The Wartburg Watch » Joshua Harris

Christian Celebrity – An Oxymoron

deb — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:51:34 +0000

"It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:26-28, Mark10:43-45 (NASB) Julius Caesar – from the bust in the British Museum (Public Domain. Courtesy of Wikipedia) Where are the servant leaders Jesus described in Matthew 20:26-28? Mark includes an identical description in his Gospel, which leads me to conclude that servant leadership is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to God. Where are today's servant leaders? Pastoral authority is on the rise in Christendom, while servant leadership appears to be on the decline, based on my observation. As pastors elevate themselves and their colleagues, the flock is being trampled on and injured spiritually, emotionally, and sometimes even physically. Jesus instructed Peter "Feed my sheep". Tragically, God's flock is often being neglected by those who have been charged to protect them. The rise of Neo-Calvinism over the last decade seems to be a huge contributing factor to the scourge of Christian celebrity we are currently experiencing. To illustrate this Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Mon, Feb 13 2012.

Categories: Abusive church tactics, Al Mohler, Authoritarian leadership, C.J. Mahaney, Calvinism/Calvinista, John Piper, Joshua Harris, Mark Dever, New Reformed Theology, SGM, Sovereign Grace Ministries, Together for the Gospel, Young, Restless and Reformed (YRR)

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Helicopter Parents on Steroids

deb — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 01:06:03 +0000

"I think with many more of today's parents than in the past, the "helicoptering" is more about over-protecting them from what they perceive to be this dreadful, dangerous, terror-filled world and not realizing that kids need to be able to take educated risks, make independent decisions and take consequences for their actions." Jean Walker Flags Flying in Normandy, France (Taken by Deb) No doubt you have become aware of a fairly recent phenomenon called helicopter parenting. According to Dictionary.com, helicopter parenting is defined as “a style of child rearing in which an overprotective mother or father discourages a child's independence by being too involved in the child's life.” Although helicopter parenting can be observed throughout our culture, it appears to be prevalent among families where the children’s lives are micromanaged by their parents, sometimes even into adulthood. Where do we find such micromanagement of children? Some (not all!) homeschooling circles, legalistic congregations, Gothardites, and others who adhere to a particular formulaic idealism in raising their children. Those who take their parental oversight to an extreme we will call Helicopter Parents on Steroids. How ironic that Josh Harris, who went from what we consider to be a rigid homeschooling culture Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Wed, Sep 14 2011.

Categories: Carolyn Mahaney, Homeschooling, Joshua Harris, Legalism, Stay At Home Daughters, Women and the church

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Sovereign Grace Ministries: A Christian Version of Animal Farm?

dee — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:00:15 +0000

"We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. The importance of keeping the pigs in good health was all too obvious. So it was agreed without further argument that the milk and the windfall apples (and also the main crop of apples when they ripened) should be reserved for the pigs alone." Amazon link (All quotes come from George Orwell’s, Animal Farm) Well, once again, the best-laid plans have been delayed by curious events at SGM. Because TWW believes that the events happening at SGM represent history in the making, we feel obliged to cover events as they happen. We firmly believe that churches, which have ears to hear, can learn much from this debacle. We also believe that readers who are questioning their own church membership can learn to spot some red flags as they watch these events unfold. I really wish to do a series on how some in the church have a seriously (and I mean seriously) flawed view of mental illness, psychological counseling Continue reading →

Written by: dee on Thu, Aug 11 2011.

Categories: C.J. Mahaney, Joshua Harris, SGM, Sovereign Grace Ministries

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Breaking News: Mahaney’s Sons-In-Law Resign From CLC

dee — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 03:02:42 +0000

As if things couldn't get messier, tonight, CJ Mahaney's son-in-laws, who were pastors at Covenant Life Church (the mothership), have resigned their positions in what appears to be a protest in how the church has handled the Detweiler documents and CJ Mahaney's "sabbatical." For new readers, CJ Mahaney has three daughters. All three of their husbands have been given pastor position within SGM. Two were at CLC and the other, I believe, is a pastor at SGM Fairfax. The Fairfax pastor has not resigned. This is certainly a family affair. A major rift seems to be occurring between Joshua Harris and the CLC church versus SGM. Please go to SGM Refuge to read the letters. More in the AM.

Written by: dee on Tue, Aug 09 2011.

Categories: Joshua Harris, Sovereign Grace Ministries

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Harris ‘Resigns’ From SGM Board

deb — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 23:58:36 +0000

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. C. S. Lewis C.J. Mahaney’s mantra – “Change is here to stay” – has been especially true of Sovereign Grace Ministries since he began a leave of absence on June 30, or was that July 6? Change has been occurring at breakneck speed over the last few days, and it has been extremely difficult to keep up! The most recent development is that Joshua Harris has ‘resigned’ (to use Peter Smith’s journalistic technique) from the SGM board. Dave Harvey, who ‘took over’ after Mahaney’s departure, made that stunning announcement on the Sovereign Grace Ministries website. Here’s what Harvey wrote: “This past week we (the Sovereign Grace Board and Joshua Harris) came to the Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Fri, Jul 15 2011.

