Sarah Davis, a daughter of the late Ravi Zacharias, has formed a new ministry, which will be based in metro Atlanta.
In a preliminary launch statement, Davis, who served as CEO of Ravi Zacharias International Ministry, said the “holding” name for the new Christian and apologetics ministry is Encounter.
It was formed “with a talented team of speakers, writers, media specialists, and professional staff. We exist to give people an imaginative experience of Jesus Christ and to help answer deeply held questions, sharing the Gospel through spoken, written, and digital word. We seek to thoughtfully engage people in Gospel conversations and to train and disciple Christians to be messengers of Christ’s love in their spheres of influence.”
The statement said more information on such things as the team, vision, plans and name will be released in the coming months.
The news, first reported by Christianity Today, comes months after RZIM, the Alpharetta-based global ministry founded by her father, a well-known evangelist, author and Christian apologetic, was rocked by scandal. An independent investigation found credible evidence that the prominent Christian leader was involved in several incidents of unwanted touching, sexting, spiritual abuse and rape. Some of the misconduct happened at spas co-owned by Zacharias.
Zacharias died in 2020 from cancer, and his memorial service was attended by politicians and celebrities including then-Vice President Mike Pence and athlete and philanthropist Tim Tebow.
It’s unclear whether Davis, Zacharias’ older daughter, is still CEO of RZIM, which her father, an internationally recognized Christian leader, formed more than three decades ago. She became CEO in November 2019.
In a video released earlier this year, Davis said working with the team of evangelists and their work preaching the Gospel around the world was one of the “greatest blessings of her life” but the last year or or so has been painful, first with the death of her father and then as allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced.
In 2017, though, one woman, Lori Anne Thompson, alleged that she was coerced into a relationship with Zacharias that included sexually explicit online conversations and solicited indecent photographs of her, which he and the ministry denied.
The board of RZIM admitted since the latest scandal was investigated that it was wrong not to believe Thompson and her husband and asked for their forgiveness.
In that case, Davis said in the video, she admitted she made serious errors and said her intent was not to cover up the “sins of my father”; she said she should have called for an independent investigation but trusted her father.
As a result, the RZIM board said at the time it was instituting several steps to address the abuse and to make sure it doesn’t happen again, according to a previous article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It’s unclear where RZIM is in that process.
About the Author
