Dallas megachurch founder Tony Evans has lived a mostly private life for more than a year, after announcing an undisclosed “sin” caused him to step away from the prominent pulpit where he preached for almost five decades.
His church, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, announced Sunday (Oct. 5) that he completed a restoration process but is not returning to its leadership. However, Evans, 76, is working on new public-facing projects, mostly through his ministry The Urban Alternative.
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His latest book, “Unleashed: Releasing God’s Glorious Kingdom in and Through You,” is set to be released by Thomas Nelson Publishers on Oct. 28. He’s also scheduling speaking engagements at churches and conferences after his first major address in more than a year at a conservative Christian summit in Des Moines, Iowa, in July.
The elder board of his predominantly Black nondenominational church also announced that his son, Jonathan Evans, has been appointed an elder and is expected to officially be installed as lead pastor.
In an interview with Religion News Service days before his church’s “Restoration Sunday,” the elder Evans said he has faced challenges with people not accepting his marriage to his second wife, Carla Evans, after the death of Lois Evans, to whom he was married for 49 years. He also said there have been other personal matters, which he chose not to discuss in the interview, that he has grappled with as his son is gaining more church responsibilities. When he’s in town, Evans now sits at the front of the church with his family, and he said he’s supportive of Jonathan Evans’ leadership and impressed by his preaching.
In the interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, Evans talked about his new book, why he left his church’s leadership, the next phase of his life and his thoughts about eternity.
You have previously written books on your beliefs about what you call the “kingdom power” of God. How do you sum up those convictions, and how are you approaching that topic differently this time?
In the book “Unleashed,” I’m trying to focus on taking the concept of the kingdom and releasing it in and through your life. Many Christians don’t have a kingdom worldview. They’ve accepted Christ. They’re on their way to heaven. But this rule of God on the way there for them on Earth is often missing. And so, we’re trying to go deeper in seeing it being practically activated in your life.
Your book discusses choices and standards you think Christians should embrace, and you seem to have made a choice for yourself about standards when you stepped down from pastoral leadership at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship last year. Can you share what the undisclosed sin was that prompted that decision, and if your healing and restoration process is continuing?
There was a decision made as I moved into a new relationship. My wife passed away in 2019, and I remarried (four) years later, and there was such consternation around that, and people who were not as excited about it (laughs). And we were already in transition with my son (in leading the church). So, we just said this would be the best time to go ahead and make that transition so that all the consternation around it wouldn’t interfere with that process. There was some underlying things, but that was the decision that was made as we moved forward.
And who made that decision — you or the church?
A combination. It was a shared one.
You used the word “sin” in your statement, and now you’re using the word “consternation.” Can you explain what you mean?
There just was some personal matters that we’re not free to go into, but some personal matters that precipitated that decision.
Anything more you can say? That’s a little unclear.
I know, but because the church wanted to just keep it within the bounds of the church, that’s why we’re honoring that.
Your son is now preaching regularly at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. How has that transition gone? Are you solely a member there, or are you involved in the church in other ways now?
I am the founding pastor, and my goal is to support him in every way. It has freed me up to do some of the national events that we are doing. We’re doing a new podcast that we’re taping now. We also (are producing) an “Unbound” documentary series showing how the Bible moved throughout history. So, it’s created a freedom that I’ve never had before (laughs).
How soon do you think you’ll be back in the pulpit preaching?
We have some meetings coming up to discuss the plan for that because we are trying to not let his movement into this new arena be overshadowed by my 48 years. So, it’s a timing thing, and we haven’t gotten specific yet, but we’re working toward that.
In your son’s sermon on Sept. 28, he said he initially complained to God about this season that Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship began when you stepped away, but said he realized he should be grateful for your decades-long ministry and God’s faithfulness in it. What has it been like watching his sermons and seeing him lead?
He’s blowing my mind, actually. He’s got this — it’s an old term— but this “New Jack City” thing (laughs), the media thing and this new generation thing, but he is solidly expositional in the Word. So, I am loving the exposition. I’m loving the relevancy. This younger generation of preachers, they tend to be much more casual, much more relaxed. This is a new world that I don’t fully get, but I can appreciate the fact that we want to reach it in a relevant way.
When you say “media,” what do you mean?
I’m certainly meaning his use of social media, but media in the service — video clips and staging and props and all that.
You note in your book that when people have mountains, so to speak, or difficulties, they tend to talk to other people about their problems rather than talking to God about them — or to the mountain. What’s an example of when you spoke to a mountain, maybe especially in the last year or so?
During this year, we have had to address some major issues with regard to our projects, our funding. We’re having to raise $9 million to do all that we’re doing around the world. And so we had to speak to God about being our source, but we also had to speak to the source. We had one donor who unexpectedly gave us a million dollars.
Did the difficulty of fundraising have anything to do with the fact that you stepped away?
No, it has had to do with the need of the moment. It’s a couple of projects. One is “Unbound,” where we’re tracing from the medieval age through the Renaissance to the Reformation to the Enlightenment to the modern times how God has moved his word along. When we take these trips to the different countries with these events, “Unbound” is showing how God used the social, political, economic and personality dynamics to move his word along.
When you spoke in July to the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, you told them, “You’re not first Democrat, you’re not first Republican. You are first of all, a representative of another king and another kingdom, and everything else is second to that.” In a time when politics are often dividing the church, are you concerned that evangelical Christians are often described as following their party more than their faith?
That’s a major concern because what we’ve done is turned politics into an idol, and anything idolatrous is going to be rejected by God. God is involved in politics all through Scripture, but he’s involved as God. He’s not riding the backs of donkeys or elephants. Neither can Christians be riding the backs of donkeys or elephants. So absolutely, Christians should be engaged in politics. We should bring God’s point of view to politics, but we should never believe we’re going to be delivered or saved by politics.
Was there something you learned about yourself or that you’re taking forward now that this restoration process has concluded?
Through this year, there have been a number of losses of people; some of our leaders who have passed away. And a dear part of our ministry, one of our board members who I was very close to, passed away from cancer. I think I’ve gone deeper in thinking about eternity. Always thought about it, but deeper in that vein. So whatever life I have left, I want to maximize at the highest possible level for God’s Kingdom and for eternity.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Adelle M. Banks and originally published by Religion News Service.
