The Editorial Director for 9Marks Ministries, one of #BigEva’s proud sons Jonathan Leeman, gave a talk during TGC2020 entitled “Identity Politics and the Death of Christian Unity.” In it, he details both the deficiencies and praiseworthy aspects of identity politics, listing the many virtues of this system which he describes as the occasional “useful ally.”
Specifically, he seeks to make the case that because humans are subject to the stain of total depravity, it means that necessarily all our actions and motivations are suspect and in some way tinged with racism, including our virtuous acts. First, he describes the perspective of the identity politics advocate and then goes on to affirm it:
Everything is subject to the comparative competitions of power and powers as its wielded between oppressing and oppressed groups. All your decisions, everything you do is either an act of privilege or an act of being imposed upon. And not that you are necessarily conscious of these things.
So you might think of the little white boy in the Suburbs – he’s not consciously racist as he enjoys a nutritious four-square meal. And the little minority boy in the ghetto may not be conscious of his vitamin deficiency and stunted growth through his soda pop and potato chip breakfasts in comparison to the white boy. Yet clearly, one is privileged, and the other is a victim of injustice.And as that little white boy grows up, he will naturally make a host of decisions that maintain his privilege and power, meaning he will gradually becoming complicit or complicit [sic] in the injustices.
Leeman explains how identity politics is an “unexpected ally” because it helps us see the world through a biblical lens and aids us in our interpretation of scripture:
It’s an unexpected ally because it reminds us what the Bible teaches about the pervasiveness of sin…
Listen again to Psalm 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me…”
Now, I don’t want to charge that little white boy in the suburbs eating a four-square meal with racism per se. But if he is indeed sinful at birth, is it not least worth considering the possibility that he’ll structure his life in order to give advantage to himself and become sinfully partial toward whatever groups he occupies from his high school versus other high schools? [Editor’s note: The problem Leeman is not seeing is that such sinful behaviour is not restricted by the melanin concentration of one’s skin.] From the nation he lives into other nations? To his socioeconomic class compared to other classes? To his skin colorversus other skin colors? To me that seems like a pretty basic application of Psalm 51 or Isaiah 64…
So when a critical race theorists come along and say that white people pass laws, like the civil rights acts, not out of altruism, but out of self-interest…Well, on the one hand, I want to affirm common grace and the fact that non-Christians certainly can love and certainly do desire to do justice. But I also want to affirm total depravity and say, yeah, of course, even our righteous acts are filthy rags. [i.e., racist…]
"I don't want to charge a little white boy in the suburbs…w racism per se, but if he is indeed sinful @ birth, is it not at least worth considering the possibility he'll structure his life to give advantage to himself…to me that seems like a pretty basic application of Ps 51" pic.twitter.com/7CcJxROkTJ
Police in the small town of Aylmer, Ontario have been going door-to-door out in the cover of night and handing out fines for $880 to any congregants who attended an in-person church service last week, an act deemed illegal by the conservative government.
In all, 47 fines were given out, totalling $41,360.
Footage from the ticketing was uploaded by Herbert Hildebrandt, the son of the Aylmer Church of God Pastor Henry Hildebrandt, the church at the center of the controversy.
We featured this church back in May 2020, where at the time the government was refusing to let them gather for a drive-in service, where all the windows would be rolled up and the sermon would be piped through their FM station.
On their Facebook Page, Aylmer police say that the fines were given not only to those inside the church but outside the church as well, possibly in their vehicles.
In Ontario, the tyrannical Premier Doug Ford who was elected on a populist, man-of-the-people, the right-wing conservative platform has made it illegal to gather in groups of more than 10 people for “non-essential” activities like Church.
The province of 15 million people has been on lockdown for nearly a month and has had 6072 COVID deaths in the last 11 months. Of those, all but 230 occurred in those ages 60 and up, and those almost all exclusively in long-term care homes.
Hillsong Church is gearing up to meet their financial maker, becoming the defendants in a series of lawsuits over breaches of contract and damages, according to a series of recently filed suits against the scandal-ridden Australian megachurch.
