The lawsuit was filed in Maryland state court against Sovereign Grace Ministries, a 30-year-old family of churches, with about 100 congregations. Most of its churches are in the U.S., but it also has planted churches in about 21 countries.

The plaintiffs allege a conspiracy spanning more than two decades to conceal sexual abuse committed by church members. The alleged abuse happened in Maryland and northern Virginia in the 1980s and 1990s. The lawsuit accuses church representatives of permitting suspected pedophiles to interact with children, supplying them with free legal advice to avoid prosecution and forcing victims to meet with and “forgive” the person that had molested them.

“The facts show that the Church cared more about protecting its financial and institutional standing than about protecting children, its most vulnerable members,” the lawsuit claims.

The church did not immediately respond to a written message or to a phone message left on its general voicemail box. It wasn’t immediately clear if the church had a lawyer.

The suit names as defendants about a half-dozen pastors and church officials who plaintiffs say were alerted to the accusations but either failed to take action or actively covered them up. One official said he had not seen the suit and could not comment on the specific allegations. Other defendants either did not immediately respond to phone messages or did not appear to have publicly listed phone numbers.

In accusing church leaders of turning a blind eye to sexual molestation, the lawsuit bears parallels to the allegations of priest sex abuse and the resulting cover-up that have rocked the Roman Catholic church over the last decade. But while that scandal centered on sex abuse by priests, the accusations in this case involve molestation by church members instead of clergy.

Sovereign Grace Ministries grew from its mother church in Gaithersburg, Md., in 1982. It moved its headquarters this year to Louisville, Ky., where it’s also planting a new church. The group has struggled in recent years with fractured leadership and criticism over its discipline methods, especially the church’s emphasis on sins, discipline and repentance.

The suit only covers alleged abuse that occurred in Maryland in northern Virginia, but the church has faced scrutiny on other occasions for its handling of sexual abuse claims, and Susan Burke, a lawyer representing the three plaintiffs, said there are other alleged victims prepared to join in the case too.

An April report by a non-profit Lutheran mediation group that studied the church for nine months found that while church leaders showed “care and concern” about sex abuse allegations, a number of people interviewed felt the claims were handled irresponsibly and were left with “disappointments and hurts.”

The lawsuit faults the church’s “Home Group” structure, in which children are provided with day care so their parents can attend services, as fostering a poorly supervised environment that enabled the abuse to occur.

The lawsuit centers on allegations of three female plaintiffs, each identified by pseudonyms to protect their anonymity.

One of the three plaintiffs, a high school student in Virginia, alleges she was sexually assaulted when she was 3 years old and that the mother of the boy who abused her revealed the molestation to the church. But church officials discouraged her family from reporting the allegations to police and, instead, repeatedly interviewed the alleged abuser and worked with him and his mother to determine how best to prevent any prosecution and publicity regarding the abuse.

A second plaintiff, a college student in Maryland, says she was sexually abused as a toddler by a church member. She says the church pastor scolded her parents after they called the police and then tipped off the accused that he had been reported to the police. She says her parents were instructed to bring her to a meeting with her alleged abuser so they could be “reconciled,” but that she was “visibly scared and crawled under the chair” after being brought into the same room with him.

The third plaintiff says her adoptive father, a member of the church, sexually abused her older sister for three and a half years. She says the church warned her mother not to pursue a prosecution, then kicked the family out of the church and denied the children reduced tuition to the school. The man was ultimately prosecuted and imprisoned, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit, filed in Montgomery County, Md., includes claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and conspiracy, among others. It says there are other victims, both male and female, who have raised allegations but are not yet identified as plaintiffs. They include a child who was allegedly abused at age 10 by her father, a church member, but who was branded a “sinner” by the church for having been victimized.

“We view the case as an important step in holding SGM accountable for its misdeeds,” said Burke, the lawyer who represents the three plaintiffs and is also suing the military on behalf of female service members who say they were raped. “No institution can put its own financial concerns above the needs of vulnerable children.”

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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I’d like to start a regular feature here about the concept of gender roles within the church, and how they affect us, why they affect us, and how they ought to affect us. I intend for this to be primarily a discussion, and I ask that you engage these posts by first laying down your assumptions. Please be willing to read these posts on their own terms, and then compare them with what you believe after you read them. I would also love to get topic suggestions and questions from my readers to address in future posts.

I’ve had this idea for over a year. It’s been kicked around with my sister, with my husband, with my friends, all in various shapes. I’ve sat on it so long for fear of losing my passion for it, for fear of processing it for myself and finding my need to write about this wane as I grow firm in my beliefs and move on. And for fear of how it will be received.

But I haven’t been able to move on, to burn off my passion with a few months of talking in private. Instead, the number of conversations I’ve had with people about these issues has grown steadily. I’ve become aware of a deep communal need to sort this out in my generation of Christians – those largely raised in the church and coming into adulthood with a unique mixture of earnestness and cynicism. I’m not alone in needing to talk about this, and I’d like to open it up on my blog to enable other Christians to discuss it as much as they need.

Before I continue, I must lay down a clarification of purpose. This blog happens to be written by a woman, but it is not a women’s blog. I’m writing for Christians, in general. I find that the young men of my generation are often just as perplexed and discouraged by these issues as the women are, and need to discuss these things equally.

I’ll get things going with the first real post for this feature later on in the week; in the meantime, I should clarify my personal biases.

***

Most of you know I was raised in a fairly patriarchal homeschooling family, and there were a lot of positives as well as negatives from that experience. I was also part of a cult-like church which emphasized strongly that a woman’s highest calling [read: any other life pursuit is looked down on] was to be a wife and mother and make a home for her family. I was the only one of my graduating peers in that church who went out of state for college, and I was one of the few girls of that group to say that I wanted a career and I wasn’t sure if I’d be a great mom one day. (I’m sure the reality was much, much more diverse than this, but it was my perception of things at the time and it reflects, I suppose, the intense loneliness I felt in that group.) I was also one of the few girls interested in questions of theology and doctrine, and often resented that I was a girl and therefore couldn’t go to seminary.

