Author Jerry Bridges recently joined us in the studio to record a series of brief interviews about his life, the pursuit of holiness, and the ongoing importance of the gospel in the Christian life. He was in town teaching a course in our Pastors College.

Bridges is now 82 years old. He became a believer in 1948, 63 years ago. And for nearly 50 of those years he has been regularly "preaching the gospel to himself." He has written that in the pursuit of holiness, nothing is more important than learning to preach the gospel to yourself every day.

So what exactly does that mean, I asked him. And why, after 50 years, must he continue?

To listen to our 8-minute conversation, right-click to download, or listen here:

Notes: To further study the topic of preaching the gospel to yourself, consult Jerry Bridges's book The Discipline of Grace, chapter 3. You'll find our November 2008 interview with him here.

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If you're interested in requesting an interview with Ambassadors of Reconciliation as part of their evaluation of Sovereign Grace Ministries, today is the last day to do so. Use the online feedback form to submit your request by midnight, or send your request directly to mail@hisaor.org.

For more information on this process, see Dave Harvey's original announcement.

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This whole week, you can get up to 30% off our books, music, and audio, while supplies last. (Yep, that means our song downloads are $0.70 each.) Plus, U.S. orders over $25.00 get free shipping.

Here are a few noteworthy sales:

Music

• The Gathering $8.40
• Savior $5.60
• Risen $8.40

Books

• The Cross Centered Life $4.90
• When Sinners Say "I Do" $7.00
• Worship Matters $8.40

These and plenty of other discounts are at www.SovereignGraceStore.com.

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That's the big question, isn't it? How is Sovereign Grace's board handling the allegations that Brent Detwiler has brought against C.J. Mahaney? We know that you care about this a lot. We also care about this a lot, and we are taking Brent’s allegations seriously. We don’t want to ignore the many accusations that now sit in the public mind. We want to get this right. Brent's documents require impartial examination and C.J. deserves a fair hearing. 

So with the help of Ted Kober from Ambassadors of Reconciliation and under the direction of an independent facilitator named Bryce Thomas, we've set up the following process (I realize that this is a lot of info, but we believe that it's important, so please stay with me).

Three evaluation committees

Three committees have been formed, each one responsible for answering one key question established by the independent facilitator. The first committee will answer the question: Was Larry Tomzak's departure from Sovereign Grace Ministries handled properly? The second committee will answer the question: Did C.J. Mahaney wrongly influence the dismissal of Brent Detwiler from his church in Mooresville, NC? The third committee will answer the question: Was C.J. Mahaney's participation in fellowship in 2003 and 2004, including the giving and receiving of correction, in keeping with the teaching of Scripture?

Each committee has been directed to determine three things:

1. What happened?  
2. What is the significance of what happened? 
3. What should the Sovereign Grace board do based upon the panel's findings?

In their evaluation, each of the committees is able to look at any evidence and call any witnesses without restrictions. The facilitator will oversee each panel to certify that all evidence was heard and considered in accordance with standard rules of evidence. 

Each of the committees will prepare a report that will contain recommendations for the SGM board. We will publish the unedited reports after the board has reviewed them and written its own response to them. Since the committees have until December 13 to produce the reports, the board will likely wait until January to release them. 

Composition of the committees

Each committee is made up of two pastors from within SGM and one member of the SGM board. Both AOR and the facilitator recommended a panel of three and affirmed this composition. Under the facilitator's direction, the board established the following qualifications for those serving on the review committees. Each member must:  

• Be an ordained pastor in SGM
• Have at least five years of ministry experience  
• Have demonstrated wisdom and discernment in the past  
• Have a reputation for being trustworthy  
• Have no prior involvement in any of the issues at stake

Additionally, the SGM board members serving on the committees were required to have board terms beginning in 2011, and to have not served on the previous SGM board.

Members of each committee were selected by the board in line with those qualifications.

Closing thoughts

Just a few thoughts. Is this a perfect process? No, of course not. We never could come up with a perfect process. But we believe that this is a fair, impartial process.  The fact that it has been endorsed by both the independent facilitator and the team from AOR gives us confidence that the questions before each panel will be answered fairly and judiciously.

Of course, ultimately our hope is not in a process, but in Jesus. He is more committed to truth and righteousness and justice than anyone else. We want the truth to be known. But if our hope is ultimately in a committee or in a process, we're going to be disappointed. That's why our hope is in Christ, who is building the church and will continue to build the church. So please pray with us he will accomplish much good for our family of churches through the work of these panels.

