Welcome to the SGM Borg Smack-Down

"Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere." C. S. Lewis
 

 

 

 

 

The Jenga game continues.
 

 

1. How is Scripture used? Is it done in context. Is it verse baiting? Are the logical questions answered? Is it usually used to develop a harsh and punishing view of the faith?
 

I believe that one can use Scripture verses to prove just about anything. Just before Emerson launched into his legalistic, mean trade, he started with a smack down of another pastor in what I believe to be this dysfunctional family of churches. Let me say this-I have never heard of a church with so many pastors getting smacked down and degifted. He said that Dan, the pastor in an SGM church in Raleigh, was required to “step down” because he had a son who was “in rebellion.” Emerson said that a pastor must be example of proper home life and that could not be accomplished with a rebellious kid. He gets this from Titus 1:6 (NIV)

 

"An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe[b] and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient."
 

My fellow blog queen (not to be confused with Borg Queen) will be discussing the SGM penchant for  “degifting” pastors in what appears to be a capricious fashion next week. However, today I want to say that SGM has at least one foolproof way of getting rid of pastors and that is to use this verse against them. This verse is difficult and there are many questions that should be asked in its application.
 

Permit me to make a simple observation. I call it the "Garden of Eden Incident." If I take this passage at its face value, it would seem necessary to ask why God was unable to control his rebellious children. In fact, all of His children rebelled, continue to rebel and will continue to rebel. So, as a Father, He seems rather impotent to control His children, doesn’t He? Isn’t it His fault? Maybe He didn't get the SGM handout of the Puritan pamphlet on raising children (In some of it's churches, it is reported that SGM hands out guidebooks written by the Puritans on raising kids).
 

Any pastor who says his children are not disobedient is lying (Would anonymous please refer to Thesaurus.com for synonyms) to himself and everyone else. If his children look perfect, be assured, they aren't.  Our children have been given a choice to obey just like the rest of us. We also know that some of our children will walk away from the faith through no fault of our own. Look at the struggles in Billy Graham’s family. Should he have stepped down from his ministry?
 

Who gets to define what constitutes enough bad disobedience so that  a pastor needs to step down? I know a pastor whose son used drugs for awhile. He is one of Mahaney’s friends. He didn’t step down. This standard appears to be arbitrary in it's application, and as such, can be misused for other purposes. In other words, it is a good excuse to get rid of someone.
 

Such an ill-defined standard places a terrible burden on people in the congregation. What if their kids struggle? Are they bad parents? Could this verse actually points to parents who have substituted church and clerical business for attention to their families? I have a question for former and present SGM members. Have you ever seen any pastors get a pass on a rebellious kid? Is there favoritism in its enforcement? How do you define rebellion? Is it drugs, promiscuity, backtalk, refusal to do homework, etc.? Who gets to set the bar for disobedience that warrants a step down? Do you find yourself comparing your kid to other kids and wonder why they aren’t as nice as Pastor Joe’s? Does Pastor Joe pretend his kids are better than other kids?Are you afraid your kids will embarrass you in front of Pastor Joe? Why? Is there some unspoken, pastor-defined standard that you are trying to achieve?

 

I believe that this is a standard that is easily misused and abused and could cause unnecessary pain for many people.

 

2. Abusive ministries often focus on generic sins that affect every human being. There is a good reason for this.

Steve was accused of the following sins: unbelief, selfishness, and pride.

Permit me an observation. Who amongst us is not proud? Which of us is without selfishness? I read Mahaney’s book called Humility and came away thinking that this man is the poster child for pride and false humility. TWW even did a review of this book entitled False Humility, True Hypocrisy. Here is the link.
 

This is the problem. Because sins, such as pride,selfishness, etc., afflict all of us, anyone could get (and from what I have read, do) hauled up before the SGM Inquisitors and deemed guilty. How does one deny that he is not proud? How can one negate that she is selfish? This is the ultimate game of gotcha. Next time it happens to you, if you are foolish enough to stick around for this abuse, say, “Back at ya, bub.” Don’t try to argue. They will victimize you and you can’t win. They have you exactly where they want you to be. That's the point.

