Director at RZIM and his wife announce resignation

Jo and Vince Vitale are announcing their resignation from the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM).

"We have sought to spend this season lamenting, listening, and learning from others rather than speaking, but we wanted to write at this point to let you know that we will be resigning from RZIM next week," the couple says in a statement on July 28, 2021. 

Vince co-authored Jesus Among Other Gods: The Counter-Cultural Claims of Christ with the late Ravi Zacharias. He is also the head of RZIM in the USA. 

After hearing the report about Zacharias's sexual misconduct in December 2020, many members of the RZIM team were quiet. 

"We have lived with three very strong convictions. One of these convictions was that God was leading us to take seriously what we personally needed to repent of—to spend far more of our prayers, thoughts, and words on our own mistakes and failures than on those of anyone else," says the Vitales. 

Jo, Vince's wife, works for RZIM as well. They run a podcast together under the ministries name called Ask Away.

"Another conviction, this our most pressing, was that RZIM’s response to the grave abuse that occurred was critically important—most crucially for the survivors, and also for the mission and witness of the wider church in sober recognition of the need to do far better to ensure that the vulnerable are seen and heard and valued and safe."

The couple don't believe that has been done, hence the announcement of their resignation from the ministry.

"One challenge we want to wrestle with is to what extent subconscious desires, for example to be thought well of or to preserve relationships, might have contributed to some of the ways we acted and failed to act."

The couple go on to say that they appreciated working with many of their colleagues and may do so again one day.

"We will always deeply grieve the suffering and the ways in which we contributed to it, but it is our prayer that the grief we carry from this will serve as a lasting reminder of our duty to care for the many whose wounds are far deeper than our own."

The entire statement can be read here.