Monthly Archives: July 2008

Sovereign Grace Ministries

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26

A few readers have tipped me off to a couple new blogs that are dedicated to discussing the imperfections of Sovereign Grace Ministries.

One reader is a former City Bible member, and here is her family's experience at this church:

We attended the Tucson Sovereign Grace church for 2 years. We had so much fun in the beginning because people were so friendly, the pastors were so "humble" (unlike cbc) and we just loved it.

then we had an "observation" – a good reformed word for "issue" with the pastor and met with him several times and found that the humility shown across the pulpit no where to be found. the pastor lied to us, the associate pastor lied and wouldnt even hear our issue, instead turned it around and called us sinners and accused us of having marriage problems.

There have been 10 families that have left this last year – most for the same reasons as us. this church is only about 150 people btw so a huge exodus.

Tucson SGChurch is now having all their members – reup their membership and in order to be a member, they have to sign that they are in total agreement with the entire doctrinal statment of the church and one of the items is "I will read my Bible every day" I will try to get a copy of this from a friend there – she hasnt signed it yet.

If you're not a member, you will get NO care – no care group membership allowed, you're not allowed access to the phone directory – this is a very social church, we all wanted access to that.

I want to touch quickly on this issue of "false humility". I had a somewhat similar experience with the pastor of a church I attended in college.  When I first attended the church, I thought the guy was great and very humble. And then a few issues came up with his children, in which I got stuck in the middle. (Basically, his oldest son, who was seventeen, ran away from home and ran straight to my place to crash on my couch for a week. My college roommates thought this was highly entertaining. Myself, I was annoyed.) Anwyay, the more I got to know the pastor, the more I realized he was actually a pretty arrogant man.  And not a particulary good pastor. I didn't stop going to the church, but I did cut back my attendance a fair amount. As such, I tend to think the humility in most pastors is just a well-rehearsed act. But I digress…

As near as I can tell there are several SGM churches all over the country. And here are the blogs that discuss these churches.

http://www.sgmsurvivors.com/

http://sgmrefuge.com/

I love seeing other congregations blog about their church and its leaders.  Pastors are there to serve you, not you them.

Pam’s Pen

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17

Reader Pam Hogeweide has a great article about the Shack author, William Young, in today's Oregonian.

She includes whats next for William:

As for Young, he's juggling two book projects; his next probably will be an autobiography.

To me, I suspect this will be even more intruiging than The Shack.  

The Thinker

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29

It's been awhile since we've gotten one of these angry venting comments. And I have to say this is definitely one of the better ones. Highly entertaining:

I rarely look at this web-site, since I was informed of it. Today I looked at a few comments, and have come to this conclusion, with a few exceptions, that the people who spend time on this web-site have not learned to live life, and in doing so don’t teach others to think. And yes instead of listening to every sissy, and whiny butt, that has some kind of gripe or problem, just because they can not think, gets on their bandwagon and flies their flag. For God’s sake (& everyone elses), if you don’t like something, work to change it, and if you don’t like it, go somewhere else. If you don’t like the United States, go somewhere else, where you think you will be happy. There are planes leaving every hour of the day for other countries, and nothing is stopping you from leaving (short of getting a passport). The same goes for a church, anybody with a pea size of a brain, knows that there is no such thing as a perfect church, and if there was, the moment you people walked in the door, poof, there goes the perfection. What does it take to wake you people up, that by going thru life, gathering all the whiny butts, and people that do not know how to think, to follow your brand of nonsense, isn’t going to come and bite you in the butt some day. What goes around, comes around, or for those who know your bible, do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. I feel sorry for you people, when you get on into the journey of life & a while later, and realize how silly and stupid you have been by wasting all of your time, spinning your wheels. I spent 6 years in the US Military to defend this country, and all of your rights to free speech (free for you, you didn’t do a d— thing to defend a single word you utter! )Remember, nothing is free, unless you are a modern thinking Democrat, and then it still isn’t free, it’s just the American public is paying for it, whether with blood or money. No I am not a REPUBLICAN, I am a registered Independant, and vote accoridng to my concience , the best I can by educating myself on the person or issues, and what is best for this country, not just best for ME !. I seriously considered posting my name, but in thinking about it, I do not want to waste my time discussing in person, with someone who only has a gripe, axe to grind, or a serious mental or spiritual disorder. I don’t agree with every thing at CBC, but I don’t go around looking for everyone who is just a simple ass, and can’t handle life to jump on my bandwagon. Yes I vent at times to those I trust, but that is it, or I work to best the situation if I can.

I would like to quote a comment made by someone else in another posting on this web-site: “FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS HAS TO BE IN LINE WITH FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND PUBLIC SAFETY. THERE ARE NO CUT AND DRY RESOLUTIONS TO THIS POLITICAL HOT POTATO”.

You see the point? This is not just a political hot potato. It is a Constitution of the United States issue. And the U.S. Supreme Court just made a correct decision that Americans have the right (according to article 2, of the Constition) to have arms (for those that don’t understand – GUNS ), in their homes. Yes outside the home, there must be restrictions, mentally incompetant, felons, etc., that should be decided by local jurisdictions.

Yes, every idiot with something to say, (including me, according to some of you) has free speech, but remember – even that is tempered! You do not have the right to yell FIRE !, in a crowd of people, just because you want to.

Please people, live life, instead of living in a cocoon of a soap opera, do something worthwhile instead of griping and being a whiny butt all the time.

Good times, good times.