I am sharing this story not because I expect you all to know or care who CJ Mahaney is, but rather, because of the way this situation was handled, I thought it worth mentioning. Several months ago, CJ Mahaney, the then president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, faced accusations from a former SGM leader. He stepped out of his role and the board convened a panel to review the evidence against Mahaney. Their report back today reveals a board that sought to approach a very difficult decision biblically, took their time, and admitted their own faults. CJ has been restored to the presidency of the organization, but he writes that he expects this to be a temporary move as he hopes to get back into pastoral ministry. You can read a synopsis here.
From my perspective, as a far outsider, Mahaney appeared to handle this well, both during this trial and now afterward. He wrote a book on humility, which I commend to everyone, and he appears to have practiced what he wrote during this time. I do hope he will resume sharing his wisdom with the rest of us in the cheap seats.
4 comments:
Have you heard what Mahaney has admitted doing and that he has stepped down as leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries? It looks like at best Mahaney is an example of do as I say vs. how he does.
The worst thing is how Mahaney blackmailed the cofounder of their group Larry Tomczak and that Mahaney hid this sin for 13 years.
http://larrytomczak.com/responce_sgm_tomczak.pdf
A few blogs to look at are:
www.sgmsurvivors.com
www.sgmrefuge.com
www.thewartburgwatch.com
C.J. Mahaney handled this quite poorly.
Steve,
As I said, I am commenting as a far outsider. What I have observed is a former leader who took a Wikileaks approach to dealing with church conflict and I find that unconscionable. The way Mahaney appears to have responded seems commendable--again, from the outside.
I admit that I do not know what happened behind the scenes, but from my vantage it was the accused, rather than the accuser, who handled this situation with grace, but that needs to be tempered against my distance from this issue.
Ideally, this would have been handled in house or with a 3rd party mediator, rather than appearing on a nationwide circuit.
J Kanz
You should do more research before assuming C.J. Mahaney took such a "commendable" response to what happen.
I would suggest you read the following blog entries. This one is where C.J. Mahaney is basically withdrawing his earlier "confession" to CLC:
http://www.sgmsurvivors.com/?p=3123
This is CLC's (SGM's "flagship" church) response to what Mahaney said:
http://www.sgmsurvivors.com/2011/11/23/a-family-update-from-clc-and-continuing-discussion/
This is the significant quote: "One of the most significant moments of the Pastors Conference was when C.J. shared with all the pastors and wives about what he’s learned during his Leave of Absence (LoA). Our pastoral team was disappointed by the tone and posture of C.J.’s remarks, and we feel strongly that it’s appropriate for you to read them, because they reflect apparent changes in his thinking about his LoA and his confession to our congregation at the July 10 Members Meeting."
So here you have C.J. Mahaney withdrawing his confession.
The other thing you had is that the leaked documents showed Mahaney didn't practice a lot of what he taught. Other top SGM Leaders were asking how C.J. Mahaney could be writing a book on humility when at the time of writing the book he wasn't practicing what he taught in the book.
Sadly when C.J. Mahaney's sin was exposed through these leaked documents, rather than choosing to confess his sin Mahaney has taken the approach of trivializing them. There was even a conspiracy to hide C.J. Mahaney's sin of blackmailing Larry Tomczak.
You might want to research more on C.J. Mahaney's actions.
Another interesting fact is that the leaders of CLC are the ones not backing Mahaney. These are the people that have been around C.J. Mahaney day to day.
Apparently the CLC Leaders saw problems with C.J. Mahaney even before the documents came to light. Had C.J. Mahaney been example of a humble leader then I am sure they would the first to stand up and support him.
Just so many things contradict the assumption that Mahaney handled this right. It is really hard to believe Mahaney could write a book on humility after seein his response here. Of course as the old saying goes, those who can't teach do. Mahaney couldn't practice humility so he taught it.
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