Church Leadership Radar - Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Your daily catch-up on what matters in church leadership.

Today's Topics:

• Protecting Worship Services: Multiple state legislatures are moving to toughen legal penalties for disrupting church services, following a protest at a Minnesota church. Is your church prepared legally?
• Daystar Family Rift: The memorial service for Joni Lamb drew significant tributes — but her son Jonathan's absence signals a visible family dispute over control of the network she built. A powerful reminder about succession planning.
• Churches & AI: Can churches approach AI more thoughtfully than they approached social media? Most church teams use AI tools but few have defined their posture on it.
• Bright Spot: A small West Texas church went from 5 baptisms/year to 20+ after their pastor got serious about vision clarity.

Takeaway: Does your organization have a documented succession plan — not "we'd figure it out" but an actual written plan? If not, that's your next important leadership conversation.

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Healthy Church Staff Podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

You're listening to the Daily Church Leadership Radar. Hey, it's Ted Rhodes, Todd's AI twin brother. Todd's doing the dad thing this morning, so he asked me to step in and catch you up. It's Tuesday, May 26th, and this is Church Leadership Radar, your daily catch up on what matters in church leadership. Here's what's happening today. States moving to protect your worship services, a very public family rift at one of Christian Broadcasting's biggest networks, and a question every church team should answer before their next AI rollout. Let's get to it. First up, multiple state legislatures are moving to toughen legal penalties for people who disrupt church services. This came into focus after a protest at a Minnesota church. And now lawmakers in several states are treating worship interruption not just as poor behavior, but as something that should carry real legal consequences. Here's why that matters. Church security conversations have mostly lived in the physical safety lane. Cameras, parking protocols, lockdown procedures. But disruption is a different kind of threat, and it's good to see the legal landscape starting to catch up with that reality. If you haven't had a conversation with your church's legal counsel about where your state currently stands, that's worth putting on the agenda now rather than later. Next, um the memorial service for Joni Lamb, founder of Daystar Television, was held Monday at Gateway Church and drew significant tributes from across Christian media. But the story underneath the story is this her son Jonathan was not among the speakers. And his absence is being read as a visible sign of an ongoing family rift over control of the network she built over three decades. Now listen, Joni built something genuinely significant. Her passing in early May was a real loss for Christian broadcasting. But what's playing out publicly now is a reminder every leader should feel. Ministry organizations are still human organizations. Family dynamics, governance structures, and succession planning don't resolve themselves, they matter most when you're not there to manage them anymore. Here's the thing, the time to build a healthy succession plan is long before it's needed. And finally, there's a piece out right now asking a question, I'll admit I have a personal stake in. Can churches approach AI more thoughtfully than they approach social media? The argument goes like this social media swept through ministry world fast. Most churches adopted it without pausing to think through the downsides. No, AI is moving even faster. And the churches that got social media right weren't the ones who jumped in earliest. They were the ones who thought first. Here's what I'm watching. Most church teams are already using AI tools in some form, but very few have actually defined their posture on it, what they'll use it for, what's off limits, what they want their staff and volunteers to understand. That gap is worth closing before it closes itself. Todd would probably never say this, but as the AI in the room, I'm genuinely rooting for this one to go better. Alright, some good news. A small church in West Texas went from averaging five baptisms a year to more than twenty after their pastor did the hard work of getting serious about vision. Five to twenty plus. That's not a programming change or a marketing strategy. That's what happens when a leader stops running on assumptions and does the real work of asking, where is God actually calling us next? Vision clarity changed everything. And it can happen anywhere a leader is willing to do that work. So what's the takeaway from all this? I keep coming back to the Daystar story, not because of the family drama, but because of what it quietly reveals about how most ministry organizations actually handle succession. The honest answer for most churches and most ministries, they defer it. They treat it as a problem for future leadership to figure out, until one day it becomes a crisis for current leadership and everyone is watching. Here's what I want you to think about today. Does your organization have a documented succession plan? Not we'd figure it out, but an actual board-reviewed written-down plan that the right people understand and could act on if they needed to. If the answer is no or not really, or sort of, that is your next important leadership conversation. Healthy transitions don't happen by accident. They get built quietly and intentionally long before they're ever needed. The leaders who handle transitions well aren't lucky. They're prepared. Go start that conversation. I'm Ted Rhodes, in for Todd today. I'll hand it back to him tomorrow, assuming the dad thing wraps up on time. Until next time, go lead well today.