SOVEREIGN GRACE MINISTRIES PANELS - internal investigation ........................................................... AMBASSADORS OF RECONCILIATION COMMITTEE - third party investigation
Forum: Destructive Churches

Update on C.J. Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries Gospel Coalition January 25, 2012 In July 2011, Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) installed an interim Board of Directors. Our primary task was to determine C.J. Mahaney’s fitness to serve SGM as President in light of accusations made against him by a former SGM leader, Brent Detwiler. To accomplish this, we sought to apply the teach
Forum: Destructive Churches

C.J. Mahaney Reinstated at Sovereign Grace World January 26, 2012 Mickey McClean The board of directors of Sovereign Grace Ministries announced Wednesday that it had unanimously decided to reinstate C.J. Mahaney as president of the Maryland-based church-planting ministry, effective immediately. Mahaney, the ministry’s co-founder, began a voluntary leave of absence June 30 after facing
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C.J. Mahaney Takes a Leave of Absence Over ‘Serious’ Charges Charisma July 12, 2011 C.J. Mahaney, president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, announced on Wednesday that he is taking a leave of absence from his leadership position. In a blog post on SGM's website, Mahaney says pastors and leaders within Sovereign Grace have made charges against him and other leaders over the last few
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Keeping Their Eyes on the Cross Washington Times December 23, 2002 Two dozen young believers zealous for the Gospel celebrated their first Christmas as a new church 25 years ago. Tomorrow night, on Christmas Eve, many of them along with their children will welcome dozens of potential converts to what is now a thriving, 2,600-member church in Gaithersburg. There, first-time visitors to
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LETTER TO MICKEY CONNOLLY ABOUT BRENT DETWILER I’m sure you’re familiar with R.J. Rushdoony and Gary North. After reading an essay in one of North’s newsletters, Rushdoony wrote to the elders of North’s church accusing him of heresy. The elders responded by asking him who they were supposed to contact to correct him if they evaluated his accusation and didn’t agree with it. Of course,
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MANY LOCAL PASTORS DISAGREE WITH THE SOVEREIGN GRACE MINISTRIES BOARD OF DIRECTORS The Pastoral Teams of the following Sovereign Grace churches have reviewed, and are in general agreement with, the concerns expressed in the March 7, 2012 response letter from the Sovereign Grace Church Fairfax Pastoral Team to the Sovereign Grace Ministries Interim Board: Christ Church – San Francisco, C
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AMBASSADORS OF RECONCILIATION RESPONDS TO THE BLOGS 1) In addition, people were actively writing on blogs with complaints against the SGM Board, AoR and the process. 2) Contrary to false assumptions and complaints that were widely distributed through blogs and emails. 3) However, one unusual aspect in this case was that the gossip and personal attacks began within hours of SGM Board
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SOVEREIGN GRACE MINISTRIES BOARD OF DIRECTORS EXPLAINS RELOCATION OF HEADQUARTERS TO LOUISVILLE At our recent retreat, the Sovereign Grace Ministries Board decided to relocate the Pastors College and our Gaithersburg office to Louisville, Kentucky. The move will take place in 2012. Given the significance of the decision, we wanted to communicate with you directly about how we reached this
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SOVEREIGN GRACE MINISTRIES BOARD OF DIRECTORS RESPONDS TO BRENT DETWILER Last week we announced that C.J. Mahaney would be taking a temporary leave of absence from his position as President of Sovereign Grace Ministries. This leave was intended to create a fair and open process of evaluation for C.J. and the ministry and was not intended to be disciplinary. We assumed that the charges aga
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JOSH HARRIS TALKS TO COVENANT LIFE CHURCH ABOUT C.J. MAHANEY'S LEAVE OF ABSENCE Part 2 From “The Stenographer” July 14th, 2011 From “The Stenographer” comes the following, which are notes from this past Sunday night’s meeting at Covenant Life Church. The attendees of that meeting were promised that an audio recording would be posted on CLC’s website, but to date, that has not happe
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C.J. MAHANEY TALKS TO COVENANT LIFE CHURCH ABOUT HIS LEAVE OF ABSENCE “Thank you very much. You are very kind, particularly at this time. “Because of my history with this church, my love for this church, I am so very grateful for this time this evening to address you. Thank you, Josh, particularly, for giving me this opportunity to address this church that I love the most. “I am sure t
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C.J. MAHANEY TALKS TO THE SOVEREIGN GRACE MINISTRIES CONFERENCE OF PASTORS ABOUT HIS LEAVE OF ABSENCE John Loftness speaking: I am here right now to give some context before CJ comes to give an update from his leave of absence. More than four months ago CJ volunteered to take this leave. The board decided to expand the board of three men by having all of the regional leaders in SG – I am
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MICKEY CONNOLLY RESPONDS TO BRENT DETWILER Brothers and Sisters, I’ve been made aware that Brent Detwiler has emailed a document to many of you regarding what he calls the “ethical demise” in Sovereign Grace Ministries. While I’m not surprised by this development I am saddened and angry. This is what we would have anticipated when, in November, we marked Brent as a divisive man beca
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JEMZ'S STORY I was born again in the mid-1990s in a Spirit-filled non-denominational church. It was a beautiful time as a content and single new believer for many years. In 2003, my husband and I were married and we were blessed with a healthy, beautiful daughter. Early on in our marriage, my husband was experiencing problems getting a job in his field. I have always been a working mot