These experiences, among other things, created in me a sensitivity to gender expectations within the church. This sensitivity was jolted into personal frustration when when my dad pressured me to submit to his discernment on (read: his feelings on and the resulting decisions regarding) my relationship with my boyfriend, now husband. I pushed back against this, asking him why, if he could trust that God was speaking to and leading me to change churches, couldn’t he also trust my discernment in regard to my boyfriend’s character? The response I got was based on the assumption that daughters are to submit to the authority of their fathers until they are wed (at which point, I was told, the authority would transfer from the father to the husband).

I couldn’t believe it. My dad never meant to treat me badly, but the assumptions he was acting under were based on the teachings of the church we were part of for my teen years, and that church had been a place that (for us) fostered serious spiritual abuse. Challenging his assumptions brought our conflict to these terms: I had to prove (using verses from the Bible) that my beliefs regarding my spiritual independence from my dad’s authority was biblical, and then he would be willing to agree to disagree. This is very typical of us – our relationship has always been based in mutual respect for the other’s intellectual integrity, and still is. So, I took him up on his terms. I pulled out the concordance and the Greek lexicon and I drafted 5 sloppy pages on why I thought his interpretation of various verses, especially the NASB translation of 1 Cor. 7:36-38, wasn’t accurate, and responded with my own set of verses and commentaries to justify my spiritual emancipation from him. [As an aside, I have come to the conclusion that these sorts of hunt-and-peck use of verses as proof texts for this and that grey area issue is an abuse of scripture. The purpose of the Bible is not to give us detailed instructions on moral living, but to display the character of God and our relationship to him.]

This was a highly painful season for us. He felt rejected, I believe (which was never my intent), and I felt manipulated and unloved (but he never meant it this way). It was painful and stressful and I probably misremember t0 my own benefit.

This interaction brought to my attention, once again, the reality: in the church circles I was raised in, women are expected to defer to men, and there are significant social and relational consequences if they don’t.

Finally, two other things occurred to push me over the edge into “accidental feminism” or, really, a state of heightened awareness of the church’s messy relationship to gender issues:

First, I was attending a little Presbyterian church for a while during college, and one Sunday they were short on ushers. I heard about this and offered to help for the service.  The ushers functioned as the greeters, the distributors of the offering plates, and they also passed out the bread and wine during communion, row by row to the congregation. I was told that they’d rather go without than have me help–I was female and they didn’t want a woman distributing the elements. I was shocked. I wouldn’t be preaching; I wouldn’t be sanctifying the sacraments; I would just be handing a basket of wafers down the row, then a tray with little juice cups. But because I have a vagina, I wasn’t allowed to help.

The second thing was this: I was fighting with spiritual dryness and decided to sit down to reread the gospel and epistles from the apostle John, in an attempt to see Jesus at his most relational. Reading through these books took a lot longer than I anticipated. I was stunned by my reintroduction to this Jesus. Coming to these passages deeply empty and under significant emotional distress about the situation with my dad allowed me to come to these pages with new eyes. And I realized: Jesus loved women. Jesus didn’t treat them like the rest of society did at that time. He took them seriously, he interacted with them without shame or superiority, and he made them significant members of his entourage, and the first witnesses of his resurrection. I saw that the way Jesus treated the opposite sex was nothing like how the church was dealing with gender issues, and certainly nothing like what I was experiencing from the church as a woman. Furthermore, the Jesus of the Bible didn’t really line up very well with the ideals for “masculine Christianity” as posited by the likes of Mark Driscoll, Stephen Altrogge, Douglas Wilson, or John Piper. And then I knew that, if the church is to be Christ’s hands and feet in this world, these things would have to change.

So this English major (who was also in the middle of an honors seminar love affair with Jacques Derrida), began to reconsider all her assumptions about what the church had taught her about sexuality and gender, and revisit all the proof texts for these issues with fresh curiosity for context, audience, linguistic implications, authorial intent, etc.

Now, I’d like to take this personal study of mine public, and explore individual issues relating to the Bible, gender, and the church along with you.

***

A word of clarification regarding the title (with thanks to David for coining it!): this snarky turn of phrase refers to the modesty panel/modesty rail in the front of the first pew in most old-style churches. This panel derived from times when churches weren’t heated and parishioners needed the paneling to contain heat in the winter, but evolved into what it is today because of shrinking skirt lengths and concerns about peeping toms in the choir. Or something like that. I’m a born-and-raised Christian kid. This is my front-row perspective and I’ve decided to stop holding back on what I see.

I chose “immodesty” because I am deliberately drawing attention to grey area issues in the church, insignificant compared with the gospel and the creeds, but pertinent to most people and frequently ignored by the privileged. Immodesty, as my dad says (quite well, I think), is “drawing undue attention to oneself.” In homage to With apologies to Flannery O’Connor, I hope to draw “large pictures” for the blind that they might see what is before them – both the positive and the negative. I will draw magnified attention to these issues for the sake of those working through them, and for the sake of those who don’t yet realize that these issues are worth consideration. Furthermore, I think it’s funny that one’s awareness about this issue often starts with questioning traditional modesty teachings.

I also chose the word “rail” with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor: women with controversial or non-conformist opinions are often accused of being “shrill” or “emotional.” A shrill tirade used to be synonymous with “railing” at someone, and while I intend to be reasonable and calm, I am sure that my discussions will be called rants. So I’ll just take the liberty of truncating that: here I will reasonably ”rail” about issues pertaining to gender in the church, and I might get a bit exaggerated with it to make a point. So gird up your loins! We’re going to start with the topic of modesty and lust later this week. Okay, I’m done with the cutesy puns.

Do you have ideas for topics to discuss on Immodesty Rail? Email me at mattiechatham [at] gmail [dot] com.

