Just a short note here on the now amended lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries, CJ Mahaney, et al.

I have seen a few people caution those asking questions about SGM to wait for the “other side of the story.” This is not always a bad idea. And sometimes it is absolutely necessary. But most of the people I know who are asking questions are not concerned about the other side of the story so much wondering why the neo-Calvinist superstructure will not even acknowledge there is even a story.

The response I keep getting is, “Why did I not know anything about this?” The guilt of those named in the lawsuit against SGM is not the whole matter here. One of the great concerns is the lack of acknowledgement and comment on the very existence of it. To the point that many people are in the dark.

A lot of folks have trusted SGM and its leaders with their souls. Worship leaders have used their music. SGM has been held up as an example of church health. Mahaney wrote the book on humility. And families devoured their materials on family and parenting. Asking questions makes sense.

No one would have thought it strange for an alumni of Penn State to ask questions about the Sandusky affair.

But let’s be honest, something is horribly wrong within SGM and has been for a long time. No one waited this long to deem Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno and the rest of Penn State as guilty of similar crimes.

Not even the neo-Calvinists.

If this were someone whose theology we did not like, say Joel Osteen…we would not wait to say anything.  With bated breath, we would not wait.

 

1. Just updated my résumé with details of the skills I possess to make a killer iTunes playlist.

2. The King of the Universe wielded his power and influence by saving the least of these. The current evangelical superstructure writes them off as bloggers.

3. Got to hear Bill Mallonee sing his songs and tell his stories last night on the crest of the mountain I live on, with the fog gathering around us close.

4. Sometimes I wish my kids would just stop bugging me…for food, drink, and clothing.

5. Very thankful for our local church. It’s been good for us in ways I could not imagine.

6. If you would rather go to work than have a snow day, we cannot be friends.

7. The Calvinist, because of his belief in the sovereignty of God, should be the most kind and loving person in the room. Most of the time we’re the jerk.

8. All of you *are* looking for me a better-paying non-sales job, right? Right?

9. I’ve had bacon cheeseburgers so much lately, I’m even getting tired of them. Just kidding, I’d lose all self-respect if that happened.

10. Social media is now the standard way we show our adulation for the celebrity, until they screw up, and then we mock them mercilessly. Christians are no exception.

Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. – Psalm 82:4

The following are news reports regarding the Amended Complaint filed against Sovereign Grace Ministries, CJ Mahaney, Covenant Life Church and School, other churches and leaders within SGM. I will update as needed

The San Francisco Chronicle

Christianity Today

WJLA

The Washington Post

The Courier-Journal (Louisville)

The details are here at a long-running site for those who have come out of SGM for various reasons. They have been roundly criticized and written off while keeping the issue of sexual abuse at the forefront for years. Do not read this if you are at all squeamish about sexual abuse. THE LINK IS NOT SAFE TO OPEN AT WORK.

Why do I care about this? I’ve been asked before. And it’s been assumed my motives were less than pure – that I wanted to bring down the powerful simply because they were powerful.

I think the better question to ask is why so many don’t seem to care? I think it is because we are too invested in the celebrity preachers of the day. I think it is because we know if our heroes fall, we fall a little (maybe a lot) with them. And there are power structures we thought were pure and holy…maybe they were artifice.

Why should I care about what it is going with SGM? If you and I don’t, who will? Is not our call to care for the orphan and the widow a call to care for those who are victims of sexual abuse?

Why do I care? I have not been the victim of sexual abuse. I have not been harmed by SGM. But I have been the victim of a powerful and influential church-planting organization that showed no concern for me, my family, or the church I was then serving, when their man ran away. That story is yet to be told here. Though various stories are out there.

So I do understand what it is to trust a group of men, put some faith in them, and then be tragically disappointed. That’s part of why I care.

I care because we have a King who came in weakness to save those who were weak, hurting, sick and sore.

If we, the subjects of this King don’t care, who will?

Just a few off the cuff thoughts…

Update: It is disingenuous for Christians to be upset at others calling them “anti-gay” while comparing them to those who beheaded John the Baptist.

1. This is not the Spanish Inquisition. There are no martyrs here.

2. To call someone someone anti-gay because he thinks homosexuality is wrong defies all logic. This assumes that how you feel about someone’s sexuality is penultimate in all relationships. Which is simply not true for Christians or for most people. To be anti-gay means you want to harm them, not that you disagree with them.

