Thank you very much for your article, Paul. I know I'm late to the party on this one, but I stand with you for calling on the need for accountability. I'm grateful for your writing. My wife and I were part of Sovereign Grace Ministries for over 14 years... was on my way to becoming a pastor and knew many of the "big names" very well. Thankfully God brought us out of this cult https://medium.com/outside-the-box-inside-the-book/how-to-train-baby-elephants-a4945a558fd (https://youtu.be/xWWnQFRiDIY).
Sovereign Grace Ministries ("Sovereign Grace Churches" now) is getting away with 30 years of systemically covering-up sexual child abuse - with no real accountability. If you are not aware of this ministry/cult, Benjamin Sledge wrote an excellent article summarizing this CURRENT scandal on Medium here: https://gen.medium.com/together-for-the-go-pel-26a23116d46b
What's always troubled me is that on 3/22/2018, Christianity Today published an article entitled, "We Need an Independent Investigation of Sovereign Grace Ministries," yet, SGM refuses to yield to an independent investigation... there won't be one... and here's the kicker: What does the rest of the Christian community do to hold them accountable? Nothing.
This is where organizations like The Gospel Coalition come into play as having neglected using their influence for peacemaking. TGC has 23 state chapters comprised of local pastors/churches partnering for the gospel. Many of these chapters have SGM churches included. The AZ chapter's leadership team has Rich Richardson, who is not only the sr. pastor of an SGM church in Gilbert, AZ, but is also on the national leadership team of SGM. I've asked TGC, at the very least, to pause Sovereign Grace's partnership while an independent investigation is still pending, but to no avail. I don't get it. The qualification that sums up a pastor's qualification is "above reproach" (1 Timothy 3:2), right? The SGM pastors are on TGC state leadership boards. Yet, are they above reproach? If it came out tomorrow that SGM leadership was found guilty of covering up sexual abuse, would anyone outside of SGM be surprised? If the answer is "No, " they are not above reproach. It doesn't matter, though... the surrounding Christian community (local churches, partnerships, TGC, etc.) refuse to hold SGM accountable so they can continue to function as pastors... their churches continue to go on as if nothing ever happened.
While speaking out against such injustice is what we ought to do, I do take comfort in knowing that, ultimately, accountability will be had by our God on that day.