If by some chance he reads this post, then I have to confess to him: when I was roughly 20-years-old, I considered him to be one of the banes of my existence. He was the “Regional Leader” of Sovereign Grace Ministries churches in the South when I was an aspiring young intern in a SGM church in Florida, and I found his preaching and theological opinions to be exasperating and heavy-handed in the extreme. I’ve only walked out on two sermons in my entire life, and one of them was a doozy he gave circa ’05-’06 on the dating vs. “courtship” debate that undid about 2 years of progress on that issue in my church in one fell swoop. From then on, I did my best to avoid having to sit through the man’s teaching at all costs: once, when I was in charge of child care at a conference that featured him preaching twice, I scheduled myself to teach elementary kids during both of his sessions. To me, he represented a prime example of the harshness and unrelenting critical spirit that has earned the new Calvinism such a bad reputation within American Christianity more broadly.

I find it fascinating, then, that he has gone on to become a prophetic voice and an essential part of the undoing of Sovereign Grace Ministries.

Detwiler is, as SGM’s leaders have come to find out, a meticulous keeper of records. Some time after his own relationship with CJ Mahaney soured, Detwiler sent an enormous compilation of damning evidence of Mahaney’s behavior to all of the pastors in SGM. One of them leaked the documents, and they went viral.

Since then, Detwiler emerged as a very vocal and public critic of SGM. His blog posts have consistently called out Mahaney and the SGM Board of Directors for their spiritual abuse, deceit, and hypocritical behavior. He has provided a blow-by-blow analysis of the unraveling of the movement.

This weekend, Brent’s website has reported two major developments in the growing schism within SGM: first, the SGM church in Daytona, FL has decided to leave after a three-decade affiliation with the organization. Second, and perhaps more significant, it seems that Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD, and Sovereign Grace Church of Fairfax, VA–respectively the first and third biggest churches in the movement– are contemplating breaking off from SGM and forming their own new “affiliation.”

To put the latter story in perspective for readers who may not be familiar with SGM: Covenant Life in MD was the very first SGM church, and has been the epic center of life in SGM throughout the movement’s history, housing both the main offices for the organization and its Pastors College. The Fairfax church, also an early member, is a powerful SGM presence in one of the wealthiest and most influential counties in America. For these two to break off while Mahaney has run away to start a new church in Louisville, KY, is somewhat like it would have been for the Catholic Church if it had lost Rome and the Archdiocese of Milan while the Pope was in Avignon.

The leaders of both of these two large churches have consistently brought the issue of church polity and governance to the forefront of the debate. It seems they would both prefer a congregational or Presbyterian-style structure, as opposed to the hierarchical and “apostolic” form of polity that SGM has traditionally employed.

And, remarkably, I agree with Brent Detwiler’s take on this issue: the focus on polity is entirely misplaced.

When I first left SGM, I, too, like these men in Maryland and Virginia, thought that polity was the problem with the movement. I thought that a more democratic approach to church leadership would have provided sorely-needed accountability to pastors and regional leaders that were spiritually abusing their members. But in the years that followed, I found that the more I experienced churches and denominations with democratic polity, the more I realized that it solved nothing. Congregational and Presbyterian churches still have all of the spiritual abuse, power-hungry pastors, financial mismanagement, and ugly church splits.

That’s not to say that SGM’s polity is great. They have long had a very ill-defined hierarchy that has given enormous power to unethical and unqualified men and taken it away just as quickly, all at Mahaney’s whim. Leaders have an authority over both spiritual and temporal matters that rivals anything you see in a Catholic bishop, but without the guidance of Canon Law or the counter-weight of such things as parish finance committees or diocesan pastoral councils.

But Detwiler is right: a change in polity could not now save SGM. Corrupt and unethical men will find a way to serve their own ends in any form of governance structure.

From my perspective, the reality is this: Protestantism has been experimenting with different forms of church polity for 500 years now. They have had the Presbyterian model, the Congregational model, the Episcopal model, the Moses model, the corporate model, and too many hybrids, derivatives, and odd sui generis groups to list here. None of them have been able to prevent the type of situation we are now witnessing with SGM. As I argued a couple of weeks ago, schism is now a part of “Protestant DNA”; it is an inevitable occurrence in the life-cycle of evangelical denominations.

I have no doubt that the Daytona church and the folks in the greater D.C. area will find that they enjoy a time of great grace and blessing as they emerge from a very oppressive organization. But, like every group of evangelicals that have left a Protestant denomination before them, they have left a pressing question unanswered: what’s going to make this time different?

In it he reminds us of the following, powerful quote from Charles Surgeon,

“Unless the Holy Ghost blesses the Word, we who preach the gospel are of all men most miserable, for we have attempted a task that is impossible. We have entered on a sphere where nothing but the supernatural will ever avail. If the Holy Spirit does not renew the hearts of our hearers, we cannot do it. If the Holy Ghost does not regenerate them, we cannot. If he does not send the truth home into their souls, we might as well speak into the ear of a corpse.”

May we be blessed by God’s Spirit today as we meet together to Worship Him.