3. I’m right, he was not disinvited so much as he decided to not do it under pressure? There is a huge difference in the two. Maybe not so much in his heart – meaning his heart was “pure” regardless. But in the effect, there is a huge difference. I do not think less of him because of this, it’s just different.

4.With all due respect to Dr. Moore and all those who think this confirms a “de facto established church,” that seems to be a little overblown and not helpful. Pastors can still preach however they wish on Sunday. When a very liberal group goes up in arms because a socially conservative preacher is praying at the inauguration of a very liberal president, it just isn’t shocking. By the same token, I would not expect a very conservative president to have a socially liberal pastor pray at his/her inauguration.

5. Spiritual grandstanding will not convert anyone or convince them of our love. It is totally out of step with the New Testament picture of believers. It assumes a position of power and influence ignoring the grace and mercy we have received and the life of love we have been called to. I am sure the Christians suffering under Nero would be impressed with us.

6. Even if they take away the preacher’s “right” to preach that homosexuality is wrong, nothing changes. Jesus still sits upon his throne. We are still his happy subjects. Love is still the law. The preacher of the gospel still preaches the same message.

 

1. BCS National Championships make me miss baseball.

2. What I wish the the lady at Barnes & Noble had said – “No, we don’t have that book but we can order it and it will take about as long to get here as when you were a kid and you ordered something off a cereal box.”

3. By definition a short book is supposed to be short. It would be unnatural for a short book to be long.

4. Meals without Five Guys are lame.

5. Look, I know I’m not a great banker and people wonder why I’m there, but there’s no need for HR to put me in the X-Files.

6. Hope punches through the clouds knowing the stars still shine.

7. I know I’m supposed to be comforted by more important things, but when I walk in and my son is playing with my old Millennium Falcon…wait, I have something in my eye…

8. At work, the ladies can just wear slacks and a blouse. I’m thinking about forming a union to demand that we get to wear slacks and blouses too!

9. The business world is a weird, weird place by the way. And I feel like a stranger in a strange land.

10. Honestly? I hoped for money. Instead I get to hear all these stories about being helped by what I’ve written and it’s of incalculable worth.

 

1. First, I need to thank all of you. The God of the Mundane was written because so many of you, my readers, read that initial post and for some reason kept reading. For a book with no formal endorsements, the book has done far better than we expected at this point. No one is gonna get rich, but we’ve been nothing but encouraged by the reception. Your promotion and enthusiasm is a huge part of that.

2. A number of folks have asked why I haven’t blogged in a while. The answer is complicated but I guess you can just scratch it up to me not wanting to. Life’s been busy and the release of the book coupled with the strangeness of working in a bank while all this going on wears me out. But starting with this here post I’ll try and get a post or two out a week.

3. Reception to the book has been almost universally positive. (Everyone else is either ignorant of it’s existence or ignoring it altogether. I’ll take it.) But one criticism I’ve heard is that the book is not long enough. My only response is – a short book should always be short.

4. A quiet life is not a silent life.

5. One reader of the book asked a great question, “Can one yearn to connect with others w/o yearning to gain some sort of fame or praise?” I think they can. But the question is loaded with lots of implications for me right now. Rich Mullins once said, “Applause is addictive.” It’s true. I feel it down to the depths of my own soul. But there is a person connected to those hands clapping. A person with a story full of joys and concerns and failures and fears and triumphs. The key, I guess, is to put my shoulder into the applause and push through it till I’m thankful, not just for the gift of applause but that the book has helped them. And then try and listen to as many of those stories as possible.

6. The book was released a month ago today. And I’ve enjoyed just about every moment. But the two weeks before it was available I was a nervous wreck. I don’t always sleep well anyway. The banking job, you know. But those two weeks, I really struggled. The one thing grounding me was our collision course with membership to a church we had been visiting. The sermons and sacrament did far more for me than anything. I lacked sleep but I needed peace.

7. A friend of mine was surprised to see his name mentioned in the acknowledgements. How could I not acknowledge him and so many others? This book was written in the company of friends, discussing the blog posts and dreaming with them and them encouraging me and laughing with me and at me and thank God, keeping me humble. Their affection for the book makes it worth it.