On this side of the pond, Hillsong’s Connecticut plant is being sued by The Wall Street Theater Company. Hillsong rented the theater from them for their weekly Sunday church service at a cost of nearly $6000 a month. They signed a fresh lease a few months before the pandemic hit, and then when the world went sideways, sought to take advantage of the agreement’s 120-day termination clause.
The theater agreed, but the clause to exit the lease was $100,899.25, which Hillsong refused to pay. Connecticut doesn’t have a pandemic-related moratorium on commercial rent payment that many states do, and so Hillsong would be liable for it. The suit alleges that Hillsong acted in an “immoral way” and also stole electronic equipment from them.
Hillsong Connecticut made the news a few months ago when their lead pastors Blaze Robertson and wife Desiree Noel Robertson jumped ship and slinked away to a new church, with no formal document being made to the congregation.
Meanwhile, back in Australia, owners of a 300-apartment complex are suing the Church for shoddy construction work done when building their homes, alleging that the apartments which were purchased for up to a million dollars are structurally unsound, making them near impossible to sell in the future.
Lest you wonder what that has to do with Hillsong, the apartments were built by Sydney Christian Life Centre, who is the developer and part of Hillsong’s property arm. (Think of Hillsong as a multinational corporation. They have their hand in many cookie jars.)
A 2019 report deemed that the windows and balconies to the units were structurally unsound, but the Sydney Christian Life Centre (aka Hillsong) are saying that the real culprit is Icon Construction Australia, who they subcontracted to do the work, and who they filed a lawsuit against, deeming them to be the real culprits.
As the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) grapples with sex-abuse scandals and pledges to do more, the SBC Credentials Committee is in the process of botching a high-profile case right before our eyes, behaving in a scandalously uncaring way, outright lying, obfuscating, and making further victims of the people they are supposed to be investigating.
THE BACKROUND
In 1998, a 17-year-old teenager named Jules Woodson was sexually abused by 22-year-old Andy Savage, the former youth pastor of Woodlands Parkway Baptist Church, now known as StoneBridge Church. This occurred after building up a relationship with her and grooming her to be receptive to his sexual advances. (Longer story here)
After the incident, she reported it to the Associate Pastor Larry Cotton. He tried to gauge how ‘complicit’ she was in the abuse, suggesting she may have been a willing participant in it, but ultimately chose to tell Senior Pastor Steve Bradley, about it and that the church would handle it.
They never did.
No further action was taken by the Church. Bradley did not go to the police, seeking to handle it “in house” and did not report it, as was his legal and fiduciary duty. Because of this, Andy Savage remained on staff and still lead Youth group for months after that.
Seeing that nothing was being done and no further actions were being taken, Woodson told her story to her female discipleship group, at this point emotionally distraught and hurting badly. With the information now out, it resulted in Savage leaving, with rumors swirling that perhaps he kissed a girl, but that it wasn’t that big of a deal and many were upset that he was going.
Woodson explains, “The church, however, never came out with an official statement addressing what had happened and/or what was being done about it. Instead, they held a going-away reception for Andy at the church in which he was allowed to simply say that he had made a poor decision and that it was time for him to move on from our church.”
In fact, years later the pastors and the deacons at the church, including Steve Bradley, contacted Woodson’s parents and asked if they would be ok to bring Andy Savage back on staff – a request the parents patently refused.
Lest anyone doubt the veracity of the story, the associate Pastor Larry Cotton eventually moved on to a new church. After allegations of his involvement in mishandling the case, the church took the allegations seriously and put him on leave. He resigned from the pastorate shortly thereafter, releasing a statement, confirming that the events happened as described, and expressing regret at how it was handled and that he should have gone to the police.
Facing his own pressure, Savage was forced to address the sex crime from the pulpit at the new church he moved on to, Highpoint Church, where he minimized his actions, exaggerated his response, and kept on framing it as “an incident that happened 20-plus years ago.” Because of the statute of limitations, he cannot be charged. Facing sustained pressure, he later resigned from the church, eventually acknowledging that his actions in the non-consensual sexual encounter were an “abuse of power.”
