Tuesday, January 17, 2012

C J Loses His Assistant

Many SGM and Mahaney fans are wondering about what C J is up to and what the future may hold for Mahaney and SGM (sadly for many the two are inseparable). Although I am not a C J or SGM fan - I am an interested observer so I was interested to read the following;


"Of course this means I will be leaving the Sovereign Grace Ministries office in Maryland, and Friday is my final day on staff. It has been a delightful four years serving alongside C.J. Mahaney as his editorial and research assistant. I will miss working with him in the office, traveling with him to conference engagements, and of course I will miss the multitasking meetings that may have appeared to some as a simple game of catch in the parking lot. I will greatly miss working with my friends in the Sovereign Grace office, worshipping with our friends at Covenant Life Church, and serving the many incredible pastors in Sovereign Grace who are spread across the country and the world".

Although C J appears to have given his "blessing" to this move for his assistant back to John Piper - one cannot but wonder at the implications for C J's future involvement in SGM.

And secondly - a friend who is a member at Covenant Life Church wrote;

"Greetings from your pastors!

We pray the grace, mercy and peace of Jesus for you today. We’re writing to give you a brief update on current events related to our church, Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) and our new church constitution.

We’ve all been in a waiting period since the events of last summer and our Members Meeting at the end of October. In the next few months several key events will bring these issues back to the forefront along with what we trust will be a greater sense of clarity and closure.

First, sometime later this month the SGM Board will release reports from the three panels they appointed to evaluate several issues raised by Brent Detwiler’s documents. Each panel, comprised of one board member and two SGM pastors selected by the Board, was tasked to answer a single question. One panel evaluated Larry Tomczak’s departure from SGM (then known as PDI); another, C.J. Mahaney’s role in Brent Detwiler’s dismissal as senior pastor of the SGM church in Mooresville, N.C.; and the third, how C.J.’s participation in fellowship in 2003 and 2004, including the giving and receiving of correction, aligned with Scripture.
The SGM board received the reports in December and will be sharing them publicly along with their decision about C.J.’s role as president. When this information is released in the next few weeks we will be reading and processing it along with the rest of the public. Therefore, we don’t plan to respond immediately, as we will need time to review, reflect, pray and discuss the reports. We don’t want to rush a response.

Second, Ambassadors of Reconciliation (AoR) is preparing a report that is due in March. This peacemaking ministry, at the request of the SGM Board, has conducted numerous interviews with current and former members and pastors of SGM churches (including our church) to help SGM evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. We agree that this kind of objective, outside evaluation is a very good thing, and we commend Dave Harvey and the Board for pursuing it.
Although both sets of reports will be written for SGM, we believe Covenant Life can benefit from them as well. The posture we want to take as your pastors is one of humility as we read the reports and see how they may apply to our church.

Finally, we are making good progress on our new church constitution. We had hoped to publish a rough draft by February 1, but a combination of Christmas break, pastors being on mission trips and some issues being more complicated than we expected, have delayed us a bit. We are aiming to release the rough draft to the church this spring to get your feedback. In the meantime we’re working toward consensus on a few questions as pastors, getting the feedback of some members, and asking key leaders in the broader body of Christ to review the document. When we share it—still in draft form—we’ll take time in public meetings to answer questions and process feedback so that we can move toward ratifying the constitution later in the year.

It is a great honor for us to serve as your pastors. We love and respect you so much. “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way.” (2 Thessalonians 3:16)
In grace,

The pastors of Covenant Life".

I guess that means - we continue to watch and wait.

3 comments:

Chris Welch - 07000INTUNE said...

1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.(igoogle today)
Jesus came. Not born of man.In a manger of all places round the back of any serious accomodation.
At 30, He was baptised in the Spirit.
On the fortieth day of a fast, where we are told nothing happened, on the 40th day, when He hungered, which means His body was breaking down...He'd used up his resources..
The Devil came to try and get Him to "move independently" "off his own bat". Jesus in His weakened state, reliant on Spirit Word, overcame each test.
In the authority of this He went into action....as it says...for this purpose was He made manifest that He might destroy ALL the works of the evil one.
He took 12 and by the Spirit, with the authority of the Word within Him, He addressed every stronghold in their lives as it manifest. His very Word was brought to birth within them, and after the Cross He breathed into them.
Just before ascending to the Father He had them all wait at Jerusalem to be fully empowered by the Spirit from on high.

He left just 12 men, related equally to each other, and related equally, directly and supernaturally with Himself.

And said...Preach....and build my Church.

Preach what? yes forgiveness.yes the Holy Spirit.But they preached Christ. They transplanted Christ. No more . No less.

Jesus left no boards. No infrastructure. No organisations.No buildings.No mission in the "corporation" sense of mission.

Poor Norman Grubb, who'd learned "the mission way of doing things" and with CT Studd formed possibly one of the most effective mission organisations ever...WEC...at Bulstrode Park Gerrards Cross, which I drove past again on Tuesday, had the board push for his resignation. All, so God could pare Norman right back to what the Christian message is....
Christ in you the hope of glory.

SGM is irrelevant.
John Piper, or any great name is irrelevant. Who their sidekick is, is irrelevant..
Having board meetings is irrelevant.
Talking about what you are going to do next is irrelevant.
Ambassadors of reconciliation is irrelevant.
Trying humanly to patch up and correct failures is laudable, but largely irrelevant.
Knocking up church constitutions are irrelevant.

You mark my words. Because SGM is not founded properly in Christ alone....and only God can do that personally and individually with leaders, and because the whole thing is an "Ishmael" founded on only two out of the three pillars of our walk with Christ, the whole organisation will carry on paling into a historic denomination, as irrelevant to the move of God as all the rest of the denominations who are refusing to connect with the Spirit of God.

Dan said...

Yes Chris - SGM the brand is irrelevant because they don't stand for true Gospel/Kingdom dynamic anymore. Any organisation that dares call itself "Christian" in this day of recession and can spend thousands on "mediation fees" while millions in the Third World die of AIDS and starvation - is dead surely.

But SGM is made up of real, tender, hurting PEOPLE (like my parents) who desperately want to believe and trust in their leaders (Saul - head and shoulders men surely?) who once stood and moved in the Spirit and now are abandoned to their reputation and their book income.

My heart aches for those who suffer and weep whIle being abused by Saul type leaders who are consulting mediums and throwing spears - thank God for Joshua Harris who has called in a prophet so the kingdom word can be spoken!

Chris Welch - 07000INTUNE said...

I hope Josh harris speaks the simple tender word of the gospel.
Comfort ye comfort ye my people. Tell my people that I love them.

When Graham Pulkingham came to our baptist church in 73, he spoke ever so simply, but people's stupid baptist brains just couldn't take it in. They tried so hard to bend into their Baptist mesh...and , ruling what he said as impractical, never invited him back.
But it was ever so simple.
Like trying to explain to the Israelites in the desert why the giants in the Land weren't a genuine problem really....was just impossible....and the people prevailed and died. And Joshua and Caleb had to wait patiently.

Would that we "dont prevail" and "LIVE" instead