Him crucified' (1 Corinthians 2:2). It's not that I don't have other 'words' and opinions to speak regarding a wide variety of issues in the church and in our world (just ask my wife and kids and friends), but the public ministry and message God has called me to is very specific, more specific than the ministry and message of The Gospel Coalition.
"For the past five years I have been primarily blogging at The Gospel Coalition and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. But the ministry of Liberate has grown to the point where I really need to focus all of my attention and efforts over there rather than here.
"So, thanks to The Gospel Coalition for asking me five years ago if they could host my blog. It's been fun. I wish you well.
"So ... come see me over at Liberate where the weary and heavy laden will find nothing but rest and where those who desperately need to hear good news will hear it ... over and over and over again. No 'buts.' No brakes. No 'and then's.'
"'Here I stand ... I can do no other.'
"Semper Reformanda!"
--Tullian Tchividjian; "I've Come to Set the Captives Free; May 2014
"Our plan for the past year or so is that we would eventually move all of my 'blog' content from The Gospel Coalition site over to Liberate. I had informed The Gospel Coalition of my plan to make this transition in August when the new Liberate site is launched, but was informed on Thursday that certain members of The Gospel Coalition wanted the transition to happen ASAP.
"I was disappointed and a bit confused. We would've loved to have had more time to get things ready on our end and I have always been open to having any conversations with any of the staff at The Gospel Coalition who had any questions whatsoever about the content I was posting. I would've been happy to answer any questions they may have had and provide robust clarification if needed.
"None of the powers that be, however, ever mentioned anything to me (either by email or phone) before Thursday, when I was simply told that the transition needed to happen now. I know I have had some differences with some of the other contributors to this site but my goal has always been to do nothing but preach the Good News with every post, to bring relief to the burdened and broken, and rest to the weary and heavy laden by fixing the readers' eyes on the finished work of Jesus.
"You'll have to judge for yourself if I succeeded or failed in this regard. So, even though the circumstances are less than ideal for me and my amazing Liberate team, we have managed to pull things together on our end and will have all of my content transferred over to Liberate by Thursday of this week.
"I have long admired the original mission of The Gospel Coalition to be a hallway where Christians from all denominational backgrounds who may disagree on non-essentials could gather and rally around the Good News (hence, the name 'Gospel Coalition').
"But, in my opinion, the messaging of The Gospel Coalition has morphed over the last seven years and I find myself much more aligned with the very specific message of Liberate. So, now is the right time to pull the trigger. In fact, it's probably overdue.
"Frederick Buechner once wrote, 'There are all kinds of pressures on the preacher to be all kinds of other things and speak all kinds of other words.' God has called me (and I would argue, all preachers) to be 'good news specialists'—a phrase my granddad taught me while I was in seminary.
"The job description of the preacher, in other words, is not to say many different things but to say the same thing over and over again in many different ways. We have one main message to declare: 'Christ and Him crucified' (1 Corinthians 2:2). It's not that I don't have other 'words' and opinions to speak regarding a wide variety of issues in the church and in our world (just ask my wife and kids and friends), but the public ministry and message God has called me to is very specific, more specific than the ministry and message of The Gospel Coalition.
"For the past five years I have been primarily blogging at The Gospel Coalition and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. But the ministry of Liberate has grown to the point where I really need to focus all of my attention and efforts over there rather than here.
"So, thanks to The Gospel Coalition for asking me five years ago if they could host my blog. It's been fun. I wish you well.
"So ... come see me over at Liberate where the weary and heavy laden will find nothing but rest and where those who desperately need to hear good news will hear it ... over and over and over again. No 'buts.' No brakes. No 'and then's.'
"'Here I stand ... I can do no other.'
"Semper Reformanda!"
--Tullian Tchividjian; "I've Come to Set the Captives Free; May 2014
Tullian Tchividjian
It’s easy to forget that Zacchaeus would have been a double-outcast in his time: hated by the Jews for collecting taxes for the oppressive Roman Empire, and hated as a Jew by his Roman employers. It’s safe to say, in other words, that Zacchaeus was likely not suffering from an overabundance of friends. Who knows when the last time (before hosting the Savior of the World) Zacchaeus had entertained a guest in his home?
Everyone knows the story: Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector (which means that even the other tax collectors didn’t like him – he was skimming extra money for himself off of their hard-won, pre-skimmed earnings), was a small man, and so had to climb a sycamore tree to see Jesus as he passed by on the road. Jesus, out of the large crowd that would have been following him, picked Zacchaeus out and said, “I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). Not, “If you shape up, I’d be willing to spend some time with you.” Not, “If you clean up your act, I’ll grace your home with my presence.” Jesus was compelled to be with Zacchaeus.
Jesus is compelled to be with sinners…it’s why he came. In Zacchaeus’ home, he says, “Today salvation has come to this house…for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
The crowd, of course, is very disappointed in Jesus. “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner,” they mutter. Reading this passage now, as “mature” Sunday-schooled Christians, we know that the crowd is in the wrong. “How could they misunderstand Jesus so completely?” we think. “How can they be so mean to Zacchaeus?” We forget how nails-on-a-chalkboard annoying it is for us when someone in our lives gets something they don’t deserve or avoids some penalty that they do deserve. “That’s not fair!” we cry. We are just like that crowd surrounding Zacchaeus, despite our protestations to the contrary.
Perhaps the most powerful thing in this passage, though, is Zacchaeus’ response to Jesus once the Savior is in his home. He says, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” His obedience flows naturally from him the moment Jesus enters his life. Jesus never tells him what to do. Just as Jesus doesn’t require a changed heart or lifestyle to enter his home, he doesn’t then demand charity and reparations (“Now that you’re a Christian, Zacchaeus…”). The Gospel, God’s one-way love for sinners, creates what the Law, God’s holy standard, can only require. And it creates more!
--Tullian Tchividjian
Everyone knows the story: Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector (which means that even the other tax collectors didn’t like him – he was skimming extra money for himself off of their hard-won, pre-skimmed earnings), was a small man, and so had to climb a sycamore tree to see Jesus as he passed by on the road. Jesus, out of the large crowd that would have been following him, picked Zacchaeus out and said, “I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). Not, “If you shape up, I’d be willing to spend some time with you.” Not, “If you clean up your act, I’ll grace your home with my presence.” Jesus was compelled to be with Zacchaeus.
Jesus is compelled to be with sinners…it’s why he came. In Zacchaeus’ home, he says, “Today salvation has come to this house…for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
The crowd, of course, is very disappointed in Jesus. “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner,” they mutter. Reading this passage now, as “mature” Sunday-schooled Christians, we know that the crowd is in the wrong. “How could they misunderstand Jesus so completely?” we think. “How can they be so mean to Zacchaeus?” We forget how nails-on-a-chalkboard annoying it is for us when someone in our lives gets something they don’t deserve or avoids some penalty that they do deserve. “That’s not fair!” we cry. We are just like that crowd surrounding Zacchaeus, despite our protestations to the contrary.
Perhaps the most powerful thing in this passage, though, is Zacchaeus’ response to Jesus once the Savior is in his home. He says, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” His obedience flows naturally from him the moment Jesus enters his life. Jesus never tells him what to do. Just as Jesus doesn’t require a changed heart or lifestyle to enter his home, he doesn’t then demand charity and reparations (“Now that you’re a Christian, Zacchaeus…”). The Gospel, God’s one-way love for sinners, creates what the Law, God’s holy standard, can only require. And it creates more!
--Tullian Tchividjian