THE UNCARING SHEPHERD
Now comes the time of reckoning for Senior Pastor Steve Bradley, still the pastor of Stonebridge Church decades later.
Woodson has reached out multiple times to Bradley, who has steadfastly refused to respond to her or even acknowledge her.
The only public statement Bradley has ever made is a comment in the Houston Chronicle, saying that the Church was “heartbroken 20 years ago when this happened and we remain heartbroken,” but was clear that it is “simply not accurate” to say “that I or anyone else on the staff at StoneBridge Church participated in a conspiracy to cover-up this sexual misconduct.”
So heartbroken that he has refused to talk to her or contact her in any way, shape, or form, despite her reaching out to him multiple times across multiple channels?
Again, he did not report it to the police, did not tell the congregation the nature of it, sought to keep him on, and sought to bring him back after he acts were exposed.
In 2019 she sent this letter to Bradley, which he has not responded to or acknowledged (please click the link to read in full), where she details the hurt she’s experienced that he’s never once contacted her or responded to her, despite the story going national. She says:
Your lack of compassion towards me as I have tried to seek closure and healing for the physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse I suffered as a member of your congregation has been reprehensible. This was my church and you, Larry, and Andy were my pastors and spiritual leaders…I trusted you all. You have no idea the despair, isolation, and self-devastation I’ve experienced because I was thrown under the bus, not just for Andy’s sake, but for your sake, and the reputation of the church.”
She asks him some questions that she has been struggling with for for a long time:
Why did you not immediately call the police when you learned of my abuse?
Were you/are you aware that in the state of Texas, clergy are mandated reporters of child sexual abuse?
Why did you not immediately pull Andy from his position on staff when I first reported my abuse?
Why did you allow Andy to resign instead of firing him?
Why were you not transparent and honest with the congregation that Andy had sexually abused a minor in the youth group?
Why did you, nor anyone on staff, ever reach out to me after I reported the abuse to offer support, help, or to ask me what I wanted and needed?
Why did you allow and/or think it was appropriate to throw Andy a going away party at the church?
And then she makes one final plea:
Though you have refused to respond to other people’s attempts to dialogue with you regarding the ways you have mishandled my abuse, my prayer is that by reaching out to you personally, you will finally choose to handle things differently. I have been deeply wounded by your words and actions from 20 years ago and continuing to this day. I sincerely request that you respond to my inquiries not only with honesty but with empathy as well.
Bradley never answered.
THE CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE
In 2019, the Southern Baptist Convention put on the Caring Well conference. This was done with the stated goal of responding to and hearing from sexual abuse survivors, along with announcing the formation of a new branch of the Credentials Committee (CC) dedicated to dealing with allegations of sexual abuse. JD Greear wept tears from the stage, his voice shaky, promising to do better.
They told survivors they wanted to hear their stories, and that they could trust the SBC would respond accordingly, with the ERLC’s Russell Moore saying, “We think this is going to be a hugely beneficial move in terms of empowering Southern Baptists to act with accountability and transparency on these matters.”
Despite Jules Woodson being arguably the most well-known face of abuse in the evangelical church and in the SBC, she was not invited to speak.
Instead, in keeping with the SBC’s 11th Commandment, all the women brought on stage did not report their abuser and did not name them. One wasn’t even a member of the SBC, but rather the OPC. In short, they didn’t invite anyone who reported their Baptist abuser.
After the announcement of the new committee, Woodson submitted her case, being one of the most visible SBC victims. After all, two pastors had to resign over what happened to her, with one of them acknowledging his complicity in the cover-up. For this reason, she was sure they would look into it. She got an email back saying that they had received her email, and inquired if she had further questions.
Upon hearing that the CC was investigating 16 Churches, Jules Woodson asked if Stonebridge and Steve Bradley were on that list. She received a response back from Christy Peters, telling her that the CC isn’t designed to “investigate” but rather “inquire,” and that the status of an ‘investigation’ was private, even to those reporting. It ended with Peters inviting her to submit any churches she feels she must. Which she had already done.
