Do as you are told or else...: Sovereign Grace P/5

 Read Part One HERE

In this blog post I will continue to focus on C.J. Mahaney, pastor Of Sovereign Grace Church, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was formerly president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, now Sovereign Grace Churches. Their culture incorporates a strong emphasis on homeschooling, patriarchy and corporal punishment. A civil suit was filed in 2012, accusing Mahaney and other Sovereign Grace pastors of covering up sexual abuse of children.

                                    Testimony of  a survivor:

"Committed a sin. Confessed to a pastor. Repented. Years went by without any temptation in that area. I was totally over it. Then I was confronted and told they should have dealt with my sin differently when I had confessed it years earlier. I was told that I had to follows certain "steps" they declared for me in order to be forgiven for my sin. What? I thought it was by grace that I was saved and not works. Now I have to work for my salvation? I was so confused. In private I was told I had "works" to do to earn my salvation. At church they talked about grace. I began to think that the cross, Jesus, and grace was for everyone else but me. There was no hope for me - only for everybody else. My sense of worth dropped to nothing. OK. Maybe below nothing. I was depressed, angry, suicidal, unloved, unworthy, hopeless. If I did what they required that meant I had to "earn" their love and God's and that was depressed me. The constant struggle to earn their love was already exhausting me. So much to do to keep them all pleased and now there was more. I didn't do what they required and I was shunned, unloved, unacceptable. That was depressing. No one tried to understand or ask what I was thinking or feeling. All I got from my so-called brothers and sisters was an attitude or "do as you're told or you are nothing." So I believed I was nothing. I meant nothing to God. I had not one that loved me. No one. I responded very badly. I was so angry. Shunned. Scared. More anger, Condemnation.Divored, Angry. Bitter. Depressed.Suicidal. Lost. Empty. What do I do now? How do I live through each day without the daily interaction of leadership in my life?... Years went by.... So hopeless then..."

"New begining.... A new church. An amazing pastor. Truth. Grace. Hope. Hope. Hope. Forgiveness, Freedom, Joy. Love, Whole. I love who I am. I am a woman. I really love who I am. I love who I am in Christ. God's daughter. Beautiful. Made in God's image. Righteous. Amazed by God. Amazed by grace. Good News. Peace, Changed. Hope. I love Christ's Bride. I love the church.I am giving. Serving. Loving others. Enjoying God. He is so awesome."

"My sin was 23 years ago. I am so over it. I have no temptation or struggle with that sin at all. But CLC people would throw down that sin like a trump card - act like it just happened yesterday. Anything to discredit someone else in order to pump up their own reputation. The fact and sum of my life is that I love Jesus so much because I have been forgiven much .Jesus' blood was enough for my sin."

Read Part Six HERE

Believers are only worms: Sovereign Grace P/4

                                      Read Part One HERE

In this blog post I will continue to focus on C.J. Mahaney, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was formerly president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, now known as Sovereign Grace Churches. Their culture incorporates a strong emphasis on homeschooling, patriarchy and corporal punishment/ A civil suit was filed in 2012, accusing Mahaney and other Sovereign Grace pastors of covering up sexual abuse of children.

Testimony of a survivor:

"We were in PDI (today SGM) for 12-13 years, I started reading other books, checking out internet prophecy, looking into other doctrines and realised that what was being taught and force fed wasn't exactly what I wanted our family to hear. Each Sunday at the end of the message I would sit there feeling the weight of condemnation.... because the Lord was dealing with me to leave until I finally told Him, "Ok, I'll go." There was no joy, no victory, no Blood of the Lamb who took away the sins of the world, no love lifted me.... just focus on what a worm you are until you go crazy. We couldn't even say that someone had a good heart, no, we had to say that they had a horrible black sin-infested, disgusting, revolting, deceitfully wicked heart above all things, ad nausum, etc - on and on  and one."

"I saw much hypocrisy in the leaders and didn't appreciate it... They said one thing in public but another thing in private. The standard they used to measure others was never applied to themselves. They sure loved to hear themselves talk."

"The elitism and superiority was more than I could bear. If you weren't in our church you were a heathen and going to hell. Other churches weren't even Christians."

"After I left it was such a relief--- -No more condemnation, no more double standards, no more hypocrisy."

Read Part Five HERE

Pastors are in charge: Sovereign Grace P/3

                                     Read Part One HERE

In this blog post I will continue to focus on C.J. Mahaney, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was formerly president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, now known as Sovereign Grace Churches. Their culture incorporates a strong emphasis on homeschooling, patriarchy and corporal punishment. A civil suit was filed in 2012, accusing Mahaney and other Sovereign Grace pastors of covering up sexual abuse of children.

Testimony of a survivor:

"I attended a SGM church from 1992 - 2000. I had been a Christian for many years and was a seminary student. I was put off by the top-down structure among other things. I had never experienced such a strange form of church government in the several churches I had been part of over the years. I found it most troubling but didn't really have anyone to discuss my concerns with so I pondered it on my own. Although I tithed (but never gave to the misnamed "mission fund"), I was never privy to any sort of financial documents or budgets. I always thought it strange that the paid pastors had the ability to determine their own wages etc. Now I will say, I was never a member, so perhaps these documents were available to members. However, I did attend membership classes and went as far as having the pastoral interview in which, as we were finishing, the pastor remarked, "I believe God is giving you to us." I have no idea what I said in reply, but I remember thinking that God was going to have to communicate that to me before I signed on!"

"Because I had been involved in very missions-active churches, I was puzzled by the lack of any sort of mission outreach. In fact, I was told that PI (the forerunner of SGM) didn't do missions.I left in 2000 for many reason but the bottom line for me was that I was a square peg trying to fin into a round hole."