When I did my review of Sovereign Grace Music’s album “Psalms,” I said that it was a fantastic general purpose worship album. I also said that what it doesn’t do, I can find in other SGM albums. I was referring specifically to “Come Weary Saints.” As the tagline says, this album was written with suffering and struggling believers in mind. I’ve listened to this album in the midst of difficult times, and it is an excellent resource for making sure that I do not get caught up in my situation, because it reminds me about the omnipotence of God, the sovereignty of God, and His good design for sin and suffering. Here is a relevant quote from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. . . . Your self is talking to you. Now [the psalmist's] treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. (John Piper, Future Grace 304)

Listening to oneself allows Satan a foothold. Our fallen nature asserts itself if we are not careful, complaining about the suffering we undergo for the sake of our faith and the lack of perceivable pleasure that comes from depriving ourselves of sin. This album is an excellent resource for countering that, by cutting through the fog of sinful complaints with the sword of truth. Take some of the lyrics from one of my favorite songs on the album, “As Long As You Are Glorified”:

You are good when I’m poor and needy
You are true when I’m parched and dry
You still reign in the deepest valley
You’re still God in the darkest night

Oh let Your will be done in me
In Your love I will abide
Oh I long for nothing else as long
As You are glorified

Or this, from “Every Day”:

Thank you for the trials
For the fire, for the pain
Thank You for the strength
Knowing You have ordained
Every day

These lyrics were incredibly helpful to me in my times of struggle, both after times of sin and, most recently, the suffering I underwent because of my decision to obey my parents and not pursue a music education major. In the latter case, I spent several days listening to this very album, being reminded of why I gave up that dream and why I was right to do so. This album reminds me that my theology in times that are easy is also the same in times of difficulty and struggle. The God that I love and trust when it is easy for me to do so is still loving and trustworthy when I have to suffer for Him. My desire to glorify Him should not diminish simply because it is harder to do so.

In fact, as the album points out, the cross provides immeasurably more benefit than it does suffering. The songs “Through the Precious Blood,” “I Have a Shelter in the Storm,” and “It Is Not Death to Die” rightly point out that because of the cross we look forward to the reward of heaven. We are able to endure temporary suffering because, through salvation, we will one day rejoice eternally in the presence of our God. And is that not worth many lifetimes of struggle and suffering? To one day behold the glory of our Maker in all His majesty and splendor? Our sufferings are temporary, our rewards overwhelming and eternal.

This album has served an incredibly important role in keeping my eyes fixed on God’s glory and His love. It is easy to become dejected and sidelined by struggles with sin or suffering for His namesake, but this album has been so great in helping reverse that desire. Thank you, Sovereign Grace Music, for taking the time to produce such an album as this. The thoughtfulness of your intentions and biblicalness of your message comes through in this album. Thank you for addressing these struggles, for helping us remember the theology we have always cherished, and for showing us that the same beliefs are all the more dear in difficult times. Indeed, I sing with all the brethren when I say in hard times, “Let Your will be done in me. I long for nothing else as long as You are glorified.”

Back in 2009, Spencer wrote an article for the Christian Science Monitor that predicted that “We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity.” Spencer argued (and you can read the article here) that within a decade, Evangelicalism in America would lose half of its current adherents.

Spencer lays out several reasons why he believes the Collapse is happening: the movement has tied itself to closely to the GOP, it has become consumer-drive, and perhaps most importantly, it has failed to pass down a strong faith to its youth (despite spending billions on Christian music and entertainment for kids, mind you). But whatever the root causes, the end-results are clear. In Spencer’s words again: “Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I’m convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.”

Spencer was the founder of the Internet Monk blog, a popular place for those “wandering in the post-evangelical wilderness” (another brilliant phrase that Michael coined). His prediction of the Coming Evangelical Collapse only served to solidify his position as one of the great gadflies of American Christianity: there were many who screamed bloody murder at him through their keyboards, who simply did not want to hear what he had to say. But statistics don’t lie, and many are coming to realize that his prediction is coming true at an alarming pace.

I was thinking about the Collapse this week for two reasons: the first is a post an Evangelical blog called “Near Emmaus” that gives some interesting anecdotal evidence of the Collapse. The second is my continuing thoughts on the plight of Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM).

In considering SGM, it’s important to place it in its historical context. SGM was born in the late 1970s, at the end of the “Jesus movement,” and made the jump to Reformed theology at the end of the 1990s, just as the children of the “Jesus people” started to come of age.

The “Jesus movement,” and the Charismatic movement that must be considered alongside it, are the final stages of the dialectic of schism that I would argue are inherently a part of the history of Protestantism. Distrustful of the Protestant denominations into which they were born, even to the point of skepticism about the very idea of having a denomination, the “Jesus people” started “movements” and “families of churches” in the hopes of following the Holy Spirit’s guidance without the burden of ecclesiological politics. “I’m not religious, I just love the Lord” became a rallying cry for many of the Christian members of the generation lost in space.

This final iteration of the Protestant Reformation had finally managed to throw out the last baby and his bathwater: it was Christianity sans structure, sans history, sans serious thought. And it did not–could not–last: in place of the free-wheeling notions of baptized hippies, an incredibly harsh authoritarianism arose to impose itself on the wandering bands of people who “just loved the Lord, man.” The Shepherding Movement gained popularity (that’s a wikipedia rabbit hole you can fall down if you have several hours to kill…). Organizations like Calvary Chapel began to have well-documented cases of serious spiritual abuse. And a little-known conference speaker named C.J. Mahaney began to consolidate control in his own “family of churches,” a group that was then under the rather creepy banner “People of Destiny International” (PDI for short)…

This combination of a completely de-traditioned, shallow Christianity with an unsettling authoritarianism was bequeathed upon those of us who grew up as Evangelicals in the 1980s and 1990s. Our childhoods were happy and secure in the knowledge that we were on the right side of history… but then we grew up. We went to high school and college, we met Christians from other traditions, encountered theological issues that couldn’t be solved with one or two Bible verses ripped out of context… and slowly, we realized that the Evangelical Emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes.

And we started to walk out in droves. Those of us who left seemed to follow four big trends:

The first was leaving the faith entirely. I can’t tell you how many friends I have had that grew up evangelical and now simply don’t believe in God.

The second was the so-called Emerging Church movement…this one seems to have more-or-less died at the moment, so it probably doesn’t merit much discussion here.

The third has been the turn towards the ancient, liturgical churches, i.e., the Anglicans, the Orthodox, and the Catholics. Obviously, this is where I ended up (though not where I started). We have, as Chesterton might say, gone around the world only to arrive at home.

Lastly, there has been the rise of the “New Calvinism.”