 

3.The accusation of the sin of unbelief is rooted in Old Testament legalism and indicates to me that these guys feel an affinity to the lifestyle under the Old Testament law.

 

The Law is alive and well and functioning in this situation. In fact, I would say that these pastors appear to be guilty of a far worse sin, leading people away from the faith. Heads will roll for this one!! They appear to have rejected the life of grace and have returned, instead, to live under the Law. And that is a really big no,no in the New Testament. Teachers are held to a high standard and I think they have blown it big time.
 

This issue is well discussed at a site called Apt to Teach. It will download as a pdf.
 

Please note the following passages.

Romans 11
“20 Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. . . . 22 Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again.

1 Timothy 4
“1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, . . . 3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.”
 

These passages tie unbelief to falling away from the faith as defined by grace. In the Timothy passage, this falling away is distinguished by a return to the laws and rules of living under the Law. The Pharisees had books and books filled with rules on how to properly follow the Law. Jesus condemned these religionists for placing burdens on the people. The Law served as focal point to demonstrate man's inability to follow the Law. Although it serves as a moral guideline, Jesus told us our faith was now rooted in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and not in our ability to keep and follow the Law. However, there are teachers who mouth grace but enforce the law as the define it.

 

Abrahamson develops this by defining what he calls “The Terrorizing Work of the Law in the Christianʼs Life
 

  • It challenges the strong to live by the flesh .  This means that it is done through your own will and power. 
  • It condemns the sensitive to shame.Those who can’t do like the “strong” are condemned by the strong.
  • It hardens the religious to pride. By focusing on how much better you do things than others, you are prone to pride.

 

 

4. The pastors “cook the books” so they ignore their own problem.
 

Abrahamson says that this is one of the ways that we attempt to reconcile dissonance in our lives. Dissonance rears its ugly head when we focus on the Law. Now, it is impossible for us to follow the Law but we try to do it anyway. So, we “cook the books” by defining which laws we can obey and pretend we are living a fully moral and righteous life. Then we expect everyone else to follow it as well. So, if our law is homeschooling, then everyone else better homeschool as well. And if they don’t, well, we won’t question their faith but they are probably not really following God. But we are.
 

The leadership deemed that Steve was to go to Roanoke as a pastor even though there were patently clear signals that this was a mistake. These pastors believe that they knew “exactly” what God wanted Steve to do. And, when God speaks, as they define it, one must act.  Their rule was for Steve to “Go to Roanoke.” If he questioned this command, then it would be insinuated that he was not following God and his Christian walk would be called into question. Can you imagine the pressure that Steve felt?
 

However, as time went on, it was obvious that these guys messed up. Uh Oh! Dissonance occurs. I could imagine they thought something along these lines. “We are God’s mouthpiece and we know what He wants so this had to be the right decision. But it turned out to be a dismal failure. Since it can’t be blamed on God, it would have to be blamed on us. But it can’t. "

 

They were obligated  to come up with an excuse to get themselves off the hook and relieve the dissonance. So, it appears that they decided (either consciously or unconsciously to relieve the mind of my anonymous friend) to “cook the books." Steve was the problem; not them. Problem solved.
 

However, they went on to publicly shame him and this was unconscionable. They protected themselves and threw Steve to the wind. It indicates to me that they could be acting like modern day Pharisees. Steve was to obey the law, their law-SGM approved. This means their rules, their regulations , their style, their interpretation, and on and on. If one does it exactly they way they say, he is a good Christian. Could it be that the pastors are not following the Gospel but the Law? And in so doing, could they be leading their people astray? You decide. I have my opinion.
 

Consequently, in this manner, they got to define unbelief-SGM style. They wrote the book on the rules governing unbelief and then they subjected this destitute man to a modern day stoning. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone…. right? In my mind they are modern Pharisees who need to learn the definition of “grace” which is rather odd since grace is in the name of their organization. If they are not so inclined, they should admit what they are doing and call it Sovereign Legalism. Their motto: "Following the law as we see it.”
 

