Steve Lawson, Sola Exposito, and the Speaker-Driven Church

People flocked to Protestia over the weekend to see what was new about Steve Lawson. But in the audio transcript released by the Rolex of Polemics Watchblogs revealed far more about a new, growing heresy in the church than it did Steven Lawson.

Before you read this, I’d encourage you to go read the article on the free side of Protestia INSIDER, so you have the context. If you’re lazy, I’ll provide the context to you the best I’m able.

CATCHING YOU UP ON LAWSON

The gist of the story is that the elders of Trinity Bible Church in Dallas, the former church hangout of Steve Lawson, gathered together the congregation for an update on what was happening with him. I should mention (in case the USPS delivers your mail under a rock) that Steve Lawson was a prominent preacher on the Reformed(ish) Evangelical circuit, frequently preaching in the orbit of John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church (GCC) and Josh Buice’s G3 organization. Lawson was heralded as the Alpha Dog of expositor-preachers, marketing himself (and being marketed by his contemporaries) as the exemplar for pulpit preaching.

Lawson was busted in a five-year relationship with a woman more than half his junior (roughly the age of a granddaughter), who also happened to be an employee at the Grace Community Church bookstore and a former student of the MacArthur school Lawson was on the board of. The girl’s family purportedly forced Lawson to come forward under the threat that they would do it for him, and he was summarily bounced from public life. Grace Community Church denounced all knowledge, as did all of Lawson’s friends and associates, who deleted all traces of him from their websites and deleted all of his material (apparently, truth isn’t valid once the messenger is disqualified from ministry).

In the carnage of the fallout, it was revealed that Lawson wasn’t even a pastor of the congregation nor an elder. Lawson had insisted that his role would be nothing more than paid speaker, as he was apparently willing to offer the church nothing but stage presence. Called to not bother with marrying and burying, and citing a previous bad experience in the pastorate, Lawson insisted on being full-time pulpit supply, which the church advertised as “Lead Preacher.”

A SUMMARY OF THE AUDIO TRANSCRIPT RELEASED BY PROTESTIA

The best way to summarize the elders’ statements to the congregation would be (1) Day Late, Dollar Short, (2) Blame, (3) Celebrity Culture, (4) Excuses, (5) Messed up ecclesiology, and (6) messy discipline.

DAY LATE, DOLLAR SHORT

It doesn’t appear that the congregation was kept abreast of what was happening with Lawson, as the details the rest of us already knew (mostly thanks to Protestia) appear to have been provided to the congregation as though they didn’t know it.

It was recalled to them how the family of Lawson’s paramour demanded he come clean or else, and how Lawson contacted one of the TBC’s elders on the phone to give them the skinny. But the skinny was even skinnier than it should have been, and he didn’t confess all of it, allegedly. And according to the elders, “no one had prior knowledge.”

This conflicts with statements made publicly elsewhere, especially by some within the Grace Community Church orbit, who allege that at least two complaints (or cautions of concern) were made to GCC leadership (or, at minimum, leaders of Lawson’s OnePassion Ministry who may or may not have reported it to their counterparts at GCC) regarding the behavior of Lawson with his paramour as observed around. Protestia has not been able to substantiate the veracity of these claims, although I have spoken directly to those who insist they are true (and one who lodged such a complaint).

Lawson wrote a letter to the church at that time. And according to the elders, “…We dealt with this quickly. We dealt with it biblically. We conferred with many other godly men, again to include John MacArthur.”

BLAME

As Protestia pointed out in their article, “A good statement should state what happens in sufficiently clear (and not salacious) terms so that no speculation is needed, the manner in which the pastors responded to the exposure, and the clear consequences of the actions…Trinity’s statement and subsequent silence did not meet those criteria, and this is why people have had a difficult time letting it go…”

The elders, apparently unwilling to consider the possibility that it’s their handling of this crisis that has led to it being a bigger sideshow attraction than what it had to be, took a side-swipe at “Internet mobs,” telling them, “We will only yield to the scriptures and not to the mob on the internet. We are only gonna tell you what we need to tell you.”

