Harvest Halts James MacDonald’s Walk in the Word

The megachurch has taken down sermons broadcast as part of their former pastor’s 21-year teaching ministry.

Three months after firing founding pastor James MacDonald, Harvest Bible Chapel has pulled the video and radio broadcasts of his popular “Walk in the Word” teaching ministry and announced that it will not move forward with plans for digital distributions of his sermons.

“We understand the disappointment this may cause to you as someone who has been fed through this teaching and has graciously supported this broadcast ministry,” Harvest wrote in an email to Walk in the Word supporters on Thursday evening. “But in the midst of this, we are trusting the Lord with every step.”

The ministry said it would “take down the Walk in the Word website until further notice.” While the site—JamesMacDonald.com—remains up, the sections containing MacDonald’s video and radio recordings are no longer accessible and generate a “website under maintenance” page.

After 21 years as a radio ministry, Harvest decided last year that Walk in the Word—which reportedly reaches 5 million people a month—would be moving to digital distribution, but those plans have also been cancelled. It appears MacDonald’s sermons have also been removed from Harvest’s YouTube channel, where many videos in its feed are now “unavailable.”

The move once again raises the question of whether to continue to use a pastor’s teachings after he has been removed from the pulpit.

Followers objected to Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale’s decision to remove episodes of Bob Coy’s popular sermon podcast once he resigned due to a “moral failing” in 2015. After publishers including LifeWay stopped printing MacDonald’s work earlier this year, CT asked ...