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As you may have noticed, we recently took C.J.'s initial confession of sin to Covenant Life Church (along with the comments) off of our website, as well as the confession on his blog. I know that this could give the impression that Sovereign Grace Ministries is somehow trying to hide information or cover up sin. 

I understand those questions. Let me try to explain to you my thinking behind this decision.

After the Pastors Conference, I asked the staff to pull C.J.’s confessions off the blog. Here’s why. Since our meetings with Ambassadors of Reconciliation in July and including their written report to us in August, they have been illustrating to us deficiencies they believe we have in our practice of confession and in how we extend forgiveness to people. One of the main application points of this is that when a Christian asks for forgiveness, it should always be answered with a statement of Christ’s forgiveness and, where possible, the listener’s forgiveness. They hit these points again at our Pastors Conference in both contexts where they taught.

I was convicted on this point by what they shared several months ago, but I’ve also been increasingly bothered by the implication of this on how we published C.J.’s confessions. In short, to leave a statement online where C.J. asks for forgiveness, which is then followed by dozens of comments expressing neither the forgiveness of God or others, well, it began to seem wrong to me.

If God responds to our sins by covering them (Rom 4: 7; 1 John 1: 9) and relating to us like they never happened (Psalm 103: 12; Is 1: 18), who was I to perpetuate a man’s sin online as if it isn’t forgiven? It may be internet protocol to leave things online forever, but I believe we need to be led by the Bible here. And we can’t do that selectively for the sake of appearances. Confessions will not be left up on SGM websites, period. I regret we left them up as long as we did and that’s my bad.

Now, this doesn't mean that we aren't closely examining the charges brought against C.J. or the sins to which he has confessed. In fact, we have created several panels for that sole purpose. We aren't simply dismissing the issues. As AOR said in their report, “While God’s forgiveness assures us that the consequence of eternal death has been paid in full, such proclamation does not necessarily remove earthly consequences.” But even as we examine these charges, we need to let the free forgiveness of the gospel ring. The gospel is what breathes life into us, and I want it to permeate this entire process.

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All the general-session messages from our 2011 Pastors Conference are now online:

• Session 1 — Sinclair Ferguson, “Consider Jesus” (Hebrews 2:5–3:1)
• Session 2 — Dave Harvey, “Walking Forward Together” (Ephesians 4:1–3)
• Session 3 — C.J. Mahaney, “When a Pastor Loses Heart” (2 Corinthians 4:1–18)
• Session 4 — Mickey Connolly, “Two Parent Pastoring” (1 Thessalonians 2:1–12)
• Session 5 — Ted Kober, “Forget Not All His Benefits” (Psalm 103:1–5)
• Session 6 — Craig Cabaniss, “Sent” (John 20:19–23)

The Wednesday afternoon guest breakout with Bob Kauflin and Mark Prater, “What Does It Mean to Be a Continuationist?”, is also available. To download it, right-click here.

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Craig Cabaniss closed out our Pastors Conference with a message on mission, focusing on the sending of the disciples in John 20:19–23. Craig opened with a series of questions:

I want to begin tonight with a question, an awkward question, but a serious question: Is this appropriate? Is it appropriate that at a time like this, facing what we're facing, that we have a message on our mission? We've been navigating some difficult waters. And to close our conference with a focus on mission, does that possibly distract our attention from where it really should be focused upon pressing needs? Is it really important to talk about mission at a time like this?...

If reading the example of the New Testament churches teach us anything it is this: the gospel continues to grow and bear fruit even when the church faces problems—external problems and internal problems; and the churches in the New Testament all have plenty of problems. Yet even in seasons of difficulty there is forward motion with the progress of the gospel. The gospel mission doesn't go on pause in the New Testament when challenges arise. In church history, the gospel mission doesn't go on pause whenever there's a problem so that the church can address the problem. That's not what happens. If that's what happened, none of us would be here tonight.

The Lord is pleased to extend his mission through a limping church to reach a dying world.

Right-click to download, or listen here:

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Mickey Connolly preached from 1 Thessalonians 2:1­-12 at the fourth general session of our Pastors Conference. His message, titled "Two Parent Pastoring," looked at Paul's maternal/paternal model of ministry. Paul's approach, showing a balance of motherly tenderness and affections (v. 7) with fatherly courage and leadership (v. 11), is a pattern for all pastors to learn from.

Early in the message Mickey said,

The motives and methods of effective pastoring are modeled for us in a mother and father's care for their children. While fathers certainly have affections, and mothers certainly are involved in leading the children—there's something about a mother's affection that uniquely models our motive for pastoring. And there is something about a father's leadership that uniquely models our methods for pastoring.

