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Three Headlines to Watch

1) Bethel Church’s Leadership Review Is a Case Study in Why Elder Accountability Matters

Bethel Church in Redding, California has deplatformed Shawn Bolz, Mike Bickle, and Todd Bentley following a leadership review. In January 2026, senior leaders Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton, and Dann Farrelly released a formal letter acknowledging that they had known since 2019 about allegations against Bolz involving sexual misconduct and the faking of prophetic words of knowledge, mining social media for personal details rather than receiving divine revelation. They acknowledged they had not communicated clearly or promptly to the wider church when they ended their association with him. Vallotton wrote: “The truth is, we have hurt and scared people because we did not tell the truth early enough, long enough or loud enough.” The letter came only after apologist Mike Winger released a detailed exposé prompting widespread public attention. Bolz, Bickle, and Bentley had all been given significant platforms through Bethel over a period of years.

This is not an isolated incident at Bethel. The church has a documented pattern of platforming high-profile figures whose conduct later proved disqualifying, and of moving slowly when problems were brought to leadership’s attention. When a church is built around a high-profile senior leader rather than a plurality of elders with genuine authority, the accountability structures that should catch problems early are weakened. When outside figures gain large platforms through a church’s influence without corresponding oversight, the church’s own credibility becomes tied to their conduct in ways that make it harder to act quickly when problems emerge. The result, documented here across multiple incidents, is that people were hurt by individuals the church had endorsed, and the church delayed communicating what it knew. Read the full story at Premier Christian News →

Scripture: “Let elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” — 1 Timothy 5:17

2) Beth Moore and the SBC: A Public Dispute That Calls for Prayer, Not Sides

One week before the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, Beth Moore posted publicly on social media accusing the SBC of prioritizing protecting the pulpit from women over protecting women from abusive leaders. “When protecting the pulpit from women becomes a far greater priority than protecting women and children from an abusive pulpit, something is wrong,” she wrote. Moore left the SBC in 2021 after forty years. Her departure followed the denomination’s abuse crisis becoming public and what she described as a simultaneous tightening of restrictions on women’s roles. She has continued to comment on SBC affairs since leaving. The timing of her statement, one week before the annual meeting, has drawn both support from those who share her concerns about abuse accountability and criticism from those who question the public nature and the timing of the dispute.

The SBC’s annual meeting will address several significant matters, including a proposed constitutional amendment from Al Mohler that would prohibit churches from affirming women serving in the office or function of a pastor, elder, or overseer. The SBC has documented significant failures in its handling of sexual abuse cases over the years, and the denomination has made some structural reforms in response. Whether those reforms have been sufficient is a genuine and serious question. Moore’s concern about abuse accountability is legitimate. The question of women in church leadership is also a genuine theological question on which Scripture speaks and Southern Baptists hold a clearly stated position. The two issues, abuse accountability and pastoral leadership qualifications, are real and worth engaging seriously, but raising them together in a public dispute the week before the annual meeting is unlikely to produce the kind of careful, biblical resolution either issue deserves. Read the full story at ChurchLeaders →

Scripture: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” — Matthew 18:15

3) James Talarico Wants to “Reclaim Christianity for the Left.” The Bible Does Not Support His Version of It.

James Talarico, a 36-year-old Texas state representative running as a Democrat for U.S. Senate, has built a national following by claiming to offer a Christian case for progressive politics. The New York Times featured him this week under the headline “Can He Reclaim Christianity for the Left?” Talarico, who holds a master’s degree in theological studies from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and hopes to become a pastor, argues that his progressive positions are rooted in his Christian faith. His specific theological claims include: that God is nonbinary, a statement he made on the floor of the Texas legislature in 2021; that the Bible permits abortion, arguing that the angel Gabriel’s interaction with Mary in Luke 1 constitutes a model of consent that endorses pro-abortion rights; that there are six biological sexes; and that poverty is a form of violence. He told Joe Rogan in September 2025 that atheists are often more Christ-like than his Christian colleagues in the legislature.

None of these positions have a defensible basis in Scripture. The claim that God is nonbinary contradicts Genesis 1:27, which describes God creating human beings as male and female in His image, and the consistent scriptural pattern of referring to God in masculine terms. The claim that Gabriel asking Mary for consent in Luke 1 endorses abortion is a fundamental misreading of the text: the passage describes the announcement of a miraculous conception, not a choice about whether to terminate one, and Mary’s response, “Let it be to me according to your word,” is an act of willing submission to God’s plan, not a model for abortion rights. The claim that there are six biological sexes has no basis in biology or in Scripture. Genesis 1 describes God creating human beings male and female, full stop. Talarico is running for Senate in Texas on a platform that has received the enthusiastic endorsement of the New York Times and progressive media. We pray that Texans judge his claims by what the Bible actually says. Read the New York Times story →

Scripture: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” — Galatians 1:8

Daily Scripture

Verse of the Day

Paul spoke these words to the elders of Ephesus in his farewell address. The instruction has two parts, and both matter. Pay careful attention to yourselves: leaders are not immune to the failures they are supposed to prevent in others. The elder board is not a watchdog for everyone else while its own members go unexamined. Pay careful attention to all the flock: the people in your care are not abstractions. They are individuals who trusted the leaders God placed over them, and that trust carries a responsibility that Paul describes as weighty enough to warrant the phrase “the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” The flock belongs to God. Leaders are stewards of something they did not purchase.

Today’s three stories are all, at their core, about what happens when that attention fails. Bethel’s leadership knew about misconduct and did not move quickly enough to protect the people who trusted its endorsements. The SBC’s documented failures in handling abuse are the result of institutional structures that, in too many cases, protected leaders rather than the people they abused. And Talarico’s campaign is a reminder that the flock is always at risk from teachers who speak Christian language while leading people away from what Scripture actually says. The answer in every case is the same: elders who pay careful attention, to themselves and to the flock, accountable to each other, governed by the Word.

Father, we pray for Your Church today. Not for any one denomination or movement, but for the entire body of Christ across every tradition, every congregation, and every stream. We pray that Your Church would hold to biblical standards of leadership and accountability, that elders would lead with integrity, that the vulnerable would be protected, and that no leader would be placed above the correction of Your Word. Where churches have drifted from Scripture, whether through the pursuit of celebrity, the protection of reputation, or the accommodation of culture, bring them back. Where conflict has become public spectacle rather than biblical resolution, restore the humility and the process Your Word prescribes. And where the name of Christ is being used to advance agendas that contradict what He actually said, give Your people the discernment to recognize it and the courage to say so. Christ is Lord of the Church. His Word is the standard. Everything else must answer to it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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