Consider the shortness of time, the length of eternity, and reflect how everything here below comes to an end and passes by. Of what use is it to lean upon that which cannot give support?
Below is a clip from a video titled “The Role of the Pastors College,” published on February 27, 2023. It features Mark Prater, the Executive President of Sovereign Grace Churches, and the always upbeat Ben Kreps, the lead pastor of Living Hope Church, a Sovereign Grace Church in Middletown, PA.
The purpose of this video by Prater and Kreps is clearly to encourage young men to apply (and attend) the Pastor’s College. Prater tells several inspirational stories of pastors who will be attending the Pastor’s College beginning in August 2023. He leads off with a story about Josh Tong, the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Bradford, Ontario.
Fast forward from February 27, 2023 to today and we find that the inspirational story about Josh Tong never materialized. For reasons unknown, Tong, his wife, and their 6 children will not be moving to Louisville for the 10-month “college” after all. (Perhaps he realized the Pastor’s College requires regular attendance at C.J. Mahaney’s church! Just kidding. Kinda, sorta.)
In fact, it appears to me that the pool of young men foolish enough to pony up the $10,000* to attend a “college” in a denomination that is a pariah among Evangelicals, seems to be drying up.(*Not counting the cost of food, housing and all the other costs of living. Additionally, the student will have no time for gainful employment while attending the “college.”)
Making my point is the screenshot below of the Pastors College class of 2023-24. There are only 6 men who have enlisted! Of these 6 men only 3 are from the United States. Arturo De La Fuente is from Mexico, Mario Figueroa is from the Philippines, and Emerson Soares is from Brazil.
This is similar to new church plants in Sovereign Grace Churches; very few churches have been planted in the USA. Most of the denomination’s new churches are planted overseas. Many of them are in poor, 3rd world nations. Undoubtedly money plays a roll in influencing many of these churches to affiliate with SGC.
Growth in the United States comes very slowly for SGC. I would guess this at least in part because of the internet. If I am thinking of attending a church I Google it first. If a result like the screenshot below appear on my search, I will scratch that church from my list.
Below is a screenshot of the Pastors College class of 2011-2012. This was the zenith of Sovereign Grace Pastors College. There were 23 students.
Below is a screenshot of the 2020-2021 Pastors College students. They were down to 10. Notice the trend?
Brent Detwiler, in an article published July 18, 2014 had this to say about the Pastors College:
The Pastors College has been the pride and joy of Sovereign Grace Ministries but it is on life support and someone needs to pull the plug!
Let me illustrate from the most recent Audited Financial Statements. Operating expenses for the school year 2012-2013 were $743,000. Revenues were $137,000. That resulted in a $606,000 deficit for a ten month program. Incredible. But here’s the real kicker. Only nine students graduated from the Pastors College in 2013. And the same is true in 2014 – just nine graduates.
This kind of spending makes the Federal Government look frugal and efficient by comparison. And please don’t think 2012-2013 was an aberration. Over the last four years, the Pastors College has amassed a deficit of 1.9 million. That is incomprehensible. If only for financial reasons, the Pastors College should be shut down.
Of course, Jeff Purswell and Gary Ricucci are not going to be laid off even though they are the main operating expense for the Pastors College. Compensation and benefits for 2012-2013 totaled $482,000. I’d love to know how much Purswell was paid to part time teach nine students for ten months. And I’d like to know how much Ricucci was paid to care for nine PC families. His group was smaller in size than most Care Groups or Home Groups in Sovereign Grace churches.
These are the kind of questions SGM never answers and don’t reveal in their budget or financial statements. This kind of arrangement is only possible in a good ole boy network. Purswell is on the SGM Leadership Team, Ricucci is Mahaney’s brother-in-law, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. What a life of ease!
Sovereign Grace Churches used to announce who their guest teachers at their “college” were. Notice last year that they no longer name these guests. If I were to venture a guess as to why the anonymity I would say because people like me write emails to these guest teachers and attempt to appeal to their ethical side, urging them not to teach at the Sovereign Grace Churches Pastors College. The results are minimal, but clearly the guest speakers don’t like the fact that they are unprincipled grifters to be widely known.
