RZIM To Restructure as a Grant-Making Organization to Support Abuse Victims
Amid plummeting donations and a reputation in tatters, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries has announced that is will no longer be known as an apologetics ministry, but rather will restructure and pivot to become a grant-making organization to supporting evangelism and abuse victims.
Not content to close everything down and walk away in light of the horrific abuses perpetrated by their namesake, the late Ravi Zacharias, RZIM will instead slash 60% of their jobs, change their name, and undergo changes at a leadership level, in a bid to restart the company, according to an internal email sent by CEO Sarah Davis – the daughter of Zacharias.
Since a preliminary report on the investigation just before Christmas and the full report and its findings in February, we, as a ministry, have been processing a wide range of emotions, including intense grief for victims of abuse, abhorrence at Ravi’s actions, disillusionment, dismay, anger, and uncertainty about the future of the ministry we love and serve…
In the past few months we have experienced a steady decline in financial support to the ministry as well as the loss of our certification with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) due to findings in the Miller & Martin investigation. We made a decision to stop soliciting—or accepting— financial contributions to RZIM until further notice. Some of you have had invitations to speak rescinded, while others have lost opportunities to publish…
In praying about and seeking direction for our near and long-term futures, we have reached four conclusions, which we would like to share with you today.
1. RZIM cannot—indeed should not—continue to operate as an organization in its present form. Nor do we believe we can merely rename the organization and move forward with “business as
usual.” That, we are convinced, is not right for numerous reasons.
2. We plan to transition RZIM from its current form of a global speaking team of evangelists and apologists with offices around the world to a grantmaking entity, much like a charitable foundation, which will support a variety of ministries, causes, and kingdom-building efforts.
Specifically, we expect this new entity will make grants in two areas: furthering our original mission to preach the gospel through the questions of culture, and the prevention of and caring for victims of sexual abuse. We plan to continue to make grants to many of the organizations we already support, in particular to our national offices around the world, and we also anticipate grants to seed new organizations that fulfill the mission on which RZIM was first started. In this way we hope to honor the intent of the gifts our donors have sacrificially made to further the gospel…
3. Our focus during this transition will be fourfold: Repentance, Restitution, Learning, Serving. We intend for every department of the ministry to focus their gifts, skills, and resources toward making meaningful progress in these four areas. In the meantime, this transition period will allow us to complete the Guidepost review that is underway.
4. Finally, and sadly, the current economic realities, coupled with the needs for the journey before us, will require that at this time we make a significant reduction in our global workforce—our ministry team. Specifically, we will be reducing our team by approximately 60 percent beginning as soon as tomorrow…
The move to pivot and become an organization that will support both evangelism and “the prevention of and caring for victims of sexual abuse” will take between 4 and 6 months until it is complete.
The organization previously announced on Saturday that they were purging the organization of all Ravi Zacharias content and would likely include a name change, explaining, “We are in the process of taking down Ravi’s content from our website and social media platforms, including publications, videos, and other forms of content, and we intend to change the name of the organization…”
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It is sad news that his own daughter would act in such a sinful manner. But it is not our organization and she is free to make the choices that she does. Her betrayal of her father says everything about her and I would not want to be associated with any Christian ministry with her involved.
Her betrayal of her father? More like his betrayal of her. Still, she must have known.
A paycheck that big is a powerful draw
I’m sorry but in this day and age there’s no way people didn’t know what Ravi was up to. I just can’t get behind that. And now innocent people are going to lose jobs because some people were covering up his indiscretions.
To be a grant-making organisation you have to have a pile of money to make grants with.
Ah – money! The anonymous board members still need money, don’t they, as they have a lifestyle to maintain. So let’s say we’ll give grants, which means people will give money to us and we’ll give some of it to others.
There are many other organisations supporting evangelism and working in the field of abuse. Who needs another one, specially with its recent past? Tell us who you are, anonymous board, then close the office and go home for good.