Dr. Tony Evans Returns to Ministry without Leadership Role after Committing Undisclosed Sin

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After over a year of stepping down from ministry due to undisclosed sin, Dr. Tony Evans has been restored to ministry by the elders of the 11,000-member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas.

"Dr. Evans acknowledged in a public statement falling short of God's standard and a need to submit to 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.

Despite the restoration, Wheel clarified that it did not entail Evans returning to the church staff or any leadership position, The Christian Post reported.

"In alignment with biblical principles and unanimous affirmation of the elder board, Dr. Evans has successfully completed this restoration journey," Wheel said. "While he will not be returning in a staff nor leadership role at OCBF, we joyfully look forward to seeing how God uses Dr. Evans' gifts and calling to proclaim the truth of Scripture with clarity and conviction for the strengthening of the body of Christ."

Evans, 75, stepped down in June 2024 after 48 years of ministry, having shared that he had fallen into an undisclosed sin, but stressed that he had committed no crime.

"A number of years ago, I fell short of that standard. I am, therefore, required to apply the same biblical standard of repentance and restoration to myself that I have applied to others. I have shared this with my wife, my children, and our church elders, and they have lovingly placed their arms of grace around me," he said. "While I have committed no crime, I did not use righteous judgment in my actions. In light of this, I am stepping away from my pastoral duties and am submitting to a healing and restoration process established by the elders."

Citing from Scripture, Wheel said that Lamentations 3:22-23 and Galatians 6:1 were the inspiration for Evan's 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 the entire church body. In keeping with this biblical framework, the elder board exercised deliberate and prayerful discretion regarding the timing, the manner of disclosing specific details throughout the restoration process," he said.

"This was not done to conceal wrongdoing, but rather to uphold the integrity of the process, to protect the dignity of all involved, and prevent unnecessary speculation or sensationalism. Our desire has always been to handle this matter in a way that honors both truth and love [during] Dr. Evans' discipline and restoration process."

During a Q&A between Evans and his son, Jonathan Evans, who replaced his father as senior pastor of Cliffside following the confession, Evans shared that the restoration process was "bittersweet."

"It's certainly bitter when you've done something for 48 years every day, every week, and then you're no longer doing it. And it's your fault. And that creates a wound in your soul. A wound in the soul that's not easily [healed]," he explained. "And so, I have felt the angst of that, the pain of that, the struggle of that. But I also understand that when you go through something, you have to relate to God in a deeper place. You have to experience him in a deeper way."

He also shared that the church created a restoration policy to help church members and leaders who have fallen into sin to view the church "a hospital of restoration and not just a place where you go."

"It's one thing to see a sign that says emergency room. It's another thing to have doctors and nurses and medicine on call when you needed to go there. And so, that was instituted. And over these many years, many people have come through this process. So when it came my turn, I could not apply to others what I was unwilling to apply to myself," Evans said.

"I had to submit to the very process I helped to install and say, you know what…I need to apply the Word to me as I applied it to everybody else along the way. Because if we're going to be a Bible church, that just can't be a name. You've got to come underneath the Bible and underneath the prescribed governance, which are the elders in this case of the local church," he added.

Evans also commended his son for continuing his legacy amid the difficult season he endured over the past year in church discipline.

"Knowing that there was not just going to be an empty seat but a new chair and that you would be sitting in it made losing my chair durable, manageable, because I know who's in that chair," he said.

Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.