Stand Firm in the Faith on the Mahaney-mess. We feel that SF's cited source--which we posted already-- has good points, but is too dissmissive of the reports that are coming in. On commenter has summarized it well:
"The small non-denom charismatic churches in our town had ‘shepherds’ and went through the same constant agonizing intraspection, nit-picking, sniffing the air for any hints of sin and demonic activity - exactly what SGM seems to be going through now. Hurt feelings were ministered to a lot. The incident with CJ Mahaney asking if his son could go along on a trip at church expense shows more about the people making the accusation than it does about CJ Mahaney. This is the kind of accusatory griping whining stuff pastors put up with on a daily basis."
Throw in the "Apostles," which there church leaders believed themselves to be, these almighty Apostles--under the pretext of humility--divined with sovereign dread and inscrutable infallibility "into others lives" These leaders "speak the prophet voice into lives." It has the strong whiff and rank odours of Word of Faith. Mr. Detwiler, a high level practitioner of the art and associate with Mr. Mahaney, turned the tables on Mahaney after Mahaney degifts and deboarded (from SGM) Detwiler. Detwiler, however, kept notes.
What else would you expect but chaos and division within this neo-Montanist and charismatic movement? It goes with their territory.
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/27609
On the CJ Mahaney Mess
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 • 9:14 pm
If you happen to be following the CJ Mahaney drama, then the following is, in my opinion, the best summary of the whole mess I've yet read (although I disagree with the guy's ecclesiology).
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If you are not following from home, let me bring you up to speed. CJ, the former pastor of the Sovereign Grace flagship church in Gaithersburg, MD, was the head of the Sovereign Grace network. I say “was” because two weeks ago he stepped down in light of accusations against him. These accusations were made by former pastors who were on his staff. The essence of the accusations? CJ is proud and manipulative.The main accuser, Brent Detwiler, put out over 600 pages of emails interspersed with his own commentary to make those points. I have read much of those 600 pages, and let me save you some time by telling you this: 1. Don’t waste your time. These things have been downloaded 55,000 times, and I feel sorry for anyone who has read more than 10 pages of them; 2. There is no smoking gun. Strip away all of the commentary and whining, and you are left with a picture of a pastor who is running an organization, and some associates who feel slighted.If you're not following the CJ Mahaney drama, then nevermind
Honestly, reading this made me ask: “Don’t these people have real sin to confront?” Some of the pastors think CJ is acting too proud, and they rate him on his pride, and they schedule meetings to talk about his pride, and CJ repents of 9 of 11 species of pride that they have identified, and they go back to the drawing board to identify examples of the other two species of pride, they email each other to ask if others have seen that pride, and then CJ thinks those fit under the first species of pride, and they chart the pride, and so on. Blah. Wouldn’t it be nice if occasionally love covered a multitude of sins?
I will give you one example, just because it illustrates the pointlessness of this whole ordeal. CJ and his wife were scheduled to speak in Phoenix around the same time. CJ emailed the executive pastor asking if he could bring his son with him, because he wanted to spend more time with him. After a few emails among the finance committee, they decided that they would rather CJ pay for it out of pocket, unless he felt like his finances were too tight, then they would give him a taxable bonus to cover the flight. CJ decided to pay for it himself, saying that the reason he wanted to bring his son is because both he and his wife were going to be there simultaneously. At this point, I felt like this was actually an exchange I had with my accounting department last week.
But then Brent (a former member of CJ’s “apostolic team” and the one who posted the emails), points out that CJ is manipulating the situation. CJ originally said he wanted his son to go with him to spend more time with him, and then changed his story and said it was really because both he and his wife would be there! AH HA!
This synoptic problem is typical of the whole lot. Maybe I am jaded. I used to attend a megachurch where the pastor got busted absconding with hundreds of thousands of dollars and the radio equipment…and he is still the pastor. CJ, meanwhile, asked permission to spend $300 on his son’s airfare—and they told him no!—but the crime is in the way he asked? Did he have too much pride in his voice?...more
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Jesse Johnson makes some good points about the theological problems with Sovereign Grace Ministries structure (making discipline difficult) and with calling their pastors Apostles. Reading about this situation takes me back over 40 years ago to the Shepherding Discipleship era when C J Mahaney and Larry Thomczak were young unmarried ministers working together, teaching at Tennessee Georgia Christian Camps along with other charismatic shepherding pastors like Derek Prince, Charles Simpson, Bob Mumford, Don Basham, Ern Baxter and others. The small non-denom charismatic churches in our town had ‘shepherds’ and went through the same constant agonizing intraspection, nit-picking, sniffing the air for any hints of sin and demonic activity - exactly what SGM seems to be going through now. Hurt feelings were ministered to a lot. The incident with CJ Mahaney asking if his son could go along on a trip at church expense shows more about the people making the accusation than it does about CJ Mahaney. This is the kind of accusatory griping whining stuff pastors put up with on a daily basis. Churches (and homes) can be cruel, unstable, unhealthy - even dangerous places when Jesus is not really Lord and our first love, when we don’t walk in the Holy Spirit and His glory isn’t our first goal and His Word is not practiced with love and humility. Following men rather than God is another real temptation in church life. Preaching and teaching the Word is a whole lot easier than living it. This topic relates to “The Tyranny of Past Hurts” thread. [2] Posted by St. Nikao on 07-19-2011 at 09:49 PM • top |
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