Sovereign Grace Blog

After being affirmed as the Executive Director of Sovereign Grace in May, one of the first things I set out to do was to work with the Executive Committee to form a Leadership Team. Leading Sovereign Grace is not a one-man job. I need a team of qualified men to serve our churches. After interviewing a number of qualified men and gaining the affirmation of the Executive Com...

The Sovereign Grace Council of Elders held their inaugural meeting May 23-25, 2013, in Orlando, Florida. In addition to approving a motion to form a Strategy Committee for International Missions and confirming Mark Prater as the first Executive Director, the Council of Elders also approved, by a supermajority, the following statement to be sent to every Sovereign Grace chu...

This is Part 3 in a series on church governance. Read Part 1 and Part 2. If you believe in the primacy of the local church and the sober call of local pastors to give account for their local flock, perhaps you have been wrestling with the issue of handing over control to an extra-local ministry. As one who feels the same sober responsibility, I want to share the last 2 of...

This is Part 2 in a series on church governance. Read Part 1 and Part 3. As I said in my previous post, some pastors have been wrestling with the issue of handing over control of their church to an extra-local ministry. As a committed Congregationalist, who takes very seriously the charge to local pastors to care for and lead their local flock, I wanted to share some the ...

This is Part 1 in a series on church governance. Read Part 2 and Part 3. Handing Over Control? I know some pastors have been wrestling with the issue of handing over control of their church to an extra-local ministry. As a committed Congregationalist, in terms of extra-local polity, I thought it might be helpful to share my perspective for what it's worth. I share as a f...

Last April, when Ambassadors of Reconciliation finished their report on Sovereign Grace Ministries, the Board of SGM wrote an initial response to the report. When the Board met in June 2012, part of their time was dedicated to a more complete response to the recommendations made by AoR and by the panels of SGM pastors who met in late 2011 to review charges brought against ...

Two weeks ago we formed a preliminary panel to help us evaluate C.J. Mahaney's fitness for ministry. We invited several men to participate who had basic doctrinal agreement with Sovereign Grace Ministries, biblical/theological expertise, pastoral experience, and perspectives from a variety of evangelical traditions. Kevin DeYoung, Carl Trueman, and Ray Ortlund accepted. W...

I'm posting the statement below on behalf of our board of directors. Last week we announced that C.J. Mahaney would be taking a temporary leave of absence from his position as President of Sovereign Grace Ministries. This leave was intended to create a fair and open process of evaluation for C.J. and the ministry and was not intended to be disciplinary. We assumed that th...