8. I did not formally acknowledge the Radical movement or Francis Chan or DWYL with a purpose. These are just our generation’s manifestations of a timeless temptation. But most people have picked up the book’s attention to their general direction. My hope is this book will have some staying power and will be relevant in 25 years. I really wanted to “plant a sequoia” per Wendall Berry’s advice.

9. You just cannot imagine the addictive tug of always checking your ranking on Amazon.

10. There have been a lot of great moments over the past month. But on evening, my oldest brother Bobby and my sis-in-law, gave me a singular gift, a framed copy of the book. And it wasn’t just any copy. You see, my Dad can no longer read books, because his sight is so bad he has to listen to them. The one in the frame was the one my mom read from to my dad. Their love of books and love of me joined together. It is pictured above.

Following is a little dose of quotes and sections readers have highlighted on their Kindle.

1. We are not saved from mediocrity and obscurity, the ordinary and the mundane. We are saved in the midst of it. We are not redeemed from the mundane. We are redeemed from the slavery of thinking our mundane life is not enough.

2. We think the small, mundane, ordinary things we do each and every day are worth nothing before God because they are worth nothing before the gods of this world.

3. But I say, be nobody special. Do your job. Take care of your family. Clean your house. Mow your yard. Read your Bible. Attend worship. Pray. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Love your spouse. Love your kids. Be generous. Laugh with your friends. Drink your wine heartily. Eat your meat lustily. Be honest. Be kind to your waitress. Expect no special treatment. And do it all quietly.

4. …are you willing to be numbered among the nameless believers in history who lived in obscurity?

5. In other words, we want to end war, hunger and poverty in our lifetime. But we do not posses the will to let someone merge in front of us in traffic, and do so with a smile.

6. This little book is not a call to do nothing. It is a call to be faithful right where you are, regardless of how mundane that place is.

7. Living quietly is a life so happy with the attention of God, that the attention of the world is not needed, and rarely enjoyed.

8. I missed the obvious: the Apostles are writing to normal people.

9. It is true Paul says to his readers, “imitate me…”[1] And he says it more than once. In each instance, Paul wants his readers to see that he is an example of what he is asking of them in that particular context. His life is consistent with what he is teaching. He isn’t out of step. But he never asks them to stop being who they are. He never challenges them to go anywhere. We don’t even get hints that lead us to believe he is making them feel guilty for living in comparative comfort compared to his lack of it. That’s weird. And it’s weird because this is so common in our pulpits and in conferences held for zealous college students.

10. I want to believe my faith in the gospel of grace is not limited to the “spiritual” things but is exploding onto every single mundane moment in my life. I want the shrapnel of this explosion to embed itself in every enjoyment, and failure, and celebration, and tragedy coming my way.

1. Karen Carpenter’s voice plus Christmas music…oh wait…hang on…I’ve got something in my eye…

2. Everyone is trying to make their Christmas meaningful for their family, we are just trying to keep our kids from throwing up between December 21 and 25.

3. We have just enough electronic devices to get some peace and quiet every now and then, if one goes bad, we may need a lawyer.

4. No matter your vocation you will be prone to try and correct what your pastor says and does. No matter your vocation, you will be prone to ignore your pastor if he has an opinion on how you do your work.

5. Discovered a new band, you’ve never heard of them…no really, that’s their name.

6. Joined a church this past Sunday, first time since leaving vocational ministry. Thinking about joining again…they have a covered dish luncheon for the new members when they join.

7. One of the most exciting parts of Christmas is doing all I can to avoid “Last Christmas” by George Michael.

8. The Calvinist, for all his belief in the depravity of man, should be far more critical of the men within his own tribe, than those without.

9. I know some people may buy the book simply because they think I’m the Christian singer…and I’m OK with that.

10. I don’t know what other people say to themselves to motivate themselves when running, but something that starts with “B” and ends with “acon-wrapped shellfish.”

1. Today is warmer than yesterday, I blame climate change.

2. You know what’s sad? I am comforted by the fact that even though I had to go to the DMV yesterday, I was not at work. Probably not alone in that, and that’s not comforting.

3. Baseball season ended, I looked up and there was my wife and kids.

4. I only eat organic, locally-grown jelly beans.

5. Last year for my birthday I got an iPad. This year I got Bratwurst and freshly-sliced bacon. I’m calling it a tie.

6. Princess Leia is my favorite Disney Princess.

7. Unless you hitched a ride to the library to use a computer, you should not be writing articles criticizing the American Dream and the desire for prosperity.

