HARVEST BIBLE CHAPEL PASTOR TAKING SABBATICAL
The founder and senior
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pastor of the Harvest Bible Chapel is taking a sabbatical from church operations in the Chicago area, the board of elders announced Wednesday, a week after the church dropped a defamation lawsuit against several critics.
The Rev. James MacDonald will take “an indefinite sabbatical from all preaching and leadership” locally, but he might continue to preach over the winter at the church in Naples, Florida, the elders’ letter said.
At the same time, the elders said, the church is embarking upon “a peacemaking process that seeks both reconciliation and change where needed.”
In a statement in which he said he is leaving the church “in capable hands,” MacDonald wrote: “For a long time I have felt unequal to all but the preaching task at Harvest. I have battled cycles of injustice, hurt, anger, and fear which have wounded others without cause. I have carried great shame about this pattern in certain relationships that can only be called sin. I am grieved that people I love have been hurt by me in ways they felt they could not express to me directly and have not been able to resolve. I blame only myself for this and want to devote my entire energy to understanding and addressing these recurring patterns.”
MacDonald founded Harvest Bible in 1988 in Rolling Meadows. It has grown to include churches
in Aurora, Chicago, Crystal Lake, Elgin, Highland Park and Niles. The church says that about 12,000 people worship at its campuses every week.
It also led a campaign to found more than 100 other Harvest churches worldwide, mostly in the United States, through Harvest Bible Fellowship.
MacDonald’s sabbatical comes as he and the church are the focus of criticism by former members and other Christians writing on various internet sites. They accuse MacDonald of wielding too much power in church governance, of lashing out at people, of being paid what they see as too much, of theological impropriety and more.
The church has come under fire for how it handled reports a youth minister was sending sexual text messages to minors and for how leaders have handled finances.
In October, the church sued three of those critics, charging they had defamed Harvest Bible and MacDonald and were interfering in the business of the church.
The church announced in early January it was dropping the lawsuit after a Cook County judge ruled against the church’s request to keep some documents private. The church had sued Julie Roys of Carol Stream, Ryan and Melinda Mahoney of Wheaton, and Scott and Sarah Bryant of Geneva in October.