 

5. Then, they obfuscate the problem.
 

Emerson said, “If the church in Roanoke can forgive him, you should be able to.” He also claimed that the people in Roanoke were the victims of Steve’s sin. Let me get this straight. This poor man is burdened with anxiety along with being physically sick, and the pastors are concerned about the poor people in Roanoke who were “victims “ of Steve’s selfishness? See, according to SGM speak, Steve purposely did this to the church. They have to say this in order to get their sorry bottoms off the hook. Memo to SGM leaders: “It seems quite clear that you are the ones who did this to Roanoke so get off your rumps and apologize for your abysmal decision.”
 

So, out of the goodness of their hearts, the people of Roanoke forgave Steve. How sweet. Did they forgive the real culprits in this mess-the leadership?
 

Meanwhile, back at KingsWay, the people are told that they should be able to forgive him as well. WHAT? So Steve sinned against all the folks at this church as well? Egads!  How much blame can one man take. What a pile of codswallop! Talk about reinventing history. You have to hand it to them, these guys can really cook the books. I bet they learned from the master….
 

 

6. These leaders did not honor God

At the start of this sorry excuse for a gathering of the believers, Emerson talks about how this meeting was a way to honor God. I’ve got news for him. God was not honored by this meeting. This meeting was a travesty from start to finish. A man was abused while the pastors made themselves out to be the mouthpiece of God and avenging angels all rolled up into a horror movie worthy of Alfred Hitchcock. Repentance is needed here, alright,  but not from Steve. Think the "angels" will do the right thing?

 

So what does the Borg Star Trek video have to do with this incident. The Borg were a cybernetic entity that assimilated, without consent, races of people into their collective. The captives were forced to submit to cybernetic enhancements as a means of helping the Borg to achieve what they believe to be perfection. Once assimilated, these new additions would collectively think and act alike. They were told precisely what to do and obeyed without question. All individuality was suppressed and the collective good was enforced.
 

And so, in this meeting, the problem and solution was defined precisely by Emerson, who comes off as the Borg Queen, and the collective accepted the explanation. However, as time has gone on, there are more and more folks who are questioning the leaders and their perspectives on Scripture. I would urge all those with concerns to speak the truth to the power brokers even if the "boys" don’t like it. Some of the leaders will tell you that it’s your sin talking. Tell them that you refuse to be assimilated and that you are fed up with serving the "collective." In this case, your resistance will not be futile. You have the Holy Spirit on your side.

 

Now I need to clean up this pile of codswallop blocks littering my floor.

 

Lydia's Corner: Exodus 26:1-27:21 Matthew 25:1-30 Psalm 31:1-8 Proverbs 8:1-11

 

Comments

Welcome to the SGM Borg Smack-Down — 30 Comments

  1. Dee,

    I hope I don’t stray too much from the main topic of your posting, but something you said struck a chord with me and I chuckled….about having “perfect” children and where the line is drawn regarding sins of disobedience, etc. (BTW, I will go on record as saying that I would not have made it in SGM as a married woman or mother. I just never mastered the art of sucking up.) My oldest child has many special needs, both physically and emotionally, but in person presents as very “normal”, so I have had tremendous challenges advocating for him in school environments because many of his disabilities are invisible….at least initiallly.

    At any rate, when I visited Covenant Life a few weeks ago to hear Tullian Tchividjian speak, my children were with me. My son also suffers TREMENDOUSLY from ADHD, but can’t be medicated for it because of other co-occuring brain issues. If he’s in a meeting with me and becomes overly tired or can’t handle the attention factor, he just “checks out”, leans his head back and closes his eyes. I’m okay with that. (It’s much better than having him behave in an overly hyper manner!) I guess my son was having a hard time following Tullian’s message, so he “checked out”. He scooted down, leaned his head back in his seat and actually fell asleep. Now, mind you, to the person having to deal with a special needs child day in and day out, this is a HUGE blessing—the fact that he fell asleep ! Having been formerly entrenched in the legalistic, performance-oriented environment of GOB/PDI/SGM/CLC/etc., etc., I was sure that I was getting disapproving looks from people around us who were wondering why this child didn’t show more interest in things of God, but something wonderful happened to me while I was there…..I really didn’t care !!! Do you know what an accomplishment that is to be in an environment like that (having formerly been a member of said group) and not really care? It was extremely liberating. Which makes me wonder…how do they handle special needs? That’s another topic altogether. I guess I’d better stop now before I become guilty of the “sin of pride”….LOL (In reality, I am so grateful….not proud in the least….for this huge milestone in my life ! It was an indication to me that much healing has occurred.)

