Billy Graham grandson to lead famed megachurch Coral Ridge

By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer – Sun Mar 15, 

A widely-known megachurch founded by an architect of the religious right and seen as a national political force selected a grandson of Billy Graham on Sunday as its new leader.

The overwhelming vote by congregants at Coral Ridge Presbyterian inFort Lauderdale to appoint the Rev. Tullian Tchividjian could represent a softening of the message spread by the Rev. D. James Kennedy, who was pastor at the church until his death in September 2007. (snip)

Tchividjian insists he holds the same theological positions of Kennedy, but he cuts a far different image.

His hair is spiky, his beard sometimes scruffy, his skin tan. He offers a classic prodigal son story of youthful forays into drugs and sex, then his return to the fold. He has said he wants people to know what Christians are for as much as what they are against, and has rejected the idea that politics is the most important way to change the country.

"I think that politics is one strategic area of cultural engagement," he said Sunday. "But I also think that the sphere of art and the sphere of education and the sphere of media and technology are also strategic."

Tchividjian, 36, is the middle of seven children born to Stephan Tchividjian and Graham's eldest daughter, Gigi. He attended Coral Ridge — where Graham delivered the dedication ceremony — and its adjacent school as a young man, but at 16 he dropped out, spending the next five years partying on South Beach, seeking the company of women and getting high. (snip, full article at this  link.)

An Interview with Tullian Tchividjian

Q.You did your MDiv work at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando. Which happened first—you became Reformed, then went to RTS, or the other way around?

"Soon after God saved me (if indeed I was saved at 21 instead of 5), God gave me an overwhelming hunger and thirst to study, to read, to learn. I wanted to go to college but with only a GED and no SAT scores, I wasn’t sure how I was going to do this. So at first, I simply began reading books that my pastor (we were attending a PCA church at the time) encouraged me to read (this included books by Packer, Sproul, Lloyd-Jones, the Puritans, etc.). I really wrestled with the doctrine of election. But after a long hard struggle with the Bible I came to the realization that I could choose not to believe this doctrine but I could not in good conscience say that the Bible doesn’t teach it. It was clear to me that from cover to cover Scripture highlights God’s sovereignty in salvation. After I was convinced of the Doctrines of Grace, however, I became a real pain in the neck. Every non-Calvinist was an idiot, so I thought, and I made sure to tell them. Thankfully, God quickly tempered my zeal and I came to realize that an arrogant Calvinist is an oxymoron."

(snip, interview at link.)