Clearly, the church is on a need-to-know basis, and the elders believe they need to know very little. And given that everything we know has been leaked to us, the TBC elders think the public is entitled to know nothing at all.

After blaming the “Internet mob,” the elders blamed members of the congregation who have been upset at their stonewalling of information and handling of the crisis. The elders stated, “We’ve had people leave the church, we’ve had people that were here because of Steve Lawson. I will tell you this: man’s heart is an idol maker. Man’s heart is an idol maker.”

After accusing the congregants of idolatry, the elders blamed Lawson for their unique ecclesiological scheme of a pastorless congregation, saying, “…the Lord has really revealed this and sort of torn back the curtain. Steve, as well as he preaches, was the impediment for us to hire other pastors. And the Lord has removed that.”

In other words, Steve is guilty of having been such a good preacher that he became an impediment to the elders finding the church a new pastor. As though Lawson can’t rightly be accused of enough sin, they’ve now heaped upon him the sin of being really good at preaching, making the elders content with breaking Biblical protocol on how a church is supposed to operate.

The elders also blamed the men who have turned down their offers to serve as pastor, stating, “We’ve made financial offers. We’ve been real serious about this. We’re going to continue to be serious and intentional. But there was an impediment. These men, for whatever reason, didn’t want to come.”

CELEBRITIES WANTED. INQUIRE WITHIN

I know a thing or three about preachers, which is that they covet both really nice shoes and pulpits. It’s not hard to find a pastor, especially when the church has bucks in the plate and butts in the pew, and so I surmise that perhaps the elders were aiming above their pay grade, trying to land a celebrity with the gravitas of Steve Lawson or John MacArthur. Does anyone else find it hard to believe a pastor couldn’t be found to take a church that even Steve Lawson thought suited him? One wonders what their standards are.

The elders seem to have ruled out hiring a normal human being from places where normal human beings may be found. The elders told the congregation, “We are fishing in some pretty good ponds. We know a lot of people. We want a man who fits with us theologically. We want a man whose heart is after the Lord. We want a man who has the heart of a servant. We want a man who has a wonderful family. And that’s what we desire, so we would ask that you would pray for that.”

It appears that wherever the elders are “fishing” to find a pastor, the pond isn’t the church. It seems bizarre, does it not, that a church with allegedly “the finest expositor in the world” hasn’t a single man in their almost four-digit congregation who could be raised up to pastor? Good preaching doesn’t make disciples, I guess.

Also not in the running seem to be the elders of the church. Are these elders not apt to teach? Perhaps these are the “businessman elders” and not the Biblical kind of elders, but I’m not sure. Few could be sure, I suppose. And they aren’t talking.

EXCUSES

Why was Steve not a pastor? The elders explain this by saying, “There was a reason why he wasn’t an elder. Number one, he didn’t want to be an elder, and we weren’t led to make him an elder.”

Well, I suppose that settles it. Lawson – who can rule the Bible out of order by his own personal preferences, didn’t want to be a pastor or elder. And so engaging in the hermeneutic of celebrity, the elders submitted to those preferences.

But further, the elders say, “We weren’t led” to make him an elder. This might very well be true if the word ‘him’ in that sentence is italicized to show emphasis; they weren’t led to make him a pastor (but then, they should have been led to make someone a pastor, at least). What were they led by to not have a pastor at all? It wasn’t the Scripture, and it wasn’t the Holy Ghost. I’d like to know who or what led them.

They continue, “I know that has been a stumbling block for some people, but that’s true. He was not the pastor, he was a lead preacher.” Ah yes, the Biblical church office of “lead preacher,” just as the Scripture teaches us. Jesus told the Apostles to appoint Pastors, Lead Preachers, and Deacons in every church, I guess. Jesus gifted to the church, “Apostles, prophets, pastors, lead preachers, and evangelists,” I suppose is the message.

Or is it possible that the Scripture’s teaching on ecclesiology doesn’t apply if a celebrity expositor graces your pulpit each Sunday?

The elders explained, “He said himself he did not want to marry or bury. He had pastored in Mobile, and he wanted to have a ministry that was more peripatetic, teaching and working at the seminary.”

