Introduction
“Revised” is a kind word for taking note of pathetic confusion; mine own not excepted.
Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) is a bear that believes itself to be whale. There’s nothing intended in that statement other than SGM is a creature that thinks it is something else other than what it really is.
SGM is simply not clear in any respect to the origin, nature and purposes of its polity. I think 50 different flock members would give 50 different answers, and probably the same number of pastors, frankly. I get one story/email one night from someone allegedly in the know, and the next day I get one from someone else allegedly in the know giving me contradictory information. Nobody has a bead on SGM’s polity, including SGM itself.
After hours of analyzing comments and notes, the following three major points have come to the forefront in annotating the organizational chart for SGM.
Notes (referenced above)
1. There are different ideas as to the nature and purposes of regional/sub-regional leaders in SGM. In their current state, this regional/sub-regional post and/or office would appear to be a bridge between a corporate/business entity and the Church. In studying this, I realized in an epiphany-like moment what many may have been trying to tell me for a long time: based on the legal documents and decades-long behavior, Sovereign Grace Ministries is a business, with a business model that is trying to squeeze through a siphon (the regional/sub-regional leaders and a theological mouthpiece) in order to play church.
This realization—which will be called an oversimplification, I’m sure—was a cocktail of relief, dread, freedom, and grief. It put me on my knees, and in the end, that is never a bad thing.
2. In comments and emails, one theme resounds: any person or entity above the laity/congregation in an SGM church is appointed by someone higher up, and those posts/offices are never elected or affirmed in a practical sense by the laity/congregation. Never.
3. The office/post of elder has most often been assigned to members of the pastoral team or care group leaders, primarily separately, in SGM-affiliated churches. There is no clear picture whatsoever on exactly who the elders are to the flock, and this changes from church to church.
Summary
These three points indicate a morass of confusion, which I believe ties to overwhelming factors in point number 1. In its current form, Sovereign Grace Ministries needs to be honest and call itself a para-church ministry for pastors…which is ironic, given SGM’s proclivity to pan para-church ministries, excepting very few. Instead, it simply cannot keep itself out of the church. And when an organization whose primary purpose is to train pastors inserts itself into the church, the sheep pay for it.
The maddening aspect of all of this is how it tries to be the best of both worlds, yet what happens is SGM wants to have its cake and eat it, too. It claims hands-off one moment, while behind its back it is very much hands-on. It denies running the churches yet tells people they can leave if they don’t like the polity. SGM fancies itself a helping hand while squeezing the sheep dry.
This dichotomy of passive-aggressive/authoritarian nonsense is nothing but conscious duplicity that feigns ignorance when called onto the carpet.
How does SGM reform? It has to completely change the nature of itself if it continues to play church. The major contributing factor to all of this is how CLC and SGM seem to be inextricable. CLC serves as a testing ground for the latest SGM-isms, a hub for all things SGM and a launching pad for things that have had adverse effects on the sheep elsewhere.
SGM takes credit for the positive, then quickly exits through the back door when things go south and the church starts burning. This type of behavior brings shame on so many levels, I can’t even describe it without getting angered. Thank God He has the ability to rescue and reconstitute.
The emails I get that make the grand claim that most congregants are happy with SGM–and will I please leave poor SGM alone–are primarily from those who benefit positively from these church experiments, i.e., it works for them. “Constant change is here to stay” is simply double-talk for we-do-what-we-want, and “essentially Reformed with Charismatic distinctives” could be translated to mean the exact same thing…we do what we want. This isn’t an eat-the-meat-and-spit-out-the-bones action in its purest sense. SGM wants to be able to define its bones/enemies while trying to convince the churches they truly have been able to distill Christianity’s greatest hits for you to enjoy and lord over everyone else.
SGM will continue to abuse and destroy more sheep until it comes clean with how it does business. I repeat an earlier observation: SGM has to entirely change its nature, God willing. And this will mean nothing without repentance and nixing its current policy of labeling those wronged as the “tyranny of the aggrieved.”
Reformation. It’s that complex, and it’s that simple.
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