Dear Members of Covenant Life Church,
We’re writing to share our thoughts concerning the recent panels’ findings released by the Board of Sovereign Grace Ministries. Thank you for your patience and encouragement during this unique season in our church. Many of you have shared your questions and concerns with us for which we are grateful. We value your ongoing partnership in the gospel.
As a pastoral team, we’ve spent significant time considering the difficult issues addressed by the panels. As you will recall, last summer hundreds of pages of documents were released by Brent Detwiler. We sought to care for our members through the initial shock caused by this release. Given the charges he made against our friend and former Senior Pastor, C.J. Mahaney, we asked the church to allow a thorough process of evaluation to unfold.
The hope of having a completely independent, outside organization review and adjudicate Brent’s charges against C.J. never materialized, but based on the counsel of Ambassadors of Reconciliation, the Sovereign Grace Board did establish an internal process to evaluate the charges and have now released findings from three panels. Each was made up of two Sovereign Grace pastors and one SGM Board member along with a facilitator, Bryce Thomas. While we wish the questions assigned the panels had been broader in scope and would have preferred a selection process for the panel members that avoided any appearance of partiality (e.g., a blind draw instead of ones chosen by the Board), we view these panel reports as a good step toward more openly addressing questions raised by the documents.
We believe the men selected for these panels acted with integrity to address the questions assigned them by the SGM Board, and we thank these men for their sacrificial efforts.
In regard to the first panel, those of us who were directly involved with these events (Kenneth, Grant and Joshua) each communicated to the panel when they interviewed us that we felt C.J.’s written confession to Brent in the fall of 2010 (referenced in the first panel report) was a specific, humble acknowledgement of his sins. We also agree with the panel’s recommendations and trust they will be followed. (We’ve appended all the recommendations from the three panels to this letter.)
In regard to the second panel, Covenant Life had no personal involvement with Brent’s dismissal, and we are not in a position to question the panel's findings. But we hope that improvements in polity and procedures may help prevent future occurrences of the types of problems the report describes. And it is our prayer that reconciliation among offended brothers will be pursued.
The third panel’s findings regarding Larry Tomczak were arguably the most important of the three panels because of the seriousness of the charges leveled against C.J., Steve Shank and Dave Harvey, and because Larry was a founding pastor of Covenant Life. Reading this report left us deeply grieved by the sin committed against the Tomczak family. We regard the panel’s report to be a rebuke of the men involved in this action. We are grateful that the panel did not gloss over the sin but acknowledged the damage created by the coercive threat and lack of pursuing reconciliation. We agree that honoring the Tomczaks would be appropriate. We also agree that this panel’s recommendations for further reconciliation between C.J., Steve, Dave and Larry should be pursued as a good faith effort in assuring member churches that this type of sin will not be tolerated in the future.
While the Board was functioning within its purview to reinstate C.J. as President, we believe that it would have been better for the Board to have carried out the panel’s recommendations prior to reinstating C.J. and forming a new Board.
We share these points of disagreement out of desire to participate in a constructive dialogue about the future of our movement. We love all the men involved and count them as brothers and gospel partners.
It’s important for us to state that the ways that we disagree about the Board’s handling of this process are distinct from issues of personal forgiveness. God’s forgiveness has been purchased for us by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Whether or not we agree on all the details of these matters, may we all remember that our God has shown each of us undeserved mercy and grace in pardoning our sins.
Extending personal forgiveness toward our brothers is vital as followers of Jesus Christ (Col. 3:13). But it does not mean that we can’t respectfully disagree with the decisions of an organization or express concerns about how leaders are appointed and positioned or ask questions about what authority they hold. Right now for example, the SGM Board is working on a new membership agreement for the churches. They are also appointing a new permanent Board. Both of these issues are very important to us as a church. While we strongly desire to maintain our connection and relationship with other Sovereign Grace churches, we won’t feel comfortable signing a new membership agreement with SGM until the Board has clearly defined how it is accountable to member churches and the nature of its authority and relationship to them. The Board has stated its commitment to clarifying these issues, and we are grateful.
Some additional factors are also in play:
- We expect the report from Ambassadors of Reconciliation scheduled to be released in March will give further opportunity to clarify how God is calling for reform in our movement.
- We have asked the SGM Board to publish benchmarks for follow-through on the panel’s recommendations.
We want to close this letter with a call to pray for your pastors in Covenant Life and all of the leaders of SGM, asking the Lord to continue to bring conviction and reform any sinful patterns of leadership in the past or present, while also praising God for the good fruit in our church and across the movement as we partner together in days ahead. We believe God wants to do a reviving work among us and position us for greater fruitfulness for his glory.