Right-click to download, or listen here:

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C.J. Mahaney spoke at the third general session of our Pastors Conference on "When a Pastor Loses Heart," based on 2 Corinthians 4:1–18.

In his introduction, C.J. shows how commonly pastors get discouraged by turning to one of his favorite pastors:

I encourage you to pick up Spurgeon's Lectures to My Students and turn to the chapter "The Minister’s Fainting Fits." Spurgeon writes, "As it is recorded that David, in the heat of battle, waxed faint, so may it be written of all the servants of the Lord. Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down." Then he begins working through the chapter in typical Spurgeon detail. He begins talking about how we can be unsound physically. Then he transitions to "mental maladies." This is classic Spurgeon: "As to mental maladies, is any man altogether sane? Are we not all a little off balance? Some minds appear to have a gloomy tinge essential to their very individuality."

Then at the end he says this: "The lesson of wisdom is, be not dismayed by soul-trouble. Count it no strange thing, but a part of ordinary ministerial experience."

So what does a pastor do when he begins to lose heart for this role and task? Here's what we will discover this evening: there's hope for all pastors who are tempted to lose heart. [In 2 Corinthians 4:1–18] Paul is about to tell us what informs his resolve so that our resolve can be freshly informed and strengthened. We're going to consider three reasons why Paul did not lose heart...

These three reasons formed the outline for C.J.’s message:

1. The call of Christian ministry (vv. 1–6)
2. The context of Christian ministry (vv. 7–15)
3. The hope of Christian ministry (vv. 16–18)

Right-click to download, or listen here:

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Hey folks,

I wanted to take a minute now that the craziness of our conference is over to talk directly to our friends, including those with critiques for us.  Actually, I wanted to ask you a favor. Could you please pray for us? 

See, here's the thing.  In listening to AOR, our pastors and even hearing Ted Kober’s message at the conference, we’re freshly aware that we're a young movement that's still trying to figure a lot of stuff out. We don't have a long history like the Baptists or the Presbyterians or the Methodists.  We've only been around for about 30 years! Relatively speaking, we're still new kids around town (and that’s no “Get out of jail free” card for making mistakes—just a reminder that we should expect to have a lot to learn).  But, over those 30 years God has blessed Sovereign Grace with a significant amount of growth. We're really grateful to God for that growth—it’s been thrilling to see the gospel fruit in new churches and new friends in many parts of the world!  But we’re learning that our growth has outstripped some of the ways we do things.  And it’s not just that.  As we've grown we’ve made mistakes. Plenty of mistakes. Some of those mistakes have hurt people.   In fact maybe you're one of those people. If so, we still want to hear your story.  And if you’ve been hurt by things we’ve done wrong, we want the opportunity to say we’re sorry.   

Right now we're in a time of identifying the different areas that Sovereign Grace Ministries needs to change. We’re pursuing as much counsel in this area as possible and we’re doing a lot of diagnosing.  We've read your e-mails and heard many of your critiques. We're not ignoring you or trying to shut you out of the conversation. On the contrary, the whole Group Reconciliation process led by AOR is designed so that we can listen to those who have a perspective and learn where we need to grow.  We need others to help us during this time. That’s why I want to thank God for the 75+ people that actually came and met with an AOR conciliator during the conference last week.  Your investment in helping us understand your experience is really important to us. 

Many others were invited to interviews by AOR just to share your many positive experiences in your Sovereign Grace Church.  Thanks for adding your voice and providing us encouragement and perspective in this season.

But to both groups, may I make an additional request?  Could you please pray that God would help us in this process? These next couple of months are going to be very important as AOR interprets what they are hearing into what we might learn.  And we desperately want God to help them….and us! We want to be a ministry that better glorifies Jesus Christ through the proclamation of the gospel. We want to care for people even more effectively. We want to plant churches more strategically. We want to avoid the mistakes that we've made in the past. I think your prayers will help make a difference.   

Here are some specific ways that you can pray for us:

• Pray for the phone interviews which will now be conducted by AOR for those that could not make the conference.  Pray people share information that would serve us in identifying areas where God has already blessed us as well as important areas where we need to change.
• Pray that we may be reconciled to any people who are hurt.
• Pray for the board, that God may help us understand the steps forward that will best serve SGM churches and the Mahaneys in this season. 

Again, if you feel that you have something to say that Sovereign Grace Ministries needs to hear, please set up an interview with AOR (the deadline is November 30) so that we can truly address the problem.  You can do so via an online form, or just by emailing them at mail@hisaor.org.

And by the way, thanks for your ongoing patience with us.

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