Evangelical leaders’ descendants divided

The daughter of the late Rev. D. James Kennedy and the grandson of evangelist Billy Graham are battling over the leadership of a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., church, The Associated Press reports. The Rev. Tullian Tchividjian, with spiky hair, sometimes scruffy beard and no clerical robe, is taking a different approach to leadership at Coral Ridge […]

The daughter of the late Rev. D. James Kennedy and the grandson of evangelist Billy Graham are battling over the leadership of a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., church, The Associated Press reports.

The Rev. Tullian Tchividjian, with spiky hair, sometimes scruffy beard and no clerical robe, is taking a different approach to leadership at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church than Kennedy, who always wore a robe in the church’s pulpit. Tchividjian succeeded Kennedy, who died in 2007, earlier this year.

Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy is among a group calling for Tchividjian’s ouster but church elder Bill Ashcraft says the dissenters are outnumbered.


“They would like for things to be exactly as they were under Pastor Kennedy,” Ashcraft said. “We didn’t bring Tullian Tchividjian to Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church to do exactly what D. James Kennedy was doing.”

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