  2. Dee,

    With regard to the other points in your post, you have done a wonderful job explaining everything from the SGM leaders acting as gods (in your reference to the Garden of Eden Incident…even GOD gives us free will and doesn’t exercise control over us !!!!), their mind-twisting, almost foolproof way of getting people to admit their “SGM-defined sins”, their practice of throwing their flock to the wolves to protect their own hides, as well as their refusal to see or hear truth. (There’s more, but I’m hungry and don’t think as clearly when I’m hungry.)

  3. Hey Dee and Deb,

    You would think the Pioneers/Apostles/Elders of SGM would remember this when they open their mouths.

    As Larry Tomczak became a prominent speaker on both sides of the Atlantic he also became embroiled in a lawsuit with author-psychologist Thomas Harris after mistakenly repeating an urban myth about him during a conference address and a radio broadcast during 1979. An urban legend or urban myth is a form of modern Folklore consisting of stories thought to be factual by those circulating them Settlement was finally reached on the $22million lawsuit in 1983, with Tomczak paying out $150,000.

  4. If I remember correctly, Unassimilated, Larry (mistakenly) declared that Harris was dead – I think what got Larry sued was implying that Harris’s supposed death resulted from sinful behavior. Harris was very much alive, as it happened, and didn’t take kindly to Larry’s statements.

  5. keepinstep

    You mean the reports of his death and sin were greatly exaggerated? Sounds very SGMish to me.

  6. Dr. Harris wrote the book, “I’m Okay–You’re Okay”. Larry, in true GOB/CLC/SGM form, was dissing the whole idea of psychoanalysis and therapy and thus made the comment about Dr. Harris’ death. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think he said that Dr. Harris committed suicide, therefore he was not “okay”. That is what I think prompted the lawsuit.

  7. Pampy
    Loved the story about your son. Good for you-you are not assimilated. What did Tullian talk about? You should read our series on Tullian and the brouhaha down at his church in Florida.

  8. Dee,

    The title of Tullian’s message was “Jesus + Nothing = Everything”, which is why I was so curious to hear this message in the SGM venue ! I couldn’t figure out the connection between Tullian and SGM because I’ve been out of the loop. And I couldn’t figure out why SGM/CLC would allow such a message to be preached, based on what I know about them. I didn’t even know about the Coral Ridge thing until after I started doing research—after my visit to Covenant Life in Gaithersburg, MD and after hearing the message. The message was very good actually, but something didn’t add up in my mind.

  9. You’ve nailed it — many of your points have been discussed at great length on survivors and refuge related to different situations. The SGM practice of measuring unmeasurable sins is reprehensible. Pride? Who doesn’t have pride? Unbelief? I believe, Lord; help thou my unbelief. Punishing parents for the sins of their children? A third of the angels rebelled against the perfect parent — how is a mere human expected to have a better track record than God? Some children are quiet about major rebellion — some are pretty noisy about more minor issues. Who decides where to draw the line? Even if there are measureable aspects to rebellion, pride or unbelief — such as committing a crime — why does that disqualify a parent? Where is love, forgiveness, and support in all this? Plus, how long is the jury out?

    I remember being so distressed at the 2001 meeting because of the nebulous language used. I didn’t know what was meant by “abandoned the church”, the sin of unbelief, etc. It was presented in a vague manner that really left me wondering — jumping to wrong conclusions about what might have happened. But I would never have asked a question. You just don’t DO that.

    In the secular world, if someone turns down a promotion or a transfer, they may well lose their job. Understood. In the military, if you go AWOL, you’ve ruined your career. (Hey, in politics you can disappear for days and say you were hiking in the mountains but go to Argentina instead, and still keep your job as governor. Or you can continue to run for president while you’re fooling around with your videographer…but I digress…) In the church world, we expect our leaders to believe that people are not expendable — we expect that if someone cannot perform in a certain position, that their gifting might be elsewhere, and they can be used mightily of God somewhere else. We expect leaders to respect the leading of the Holy Spirit in someone’s life — especially someone who has gone through their pastor’s college and performed admirably for them for many years. Steve, until this came up, could’ve been their poster child — he bought into their system hook, line, and sinker.

