Billy Graham’s grandson named to Florida pulpit

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Tullian Tchividjian, a grandson of Evangelist Billy Graham, has been formally chosen to succeed the late D. James Kennedy as the senior minister of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Tchividjian, 36, founded New City Church in nearby Coconut Creek more than five years ago. That congregation will merge with Coral Ridge and joint worship should begin there on Easter, he said.

Tchividjian called Kennedy, a broadcaster who used the airwaves to get fellow conservatives to be active in faith and politics, “a giant in the faith” whose footsteps he is pleased to follow. “As different as some may think Dr. Kennedy and I are, our theological commitments are the same and our hearts beat with the same driving passion,” Tchividjian said in a statement. “Indeed what he came to do in the 1950s — reach the people of south Florida with the gospel and transform the world — is exactly what I have been seeking to do ever since I moved back home to start New City in 2003.”

After preaching March 15 at Coral Ridge, he received 91 percent of the vote at a congregational meeting held when the worship service concluded. Coral Ridge’s pulpit nominating committee had recommended him, and elders of both congregations had previously voted in favor of the transition. Coral Ridge, which currently has 2,200 members, is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). New City, with 650 members, will change its affiliation with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church to the PCA. Both denominations are theologically conservative.