Sovereign Grace Ministries

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Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) is a group of neocharismatic, Evangelical, Christian churches primarily located in North America.^[1]

It can be described as an apostolic network.^[2] There are congregations in Bolivia, Ethiopia, Great Britain and Mexico.^[3] Sovereign Grace's apostolic team is currently led by C. J. Mahaney and is based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, where it shares a building with Covenant Life Church.^[4][5]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Recent developments 1.2 Previous names 2 Church planting 3 Publishing 4 Controversy and Criticism 4.1 Debra Baker 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

The organization of over 70 member churches grew out of the charismatic renewal of the 1970s under the leadership of Catholic Charismatic Larry Tomczak and has its roots in the Gathering of Believers (now Covenant Life Church) in Maryland.^[6] It was formally established in 1982.^[7] CJ Mahaney, whom Larry Tomczak had been asked to "take under [his] wing and help... grow in the faith" in 1972, was the co-founder of both Covenant Life and People of Destiny.^[8] Both Mahaney and Tomczak withdrew from the Charismatic Catholic scene shortly before the creation of Covenant Life Church.^[9]

Tomczak and Mahaney were both close to some leaders of the British New Church Movement, speaking at New Frontiers' Bible Weeks and Stoneleigh Conference. They were also associated with Maranatha Campus Ministries for a period.^[10]

In "The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought" published in 1995,^[11] Alister McGrath associated PDI with the shepherding movement and described it as having "informal links with Bryn Jones," the UK house church leader.^[12] In the mid-1990s, religious anthropologist Dr. Karla Poewe contrasted PDI with the Vineyard Church. She wrote that "Vineyard is particularly attractive to the young and intellectual... People of Destiny serves a Catholic constituency." ^[13]

Tomczak left the leadership of PDI in 1998 and later suggested that the increasingly Calvinistic theology of PDI was a major factor in his departure.^[7][14] He has described the parting of ways with Sovereign Grace Ministries as "an unbelievable nightmare" during which his family "were threatened in various ways if [they] did not cooperate with [PDI/SGM]... A letter was circulated in an attempt to discredit me and to distort the events surrounding my departure."^[15] Other notable charismatic figures, such as Lou Engle, founder of The Call prayer concerts, and Che Ahn, pastor of Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, also ceased to be formally associated with PDI during this period.^[16]

[edit] Recent developments

Sovereign Grace Ministries currently identifies itself as "a family of churches passionate about the gospel of Jesus Christ... with a strong doctrinal basis that is evangelical, Reformed, and continuationist."^[17] This move towards the Reformed wing of the church is illustrated by Sovereign Grace's partnerships with speakers such as John MacArthur, Mark Dever, and John Piper, who speak at the Together for the Gospel Conferences.^[18]

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In November 2007, Sovereign Grace became the subject of a Wordpress blog, Sovereign Grace Ministries...Uncensored, now called and located at SGM Survivors, addressing the issues of a "cult like" culture, and question behaviors and policies in the church. Other blogs by former members^{[citation needed][19]} with similar themes have also started.^[20] The online controversy has carried on to discussions in blogs focused on the role of women in the church, particularly regarding SGM leadership's involvement in the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.^{[21] [22]}

[edit] Previous names

Sovereign Grace Ministries was known as "People of Destiny International" until 1998.^[23] British restorationist leader Terry Virgo states that Larry Tomczak and CJ Mahaney, leaders at the time, had become "increasingly uncomfortable" with the "People of Destiny International" name, and it was shortened to "PDI Ministries".^[24] In 2002, the group adopted its current name of "Sovereign Grace Ministries."

[edit] Church planting

Church planter Fred Herron describes PDI/SGM church planting as "colonization", and writes "...a pastor or leader from a mother church gathers a core group of people to plant a new church, however, instead of planting the church in a bedroom community, the entire team relocates to a totally different city".^[25]

The first church planting team was sent out to Ohio in the earliest years of Covenant Life Church. Church planting continues, and a page of the SGM website is devoted to upcoming church plants worldwide.

For many years, PDI did not adopt existing churches, but later altered its policy. SGM adoption of an existing church begins primarily through the development of a relationship with leadership and continues with strategic dialogue to evaluate the doctrinal and practical compatibility of Sovereign Grace with the church desiring adoption. ^[26]

[edit] Publishing

PDI/SGM published a magazine for about twenty years. Initially entitled "People of Destiny", the title later changed to "Sovereign Grace".^[27] The first issue had the words "Are You A Pioneer - Or A Settler?" on the front cover.^[28] Larry Tomczak was the founding editor. Publishing ceased in 2002.

