Less than a week after dropping their lawsuit against three critics of the church, Harvest Bible Chapel has announced that its founder and lead pastor James MacDonald will be taking an “indefinite sabbatical.”
In a letter from the church’s elders posted to the Harvest Bible Chapel website, the elders wrote, “We have tried a variety of different strategies to address external criticisms over the past several years. It has become apparent that these efforts have failed to fully identify and address our personal failures, sins, and errors in leadership, thus perpetuating a continuation of the criticism.”
The letter continued, “In prayerful reflection upon all that has happened and how we got here, a private meeting of the Executive Committee of the Elders on Monday, January 14, led to the decision to be part of a peacemaking process that seeks both reconciliation and change where needed, which was reviewed by the entire Elder Board last night.”
As a part of the church’s “peacemaking process,” the board decided that Pastor MacDonald would be taking “an indefinite sabbatical from all preaching and leadership” at the Chicago-based church.
The letter continued noting that MacDonald will only be limitedly participating in the “peacemaking process” with the church. The Elders wrote, “He has recused himself fully from…
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