The New Calvinism is about 15 years old now, and is essentially a trend among younger evangelicals who are turning in droves to Reformed theology as the answer to what was wrong with their church experience growing up. It seeks to create an Evangelicalism that is comfortable with the rock music and casual dress of the Calvary Chapel-type churches with the sort of uncompromising and systematic theology espoused by writers like Jonathan Edwards and Ulrich Zwingli.

I think the New Calvinism became a popular trend with my generation of born-and-raised evangelicals–particularly the young men– for a number of reasons. Psychologically, I think it’s important to point out that a lot of us are extremely angry at our parent’s generation, and New Calvinism provides two kinds of leaders in response to that: 1) “older brother” figures like Mark Driscoll who exude rage at other Christians, and who validate our own pent-up anger, and 2) “father” figures like John Piper and J.I. Packer that seemed like great replacements for the baby boomer generation Evangelical men we came to despise.

It’s interesting to note that the New Calvinism seems to only be accelerating the rate of schism within Evangelicalism: I know that both the Calvary Chapel movement and the Southern Baptist Convention have had a great deal of internal strife over angry Reformed young men.

It’s into this movement that SGM began to grow beyond the handful of churches that it had in the 80s and early 90s. Mahaney filled his “pews” (er, comfortable chairs…pews wouldn’t be in keeping with the “Jesus Movement” ethos that’s still clung to) by offering Reformed theology alongside catchy rock music, casual dress, and expression of the Charismatic gifts (albeit in an extremely controlled way).

But the dialectic of schism within Protestantism cannot be stopped, and both New Calvinism generally and SGM specifically will suffer from the Coming Evangelical Collapse.

SGM, as I mentioned in my last post, is slowly tearing itself apart. The New Calvinism is currently fueling itself on anger, but I don’t think it will remain significant over the long haul. They may briefly postpone the Collapse within their ranks, but they will likewise lose adherents.

This is because while the New Calvinism seems to offer the intellectual rigor and historical roots that were lacking in the Evangelicalism of our youth, it has not solved the fundamental problem of Protestantism: schism is still the driving ethos of the movement. SGM/New Calvinism cannot escape from the history of which they are a part. It is a history which is replete with break-aways and off-shoots and “new ways to do church” and the constant rising and falling  of new sects. And so New Calvinists, just like other Evangelicals, will soon be splitting from any form of organized Christianity.

And so SGM suffers the inevitable fate of all Protestant denominations, because she has not escaped from the historical dialectic of schism which gave her birth. Where once they lauded her founders as modern-day Luthers, leading God’s people out of the Babylonian Captivity of some other flavor of Protestantism, her first generation has lived long enough to see the heroes become the villains. I don’t believe that other New Calvinism off-shoots will be that far behind…

How cool is the following clip on the Heidelberg Catechism?

Nuestra experiencia en Por Su Causa

Ha sido un gran gozo el poder conocer a las personas que están asistiendo y sirviendo en Por Su Causa esta pasada semana en la República Dominicana. Literalmente, cientos de miembros de la iglesia de Miguel Nuñez han servido con gran gozo e humildad.

Steve Cook y yo llegamos el lunes para preparar a los músicos y vocalistas para una grabación en vivo del cuarto álbum en español de Sovereign Grace Music. El liderazgo de Steve ha jugado un papel principal en esta grabación en vivo. Él ha estado trabajando con Juan Americo Carranza (Juancho), quién es el director técnico de Por Su Causa. Gracias a estos hombres, los músicos, vocalistas y aquellos que asistieron, la grabación salió muy bien anoche.

Trabajando con los músicos de la Iglesia Bautista Internacional (IBI) ha sido un gozo– estos son músicos extraordinarios no sólo por su talentos pero por su humildad. Cada uno ha invertido, de todo corazón, en esta conferencia al pasar un sinnúmero de horas practicando antes de nuestra llegada.

La conferencia comenzó el sábado por la mañana con la primera sesión dada por Miguel, después por Jeff Purswell, después por Salvador Gomez y tuvimos un tiempo de adoración donde tuve el gran gozo de servir con Bob Kauflin (que hizo un tremendo trabajo liderando en español), terminando con un mensaje poderoso por C.J. Mahaney.

Antes de que enseñara C.J., Miguel pidió que todo aquél que fuese parte de Sovereign Grace Ministries que subiera al escenario para presentarse. Él le rindió un honor a C.J. al entregarle una placa, dándole las gracias por la inversión que él y Sovereign Grace han tomado en expandir el evangelio en Latinoamérica. El año pasado cuando un huracán azotó a Haití, había una iglesia que se reunía todos los domingos en un edificio muy deteriorado (nosotros vimos fotos y eran unas imágenes conmovedoras). Después del huracán, lo poco que tenían fue destruido. Sovereign Grace recolectó una ofrenda y se la envió a la iglesia de Miguel para que ellos pudiesen servir a estos hermanos en Haití. Después vimos fotos de cómo este dinero fue utilizado- ahora tienen un hermoso, e humilde, edificio donde se reúnen para proclamar el evangelio. C.J. estaba llorando cuando los pastores de la iglesia de Haití subieron al escenario para darle las gracias. ¡Qué bendición fue el presenciar esto!

Algunas de las reseñas de nuestro viaje son:

• Ver como Dios está usando a Miguel y su iglesia para promover la sana doctrina de una manera poderosa en Latinoamérica.
• Promover nuestro nuevo álbum en español, Eres Dios. Me entrevistaron y la entrevista fue transmitida en muchos países Latinoamericanos. Expliqué como escribimos canciones y como las traducimos.
• Después de todo el trabajo para prepararnos para la grabación de anoche, fue un gozo el grabar nuestro cuarto álbum en español. Hicimos algo similar a lo que se hizo en The Gathering durante la última conferencia de Worship God. Hicimos dos conciertos, uno después del otro, donde grabamos muchas de nuestras traducciones y algunas canciones originales escritas por miembros de la IBI. Cantamos canciones como “All I Have Is Christ”, “Let Your Kingdom Come” y “Behold Our God.” Bob lideró las últimas dos canciones para cerrar la noche.