Bob Kauflin, Grant Layman, and C.J. Mahaney in better days.
“This kind of spending makes the Federal Government look frugal and efficient by comparison.” And, “These are the kind of questions SGM never answers and don’t reveal in their budget or financial statements.” Sickening.
Furthermore, if churches are closing at the rate of about 3-4,000 annually, the chances of these folks finding gainful employment with training from an unaccredited organization is probably nil. No wonder they’re planing churches overseas.
To be fair, there is a decent amount of upheaval going on in higher education in general right now. Between the real-or-perceived (not taking a side, here) student debt crisis and the swift about-face on online/distance education that many institutions had to do during the pandemic to stay afloat, even fairly non-controversial schools are struggling to attract enough paying students.
That being said, I would not mourn the death of the Sovereign Grace Pastors College.
I agree with Sarah. Higher education is in transition, in between online learning, online libraries, the pandemic and the intrusion of AI*. But man, the Sovereign Grace “Pastors College” is near to the bottom of the educational heap. It’s not regionally accredited (the gold standard), it’s not nationally accredited, it’s not accredited in part because it has a particular program that has met the state’s standards for sitting a licensing exam**, it’s not authorized to grant diplomas without accreditation (some states, e.g., Florida), it’s not a proudly unaccredited four year Bible college churning out preacher boys. It’s a nine month “school” preparing the already-indoctrinated to go out and spread the “gospel” of “Sovereign Grace.”
Eventually the ever-shrinking number of SG churches are going to balk at funding “Pastors College” because it is enormously expensive for the “value” obtained. And by “balk,” I mean they’ll leave the SG “fellowship.”
*Trust me folks, AI can’t think. We’re a long way from Skynet. These are clever algorithms created by humans that can (and have) caused great damage. But AI is giving academia fits because of issues with scraping text and then having (e.g.) ChatGPT churning out a final paper in a class in response to a prompt. Which is harder to detect than good old plagiarism.
** Example: Several law schools in California, including at least one online law school, whose students are allowed to sit the “baby bar” after their first year, which determines whether or not they’ll be allowed to take the next two years of law school and then sit the California Bar. There are more than a few people out there like that. It’s worth noting that Kim Kardashian, who is NOT going to law school but is apprenticing with a law firm, finally passed the “baby bar” on her third try. And there used to be a time when nursing students at the then not accredited Pensacola Christian College were allowed to sit the NCLEX and get licensed as RNs because their program did a decent job in preparing them. (PCC is now nationally accredited, so this is not an issue now.)
Maybe Brother Josh Tong saw the light.
https://youtu.be/h0oEq0bMnyA
In any case, nothing to do with the Gospel is a capitalist venture, including pastoring. Pastoring is a gift from the Holy Spirit to the church via a follower of Jesus, who is filled with the Holy Spirit, and who is granted that gift to the church.
OTOH, scholarship and theology, as a part of academia, IMHO, are worthy pursuits as paid professional paths. The works of Beth Allison Barr, and Kristin Du Mez, for example, are worth every cent we pay for their books. Their research is extremely helpful and scholarly. However, this is not the Gospel and doesn’t save souls. It is scholarship. But we do not purchase salvation. Not everyone can afford to purchase these books.
Remember that the main reason for moving SGM headquarters to Louisville was to grow the Pastors College. In 2011-2012, when it became clear that CJ Mahaney was not going to reconcile with Covenant Life Church and that CLC was leaving SGM, the SGM leadership made a list of possible cities to relocate to.
Louisville won out after CJ persuaded Al Mohler to grant SGMPC students automatic credit transfer and scholarships at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Publicly, SGM leaders pointed out the lower cost of living and more central location of Louisville compared to Maryland as advantages for SGMPC students as reasons for the move. I recall that proximity to Nashville providing synergy for Sovereign Grace Music was mentioned at least informally as a secondary advantage of Louisville for the base.
After word of the special arrangement started circulating in the SBC and causing an uproar, Mohler was forced to renege on the deal. Under pressure from Todd, Dee, Brent, Peter Lumpkins and others, he eventually cut all ties with Mahaney and SGM. Thus, the main part of the SGM plan for moving to Louisville is in shambles as the SGMPC continues to shrink rather than grow.