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TEEN’S STORY I am a teen and have been attending Covenant Life Church for my entire life (17 yrs). I grew up around all of this stuff and accepted Christianity to be what I was taught from Covenant Life Church. I was fed the doctrine of Covenant Life Church when I was first starting out in my walk with the Lord and all throughout since. I was always under this impression- You go to church,
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JOCK LENZI’S STORY My wife and I were a part of Covenant Life Church and Lord of Life Church in Indiana, PA, for nearly 8 years (1984 – 1996). I had been an assistant home group leader until my wife had a nervous breakdown in December of 1990. She was clearly postpartum, as she just had our fifth and last child. On top of that I foolishly decided that she should have a tubal ligation on
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SGM MOM’S: HOW I SURVIVE IN A SOVEREIGN GRACE MINISTRIES CHURCH We were members of Covenant Life Church for about 7 years Then relocated and have been members of a Sovereign Grace Ministries church for the past 6 years. What I like about Sovereign Grace Ministries is the teachings and worship. They are excellent. We are well taught. The PROBLEM with the church for us is the relationsh
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WE SEE’S STORY Our family attended a Sovereign Grace Ministries church for 3 years. We were a prime target. We left our previous church due to….It’s a long story, involving a inappropriate and dishonest leadership. It was a painful time, but God was faithful! Anyway….. we began attending Sovereign Grace Ministries. The Pastor met with us and said that his church was very “hard to get
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WASABI’S STORY I came across SGM Refuge when things erupted at Sovereign Grace Ministries earlier last week. Although I don’t agree with all the comments on SGM Refuge and SGM Survivors, the blogs and comments quickly made me realize that I am not alone in discerning the cult-like environment within Sovereign Grace Ministries. Let me also emphasize that the symptoms and problems described on
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RECOVERED’S STORY My experience at Covenant Life Church was basically my teenage years. My family became deeply embedded in the church where we attended the youth ministry, care group, Covenant Life School, and Sunday worship. I met some incredible people who I am grateful to still call friends today. I am most grateful for the fact that I became a Christian at Covenant Life Church and will
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CAN'T BE "CLOSE FRIENDS" WITH A SOVEREIGN GRACE MINISTRIES PASTOR "Mr. Canary and I are aware of three different occasions when we were informed we could not be our pastor or cg leaders’ “best friends”. The first time happened when we moved near a couple we had known for many years and considered our friends. They were our cg leaders. However, they informed us that mov
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ANON’S STORY I found a Sovereign Grace Ministries church through a co-worker and have been attending for 8 years now. My husband was not a believer (I came to Christ first in our marriage) and he got saved there, through the love and prayers and reaching out of the members during that time. Here were are 8 years later faced with the possibility of HAVING to leave. Not because we feel we s
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STORM TOSSED’S STORY I wanted to share my story because I think the structure of Sovereign Grace Ministry and the abuse our family experienced led to where we are now. And, let me tell you, we are a mess. It is only 36 hours since I recommitted my life to Jesus. While I know I made the choice to renounce Jesus, I believe I never would have been in that position if it weren’t for Sovereign
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FREE OF SGM’S STORY It’s great to learn that my experience and a couple of my friends are not the only ones. I am surprised to see how many others have been hurt by their time with Sovereign Grace Ministries / People of Destiny International. I started attending prior to our church joining Sovereign Grace Ministries. At first all seemed fine. The pastors were very open and available. Our
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MICHAEL’S STORY I attended a PDI church many years ago (’84 to ’89) in California and started attending from the ground up. I was one of the first to join the 6-7 families or so who relocated from Covenant Life. I’m amazed how all the stories I read on the ex member forums resonate with what I experienced years ago. The apostolic-to-pastoral-to-member authority, the doctrinal purity, the
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GOODFELLOW’S STORY I’ve been at CFC for two years, and its been two years too long. Their culture of defeatism and constantly beating us over the head with our own sin has taken its toll on my spiritual life and personal life. For the longest time, I was convinced that it was just me. Maybe I wasn’t praying right or I was doing something wrong. But I’ve recently come to the realization that
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BETRAYED'S STORY - part 2 One thing I did fail to mention in my original post was that not only did the pastors constantly tell me to “seek out my own sin,” and did absolutely nothing to love me or encourage me.. they actually sided with my X-wife who is not a member, nor is she a Christian, left me for a drug addict/felon, and filed for divorce and 8 court actions against me (I filed
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JULI'S VINDICATION I don’t know if this is funny or pathetic, but I’m putting it out here to prove my point : I said to Erin on June 6th that Sovereign Grace Ministries reads the ex member blogs, which we all know, and that they found out who I was, etc etc..and to be careful cause someone somewhere in SGMville was already placing her identity because she mentioned knowing someone being
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GRACIE’S SISTER Erin, I have never shared this part of my story in any detail. I do so now because I want you to know that I can relate and understand your frustration and concern. When we were dismembered from our (then) People of Destiny International church, my sister and her family were also attending there. She and I are very close in age and had always had a close relationship. A
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