This revelation confirms that the Credentials Committee is a bureaucratic nightmare, with the one submitting not even being told if they plan to do anything with his/her information, or to what degree they have or will follow up. Furthermore, they are essentially toothless when it comes to what power they wield and what change they can bring about, due to the constraints of their purpose. In an article on the ERLC website: A guide to understanding the Credentials Committee proposal, this is made plain.
A year passes.
Nothing.
She does not hear from them and no one contacts her about it.
Woodson assumes that nothing came out of it, with no much time passing and no follow-up. It wouldn’t take a whole year to ascertain the truth here, would it, with so much ink being spilled about it?
THE DAMNABLE LETTER
On November 16, a year after her submission, 2020, Jules Woodson received the following letter from Mike Lawson, chair of the Credentials Committee.
Parts bolded by us.
Dear Ms. Woodson,
The Credentials Committee desires to reach out to you personally and inform you of our decision regarding Stonebridge Church. As we have not been able to connect via phone or Zoom, please receive this letter in the spirit from which it was drafted: to sincerely thank you and inform you. Thank you for your patience as we have worked and prayed our way through this process.
First, we wish to thank you. Thank you for being willing to share your story and for drawing attention to the need for churches to make an intentional effort to prevent abuse and to care well for victims of sexual abuse. Thank you for the effort it took to provide us with all the information regarding your abuse. It helped provide an understanding of what you experienced and continue to face as a result. We want you to know that we read and grieved over the information available to us including: your blog, articles, and your interview with the New York Times that we watched in its entirety. We prayed for you and all the victims, and, more recently, for you and your mother as you care for her in these difficult days. Thank you, for your boldness and courage in coming forward with your story.We believe that you and others like you are making a difference in how churches respond to reports of sexual abuse and helping them create intentional policies and practices that will help prevent such things in the future.
Your story has been a particular force in transformative change at Stonebridge Church. In recent years, they have taken significant and extensive steps to improve policies, practices, and procedures to better serve their people. These steps are set up to offer increased protections and improved responses to reports.
Our committee has considered the information available to us regarding StoneBridge Church’s relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention. Our committee’s assignment as outlined in SBC Bylaw 8[1], is to consider the current relationship between a church and the Convention. Neither our committee nor the Southern Baptist Convention has any authority over another Baptist body as stated in Article IV [2] of the SBC Constitution. This committee’s role is to determine if a church is in friendly cooperation with the Convention and make a recommendation to the Executive Committee when we determine a church is not currently in friendly cooperation with the Convention as described in Article III [3] of the SBC Constitution. At this time, we do not have any information that causes us to conclude that the church does not have a faith and practice which closely identifies with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith, and we have determined that StoneBridge Church be removed from inquiry.
While the nine of us on this committee have a very limited and specific task, we care about you and other survivors. We requested and have been granted access to trauma-informed counselors. If you think they might be of any help to you as you continue your healing journey, we will gladly connect you to them. We know that receiving this information may be difficult, and we are sorry for any pain it may cause.
Sincerely, The SBC Credentials Committee
We here at Protestia see a few things worthy of mention. The CC claimed to have “tried” to contact Jules Woodson via phone and Zoom, yet Jules has NO record of any such attempt. No one called her. No one questioned her further. No one called to get more details or information. Nothing.
Furthermore, the committee had her email address from when she submitted her grievance and corresponded with Christy Peters, and yet Woodson received no emails. That they would not speak to her about this at all is unconscionable.
The Committee further stated that they read her blog, yet she has no blog.
They affirm that Stonebridge has been “transformed” due to her story, and yet the Pastor has refused to talk to her or acknowledge it and the SBC’s most famous victim. All this while protesting they did not cover up the sexual abuse, despite that being both demonstrably and factually false. How is refusing to speak to or acknowledge victims evidence of “transformation”?