Por favor oren que el resto del tiempo que nos queda sea para que Dios sea magnificado y glorificado y que esta no sea la última vez que trabajamos con Miguel y con su iglesia.

Aquí les dejo con algunas imágenes del evento.

Pastores de Latinoamérica           Jeff purswell                                    Miguel Núñez

Hermanos que nos sirvieron con gran amor.

PS: !Queremos volver!

¡Sea Dios exaltado!

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We are trying new foods several times a week (well, when Mama can remember to throw something new at them). To date, they have had a yummy variety of fresh fruits and veggies, legumes, seeds, dairy and spices. I think even Gordon Ramsay might approve. We began with avocado and continued our journey with:

• carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, pumpkin, squash, green beans, eggplant, green peppers, summer squash, broccoli, corn
• prunes, peaches, mangos, bananas, apples, pears, cherries, watermelon, blueberries, canteloupe, kiwi, apricot
• kidney beans, black beans
• olive oil, coconut oil, cinnamon, butter, garlic, salt
• egg yolks
• quinoa

Some days, it’s a fun challenge to create new ways of serving up dishes…others it’s an incredible challenge. It’s a TON of food to prep for each meal but I’m learning some tricks for making life a little more streamlined. Right now we’re working on sippy cups. Since we’ve just started getting comfortable with breastfeeding, in the last few months, I was in NO hurry to introduce sippy cups and possibly confuse them. So we waited. I love that part about parenting – you just do what’s right for YOUR children and not what all “the books” say. We are at varying stages of “getting” the sippy cups. When Emma’s eyes lit up after she got some of the liquid from the cup into her mouth, I had a glimpse of so many future moments of teaching my children and seeing them “get” a concept. I.cannot.wait. Noah just loves to gnaw on the cup and Makenna is on her way to figuring it out. Hey, I’m just happy my little man decided he would go ahead and feed himself on a consistent basis!!! I still spoon feed them about half of each meal to ensure they’re getting a good amount and it doesn’t end up on the floor (and, hey, they don’t know the difference, yet!). But I have, for weeks, put chopped up food items on the little booger’s tray and he absolutely refuses to lift a finger to feed himself…even.though.he.can. Yep. I’ve seen him do it. Several times. But then it seemed like he realized the work involved and would rather sit back and have Mommy feed him. On either side of him, his sisters inhale those same foods. And he cries. Booger! Not anymore, though! Now he’s chasing those banana slices and peas all over his tray! And Mommy says, “Glory, hallelujah!!!”

We recently had our first house guests stay with us for a few days! Joe and Kristen Catoe and 5 month old A.J. came all the way from Maryland to vacay in south Florida, then traveled up to stay with the Fountain Five. I met Kristen years ago – she worked for Sovereign Grace Ministries’ conferencing department and I also was coordinating conferences at Metro Life Church. We have hung out often through the years and they even came down for David and my wedding a few years ago! Anyways, the babies enjoyed having A.J. here and the girls took every opportunity to flirt and do headstands and show off their cute, fat booties. I think Noah showed off a time or two…and threw at least one glorious temper tantrum, right, Kristen? We had a wonderful weekend sitting and talking and drinking lattes and changing babies and discussing parenting goals and marriage struggles and so many other things! For this mama who rarely gets out of the house (and I do mean rarely!), it was a shining weekend of biblical fellowship in a long line of (mostly) monotonous days.

The babies are all hitting milestones at different times. If you have more than one child, you know what it is like to remember back to when Baby’s older sibling did this or that. The temptation with multiples is to constantly group them together. Meaning, when one hits a milestone it’s easy to think they have all hit it! Or, the opposite also holds true: you compare constantly with a living, breathing day-in and day-out example of one sibling who is leaps and bounds ahead of another sibling and yet miles behind that very sibling. Very strange, right? Anyways, they all love saying “mamama” and “dadada.” They’ve been holding onto furniture and walking – but nothing on their own yet. Yayyyyy! I’m not ready for my babies to grow up THAT much, yet. They clap and play “high five.” They love mimicking Mommy and Daddy – or anyone, for that matter! They love to dance to music and recognize their favorite tunes when we sing them in the car. (When we turn the music on in the living room, they all look at the CD player and start dancing – cracks us up!!) With their increased mobility has come an incredible jump in the amount of boo-boos they get. All day long it seems I comfort this one or that one from some toy or sibling’s head upon which they’ve landed. I’ve been learning a whole new set of “cries” for each one of them – is it a big owie cry or a little one?

Teeth have also been a fun experience in this house! I felt like they started teething super early – around three months! – but nothing showed up for quite some time. However, Makenna now has seven teeth and Noah and Emma each have six. These teeth appeared within three months – all 19 of them!!! And I think a couple more are about to come through because everything is being gnawed on again. At the moment I can’t remember who might be the teethers…too hard to keep track. Ha!

Our current “discipline” issue is the ever-dreaded diaper changing time. Changing three wiggly babies as many as seven times EACH every day….well, this can be quite the exhausting task! They have some strength for being babies; wrestling them has become my new workout. I am encouraged, though. I’ve reached out to friends for help on how to begin the training and “discipline” process even at this age. Thankfully, we’ve been able to implement some of these ideas and if you happened to be around during these times, you’d hear “lie still” about a million times.

Overall, though, we are blessed with wonderful, happy, beautiful babies. Of course they each have their moments, daily!, but then so do I! Every day that brings us closer to their first birthday is incredibly sentimental for me and I try so very hard to live in the moment, savoring every smile and every tear I have the privilege to wipe away.

This led to reading more about the controversy surrounding Sovereign Grace Ministries.

Mahaney’s stepping down leads one to ponder John Piper’s actions a year ago.