David MacKenzie,
Great comment. Thanks for the history behind the move. It was an exciting deal Mohler gave CJ’s boys. They could, after attending Pastors College and, without having graduated from college, jump into the MDIV program. To this day, I wonder what Mohler saw in Mahaney and friends. Control, perhaps?
Sadly, neither do many groups, like the NAMB, within the SBC. Mahaney taught them how to do it.
Well said. They only have to have graduated from high school to attend and then be in charge.
Great post, Todd. We must never forget this nonsense.
No matter what the Zuckerbots say as they Worship, waiting to be Raptured by The Singularity.
Before law schools and law degrees became widespread, this was called “Reading the Law”, i.e. hands-on apprenticeship to a practicing lawyer. This fell out of use over time to where today “Reading the Law” is very rare, but is still on the books.
But let’s face it, if Kim Kardashian can pass the “baby bar”, it’s gotta be easy enough even a dead man can pass it.
A new little Dodeka playgroup?
P.S. Is it just me, or does Mohler resemble Rodney Dangerfield’s Evil Twin?
No, KORBAN.
“TOUCH NOT MINE ANOINTED!!!!!!!”
In SGC, we value shared experiences that shape every pastor into the image of CJ. There’s nothing wrong with wanting total… I mean, SOME, uniformity! How else are we to love one another unless we think and act exactly the same?!
Don’t ask questions. We will tell you what you need to know (I mean, what we want you to know). Just give blindly. It is called trust.
So much B.S. that I can a very small percentage to my local church and give generously to a few ministries who have no problem answering questions, especially from a woman. 2 Corinthians 9:7 – my guess that is a person who has had their questions answered.
Here is what John Witherspoon, former minister in my country parish church, and signatory to the Declaration of Independence has to say about the ministry.
“ Real religion in a minister will make him happy and chearful, ready and willing to do his duty. There is a great difference between the prompt, and speedy obedience of a servant who loves his master and his work, and the reluctant labor of him who only deceives him, that he may eat of his bread. A truly pious man undertakes the office of the ministry from love to God, with a view to promote his glory, and what he hath counted his interest in the world: viz. the welfare of the souls of men. An unholy minister undertakes this employment only as a trade to earn by, and has it at least as his highest aim to promote his own worldly advantage. It is easy to see in what a different manner these different persons will act, and in what different light they will view the sacred duties of their function. He who truly believes the Gospel and loves its Author, will reckon it his highest honor when he is called to recommend it to the belief of others. He will be apt to teach, and will find a pleasure in carrying his message, besides the reward he expects from him who employs him, and will undergo with chearfulness every fatigue he is subjected to, in the execution of his office. On the other hand, he who is actuated by a contrary principle, though he is obliged, that he may raise his wages, in some sort to do his duty; yet how heavily must it go on, how tedious and burthensome must it be, both in preparation and performance? He will count his service at the altar, and his work among his people, as a toil and drudgery, and reckon all that redeemed time that he can save for himself, from the duties of his office.”
(Volume 2 of his Works, Sermon 43, Ministerial Character and Duty”
On the theme of study and books, you can read many of the old works free on the Posr Reformation Digital Library. Equally Kindle publish lots of free or nearly free works. Happy hunting!
Lowlandseer,
I think Witherspoon was a tad idealistic. I’d rather have pastors who come to their jobs as a job, with all the requisite humility. That said, I understand the idea of a calling. I just get tired of the eloquent waxing of pastors describing their jobs…because they’re really boasting about how great they themselves are.
Witherspoon was a slaveholder, too. I wonder if he expected his slaves to serve him cheerfully.
Do they teach them all to act like Ed Grimley or is that just a CJ thing?
One wonders if they get discounts like SBC seminaries reportedly give to those who attend SBC partner churches.
To those guys back then, slavery was perfectly ‘Biblical’ and nothing to fret about.
Well, Paul sez so, so it’s gotta’ be so.
Right?
Paul K,
What an odd thing to say. No he didn’t expect that. Princeton has a useful précis of his position regarding slavery. Look up the name ‘Jamie Montgomery’ as well and it might deflate any sense of moral superiority.