Why should anyone believe Stonebridge would handle new sex-abuse claims in a serious manner, rather than just cover them up, if to this day the Senior Pastor insisted that they did nothing wrong 20 years ago? He was legally obligated to report it to the police and he buried it instead.
Ultimately the Credential Committee is saying that one can be in “cooperation with the SBC” despite having a proven track record of permitting and covering up sexual abuse, so long as they affirm the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. At this point it seems clear that there is no sexual abuse case that could be reported to the Committee that would result in a church being declared not in friendly co-operation with the convention.
THE NEWEST INFORMATION
Jules Woodson shared this on Twitter last week., about her ongoing issues with the Credentials Committee.
I am so livid at the SBC Credentials Committee right now I could scream!!!
Yesterday, a fellow advocate and friend, @writer_dee, spoke with Mike Lawson and Stacey Bramlett via a Zoom meeting on my behalf. One of the purposes for the meeting was to address their massive failures regarding my submission…Specifically their lack of communication and failure to speak with me.
Stacey made a point to say that their decision is final…that it’s too late to go back and change anything. I find this to be extremely disturbing considering they really don’t seem to know what they are doing. Remember, they never once made an effort to speak with me regarding my submission even though they claimed to have done so!!!
What training and/or guidance do they have in evaluating abuse in the church and cover-up, and how it relates to a church being in good standing with the SBC, as well as communicating/listening to survivors?
They then proceeded to tell Dee Ann that the reason they had such difficulty in making a decision regarding Stonebridge was because they never received an actual submission from me, it came from someone else so their hands were tied, so to speak.
This is completely false as well. I personally sent a submission by mail and received an email a short time later that confirmed they received my submission. [Editor’s Note. See included picture.]
After the call Mike sends a short email to Dee Ann stating…’Thank you for your time. I spoke in error. It was in fact Jules who submitted to the Credentials Committee. My apologies.’
Is this a joke?!?! They had just spent all this time explaining to Dee Ann about how they were put in an ‘awkward position’ regarding Stonebridge yet their entire statement was based on erroneous information as it WAS me who presented the request.
They further admitted to basing their decision on the information they received after speaking with the church, yet they never once made an effort to speak with me!! Are you kidding??? They trust the church and pastor that covered up my abuse when I originally reported and who continues to deny wrongdoing or respond to my questions to this day???
Even after the Associate Pastor has admitted it was abuse – that it should have been reported to the police, and has since stepped down from any position of authority in his current church?
In summary, the SBC Credentials Committee is a total sham. They are NOT a safe resource for ANY survivor!!! They have lied on multiple occasions. They don’t know their head from their ass and certainly can’t keep their stories straight. They have ZERO training in how to do their jobs in any capacity and perhaps don’t even know what their job is. SBC YOU MUST DO BETTER!!!
This is a terrible injustice. The Credentials Committee has botched and mishandled this case for over a year now, and they are continuing to drop the ball. Not only dropping it, but punting it clear out of sight. We pray it’s out of incompetence and not out of maliciousness, but at the rate it’s going, we can’t be sure.
What we do know, is if this is how they are going to handle things they CANNOT be trusted with other victims and other churches and ought to be thoroughly and publicly repudiated.
We ask that you retweet this article and tag all these individuals, as well as anyone else you can think of, and keep on doing it until they listen.
Lifeway Christian Resources, the retail and sales arm of the Southern Baptist Convention and the bane of biblical Christians everywhere, is selling their corporate headquarters less than three years after moving in.
“We dedicate this building to God-for His glory and for His gospel” said then Lifeway President Thom Rainer in 2017 during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new building. “May everything that comes from this place be used in such a way that lives will be transformed, not only here on earth but into eternity.”
Lifeway began looking for a buyer for the hundred million dollar, 277,000sqft building less than two years later.
In a statement about the sale, current Lifeway President and CEO Ben Mandrell said:
“Lifeway is moving forward, building fresh vision, and getting prepared for a new season of ministry to churches. This has led us to think strategically about selling our large building downtown, fully embracing remote work as the norm, and moving into a new era of creative and collaborative work.”