Somehow, all of this reading led me back to Mark Driscoll (probably because of his affiliation with Mahaney) who hasn’t been out of the controversy lime-light for very long with his unfortunate comments and crude language.

Mark Driscoll sent me pondering how as a woman it’s very easy to feel marginalized, under attack, and viewed only as a sexual and reproductive object.

But I also take seriously the comments of a pastor friend of mine that men also feel under attack. I understand the concerns many have about the absence of men in the church.

And then there are the cries against gossip or attempts to hide the truth about leaders abusing their power or covering up blackmail and the sexual molestation of church members.

The more I read, the more horrified I become. Apparently it’s not safe to be a man or a woman, a pastor or a pew-sitter. We’re all under attack.

And isn’t that kind of the point?

There are a few scant chapters in the Bible where it seems safe to be a human being. After a brief glimpse of a harmonious world, we’re plunged into a narrative of humanity fighting for its life. Women are being ruled over by their husbands and men are eking out a livelihood from an uncooperative world. Family members are murdering or molesting one another. God’s people are sniveling, complaining, and forgetful.

Men and manhood are under attack. So are women and womanhood also under attack. It’s dangerous to be a pastor with its pride-breeding lime lights. It’s dangerous to submit yourself to leadership who will always be far from perfect.

It’s sad that while all of us are in the same situation, we’re turning on each other so spectacularly. We’re like stranded travelers trying to decide who to eat first. Men blame women, women blame men and Satan laughs with glee at our lack of unity and love for each other.

What if the world knew us not for our rants against and attempts to undercut one another, not for the finger pointing, not for the list of pastors who’ve fallen off their pedestals, but for our love for each other?

What might happen then?

(Sovereign Grace Ministries)

The mystery of the Cross I cannot comprehend
The agonies of Calvary
You the perfect Holy One, crushed Your Son
Who drank the bitter cup reserved for me

Your blood has washed away my sin
Jesus, thank You
The Father’s wrath completely satisfied
Jesus, thank You
Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table
Jesus, thank You

By Your perfect sacrifice I’ve been brought near
Your enemy You’ve made Your friend
Pouring out the riches of Your glorious grace
Your mercy and Your kindness know no end

Lover of my soul
I want to live for You

Como es un un poco extensa, habrá una segunda parte que estaré compartiendo con ustedes en breve.

Sus preguntas:

1. Por favor hacer una breve reseña de tu vida como músico y como tu reconciliación con Dios inspira tu servicio al Señor en la alabanza.

-Mi vida de músico comenzó cuando me di cuenta que podía cantar. Busqué unos amigos músicos y formé una banda con la cual nos fue muy bien por varios años.  Mi meta siempre fue el ser famoso y que todos escucharan mi voz, mientras le cantaba al  amor.  En mi forma humana de pensar, creía que yo era una buena persona cantándole al amor. Después, hace 6 ó 7 años atrás, una amiga me invitó a la Iglesia Covenant Life Church en Gaithersburg, MD donde por primera vez escuché el evangelio. Como yo era músico, la música me llamo la atención de gran manera. Recuerdo claramente el domingo cuando me acerqué a mi amigo hoy día, Bob Kauflin, quien estaba dirigiendo la alabanza. Le dije que me encantaría poner al servicio de la iglesia mis talentos (que falta de humildad). Él de una forma muy cuidadosa me agradeció y me dijo que tenía que hacerme miembro primero y pasar por un proceso. Como no se me dio la oportunidad, renuncié a la idea de servir. Luego, mientras seguía asistiendo a la iglesia, comencé a entender el evangelio de salvación de Jesucristo. Me di cuenta que yo no era un hombre bueno, como me creía ser. Fue como si yo hubiese vivido toda mi vida en un cuarto con luz baja, el cual yo pensaba que estaba limpio. Y al conocer el evangelio fue como si a esa luz le subieran la intensidad y comencé a ver la suciedad en la que había estado toda mi vida.  Y fue en esos momentos que la fama que una vez deseé para mí ahora la quería rendir a Dios para que fuese Él el engrandecido y famoso.  Fue ahí donde caí rendido ante Él y decidí vivir para Él.  Luego Bob Kauflin me usó a mí para escribir canciones para el CD, Allí En La Cruz, que salió en el 2010.  Hoy me gozo al mirar mi pasado porque sigo siendo un gran pecador pero con un GRAN Salvador.  Más hoy tengo el privilegio de dirigir la alabanza en mi iglesia y escribir canciones para su gloria.

2. ¿Como define la alabanza?
La alabanza tiene que ser un estilo de vida. Vemos en Romanos 12:1-2 que Pablo nos dice
“Por consiguiente, hermanos, os ruego por las misericordias de Dios que presentéis vuestros cuerpos como sacrificio vivo y santo, aceptable a Dios, que es vuestro culto racional. Y no os adaptéis a este mundo, sino transformaos mediante la renovación de vuestra mente, para que verifiquéis cuál es la voluntad de Dios: lo que es bueno, aceptable y perfecto”.
Muchas personas piensan que el alabar a Dios es la razón por la cual vamos a la iglesia los domingos. No digo que el cantar a Dios no es alabanza pero entiendo que el cantar es parte de la alabanza que rendimos a Dios durante todas las semanas. Al ver y entender la misericordia que Dios nos da día a día nos debe llevar a vivir vidas de alabanza. Para darte un ejemplo, el ser responsable en tu trabajo y el cuidar de tu familia también es alabanza a los ojos de Dios.
En resumen, la alabanza es una respuesta del cristiano al sacrificio de Jesucristo en la cruz del Calvario.

3. ¿Cuales son los ingredientes de un buen grupo de alabanza?

1. Humildad (Lucas 22:26)
2. Responsabilidad (Col.3:23, Prov.3:9).
3. Vivir una vida de adoración (Rom.12:1-2).
4. Amar el evangelio (1 Cor.15:3-4, Gál.6:14).
5. Amar la teología (El estudio de la naturaleza de Dios)

Te doy estos puntos porque el grupo de alabaza es el encargado de cuidar de la congregación con la música y modelar ante la iglesia una vida de adoración.