8. Had to have the talk with my kids the the other night…about the Halloween candy tax levied by us parents.

9. All books on materialism should be available only in digital format.

10. We need a generation of pastors and Christian leaders doing small things you will never ever hear anything about.

It’s a strange thing. You grow up with something and then only in your 41st year you see the potential for what something can be.

When I say I grew up Baptist, I mean that in the truest sense. I tell people I grew up so Baptist in the 70s and 80s that even when there was no Wednesday night fellowship supper, we still felt the need to eat baked chicken, waxy green beans, and new potatoes with watered-down sweet tea.

That supper might have been partaken of more than the Lord’s Supper. This is no criticism. But I grew up with very little understanding of the Lord’s Supper. It was only done 5 or 6 times a year, and while always a “big deal” it lacked any kind of power for me. It was a memorial meal, nothing more.

I’ve no doubt there are others who cannot understand this. It has always been moving and special for them. I am more than willing to place all the blame at my own feet. I most likely spent far too much time passing notes in church and writing down the lyrics to my favorite songs. Or looking up questionable words in the Christmas hymns.

And even though I took classes in Seminary on the subject of communion and then later taught on the subject and even went to churches that celebrated it more often, I never really felt that I needed it till this past year.

One of my favorite books I’ve read in the past year was Thomas Merton’s The Seven-Storey Mountain. It’s a memoir of the writer turned monk. Yes, he’s Catholic, but hang with me here. There are a number of scenes I’ve been able to recall fairly well but one in particular stands out. Merton is on his way somewhere but before he goes to wherever he needs to go he hurries to make sure he can get to Mass and then get where he needs to be  in a hurry. I have this picture of him running down the steps after the Mass and to his destination.

Have you ever connected with a scene in a book or movie you could not understand? You wanted to, but could not. There was something in the scene swirling around in your head producing a longing…a desire to get in on something. That is how I have always felt about that scene. It’s drama for me was it’s incomprehensibility.

I knew nothing of his desire for the Lord’s Supper.

While I am not a fan of the Catholic Mass, I still see something in his desire for the meal, that I, as a Protestant should have. But I never really did desire it till now.

For about 3 years now I’ve been in various churches where the Lord’s Supper is celebrated every week. But it was not till I left vocational ministry that I began to desire it every week. And I only have a guess as to why. And even this guess has some fuzzy edges.

The Lord’s Supper is nothing like what I experience during the week.

It is altogether different. So much of my work week is governed by economic factors and money-related problems and solutions. Numbers rule. There is no mystery, no unseen power to be considered in the banking world. All is measured and quantified and then analyzed – even our customer service evaluations by Gallup – and then pored over and then we are weighed in the balance. And the customers are evaluated and then the company is also.

Maybe I was too much like a banker in ministry, I worried about numbers. And evaluated myself and others by the same far too often. I counted heads and worried or rejoiced accordingly. 

I guess it’s just far too easy for pastors and churches to fall into a philosophy of ministry that borrows a little too much from the business world. But even those churches have the Lord’s Supper…something that is so different from everything else.

There it is, a paltry meal. Just a bit of wine/juice and a bite of bread/cracker. Prayed over and then taken in faith. There is nothing practical about it. It’s so….different.

Which is why they call it holy.

It took me about 41 years to feel this way so I’ve no desire to make anyone feel guilty about their lack of mystical feelings when taking the Lord’s Supper. All I know is I was encouraged to know someone at sometime, somewhere craved the meal while I did not. I just kept taking it in faith, believing it’s sermon as much I could in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And then BAM!, I found myself in the midst of a world I did not understand and do not really like (Frodo and Sam and lembas?) and the desire to eat it every week became overwhelming. I live in a practical world and it’s impracticality became for me something holy and fulfilling.

There is nothing to admire here. Perhaps admiration should be reserved for those who faithfully obey the command to eat the bread and drink the wine and wait for a little more understanding. 

I started by calling all this strange. Maybe it’s just another part of the mystery. We trust that God is doing something gracious in us even when we cannot see it or feel it. In a world where everything has to come with excitement and fireworks, maybe the Lord’s Supper is a quiet reminder of God’s steadfast faithfulness to sinners even when we cannot grasp all that it means. And to be honest that is usually when I need it the most.