Of course, it’s acceptable for a man to avoid marrying and burying should he not feel called to serve the church in this capacity. And it’s definitely okay to focus on a peripatetic (itinerant or short-term) ministry and to teach at a seminary. But this argument from the elders needs exposition all of itself because it’s a complicated text that needs exegeted.

GOD’S DESIGN FOR WEEKLY WORSHIP

God designed the church to gather corporately together. As a part of that weekly gathered assembly, the church takes part in certain acts together, including worship, teaching, and preaching (particularly as it relates to singing psalms and hymns together) and the Lord’s Supper.

Clearly, God would have the congregation come together, circle up, and, in a corporate fashion, observe these Means of Grace. There is a certain purpose in the preacher being the one doing the marrying and burying, just as there are the song-leaders not being hired guns from a nightclub down the street just because they happen to be good on the guitar. The privilege of preaching in the church comes with the duty of serving the church. Anything less than that is not pastoral preaching because it takes a pastor to engage in pastoral preaching.

I once had a couple stop attending, telling me it was their sacred duty to find the church with the best preaching, and the best preaching around was John MacArthur on the Internet. I had personally cleaned their toilet the week before while we gathered at their home to minister to them after surgery. I’m unsure if MacArthur had ever cleaned their toilet, of if he would, if given the opportunity.

The reason why the regular preacher should be your pastor is because pastors are bound by conscience and commission to care for you; Itinerant preachers are not. Itinerant preachers (while there’s a point to it) also don’t know the people in the congregation and, therefore, are relegated to firing cartridges he preloaded into the sermon six-gun, hoping that there’s a target around that might get hit by his pistol-tricks.

A pastor knows whose mother died last week (because he probably did the funeral), and having wept with them, preaches a sermon on mourning. An itinerant preacher is relegated to non-specific sermons on non-specific things for non-specific reasons. Those sermons are usually really good, though, because he’s preached them a thousand times before, and the act has become quite polished. And then he’s praised by the congregation for being such a good preacher.

The sermon of an itinerant preacher is like watching a Netflix comedy special; by the time you see the act, it’s already been sifted and sorted and perfected and made to look quite easy. The sermon of your regular pastor is like watching that same comedian, but in the back room of the Laugh Factory on a Thursday evening, with a mandatory two-drink minimum, working out the lines and fumbling at first deliveries. And that’s all real pastors have: first deliveries. They’re not as good, but at least they’re authentic and timely.

What does it say about a preacher who says, “Sure, pay me to preach every week. But I’m not about to sully my suit for you people. Let the dead bury their dead”?

The elders continued, “I think the answer [to whether or not they’ll get an interim pastor] is we’re always open to that, but we’re looking for people that will be here full-time. And we have a group of men that have been coming and preaching, as you know.”

In this peculiar ecclesiastical scheme, the congregants wondered if they could get an interim pastor. Bless their hearts, they just want a pastor of any kind, considering they haven’t had one in years. I bet Jesus would “look at them as sheep without a shepherd.”

Another reason they chose Lawson to replace an actual pastor, as they explained: “…Steve became more full-time, partly due to COVID his wings were clipped and couldn’t leave. We didn’t have any ability to fly people in. So that’s how that really came together.”

I’d like to ask at this point why on Earth the elders would need to “fly people in” during Covid. Aren’t they in Dallas? (they are). Does Tom Buck live near there and head up the G3 preaching seminar thing? Yep. Does Dallas have a few seminaries? They do.

I think we all know the reason for this. The elders insisted on a celebrity, and celebrities must be flown in. The celebrity flights were grounded during Covid, apparently (point of order; they really weren’t).

The elders told the congregation that “the Lord will lead” them and to pray because “You can’t start a church without a leadership team. So, I think the Lord will make that clear when the time comes. Is that fair, guys?”

Of course, you can’t have a church without a pastor, either. But the elders seemed fine with that for several years. But yes, the “leadership team” thing is important, or else Paul would not have spent so much time in the Bible discussing “leadership teams.”

