SGM-Mahaneygate: Dave Harvey's Latest in Evaluating Detwiler

http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/blogs/sgm/post/Evaluating-Brent-Detwilere28099s-allegations.aspx

Evaluating Brent Detwiler’s allegations

October 28, 2011 by Dave Harvey

Well everyone, it has been a busy month and I’m grateful to have some concrete updates on what the board has been doing. We have some final direction on the adjudication process, so let me fill you in on how we are proceeding.

On October 13 we informed readers here that Brent Detwiler had declined participation in a formal adjudication to try his allegations against C.J. Mahaney. We also said that we would work with Ambassadors of Reconciliation, adjudication facilitator Bryce Thomas, and SGM pastors to develop and launch an alternative process. We’ve done that, and I’ll outline the plan in a moment.

But first, a word on the latest with Brent. Two weeks after declining our offer, Brent wrote us to say that he changed his mind and wanted to participate. Unfortunately, he also said that he considers the process “unjust” and “bogus,” the logical implication being that even if he participated, he would also consider any unfavorable results for him unjust and bogus.

Meanwhile, we had been working with those mentioned above to define an alternative to seriously examine the substance of Brent’s allegations. In recent weeks we developed a plan together, and in the last few days we discussed it with our pastoral teams. It’s with their broad support that we are going to move forward with the plan outlined below. It doesn’t involve Brent as a plaintiff, instead relying mostly on SGM pastors to ask the tough questions, prepare reports of their findings for our churches, and issue recommendations to the SGM Board. Given Brent’s consistently strong rejections of our appeals for reconciliation and adjudication, his public statements that our proposal was unjust, and our respect for and confidence in the pastors of Sovereign Grace churches, we think the issues can be more sufficiently and satisfactorily reviewed in this way.

Here’s what we’re going to do.

External review

This component was already in place, but is worth mentioning again. The team from AOR will review all of the documents they receive related to SGM—including Brent’s—and assess those as part of their review of SGM’s practices, teaching, processes, and culture. So even though he has declined any further discussion with AOR (although the option is still available), Brent’s allegations and documentation will factor into the final assessment and recommendations that AOR gives to us, and which we will publish online. While this is not an adjudication—i.e. it doesn’t deliver a verdict on Brent’s specific charges concerning C.J.’s qualification for ministry—it will be an outside assessment of how we should proceed in response to Brent’s allegations in terms of reforming policy, evaluating leaders, and reconciling broken relationships. And since it will also take into account the testimonies of everyone else participating in Group Reconciliation, we hope to learn if and where AOR finds common ground in others’ perspectives.

Pastoral review

The board will also commission three panels (1 board member and 2 senior pastors per panel), each guided by Bryce Thomas, for an internal review. Each of these panels will review one of the three major events around which Brent builds his allegations: Larry Tomczak’s departure from SGM in 1998, C.J.’s conflict with other SGM leaders in 2004, and Brent’s removal from ministry by his local church’s leaders in 2009. The panels will interview the key witnesses of these events, evaluate their testimonies for consistency with Brent’s interpretation of events, and determine if and where Brent’s allegations and conclusions have merit. These panels will then issue their findings and recommendations to the board, who in turn will publish them online and make a final determination on C.J.’s future in ministry with SGM.

Pursuit of reconciliation

For more than a year we have made our desire for reconciliation known to Brent. Beyond C.J.’s many appeals for a personal meeting, this included the board sending a representative to his home to meet with him earlier this summer, offering to let him pick a mediator to meet with any or all of us, appealing for him to participate in Group Reconciliation with AOR, and even two appeals this week for Brent to have his pastor contact us so we can take immediate steps towards reconciliation. Our thinking was that perhaps the help of his church’s leadership might result in some much-desired progress. We maintain hope for this and will continue our appeals.

Please pray for each of these efforts. And please remember the upcoming Pastors Conference in your prayers a well. Thanks!