Mandrell continues:
One of the first questions I asked when I took this role was, ‘What should we do with this building?’ A study completed last year showed we were using the building at only 60% occupancy on a daily basis.
We’re definitely moving to a new work environment. Our new space will be designed specifically around a healthy blend of strategic meetings and team collaboration, as well as the flexibility of working from home. Like other companies are doing as a result of COVID, we’re re-imagining the corporate office for the future of work.
We are moving away from the idea of a ‘headquarters’ to a fully mobile and agile workforce that intentionally gathers to build strong relationships, celebrate what God is doing and share ideas.”
In short. It’s about the money
Five years ago, Lifeway was employing nearly 5000 staff and had 500 million in annual sales. Now, the years have not been kind to the organization who has repeatedly been caught selling spiritual garbage and unorthodox books from their shelves. They’ve had to sell their famous Ridgecrest Conference Center, close 170 retail stores, have slashed jobs, seen sales plummet, let loose rounds of layoffs, and are operating in multi-million dollar deficits.
We’re not happy Lifeway staff members are losing their job of course – that’s unfortunate and hard on families. But we consider any cut to Lifeway’s bloated corpse to be one worth celebrating. We’re thankful for every hardship they endure, every calamity they suffer through, and every misery they abide. Harsh? Hardly. How else should we feel about the largest retailer of heresy in the world?
Far from being concerned about equipping Southern Baptists with an exquisite selection of the best books that Christendom has to offer, Lifeway’s primary driving factor is the pursuit of the almighty dollar, routinely taking little sidequests along the highways and byways of the Baptist experience, on a mission to attain some of that sweet, sweet filthy lucre.
How else can you explain their propensity to stock every sort of soft-covered spiritual strychnine they can put on their shelves in any space not currently occupied by a Beth Moore bible study?
We have one prayer for Lifeway: that they utterly and completely implode into a smoldering crater for all the gangrenous blasphemy they’ve been peddling for decades. Our feelings run to the point where if the Lord tarries a thousand years, old Southern Baptist men and women will look back with solemn eyes, wistful words, and speak with deep regret and shame that they ever allowed the theological abortion known as Lifeway to be even passingly associated with their denomination.
Alternately, we pray that Lifeway steps back from the black mass they’re currently engulfed in, rend their proverbial garments, and repent for the great sins they’ve engaged in by giving Southern Baptists the knife to slit their own throats on account of all the poisonous content they’ve been providing over the years. If they do that and bear fruit in keeping with repentance, then we will pray for their success.
In this episode, JD reveals NAMB (the SBC home mission board) funding a church plant with a lead lady pastor. Other topics are covered as well, including The Gospel Coalition telling pastors not to speak out as much.
Pastors at Hillsong Church were living lavish lifestyles for years, spending money like drunken sailors at the expense of member’s tithes, according to a new report in the NY Post that spoke with former pastors and members.
They describe how Hillsong NY, the former home of the disgraced woke pastor Carl Lentz, did not expect their leaders to act modestly or use the tithing wisely.
“Pastors splurged on fancy restaurant meals, designer clothes and weekly manicures while living in the same Kent Avenue Williamsburg high-rise (whose apartments rent on average of nearly $6,0000 a month) and zipping around the neighborhood on ATVs .”
Former Hillsong LA service pastor Nicole Herman recounts how they all used PEX cards (prepaid expense cards) which were loaded up at the end of services after all the tithes were collected.
These cards would be used on pretty much whatever they wanted and did not have to be reconciled, explained or justified at the end of the month.
The post reports that “Of the $12.7 million that Hillsong East Coast made in 2019, 88% of it came from “tithes & offerings.” Over 66% of that revenue went to a combination of staff salaries, benefits and expenses ($3.8 million) and operating expenses including venue rentals, staffing, and production costs ($4.9 million).”
One congregant who nannied for many of the pastors,Jenna Babitt, described a long list of extravagant purchases, including large quantities of food for the pastors before services, mostly consistent of Sushi and expensive takeout, with the occasional Chipotle chipped in. They frequently rolled out the red carpet for guest and celebrity attendees, pushing designer purchases and spending up to 200$ on a single meal from pricey the Dean and Deluca restaurant.
