Johnson, Swindoll Consider What Endures After Long Ministries

Two veteran evangelical leaders are looking back on decades of ministry and talking about what’s next after their public roles change: faithful stewardship for one, and God’s grace for the other.

Phil Johnson, 73, retired July 1 after 43 years at Grace to You, the broadcast ministry founded by the late John MacArthur. Johnson said incurable multiple myeloma had reduced his energy and that the ministry needed leaders prepared for “the next generations of technology and strategy.”

“I’m profoundly grateful for the amazing privilege I had to work alongside John MacArthur for more than four decades,” Johnson wrote on social media. “I love Grace to You with all my heart, and nothing will ever change that.”

Johnson was MacArthur’s longtime editor and Grace to You’s executive director. Grace Community Church says he also remains an elder and pastor. He founded The Spurgeon Archive, The Hall of Church History and the Pyromaniacs blog.

Johnson disclosed his cancer in 2024 after kidney failure led doctors to order blood tests and a bone marrow biopsy. He called the crisis “a sort of blessing in disguise” because the cancer was found while treatment could still help.

Chuck Swindoll opened up during a recent interview with evangelist Greg Laurie. Asked what he would preach if he had one sermon left, the 91-year-old pastor and author chose grace.

“I want to be known as a man of grace,” Swindoll said. “It would revolve around Christ, too, because that’s where grace originates. It would take us to the cross.”

Swindoll retired in 2024 after 26 years as senior pastor of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas. But he did not leave ministry. Insight for Living says he continues recording programs, writing and mentoring younger pastors through the radio ministry he founded in 1979.

“And at this pivotal time in the ministry’s history, Grace to You needs to be in the hands of leadership that will steer the ministry into the next generations of technology and strategy. I love Grace to You with all my heart, and nothing will ever change that,” he told stated.

“You don’t have to clean up anything,” Swindoll told Laurie. “All you’ve got to do is come to Christ.”

–Alan Goforth

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