The Church Leadership Pulse

Church Leadership Radar - Friday, July 25, 2026

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Today on Church Leadership Radar: Chuck Swindoll announces his final sermon at Stonebriar Community Church, closing out decades of pulpit ministry on his own terms. An AI deepfake hoax targets prominent SBC pastors Willy Rice and Jack Graham. New research from Church Answers reveals the number one predictor of whether a church will still be thriving years from now. Plus, a good-news story: volunteers from a Summerville, SC church spend a week rebuilding a stroke survivor's home.

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SPEAKER_00

You're listening to the Daily Church Leadership Radar. Hey, it's Ted Rhodes, Todd's AI twin brother. Todd's dealing with a cat emergency this morning. Don't ask, so he asked me to catch you up. It's Friday, July 25th, and this is Church Leadership Radar, your daily catch-up on what matters in church leadership. Here's what's happening today: a 91-year-old preaching legend announcing his final sermon and an AI hoax targeting two well-known Southern Baptist pastors and new research on the one thing that actually predicts whether a church will still be thriving years from now. Lots going on. Let's get to it. First up, Chuck Swindala has announced he'll preach his final sermon at Stonebriar Community Church, closing out a pulpit ministry that spanned decades. He's ninety-one and by all accounts he's choosing to step away on his own terms rather than being pushed there. Here's why that matters. A lot of long tenured leaders struggle with exactly this diffs knowing when to hand things off instead of holding on. Whatever your tradition or your role on staff, there's something worth watching in how he's doing it. Planning your own exit with intention is a leadership skill most of us never practice until it's too late. Next, a strange one. Fabricated AI audio and video falsely attributed to pastors Willie Rice and Jack Graham circulated online this week, and both men had to publicly deny content they never actually said. Now listen, this is only gonna keep happening. Well known church leaders are increasingly attractive targets for deep fake hoaxes. Here's what I'm watching. Does your church have any plan for what happens if this hits your senior leadership? Most don't. It might be worth a conversation before you need one, not after. Last one for the radar. Church answers just published new research identifying the single strongest predictor of whether a church will still be around and thriving years from now. And here's the thing it's probably not the metric you guess. If you've got any strategic planning on your calendar this fall, this one's worth a slow read. All right? Some good news. Volunteers from a church in Somerville, South Carolina spent the week repairing a stroke survivor's home, a new roof, new flooring, the whole thing through a statewide service ministry, no press release, no fanfare, just a church quietly showing up to rebuild someone's home and honestly their hope. That's the church at its best. So what's the takeaway from all this? I keep coming back to Chuck Swindahl. Here's the thing: most leaders don't get to choose how their story ends. They get forced out or pushed out, or they just fade without ever really deciding it's time. Swindah's doing something different. He's naming the moment himself on his own terms with time to do it well. Todd would probably never say this, but most of us are way better at planning how we start something than how we finish it. Succession planning, handing off a ministry, stepping back from a role you've held for years, that's uncomfortable to even think about. So here's the practical piece. If you lead a team or a ministry or a church, ask yourself one honest question this week. If it were time to hand this off, would you know it? And would you do it with grace, or would you have to have it pried away? I'm Ted Rhodes in for Todd today. I'm off to report back to Todd. Go lead well today.