Read Part Four HERE

Husbands have the right to complain about their wives: Sovereign Grace P/2

                                    Read Part One HERE

In this blog post I will continue to focus on C.J.Mahaney, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was formerly president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, now known as Sovereign Grace Churches. Their culture incorporates a strong emphasis on homeschooling, patriarchy and corporal punishment. A civil suit was filed in 2012, accusing Mahaney and other Sovereign Grace pastors of covering up sexual abuse of children.

 Testimony of a survivor:

"Our family attended a Sovereign Grace Ministries church for 3 years. The people were very friendly - at first. We attended membership classes for a year before we were granted membership. Lots of classes (weekly) to make sure we were the type of members they wanted. We attended a Parent and Youth TaG We also attended a family TAG group As time progressed we were invited to attend a Marriage TAG group."

"The marriage TAG was odd. Couples would sit around together and the men would talk about how "non-submissive" their wives were! At the end of the class, several of the wives would be crying. It was very disturbing. When my husband voiced his concerns, he was told that women needed to submit to their husbands."

"There are many other things which happened during our time at this church. Most of it was awful! Our children were told  by leaders that they were not very smart, that they had anger issues, that they were full of pride, etc. One child was actually told that, "it was not their place to ask any questions about anything. Their job was to, "make the leadership look good."

"We were constantly being told that we were wretched sinners (which we are) but Christ, but God! The "bad news" was constantly repeated, but rarely was the "good news" -  we have freedom in Christ! He paid the debt! He has freed us!"

"We decided we would meet with the pastor and discussed our concerns with him. It was quite an emotional meeting, but in the end we had not made a final decision. "Maybe it was us," we thought. Maybe we were prideful. Maybe we were imagining being shunned, etc. We prayed and left the meeting."

"A few days later, we returned to church for an activity. No one spoke to us until we were leaving. A board member's wife said that she heard we had met with the pastor. I was surprised, but asked how she had heard that information. She replied that the pastor had sent out an email to the leadership saying that we were leaving the church."

"I was shocked. We had not even decided what we were going to do... My husband arranged for another meeting with the pastor to discuss the subject. When they met, the pastor said he was sure that we were going to leave, but if we'd like, he could send an email stating that we had changed our mind and were now going to stay"

"WOW! I'm not sure what he eventually did, but shortly after that meeting we left Sovereign Grace Ministries. We have been away for almost a year and have not heard from anyone."

Read Part Three HERE

Pastors are to be given double honour: Sovereign Grace P/1

In this blog post I will begin a series of posts focusing on  C.J. Mahaney, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Kentucky. He was formerly president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, now known as Sovereign Grace Churches. Their culture incorporates a strong emphasis on homeschooling, patriarchy and corporal punishment. A civil suit was filed in 2012, accusing Mahaney and other Sovereign Grace pastors of covering up the sexual abuse of children.

Testimony of a survivor:

"I was a member of two Sovereign Grace Ministries churches in the DC-MD-Va area for a total of 8 years. During my first visit to a caregroup they spent over 45 minutes praising the attributes of the pastor. When I questioned the caregroup leader about this, I was pointed to 1 Timothy 5:17 - you know, the "double honour" idea."

"The months turned into years and I witnessed nothing short of idol worship being given to the pastoral staff. It's so easy to see that now, but I was so taken in by their "observations" of my pride and sinful judgements. The hierarchy, manipulations and sever pressure to conform ("cult of personality") were also rampant at both churches. The entire 8 years I felt the Holy Spirit prodding me: something-is-wrong-here-but-I-can't-put-my-finger-on-it."

"I confronted pastors at both churches on these issues - citing multiple examples and how they contradicted scripture. Both made it clear that it was inconceivable to think they weren't 100% correct (okay, 98%...), and that the apostolic team thid interpret the passages that way ("this is just how we do things withing Sovereign Grace Ministries")."

"It's been over a year now since I pulled my family out of Sovereign Grace Ministries. It was hard leaving friends, brothers and sisters. We found a church that points us to Christ, not just the Cross. I am still kicking myself (repenting) of not yielding to the "Still Quiet Voice" I knew pre-Sovereign Grace Ministries."

Read Part Two HERE

History repeats itself at Christ Church: The Sproul/Wilson Story P/5

 

                                           Read Part One HERE

In this story I continue to focus on two men. They are R.C. Sproul Jr, previously the pastor of St Peter Presbyterian Church, Bristol, Virginia, and Doug Wilson, pastor of Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho, Virginia, this time in connection with a pedophile named Alex R. Lloyd., who served as a deacon at  Christ Church.

Alex. R. Lloyd was removed as deacon and was then "placed under church discipline." The congregation was informed of "the situation" on February 7. However, Wilson said Lloyd had been allowed to attend Christ church services with "a chaperone." Additonally, Wilson noted that Lloyed went "to Texas" to check into a sexual rehab  facility but has since returned.

A jury trial has been set for June 21 in the federal case against Alex Lloyd.

Pedophiles continue to be accepted at Christ Church: Sproul/Wilson Story P/4

                                           Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue the Sproul/Wilson stoy. This time the story is not related to Steven Sitler but to a man named Alex R. Lloyd, a (former) deacon of Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho, Virginia, pastored by Doug Wilson. Lloyd was recently indicted by federal authorities for possession of child pornography. 

An investigation led by Moscow police department forensic detective Lawrence Mowers found that Lloyd possessed child sex abuse images on his I-phone from 8 March 2021 to January of this year, according to court documents.

Pastor Wilson said in a statement that the church first received word last January that Lloyd had been taken in for questioning, but no charges were filed at that time. At the family's requst, Wilson said, he picked up Lloyd at the police station. And "because of what had come out regarding a porn habit," Wilson said, he received Lloyd's resignation and "started the process of removing Lloyd from office as a deacon."

Read Part Five HERE