I found it interesting that in clearing up questions the congregation had about the membership process, they said, “The whole reason why we wanted time, and we want time to go by, is because you need time in any relationship to get to know us.”

A great way for a church to get to know their elders is to hear them preach every week. You can really get to know a man that way. Another way that can happen is if your “lead preacher” is also your pastor, and he marries and buries people in the congregation three generations deep.

ON LAWSON’S DISCIPLINE

The elders claimed, “We disqualified him, and we would now say permanently from ministry.” Can you disqualify a man from ministry because he happened to have preached at your church at some point? Say whatever you want about the ecclesiological scheme of Trinity Bible Church, but it’s novel for sure.

I once invited a Southern Baptist associational missionary to an ordination service for one of our elders, but came a week late and then spoke up and said magisterially, “On behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention, [so-and-so] is now officially ordained.” I waited for him to leave and then told the congregation, “Okay, so that’s not a thing. Ignore that.”

The ecclesiology in this entire situation is bizarre and disjointed. They have preachers in official positions within the church but not a pastor. They have elders, who also are not pastors, apparently. They have congregants who (from the transcript’s context) haven’t been able to become members yet. The members they do have became members by elder fiat. And the members who received the fiat of elder approval, are not on a need-to-know basis for church disciplinary matters, which Jesus very explicitly teaches in Matthew 18 is the purview of the church at large.

We can only surmise that Steve Lawson didn’t preach on ecclesiology much.

The elders claimed they “disciplined him” (again, that’s not their job, but the congregation’s), and “The next phase is the ball is in his court to show repentance.” Then they added, “With regard to Matthew 18, what you don’t get to see many times, and we’ve seen this in the short time that we’ve been a church, is when you enter into Matthew 18, for example, we’ve never gotten to the end of that process because the person leaves.”

The end of the process of Matthew 18 is – in fact – the church congregation deciding whether or not the penitent person is penitent. At Trinity Bible Church, they don’t seem interested in the Bible at all, even when they cite the Biblical passage they’re not following. Not only has the congregation not been given the power to decide this matter, but they’ve been told very bluntly they’ll find nothing out unless the elders see fit to inform them.

Being unable to judge Lawson’s heart during five years of undercover sin, the elders have now obtained the magical ability to judge Lawson’s heart from afar, stating, “I’ll just tell you right now, as the guy who’s closest to him. He says he’s repentant, and I don’t think he is.” He explains, “I’m just telling you right now. He will tell you he is until I see him, until he goes to his wife and he goes to his family, I don’t care who else he says he’s repentant to.”

Ah, yes. The “until I see him repentant, he’s not repentant” thing. Not even the Pope could attribute to himself such power.

The problem is that the accounts of the elders (who have done nothing but cast blame on (1) the idolatrous congregation, (2) pastors who’ve turned them down, (3) Steve Lawson for tricking them in some ill-defined way, (4) Covid, and (5) Internet mobs), is contested by those close to Lawson and who are working on his repentance plan.

Credible sources have reached out to Protestia after their article was published, and Protestia added an addendum that reads as follows:

Since publishing a portion of the transcript of the TBC meeting, individuals with credible knowledge of Lawson’s current situation and state of affairs have materially refuted claims and information provided at the meeting.

Notably, those rebutting the claims made by TBC elders indicate that a group of men has been counseling and shepherding him in TN as he works on reconciliation with his wife and family, and that he has been cooperating all along.

SOLO EXPOSITO

A proper estimation of this controversy cannot be had without seriously evaluating the extent that an idolization of preaching has affected the outcome of the entire ordeal.

While the notion of “idolizing” has gone much too far in evangelicalism, becoming a catch-all term to describe focusing on one thing to the neglect of others, there’s a legitimate case to be made here that idolatry is not too steep a term to describe what’s occurred.

Over the last decade or so, extreme focus has been placed on the act of preaching (or exposition), and much has been made of the preacher (expositor). Books, conferences, homiletics courses, and many different corners of specialization have been propagated to an evangelical world that’s largely forgotten the significance of what happens behind the pulpit in the gathered assembly. For the most part, this renewed focus has been very good.