    Steve didn’t turn down the “promotion” — from what I understand, he was told that if he turned it down, he would have no job. So he went under coercion. In the secular world, he might have been “let go”, but his character would not have been publicly assassinated. He ended up losing his job anyway — and a whole lot more in the long run. How glad I am, for Steve’s sake, that God is the One who restores the years the locusts have eaten.

    If we take the hyper-reponsible parent issue a little further, it’s not hard to infer a similar hyper-reponsible PASTOR issue. Hmmm. At least two pastors grown from the Richmond church- Dan and Steve — (maybe one or two more)ended up being removed from positions due to actions related to circumstances wrongly attributed to unbelief, parental failure etc. So — wouldn’t the senior pastor who had charge of these men also be seen as a failure? You’d think. But — he’s given a complete pass. Dan and Steve are both talented, intelligent, capable men who both happen to be excellent preachers. Dan was particularly well-educated and had a highly successful business career behind him — one of most genuinely friendly people I’ve ever known. I would never question his integrity. When he left the Richmond church to plant the church in Raleigh, he left a void that’s never been filled. He represented the best SGM had to offer. And they kicked him to the curb. The curb is all the better for it.

    This situation grieves me more than I can express. And, to quote that very meeting, “IT DIDN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.” All they had to to was say, “Steve, if you don’t feel called to Roanoke, we’d be crazy to send you”, or “Yeah, Steve, you were right — this move isn’t working out well — we love and trust you — after all, we taught you everything you know, we chose you to go to the pastor’s college, we ordained you, we’ve seen you invest your entire life into us for multiple years — so let’s find a place that works for you, and if there are some issues you want to work on, we’ll help you in any way we possibly can…”

    Yes. IT DIDN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.

  10. “I couldn’t figure out the connection between Tullian and SGM because I’ve been out of the loop. And I couldn’t figure out why SGM/CLC would allow such a message to be preached, based on what I know about them.”

    It is part of going reformed and hopefully being accepted by the more high profile reformed folks…getting away from the cult image.

    CJ is worried about his legacy and is making big plans. And he has a ready made denom…err….group of churches to bring to the table. Believe me, the high profile folks are interested. (They are just as committed to church growth movement in a reformed way as Rick Warren is in a seeker way) Numbers matter in their world.

    There is gold in those pews. CJ won’t live forever. And the SBC has been lying for years about their numbers. And the more Calvinistic the SBC becomes, the more people are figuring it out and do not like it.

    The SBC is in big trouble but no one is admitting it publicly.

    What is interesting from a purely strategic view is that those who have built up SGM and had paid leadership positions should be worried about their future. When they partner with the SBC or the Coral Ridge types, many SGM pastors college guys will look like ignorant, uneducated boobs, compared to their new partners. I have a feeling I know exactly where this is headed and they might want to start making arrangements now for their financial futures. Unless they are willing to take on huge debt to attend SBTS. Even then, no guarantees. They are very picky. They just want the pew sitters. If CJ says it is a good move, the lemmings will follow.

  11. Outta there

    If what you say is true, and I well imagine that it is, then the leadership of SGM is made up of a group of men (no women which, btw, is a smart way to get rid of 50% of potential opposition) who function like Darth Vader. “So, you won’t go to Roanoke-deploy the Death Star.” This is inexcusable and serves to reinforce my opposition of such jackboots. I am disgusted!

  12. “As Larry Tomczak became a prominent speaker on both sides of the Atlantic he also became embroiled in a lawsuit with author-psychologist Thomas Harris after mistakenly repeating an urban myth about him during a conference address and a radio broadcast during 1979.”

    “If I remember correctly, Unassimilated, Larry (mistakenly) declared that Harris was dead – I think what got Larry sued was implying that Harris’s supposed death resulted from sinful behavior. Harris was very much alive, as it happened, and didn’t take kindly to Larry’s statements.”