Categories: C.J. Mahaney, Joshua Harris, SGM, Sovereign Grace Ministries

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Peasants Rising-What Mahaney, Mohler, etc., Could Learn From Martin Luther’s Mistakes

dee — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:38:35 +0000

For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel. Martin Luther Breaking News: More turmoil in SGM. Joshua Harris ‘stepping down’ or pushed out from board because he is apparently ‘at odds’ with the SGM ‘leadership’ over the Mahaney mess. Things are happening fast and furious and it appears, for now, that things are a bit out of control for these control-meisters. As Mahaney would say "Change is here to stay." Here is the LINK. Breaking Response: Before beginning our post, we would like to link to SGM Refuge so that our readers can read Brent Detweiler’s response to the charges that were despicably raised by the stone-cold leadership of SGM. We believe that said leadership is ably demonstrating a spiritually abuse tactic of “the messenger is the problem.” Please read our article on this tactic, Odd Man Out, that we posted at this Link. We also highly recommend the book, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse. Can our reader’s guess why??? Dateline: Assyrian Online University with Professor Dee and Deb presiding… Today is Thursday and it is the day we do a little history lesson. In order to keep it relevant, Continue reading →

Written by: dee on Thu, Jul 14 2011.

Categories: Al Mohler, Joshua Harris, SGM, Sovereign Grace Ministries

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Sovereign Grace Ministries and the Rest of Us: Cheap Apologies, Reluctant Forgiveness, and Long term Ramifications

dee — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 18:38:28 +0000

“Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” CS Lewis freefoto.com Recently, Joshua Harris apologized for some issues which have plagued Sovereign Grace Ministries for years. My husband just received an apology from a church elder who had spread a rumor that our marriage was in trouble. I also know a woman who apologized to an ex-husband for leaving their marriage years ago. Each of these incidents illuminate the complex issue of forgiveness. I think a good rabbinical story is in order. I have heard this story told on a number of occasions and do not know its origination. A man visited his rabbi to confess that he had spread a lie about his neighbors. He asked what he should do to rectify the situation. The wise rabbi understood that this man needed to apprehend the gravity of his action. So, he asked the man to meet him at the top of a windy hill in the town. Once there, the rabbi handed him a feather pillow and scissors and told him to cut open the pillow. Once open, the rabbi told him to shake out the entire feather stuffing. The Continue reading →

Written by: dee on Wed, Jun 01 2011.

Categories: Abusive church tactics, C.J. Mahaney, Forgiveness, Joshua Harris, Sovereign Grace Ministries, Theological arrogance

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The Power of Positive Comments on Josh Harris’ Blog

deb — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:10:36 +0000

"You cannot go on 'explaining away' for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on 'seeing through' things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it."- C.S. Lewis freefoto.com If you happen to read Josh Harris’ blog on a regular basis, then I have a question for you. Have you ever noticed how the comments on his blog are always positive? For those who are not familiar with Josh, he serves as senior pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland — the flagship church of Sovereign Grace Ministries. While many of our commenters here at The Wartburg Watch are thoughtful and affirming, we do have our share of critics whom we allow to lambaste us as long as they abide by our blogging rules (i.e. no bad language, etc). We believe so strongly in freedom of expression that we gladly welcome dissension. I am not an avid reader of Josh Harris’ blog, but I have been making occasional visits beginning a few months ago. Around that same time the Gospel Coalition website featured a video of Francis Chan being interviewed by Mark Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Tue, Dec 14 2010.

Categories: Joshua Harris, SGM, Sovereign Grace Ministries, Spiritual abuse

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Peacemaker or Kingmaker?

deb — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 22:11:52 +0000

Categories: Abusive church tactics, Joshua Harris, Peacemakers/CCEF, Sovereign Grace Ministries

Peacemakers assessed

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Connecting the Dots . . . SGM, CCEF, and Peacemaker Ministries

deb — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:40:33 +0000

Without question the leadership of KingsWay Community Church has created a ROYAL mess! As we have been preparing this series, God’s PROVIDENCE has been extremely evident. Just this morning “The Protestant Knight” (PT) at SGM Refuge posted an intriguing article entitled: Organizational Chart for Sovereign Grace Ministries’ Hierarchal Polity In his first comment on the post, PT makes this candid remark: “And I am here to tell you that as someone who staunchly defended SGM for over two decades (you can ask PD (his wife) on this, and you can ask Kris over at Survivors about how I came in with both barrels onto her blog; I even behaved like a member of SGM’s marketing dept. here on the ‘fuge for awhile…” To gain an understanding of the SGM hierarchy, we recommend that you check out the organizational chart that PT has constructed. The consistent criticism of Sovereign Grace Ministries is that its polity (church governance) is ALL WRONG. On September 5, 2010, Dave Harvey (who is in charge of church planting and church care) addressed the KingsWay congregation on “church polity”. You can find the link to his message in PT’s post. According to Harvey, SGM has a polity Continue reading →

Written by: deb on Tue, Sep 14 2010.

Categories: Abusive church tactics, C.J. Mahaney, CCEF, Church contracts, Joshua Harris, Peacemakers/CCEF, SGM, Sovereign Grace Ministries

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