Another former member, Megan Phalon, got a job babysitting for pastors Kane and Karla Keatinge, eventually doing light personal assistant duties for them. She says “He’d be spending all this money and at the end of the month he’d be like, ‘I don’t know what this was for.” She describes going out and buying a brand new unlocked iPhone without being told who it was for, and the pastors buying All-Terrain Vehicles to drive around town.
Another former member who functioned as lead pastor Reed Boggard’s assistant and was there from day one, Brandon Walker, describes how Hillsong leadership were all about eating out and staying in fancy hotels and Airbnb’s, including booking one that cost nearly$1100 a night.
According to the post:
“Walker recalled one day out on the town with Jess Bogard and two of his friends when she bought the group matching $100 jackets before taking them out to dinner at a “pretty nice, pretty expensive Italian restaurant” called North Italia, where she dropped hundreds on a decadent, wine-filled meal. “I think the bill was $600 to $700,” Walker recalled. “It was just, like, ‘Wow. [She] just dropped over $1,000 for no reason.’ ”
He concludes:
At the end of the day, there’s no accountability, there’s no self-reflection. Everything’s a flex, everything’s a show.”
1Name Church, the North American Mission Board Church plant that blew up in Southern Baptist circles after it was revealed they had a woman as lead pastor has left the SBC, sources have confirmed.
We wrote about this recently, after Jamie Farver, a woman, was aggressively and prominently marketed all throughout the church website and social media as a “pastor” and “lead pastor” even though that is strictly prohibited by the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 (BF&M2K), the official position document of the SBC.
Tom Ascol updated the world after talking to Kevin Ezell, NAMB president, about the status of the church plant, later adding, “If the church isn’t in agreement with SBC confessional commitments then it was an honorable decision to leave.”
Of course, we don’t find anything honorable about taking cooperative program dollars and then running off with the money. In fact, the “honorable thing” would be to pay NAMB back.
Was it honorable for the NAMB not to do their due diligence by ensuring that the church would be fully in line with the BF&M2K before they gave them who knows how much financial and infrastructure support? Did NAMB know they weren’t in full co-operation with the BF&M2K before they funded them or after?
When did they leave the SBC? Was it immediately after they were planted, or just recently as they received the negative attention?
Furthermore, who is the sending church? These things don’t happen ex nihilo. Surely the mothership would have known 1Name Church had no intention of her not preaching, teaching, and leading the church. Was this disclosed?
John Kaleo on Twitter is likewise asking the right questions.
As far as the request to leave them alone, we have that covered too:
With the news that The Gospel Coalition has launched a new International branch “TGC Albania,” we have a message of warning for our Albanian brethren: stay as far away from this ministry as possible.
Të dashur shqiptarë të krishterë,
Një shërbesë e re midis jush ka nisur, e cila përbëhet nga një shoqëri kishash dhe udhëheqësish të njohur si Koalicioni i Ungjillit (KIU). Ata synojnë të mbështesin kishën dhe të jenë thellësisht të përkushtuar në “ripërtëritjen e besimit tonë në ungjillin e Krishtit dhe në reformimin e praktikave tona të shërbesës për t’u përshtatur plotësisht me Shkrimet” duke siguruar “burime të besueshme dhe në kohë, të dobishme dhe të mençura dhe të përqendrua në ungjillin e Jezu Krishtit.”
Asgjë nuk mund të jetë më larg së vërtetës.
Në vend që t’u qëndrojnë besnik shkrimeve të shenjta dhe t’u besojë atyre të diktojnë praktikat e shërbesës, KIU është një entitet i korruptuar plotësisht – një bastion i krishterimit liberal dhe progresiv dhe një vrimë kryesore e atyre që sjellin herezi të dënueshme pa dijeni.