4. ¿Que escrituras guían su experiencia como director/músico de alabanza?

Colosenses 3:16 “Que la palabra de Cristo habite en abundancia en vosotros, con toda sabiduría enseñándoos y amonestándoos unos a otros con salmos, himnos y canciones espirituales, cantando a Dios con acción de gracias en vuestros corazones.”

Para mí esta es la escritura que me guía porque me dice que la palabra de Cristo habita en nosotros, pero más que eso nos dice que sea abundantemente. Esto me muestra la importancia de la palabra. También nos dice que la usemos para enseñar los unos a los otros con canciones y que cantemos con agradecimiento en nuestros corazones. Estos son tres mandatos que guían mi rol de líder de alabanza.

Esto define mi rol de líder de alabanza, la palabra de Dios tiene que ser central en mi liderazgo, debe de ser usada para enseñar, y ser el corazón de nuestras canciones.

5. ¿Que mensaje de fe y aliento le daría a un músico que tiene dotes de líder?

El servir en el equipo de alabanza es un privilegio para el cristiano.  No es por tu capacidad de líder o tus dones musicales. Es un llamado de Dios para ti. Esto no significa que es para siempre. Puedes ser líder por muchos años como lo puedes ser por una temporada corta duración. No eres indispensable. Si Dios te necesitara, hubiese mandado a un líder de adoración con su guitarra en vez de a su Hijo, Jesucristo, a morir por nuestros pecados. Lo importante es el entender que Dios ama a su iglesia tanto que mando a su único Hijo a morir en la cruz por cada uno de ellos. A Dios le importa su iglesia así que a ti te tiene que importar también. Nunca olvides que estás sirviendo al pueblo redimido de Dios.

6. ¿Como definiría a un alabador en una, dos o tres palabras?

Humilde, responsable y siervo.

7. ¿Como escogen las canciones para cada culto?

Las canciones enseñan y por eso tenemos que buscar canciones que exalten al Dios de las Escrituras ante los ojos de nuestra congregación.   Yo tengo 3 formas que he encontrado que son de ayuda para mí.

A. Miro cual fue el tema de la predica de la semana pasada y trato de atar las canciones con esa predicación. Cuando llega el domingo, le digo a la congregación que el mensaje de la semana pasada sigue siendo importante para nuestras vidas en el día de hoy y por eso vamos a cantar para recordarnos esas verdades.

B. Hablo con mi pastor entre semana. La palabra dice que en la multitud de consejo hay sabiduría y por eso dos cabezas piensan mejor que una. Le pregunto cual va a ser el tema de su predica este domingo y elijo canciones que ayuden a la congregación a conectarse desde antes del sermón a esas verdades que van a escuchar.

C. Cuando hago mi devocional durante la semana, puede ser que sienta que el Espíritu Santo me esta llevando a recordar a la congregación algo en particular, por ejemplo, la fidelidad de Dios. Entonces trato de usar una canción fuerte o rápida como primera canción que haga un llamado a adorar. Después canto tres canciones sobre la fidelidad de Dios y termino con una o dos canciones de respuesta, que en este caso serian de agradecimiento por su fidelidad.
No digo que estas son reglas para líderes de alabanza, pero son cosas que he aprendido y me han ayudado a servir a mi iglesia.

Las canciones enseñan y por eso tenemos que buscar canciones que exalten al Dios de las Escrituras ante los ojos de nuestra congregación.  Ultimadamente los líderes y el pastor son responsables por las palabras que ponen en las bocas de la congregación.

A continuación estaré compartiendo la segunda parte en otro post.
Espero que esto te sea de bendición, si tienes preguntas por favor déjame saber como puedo servirte.

Our Apprentice for the past two year is moving onto pastures new.  It’s amazing how close you can get to someone in 24 short months.  In fact my husband did refer to Sarah as ‘our surrogate daughter’.  Needless to say I gave him a withering look and although it is conceivable I could be her mother I would prefer to think of Sarah as my sister!

I’ve been thinking of a good verse to give Sarah has she leaves.

Proverbs 17:17 says; A friend loves at all times.

This would be appropriate because Sarah has seen me at my worst and my best.  When I’m stressy and when I’m tired. When I’m up and when I’m down, when things have gone well, and when I’m despairing.  She loving accepts me and encourages me.

I’d like the verse I give her to be an encouragement.  The job she is going to do requires her to be strong in character and firm in her faith.

Proverbs 5:3 Trust in the Lord always and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

I also like, Romans 5:1 -5.  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

I have settled on this one.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 (NKJ)

Of course I don’t mean that success will automatically come to Sarah because she trusts Jesus.  That’s not what Paul meant either!  In verse 13 Paul writes about being content.  Content in all situations. Trust in Jesus and you can be content in everything. It’s not about being successful in what she does, in some ways that can’t be measured.  In the same way it’s not about Sarah finding happiness in her next challenge either.  Of course I hope and pray that she will be very happy.  It’s all about Sarah being content in her relationship with Jesus.  Acknowledging him as Lord and King of her life and trusting him in everything.  Christ strengthens us to be the people he wants us to be, not for our own sakes but for his glory.  We are his crowning glory, the apple of his eye,.

I am sure that Sarah will understand my sentiment.  I know one of her favourite songs is ‘All I have is Christ’.

I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way.
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave.
I had no hope that you would own
A rebel to your will.
And if you had not loved me first
I would refuse you still.

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross.
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace.

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life
Now, Lord, I would be yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow your commands
Could never come from me.
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way you choose.
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You.

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI), by Jordan Kauflin

For Sarah, goodbye. I will miss you my friend, my sister, continue to stand firm in Christ and he will give you all the strength you need.  Thank you for all your love and encouragement.  I will see you very soon.