Tony Evans restored to ministry after discipline for undisclosed sin

Elders on the 11,000-member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas, announced Sunday that while founder Pastor Tony Evans has been restored to ministry after stepping down greater than a 12 months ago as a result of a sin that was not publicly disclosed, he won’t be returning to a staff position or any leadership role. 

“Dr. Evans acknowledged in a public statement falling wanting God’s standard and a have to undergo the church’s discipline and restoration process. We are pleased to report that Dr. Evans has fully submitted to the church’s discipline and restoration process,” Chris Wheel, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship’s associate pastor of outreach, told the congregation on Sunday.

Wheel said Evans’ 12-month restoration programme included counseling with outside non-staff professionals and pastoral mentoring, together with stepping away from pulpit ministry. He said elders were satisfied that Evans demonstrated “evidence of real repentance and godly sorrow,” together with “humility and a renewed desire to honor God.”

“In alignment with biblical principles and unanimous affirmation of the elder board, Dr. Evans has successfully accomplished this restoration journey,” Wheel said. “While he won’t be returning in a staff nor leadership role at OCBF, we joyfully stay up for seeing how God uses Dr. Evans’ gifts and calling to proclaim the reality of Scripture with clarity and conviction for the strengthening of the body of Christ.”

In June 2024, after 48 years of leading his church, Evans, 75, revealed he fell wanting biblical standards numerous years prior, and his failure was serious enough to warrant stepping away from his ministry. Though he didn’t reveal what the sin was, he was quick to indicate that he had not violated secular laws.

“The foundation of our ministry has at all times been our commitment to the Word of God as absolutely the supreme standard of truth to which we’re to evolve our lives. When we fall wanting that standard as a result of sin, we’re required to repent and restore our relationship with God,” Evans said in his confession.

“Various years ago, I fell wanting that standard. I’m, due to this fact, required to use the identical biblical standard of repentance and restoration to myself that I even have applied to others. I even have shared this with my wife, my children, and our church elders, they usually have lovingly placed their arms of grace around me,” he said. “While I even have committed no crime, I didn’t use righteous judgment in my actions. In light of this, I’m stepping away from my pastoral duties and am submitting to a healing and restoration process established by the elders.”

It stays unclear if elders and Evans’ family were told the precise nature of his sin. Evans’ son, the Rev. Jonathan Evans, who is predicted to be formally confirmed because the megachurch’s latest lead pastor soon, said his father only confessed to his family that he had fallen short just a few days before sharing it with the church, and he didn’t share any greater than what was disclosed to the church.

“Three days [before the public confession], my dad would call us [his family] and tell us the very same thing he told you. No more. No less.” Jonathan Evans said during a  Father’s Day sermon in 2024.

Oak Cliff Bible Church also didn’t reveal any additional details in regards to the nature of Evans’ sin.

Wheel cited Lamentations 3:22-23 and Galatians 6:1 because the Scriptures that were used to create the framework for Evans’ discipline.

“Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Restoration when pursued with gentleness and self-awareness reflects the very character of Christ and safeguards the health of all the church body. In keeping with this biblical framework, the elder board exercised deliberate and prayerful discretion regarding the timing, the way of exposing specific details throughout the restoration process,” he said.

“This was not done to hide wrongdoing, but somewhat to uphold the integrity of the method, to guard the dignity of all involved, and stop unnecessary speculation or sensationalism. Our desire has at all times been to handle this matter in a way that honors each truth and love [during] Dr. Evans’ discipline and restoration process.”

After the church elders prayed over him and took communion to mark his restoration, Evans also sat along with his son for a Q&A, during which his son told him, “Man, I’m happy with you.”

“It’s one thing to look at you preach the Word. It’s one other thing to look at you reside under its authority even when it hurts,” Jonathan Evans declared to his father.

Evans then revealed that his restoration felt “bittersweet” due to every little thing that he needed to undergo.

“It’s definitely bitter whenever you’ve done something for 48 years on daily basis, every week, and then you definitely’re not doing it. And it is your fault. And that creates a wound in your soul. A wound within the soul that is not easily [healed],” he explained. “And so, I even have felt the angst of that, the pain of that, the struggle of that. But I also understand that whenever you undergo something, you’ve gotten to relate to God in a deeper place. You need to experience him in a deeper way.”

He further explained that the church created a restoration policy to assist members and leaders after they fall see church as “a hospital of restoration and never just a spot where you go.”

“It’s one thing to see an indication that claims emergency room. It’s one other thing to have doctors and nurses and medicine on call whenever you needed to go there. And so, that was instituted. And over these a few years, many individuals have come through this process. So when it got here my turn, I couldn’t apply to others what I used to be unwilling to use to myself,” Evans said.

“I needed to undergo the very process I helped to put in and say, you recognize what … I would like to use the Word to me as I applied it to everybody else along the best way. Because if we will be a Bible church, that just cannot be a reputation. You got to return underneath the Bible and underneath the prescribed governance, that are the elders on this case of the local church,” he added.

Evans noted that while church discipline was difficult, he was comforted by the indisputable fact that his children didn’t lose their faith due to his sin, and his son could be continuing his legacy.

“Knowing that there was not only going to be an empty seat but a latest chair and that you just could be sitting in it made losing my chair durable, manageable, because I do know who’s in that chair,” he told the brand new Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship lead pastor.

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