Disa nga emrat më të shquar që duhet të shënohen dhe shmangen janë Thabiti Anyabwile, Ligon Duncan, Tim Keller, Sam Alberry, Joe Carter, Jonathan Leeman, dhe Russell Moore. Këta janë autorët që po shtyjnë doktrinën korruptuese dhe jobiblike në Amerikën e Veriut dhe ne lutemi që ata të mos eksportojnë axhendën e tyre liberale në Shqipëri.
Në njoftimin e tyre për shtyp, ata thonë se “armiku nuk është i kënaqur me këtë zgjim (Në Shqipëri) dhe po përpiqet të mbjellë fara mosmarrëveshje dhe mësimi të rremë në komunitetin e krishterë që po Lind.” Kjo është e vërtetë. Dhe mbjellësi më i madh i mosmarrëveshjes është vetë Koalicioni i Ungjillit. Me 40% të shqiptarëve që flasin anglisht si gjuhë e dytë, ju mund të shihni pse Këtu dhe Këtu.
Ikni nga kjo organizatë që helmon gjithë çfarë prek dhe spërkat shpirtin si një gajzer. Nuk është e mirë për shpirtin tuaj dhe nuk janë pasqyrim i krishterimit biblik.
Translated:
Dear Albanian Christians:
A new ministry within your midst has launched, consisting of a fellowship of churches and leaders known as The Gospel Coalition (TGC). They purport to support the church and to be deeply committed to “renewing our faith in the gospel of Christ and to reforming our ministry practices to conform fully to the Scriptures” by providing “resources that are trusted and timely, winsome and wise, and centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Rather than being faithful to the scriptures and entrusting them to dictate ministry practices, TGC is by and large a thoroughly corrupt entity – a bastion of liberal and progressive Christianity and chief hidey-hole of those who bring in damnable heresies unawares.
Some of the more prominent names that should be marked and avoided are Thabiti Anyabwile, Ligon Duncan, Tim Keller, Sam Alberry, Joe Carter, Jonathan Leeman, and Russell Moore. These are the authors who are pushing corrupting and unbiblical doctrine in North America, and we pray they don’t export their liberal agenda to Albania.
In their press release, they say that “the enemy is not pleased by this awakening (In Albania) and is attempting to sow seeds of discord and false teaching in the nascent Christian community.” This is true. And the biggest sower of discord is the Gospel Coalition itself. With 40 percent of Albanians speaking English as a second language, you can see why Here and Here.
Flee from this organization that poisons everything it touches and spouts spiritual strychnine like a geyser. They are not good for your soul, and are not a reflection of Biblical Christianity.
The host of In Pursuit of Jesus has made waves for his support of Critical Race Theory, comparing opponents of CRT to the corrupted Roman Catholic Church during the protestant reformation, and proponents of it to the feisty reformers nailing their theses to the church door in Wittenberg.
Rascool Berry hosts several podcasts for Our Daily Bread, a well-known non-denominational, non-profit organization with staff and volunteers in nearly 40 offices and who distribute more than 60 million resources in 150 countries. Berry is a also pastor at The Bridge Church in Brooklyn and is all-in on Critical Race Theory
In a livestream discussion with Brian Dye and D.A. Horton, he made the following remarks:
When one comes from the vantage point that all that we have in terms of, as a point of emphasis as evangelicals, is all that we should ever have and this has came from on high and our tradition didn’t miss anything, then any attempt to correct or to critique or to say, “Hey, there’s some things that we should be talking about that our churches haven’t historically talked about,” is seen as a bringing in a foreign substance that doesn’t belong.
But the problem is that in doing so, we’re guilty of the same things that the very Reformation was opposing, which was this idea that tradition has as much weight as the scriptures do.
But as I look at the scriptures, I look at the commitment that we see in Micah 6:8 – ‘What does God require of you, O man, but to love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly before your God.’ It’s right there. In the text when I look at Isaiah, when I look at all these different passages, Jesus in Luke chapter 4.
It’s all there, but there’s a tendency to want to explain those away and remove that and not to add to the reality or speak to the reality that these things don’t have any place to be talked about in the church.