We appreciate you taking the time to read through this and welcome your thoughts. Feel free to contact your pastor if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
The Pastors of Covenant Life Church
What follows are the recommendations issued by the three Sovereign Grace panels (see the full panel reports here):
Review Panel Recommendations on C.J. Mahaney's Fellowship
1. This Panel recommends that C.J. reconnect with those whom he has served with (particularly the members of the former SGM Leadership Team and CLC Accountability Group) to discover how they may have been impacted by these sin patterns—what they experienced, how it affected them, and what thoughts they would have for him going forward. We recommend this because in some cases we think reconciliation may still need to take place, and this is a necessary step to that end. But also this input would be invaluable to help C.J. as he continues to make progress in sanctification in these areas. Though his sins are common, their effect on others can be magnified because he has been the leader, teacher, and model of the values that these sin patterns violate (e.g., humility, approachability, etc.). We recommend that the comments of those C.J. meets with be shared with the current SGM Board and discussed as to how they should inform his leadership going forward.
2. This Panel recommends that C.J. view his December 16, 2010 confession as a template for pursuing personal growth in these areas. This confession resonated deeply with those of our participants who have been directly affected by these issues; it confirmed what some of them had seen in the past and they were greatly helped that C.J. had owned these sin patterns with specificity. We see this as an indication that continuing to pursue growth and accountability in these specific areas (which C.J. is eager to do) would address some of the fundamental issues that have led to the relational struggles some have experienced with C.J.
3. Finally, this Panel recommends that consideration be given by the SGM Board regarding how to provide accountability, input, and leadership structures that guard against and reduce the potential impact of the inevitable sin patterns that tempt leaders. For example, if a leader is resistant to correction, believes his own perspective to be superior to others, and withdraws from those who correct him, his leadership can become unchallengeable and unchangeable, unless there are avenues for recourse. We recognize that the SGM Board’s currently reviewing how to restructure the leadership of the ministry, and considering these issues in the reconfiguration will be most helpful.
Review Panel Recommendations on Brent Detwiler's Dismissal from Grace Community Church, Mooresville, NC
1. We recommend that the process of approving a church plant assure the relational unity, trust, and the partnership between SGM, the church planter, and the elders of the sending church and that they not proceed without this being well established.
2. We recommend that the SGM board look for any contribution, and accept responsibility for any flaws, errors or sins in the decision to plant GCC (see additional findings #2) and consider what an appropriate response should be to the former members of Grace Community Church.
3. We recommend that SGM help church planters to establish their early leadership teams in a way that ensures a healthy plurality, explains their relationship with SGM, and establishes clear expectations between the church planter and the leadership team and between the leadership team and SGM.
4. We understand that SGM is in the midst of defining its polity. In light of this we recommend they include the following:
• Define and establish clearly SGM's relationship with its local churches5. We recommend that SGM develop a policy for when a charge is brought against an elder that clearly articulates a 1 Timothy 5 process so that members and leaders of our churches know what recourse they have in bringing a charge and the elder is either protected should the charge be false or granted a fair, biblical and impartial process to examine and adjudicate the charge.
• Define and establish SGM's role in helping to resolve and reconcile disputes among local elders’ leadership teams and when a crisis develops in a church.
• We recommend that SGM provide trained regional teams to help conciliate/mediate disputes among elders or leadership teams that cannot be resolved and/or reconciled locally.
• We recommend a process where the local church can affirm the extra-local leadership involved in serving that church.
• We recommend that SGM develop a process for when a dispute, a loss of confidence, or a serious concern arises between the local eldership/leadership team and the leader so that the issue can be addressed or another extra-local leader is assigned to serve that church.
• We recommend that SGM develop a grievance policy that local churches can adopt so that all parties know what steps to take when relational difficulties arise at a local or extra-local level. This grievance policy should also be used to address any relational difficulties SGM has at its leadership levels.
6. If in the future an extra-local assessment team is deployed to serve one of our churches. We recommend that the person being assessed participate in choosing the members of the assessment team and participate in defining the assessment process so that trust is engendered by all involved.
Review Panel Recommendations on Larry Tomczak's Departure from Sovereign Grace Ministries
1. We recommend that everyone involved in the events of this report soberly examine their hearts before the Lord seeking the Holy Spirit's conviction and responding with repentance before God where appropriate. Any changes that we recommend for any individual or for the SGM Board corporately will be worthless apart from the work of the Spirit bringing conviction, forgiveness, renewal and reconciliation. This recommendation is offered with a genuine confidence in the power of the gospel to affect change in our lives as we humble ourselves before the Lord.