Preaching the Gospel is not a job, it’s a commission from Christ Himself.
As for being idealistic, he was a proponent of Common Sense Realism, so that assertion doesn’t stand either.
But in the interests of evenhandedness, read this and shout ‘Amen’. :-). Muff might even wave a tambourine 🙂
https://theconversation.com/5-facts-about-john-witherspoon-a-slaveholder-and-the-only-university-president-to-sign-the-declaration-of-independence-198577#
Loyalty, perhaps.
Isn’t this the group that has their young people do song and dance paying homage to the leaders?
David MacKenzie,
Politics. Dealing-making with a finger in the wind to see which way it blows.
Ava Aaronson,
Not the wind of the Holy Spirit.
The Pastors’ College was really management training….. straight out of the Starbucks and Apple Store playbook. Uniformity and culture were central.
MBA? for Jesus? all for the Gospel?
Thought the businessmen were evicted from the Temple. Per Jesus Himself. Liked He flipped them off and out.
I agree.
I think AI is just much ado about nothing.
I disagree. I did law school, it’s not easy, and California is the hardest of the law exams. They use the “baby bar” as a weed out. Keep in mind, her late father was a lawyer and she is part of a family that made their name a household word through various skeevy activities. They’re no dummies over there, even if their lives give me the willies. (Why no, I’ve never watched their show, why do you think I would do that?)
I think AI is an attempt by company execs to see if they can really get computers to slim down their biggest expense–staff. In that sense, it’s not “much ado about nothing.” I could see a lot of heartache for people losing their jobs because some highly overpaid stuffed shirt thinks “AI” is going to be able to do all the thankless tasks staff do. Right now an AI can’t even ask the right questions to a human customer trying to explain to a banker that they’re seeing something on their bank account that doesn’t make sense. It takes *humans* to puzzle that stuff out.
Lowlandseer,
Fact check
“ Reason teaches natural liberty, and common utility recommends it. Some nations have seen this more clearly than others, or have more happily found the means of establishing it.
Here perhaps we should consider a little the question, whether it is lawful to make men or to keep them slaves, without their consent? This will fall afterwards to be considered more fully: in the mean time, observe that in every state there must be some superior and others inferior, and it is hard to fix the degree of subjection that may fall to the lot of particular persons. Men may become slaves, or their persons and labor be put wholly in the power of others by consent. They may also sometimes in a constituted state, be made slaves by force, as a punishment for the commission of crimes. But it is certainly unlawful to make inroads upon others, unprovoked, and take away their liberty by no better right than superior power.
It has sometimes been doubted, whether it is lawful to take away the liberty of others for life, even on account of crimes committed. There can be no strong reason given against this, except that which is supposed to operate in Great Britain against making malefactors slaves, that it would be unfavorable to rational liberty to see any rank of men in chains. But setting this aside, it seems plain that if men may forfeit their lives to the society, they may also forfeit their liberty, which is a less precious blessing. It seems also more agreeable both to equity and public utility to punish some sort of crimes, with hard labor, than death. Imprisonment for life, has been admitted and practised by all nations—Some have pleaded for making slaves of the barbarous nations, that they are actually brought into a more eligible state, and have more of the comforts of life, than they would have had in their own country. This argument may alleviate, but does not justify the practice. It cannot be called a more eligible state, is less agreeable to themselves.
Upon the whole, there are many unlawful ways of making slaves, but also some that are lawful—And the practice seems to be countenanced in the law of Moses, where rules are laid down for their treatment, and an estimation of injuries done to them, different from that of free men. I do not think there lies any necessity on those who found men in a state of slavery, to make them free to their own ruin. But it is very doubtful whether any original cause of servitude can be defended, but legal punishment for the commission of crimes. Humanity in the manner of treating them is manifestly a dictate of reason and nature, and I think also of private and public utility, as much as of either.”
(Witherspoon, p418, Vol 3 of his Works).
“ Forced labour and marriage have increased significantly over the last five years, according to a new UN report.