Larry Tomczak was an author with mainstream Christian publishers from the early 1970s onwards.^{[15][29][30][31]} During the 1990s, SGM published a series of "Pursuit of Godliness" books penned by SGM authors.^[32][33] In recent years CJ Mahaney has also authored mainstream Christian books.^[34] Joshua Harris was a published author prior to joining SGM, and has continued his work as an author since arriving at Covenant Life Church.

[edit] Controversy and Criticism

This article's Criticism or Controversy section(s) may mean the article does not present a neutral point of view of the subject. It may be better to integrate the material in such sections into the article as a whole.

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[edit] Debra Baker

As controversy became public about Gary Ezzo's parenting philosophy: "parent-directed feeding" (PDF), encouragement of physical punishment for young toddlers; the lack of independent research to support his method generated an international controversy among Christian leaders, pediatricians, and lactation experts. ^[35][36] Kathleen Turner and Elliott Miller of the Christian Research Journal ^[37][38] conducted an investigation into churches utilizing Ezzo's techniques. One of those was Covenant Fellowship of Philadelphia, an SGM congregation.^[39][40] They confirmed that it was not simply a matter of preference but mandatory doctrine for Covenant Fellowship by examining an excommunication that had occurred for a woman who spoke out against Gary Ezzo's parenting philosophy, "Debra and Pat Baker were involuntarily "released from membership" and even barred from unofficial church functions after voicing concerns about PFP [Preparation for Parenting]" ^[41]at Covenant Fellowship of Philadelphia.^[37][42] SGM confirmed the Turner understanding of the cause for action, "The pastors philosophy on family life represents many fundamental differences which we will aggressively teach in the future. Wisdom would dictate that you need a church home which supports rather than challenges your strong opinions." ^{[42][43][44][45]}

Baker herself says about the incident:

We were members in good standing for almost ten years. We were also the parents known for advocating Attachment Parenting. I had six children at the time so I was the de facto source of mommy info.

One of the pastor’s parents became enamored with the Ezzos and brought the teaching into the church; the pastors started planning to use GKGW in church and called us into a meeting preemptively to forbid us from discussing our parenting philosophy and/or practices with other members. We questioned a Biblical basis for forbidding such discussion since we didn’t consider it to be doctrinally significant. The pastors assured us they considered the parenting program doctrine and one went as far as to say, “Some would say you’re in sin.” I told him I took an accusation of sin seriously and demanded he open his Bible and cite chapter and verse. I was told that I was contentious and unreachable.

We were eventually kicked out of the church. I was using the word, “Excommunicated,” but they objected saying our membership had been revoked so I coined the term, “Dismembered,” yes; we were dismembered over the Ezzo program. Ezzo is so fracking lame they had to get rid of the only real voice of dissent in order to give the false appearance that mature Christian parents agree with them. We put together over 30 pages of documentation and mailed it to CJ Mahaney to read. Since I sent the documents certified mail, I knew when the material was received into his office. He rejected our appeal the very same day. There was no way he had time to read through the material we sent to him and prayerfully consider the situation. He *did* have time to call up his good friend, Dave Harvey, and ask him what was going on and then echo whatever Harvey said in response in the form of the nasty letter we received for our efforts.

There is *no* accountability within the SGM org. It is a heavy top-down chain of power and command with Mahaney at the top just like the Pope (without the yarmulke and red slippers.) Apparently, the circumstances have done nothing but metastasize over the interim time.... Our pastors actually *lied* to the reporter and we were able to defend our position with dated documents.^[46]

She believes Ezzo's methods combined with CBMW lead to child predation,

A couple of things that may not be obvious….. This group of churches teaches (as doctrine,) that parents must spank with rods and expect first time (immediate, thorough, cheerful,) obedience from children from babyhood on. This creates passive children vulnerable to predation.

This group is also patriarchal, its leader, CJ Mahaney is a big wig in the CBMW. This patriarchal mentality almost always favors the male. In this case, the perp was protected at the expense of the victim. Also, Noel’s[ED: A woman in SGM whose child had been sexual molested by another SGM member] husband was ordered to, “Control his wife.” The nerve. Also, people in this group are controlled largely by fear. You will start to see some overcome this gut fear and start to speak out. ^[46]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sovereign Grace Ministries Website
• Josh Harris church related site for Joshua Harris