2. We recommend that the current SGM board members (C.J. Mahaney, Dave Harvey, Steve Shank) and the key local elder (Larry Malament) who served during the time of Larry Tomczak's departure pursue a mediation process with him. We appreciate that each of these men have recently and in some cases repeatedly returned to Tomczak and confessed their sins and sought reconciliation. We are not questioning their efforts or their sincerity. However, based on the testimony we heard, we do not have confidence that these relationships are reconciled.
We don't know the content of the private meetings between individual leaders and the Tomczaks, but from what we heard, it seems that neither side believes the other has taken full responsibility for their own faults. Similarly, both sides lack a high degree of trust for those on the other side. In this environment of weakened trust, we believe mediation is essential to bring a God-glorifying reconciliation that will satisfy each party.
Mahaney and the Tomczaks publicly reported in 2011 that they had been reconciled. We think their announcement was sincere, but we believe there is more work to be done to secure a bilateral and enduring reconciliation.
In the past, Mahaney and Tomczak couldn't agree on a mediator, so we would like to recommend one. We suggest Ted Kober (or his delegate) from Ambassadors of Reconciliation serve in this process and that SGM cover all the expenses for the mediation.
Finally, we recommend that SGM avoid joint statements and appearances announcing reconciliation with the Tomczaks until a neutral third party mediator supports that statement. Communicating progress is welcomed. Communicating reconciliation should be withheld until it is encouraged by the mediator, in our opinion. Following mediation, the board should consider if any further public communication is warranted.
3. We recommend that the board prioritize the writing of some form of a “book of church order.” We know that the board has already announced its intentions to draft such a work. But our immersion in the details of Larry Tomczak's departure from SGM leads us to recognize the serious need for this and recommend that the board expedite this project.
We are not fully informed of the intended scope of the "book of church order," and we aren't certain which issues SGM will leave for the local churches to decide upon. Even so, we recommend that the SGM Board address the prominent deficiencies highlighted in the Tomczaks' case. Both the board and the Tomczaks would have benefitted from well-defined guidelines on the following issues:
• Evaluating a pastor's qualifications for ministryIf these issues are outside the parameters of a "book of church order," then we recommend that they be addressed through another more appropriate means.
• The legitimacy and purpose of a disciplinary or non-disciplinary leave of absence for a pastor or board member
• A defined grace centered restoration process for a disqualified pastor
• Standards for public communication regarding the discipline of a pastor
• Standards for public communication regarding the departure of a disqualified pastor
• A grievance policy providing recourse for an offended pastor or board member
• An explanation of the selection and dismissal procedure for SGM Board members
• Clarity on the relationship between the SGM Board and the local church
• A defined accountability for a SGM Board member with his local eldership
• A policy for mediation between board members or local pastors in conflict
4. We recommend that Larry Tomczak be honored for his years of service in Sovereign Grace Ministries. As his departure has been revisited through this review, we have an opportunity to graciously express our gratitude to him. With one exception, we won't recommend specifics because honor expressed in response to the recommendation of others can ring hollow for the recipient. As a panel, we were privileged to sit with the Tomczaks and briefly express our gratitude for their years of investment in this family of churches. We are sure others, including board members, have done the same. But a more formal SGM response would be meaningful and appropriate in our estimation.
We specifically recommend that the board give a financial gift to the Tomczaks as an expression of gratitude for their years of sacrificial service in SGM. We understand that severance pay is not customary for someone who resigns his employment as Tomczak chose to do. We understand that a financial gift is not customary when someone departs in the midst of a dispute. We also understand that the gospel of grace calls us to a generosity and gratitude that is not customary.
If SGM has already given a financial gift to the Tomczaks, then we welcome the board to make that known, as unbecoming as it might seem to publicize such an act.
5. We recommend the SGM Board take steps to improve communication with its pastors. Specifically, we believe the board can grow in the way it updates pastors concerning changes in our policies and practices. During our recent period of difficulty, the board has served pastors well in communication, and we recommend they maintain this present value even when the difficulty subsides and frequent interactions are no longer necessary.
This recommendation isn't so much a response to specific deficiencies in the handling of Tomczak's departure, but reviewing documents from the time of his departure has made us aware of many changes within SGM. As we read documents from 15 years ago, we found ourselves thinking, “We don't do things that way anymore.” As we asked current leaders about decisions and actions from the past, many testified, “We would do it differently today.” They weren't only addressing mistakes or regrets. They were acknowledging that SGM culture has changed.
To us, it seems like changes in personnel, policy and practice have occurred without much public explanation. This is an observation not an accusation. We recommend the board continue to pursue a leadership approach that readily identifies and explains change where possible.
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