“The latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, published by the International Labour Organization, International Organization for Migration and international human rights group Walk Free, revealed that last year, some 50 million people were living in modern slavery: 28 million in forced labour and 22 million in forced marriages”. (Published Sep 2022)
” … clearly the guest speakers don’t like the fact that they are unprincipled grifters to be widely known … ”
If the background to the line to be peddled by the givers of umpteen “church history rewrite” papers (to be shoehorned into 10 months along with “sin and man” and etc), was given away to not-yet-customers, would they get even fewer?
The discrepancies between what they say in their day jobs and what they say at SGPC will show. Any sophistry is as good as any other sophistry.
How many are interdenominational?
Why is Macarthur an ally of “new apostolic” Piper?
After going through the SGC pastors’ college, the “alumni” will have reached the exact same exalted regions of theological education reached by their head apostle, CJM.
Gus,
You made me laugh this morning.
Agreed again.
To company management, labor is just another commodity that needs to be purchased, much like electricity and water. It’s funny, and yet not so funny (as you’ve pointed out in terms of human cost) that they somehow think they can beat the energy game by getting more output for less input, and that they’re somehow exempt from the first law of thermodynamics.
Lowlandseer,
I read your comments and the article you linked to about Witherspoon. I do not understand if you are defending or condemning Witherspoon.
The article strongly condemns Witherspoon for being a slaveholder and supporting slavery.
I do not understand the main idea you are trying to get across with your long quotation of Witherspoon and subsequent quotes about slavery.
Please clarify.
My main idea is that Witherspoon’s eloquent preaching about his job needs to be seen in context with his support of slavery. In other words, he’s maybe not the best person to quote when referencing the right attitude a pastor should have. Another main idea of mine is that just because a person in history is generally held in high regard, it it necessary to do a little digging to see just how much regard we should have for that person. Same goes for Edwards and Whitefield.
Muslin, fka Dee Holmes,
A book worth reading in this regard is Biblical Critical Theory by Christopher Watkin. In a striking passage he writes “Modern Humanity sacrifices to machinic efficiency using the currency of its labor, just as the ancient Carthaginians sacrificed to Moloch using the currency of their children. The Moloch Machine shapes and figures the bodily movements of the workers that tend it, just as our own habits, attitudes, and movements are increasingly melded by the human-shaping power of smartphones and social media…Having renounced any compelling vision of the good in favour of a piecemeal pragmatism, humanity finds itself enslaved to the pragmatic vision of the good as an endlessly increasing efficiency and an unremittingly imperialist rationality. In the service of this means-becomes-end, technique seeks to make the whole world, including human life, calculable and algebraic….Just like Lang’s vision of the Moloch Machine, Ellul argues that technique, despite its seemingly secular focus on efficiency, takes on a spiritual dimension of its own, “gives meaning and value to life” and thereby gains a “holy prestige” such that it has become a new religion. The cultic rituals around the purchase of technological items and the temple-like architecture of big tech showrooms resonates closely with this point…Big data becomes our collective unconscious that reveals to corporations patterns of our own behaviour and thought of which we were unaware. This sacralising of technique is the danger for Ellul, not technique itself, which is an inevitable “product of the situation in which sin has put man.” It is when it becomes an end in itself and becomes a comprehensive attitude to life that technique wreaks havoc with human existence and relationships.”
Somewhat tangential: Check out this book!
https://bookshop.org/p/books/disobedient-women-how-a-small-group-of-faithful-women-exposed-abuse-brought-down-powerful-pastors-and-ignited-an-evangelical-reckoning-sarah-stankorb/19462415?ean=9781546003809
I just got a copy today, flipped to the table of contents, and saw a chapter titled “Daughters of Stan.” Guess who that’s about!
Sometimes tangent lines are better than secant lines.
The problem here: the labour you try to get rid of or pay as badly as possible, is – at the same time – your customer for goods and services, or your customers’ customer.
It’s a bit like the joke about the man who complains that now he has finally managed to get his horse to get by on no feed at all, the horse has died on him.
Yep. Propaganda teachings in order to join the cult.
“Brewery-wagon driver, saved from obscurity by his beloverd Nazis.”
— (fictional) death-camp Commandant, Leon Uris, Armageddon: A Novel of Berlin
BUT THAT’S NOT SPIRITUAL(TM)!
It’s very JEWISH, though.
Lowlandseer,
Thank you, I’m interested in people who value Ellul.