After all, mainstream evangelicalism has been swallowed almost whole by a seeker-friendly church-growth methodology that has minimized the importance of the preached word. But as with all good things, temperance is a virtue.

In the case of Steve Lawson, we see a church that appears so caught up on the celebrity of an expositor who gave little attention to the book that was being exposited on matters relating to the church. We see a church so caught up on a man to preach that they didn’t stop to consider the necessity of a man to pastor.

There’s nothing to suggest the elders strongly considered Lawson’s wishlist of demands summarized as “just don’t make me serve the congregation except through preaching” because of his powers of exposition, except that it would be absurd to think that’s not the case. It seems almost certain.

There’s also nothing to suggest that MacArthur’s association with Lawson played a prominent role in the elders’ choice of an anti-pastor for the congregation, except that – again – it would be absurd to think that’s not the case. When the elders mentioned (referencing Protestia’s transcription) that they had been seeking wise counsel from MacArthur regarding the public relations crisis, one has to wonder if they sought MacArthur’s advice in their ecclesiastical scheme. Did no one at Grace Community Church know that the Trinity Bible Church elders had chosen to opt out of Biblical ecclesiology?

It’s clear that the reason the elders thought they had a divine right to craft a pastorless church was because – in their mind – a really good preacher was good enough. It turns out that’s not the case. This is the hair-brained idea of Sola Exposita. It is more than a bad idea to establish a church centered on preaching to the exclusion of other things; it’s dangerous.

THE SPEAKER-DRIVEN CHURCH

C. Peter Wagner’s Seeker-Driven Church, which he passed down to Rick Warren and Bill Hybels, which went on to swallow up the evangelical church, has received much criticism (and that’s a good thing). The notion of centering the church on the felt needs of people whose felt needs are unconverted is sure to lead to everything but genuine conversion.

Giving people what they want is seldom giving people what they need.

We have to acknowledge in Reformed(ish) Evangelicalism that a new cult has arisen, in which what people want is to gorge themselves like ticks on fine preaching and then digest it over the next week and return for another gorging. But gluttony of any kind has to be discouraged.

At first, the contrast with Seeker-Driven Christianity is a welcome and joyous one. People want more of good preaching. They’re attending the closest church with a celebrity preacher known for celebrity preaching, they’re listening to old sermons by R.C. Sproul on the way to work, they’re tweeting quotes excerpts from John MacArthur, they’re rocking out to Spurgeon Jams at the gym, and their evangelism consists of emailing their friends Paul Washer’s Shocking Youth Message.

How exciting.

But if that’s all they want, to the exclusion of – oh, I don’t know – having a dad-blasted pastor, then accommodating them isn’t commendable. They must be given that which they don’t want…a pastor whose time and attention on sermons is fixed by the responsibilities required of him pastoring to souls.

Lawson’s elders said, “I can tell you this. There is no accountability program as legalistic as you could make it, that would have ever prevented Steve from this dual life of sin that he was living. He was living a lie. He wasn’t practicing what he was preaching and he lied to everyone in his life. He kept this a secret. And so the Lord revealed it.”

This is, far and away, the worst statement made in Protestia’s transcript. It was entirely due to the “peripatetic” relationship the Trinity Bible Church elders consented to that Lawson could lead an undetectable double life. He was too important to be bothered with having people get to know him, whether in California or Texas because he was jet-setting from one place to the other because prophets have important places to be. It is doubtless that a shepherd tethered to sheep can get into too much trouble without the sheep figuring it out.

The unique ecclesiastical scheme of Trinity Bible Church was not ancillary or peripheral to Steve Lawson’s demise; it was a cause of it. That claim doesn’t diminish Lawson’s personal culpability, but it was this arrangement by TBC that allowed him to continue in sin undetected for so long.

The Speaker-Driven Church, if it is not soon squashed, will lead to as much harm as the Seeker-Driven Church. Biblical Christians simply need to be above it, and that will require being okay with a pastor who’s no Steve Lawson.

This article was first published at Insight to Incite. If you appreciate my work, please consider a one-time gift of your choosing by clicking below. Or even better, please subscribe to Protestia Insider.

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