    Larry Tomczak actually said that Thomas Harris (no relation to Josh Harris) committed suicide when Harris hadn’t and was alive at the time. That lead to an expensive lawsuit.

    Larry Tomczak didn’t make nearly the rantings that Mahaney later made about what Mahaney would call “psychobabble.”

  13. One thought I have on what is going on at Kingsway.

    You indicated in an earlier post that Dave Harvey was one of the people involved in pushing SW to go to Roanoke even though SW didn’t sense the call. Now when this has all come to light and people are questioning what Gene Emerson did, Dave Harvey conveniently comes in (a few months ago) and tells Kingsway he has no authority here and that this is an elder ruled congregation.

    It sure sounds like Harvey has a conflict of interest or is trying to help cover for himself by saying that Kingsway is “elder ruled.”

  14. “Cooking the books” is becoming more and more common in churches of all kinds these days. I was in a church that had a lot going for it; decent, friendly people, a focus on grace and the things Christians believe in common rather than on law and the things that divide, uplifting worship, leaders who were committed to prayer and the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and a recognition that God gifts all members of the body to service. But the leaders became more and more focused on their supposed position of authority, believing that God’s way of revealing His will to the body was through them. I knew it was time to leave when an elder got up one Sunday and berated the congregation for not giving sufficient funds to meet the budget. His message was that the elders had prayed and sought God’s will for the budget, so if the funds weren’t there, it must be the fault of the congregation for not being obedient to God in their giving. It apparently never occurred to the church leadership that perhaps they were wrong in what they felt or assumed God wanted them to do.

    There were other examples of this behavior, and the mindset is what led me to question my long held assumptions about the nature of church leadership and authority. After more serious study of Scripture, I now believe that the very concept of “pastoral authority” or “elder rule” is completely without biblical foundation, and that it a great obstacle to experiencing church as God intended it and as the early church experienced it.

    I hope people reading this series get that this isn’t just about a specific incident in a specific church or denomination, but that what happened with Emerson and his SGM church represents a trend toward abusive leadership in American evangelical churches.

  15. Steve240, re: your following quote:

    “I hope people reading this series get that this isn’t just about a specific incident in a specific church or denomination, but that what happened with Emerson and his SGM church represents a trend toward abusive leadership in American evangelical churches.”

    I hope so, too, and, like you, very clearly see this trend.

  16. Junkster

    As usual, right on. We plan to stress that this is a warning for other churches that allow this sort of thinking to permeate their churches. Mahaney is of great concern because he has a history of being involved with movements that have highly centralize authoritative structures. As he gains in popularity, I hfear so will his church tactics.

    BTW thought of you when I put the videos on the posts the last couple of days. Have you seen Inception? I rented it last night and am still trying to figure it out.

  17. I hope that we can all see that historically, this has been the way of the church since the days of the early Roman Empire. The church has always used religion as a control and power mechanism, it is the lifeblood of the church.

    I found an excellent article on abusive churches in America…here is a snippet and the link to the original article.

    “First, abusive churches have a control-oriented style of leadership. Second, the leaders of such churches often use manipulation to gain complete submission from their members. Third, there is a rigid, legalistic lifestyle involving numerous requirements and minute details for daily life. Fourth, these churches tend to change their names often, especially once they are exposed by the media. Fifth, denouncing other churches is common because they see themselves as superior to all other churches. Sixth, these churches have a persecution complex and view themselves as being persecuted by the world, the media, and other Christian churches. Seventh, abusive churches specifically target young adults between eighteen and twenty-five years of age. The eighth and final mark of abusive churches is the great difficulty members have in getting out of or leaving these churches, a process often marked by social, psychological, or emotional pain.”

    http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/abuse-ch.html

    Sound like anyone we know?

  18. Karl

    You are writing a post for us. That is an excellent resource.

    Men have used the church throughout the ages to advance an agenda that looks eerily like a free market enterprise, rarely seeing the church as spelled out in the Bible- not a building, sacrificial, loving, leaders as servants, humble.

    And if truth be told, each of us uses the church for our selfish purposes as well.The difference between one group and the other, the group who sees the potential for abuse admits it. The others go to all lengths to conceal it.

    My pastor said something amusing on Sunday. He said if we all really got the faith, we would have nothing to be embarrassed about. Why? Because being a part of this faith should help us to understand that we are prone to do stupid things. He then said that he could think of about 5 embarrassing things in his life but he was too embarrassed to tell us about them! 🙂

    Perhaps it recalls a statement by Martin Luther who said to go and sin boldly. A provocative way to say that we are screw ups and to get on with it.

    You know, its kind of weird when an atheist gets it better than some Christians. Life is funny, friend.

  19. Steve240

    You know the Baptists do the same thing. For several years people have been trying to get them to set up a pastor predator database. Many folks are aware that Baptists (SBC) have a pedophile problem that recalls the problems in the RCC. Their reason for refusing to do so? They claim that each church is independent.

    However, they had no problem in booting a church that elected to have a woman pastor. So, is it independent or not? They talk out of both sides of their mouth. I wonder if this is why Mahaney is giving money to SBTS. Could it be that he is planning to morph and have SGM become (SBC) Baptist? Seems like they already have a schizophrenic view toward leadership just like SGM.

  20. Karlton,

    Thanks for sharing the link and excerpt. I have just printed the article and will be highlighting this important information later this week.

    Blessings.

  21. Junkster,

    “Cooking the books” in SGM is pretty easy. They broadened the scope of what constitutes missions work, as well as benefits and compensation.

    Apart from that, they are incorporated as a non-religious corporation, with fiscal accountability to only themselves as the “owners” of said corporation.

    This is the same for Covenant Life Church as well.

    Pastoral Authority, as you noted, is their excuse and justification for their actions.

  22. Dee,
    I haven’t see Inception yet, but plan to. I did see “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” this weekend. Since I’ve never read the Chronicles of Narnia books, I only have the other movies to compare it to, and, in that light, it was about as good as the others. Seemed less clear to me on the alegory in mind in the overall storyline than the 1st two movies. But it was still fun, and you gotta love Aslan.

  23. I wonder if this is why Mahaney is giving money to SBTS. Could it be that he is planning to morph and have SGM become (SBC) Baptist?

    You can’t become Southern Baptist without being accepted by a local Baptist association. The SBC is composed of state/regional conventions that are in turn composed of local associations that are in turn composed of individual churches. I would assume that most local associations have bylaws that require churches to have congregational government. I can’t see SGM becoming part of the SBC unless something BIG happens.

    What I can see happening is some sort of church planting partnership between NAMB and SGM. For some reason, Mohler & Co (including NAMB pres Ezell) see SGM as a model for church planting. They also see Joshua Harris as a great young leader, almost as a more palatable alternative to Mark Driscoll. I think they’ve been in the ivory tower too long if they think SGM can hang with Acts29.

  24. Actually, something just clicked. If SGM or something like it can be built up as an alternative to Acts29, then the SBC/Mohler could hope to maintain control over some SBTS graduates. About five years ago he got a rude awakening about the loyalty of young men to the SBC. The powers that be in SBC land tried to smack down the bloggers and the bloggers extended a middle finger.

  25. Junkster

    I reread the Chronicles of Narnia about every 10 years. I quote from those books on a regular basis. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was my favorite book. That is why I fear seeing the movie-the characters rarely are portrayed the way my brain imagines them.

    Have you read Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet trilogy?

  26. R
    Most interesting assessment. I never thought about Josh Harris as a Mark Driscoll substitute. Actually, except for style, I think the two of them are peas in a pod.Both are authoritarian and both are pretty darn sure of themselves.

    Curious -they see SGM as a model for church planting. SGM did it by declaring themselves a mission-kind of a bless my self club. I wonder if they know the history of Mahaney.

  27. Dee,
    I always intend to read The Chronicles series and the Silent Planet trilogy “one of these days”. But I’m not getting any younger.

  28. Junkster

    I read AND reviewed your book. Your turn-read the first book in the Out of the Silent Planet trilogy-it ‘s title is the same. You have three months starting tonight. 🙂
    I promise you will thank me.