Sovereign Grace Ministries

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C.J. Mahaney’s view from the cheap seats & other stuff

About Sovereign Grace Ministries (taken from Sovereign Grace Ministries website: http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org) Sovereign Grace Ministries is a family of churches passionate about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are devoted to planting and supporting local churches, with a strong doctrinal basis that is evangelical, Reformed, and continuationist. We support our churches personally and relationally, as well as through a variety of training opportunities and resources you will find described through this website, including music, books and periodicals, conferences and events, and audio and video materials. Sovereign Grace is led by a team of men committed to planting and supporting churches, and caring for and training pastors. The team is led by C.J. Mahaney, and also includes Dave Harvey, Jeff Purswell, Joshua Harris, and Pat Ennis. As part of our effort to equip and develop local churches, we also produce a variety of resources, including: * Sovereign Grace Music * Conferences and Events * Books * Audio Teachings * Sovereign Grace Perspectives series * Blog * Resources in Spanish Members may also submit applications to our Pastors College, where potential church leaders receive theological instruction and practical training. Click here to find out more if you have questions about the Pastors College. God has extended much grace and kindness to Sovereign Grace Ministries. We are immensely grateful that he has allowed us to make some small contribution to this ultimate purpose in the earth: the establishment of local churches that testify to the truth of the gospel.

Frequently Asked Questions * Is Sovereign Grace a denomination? * What are your primary beliefs and doctrinal emphases? * How are you different from other churches that identify themselves as Reformed? * How can you be both Reformed and continuationist? * What do you believe about spiritual gifts and the work of the Holy Spirit? * What is your understanding of local church government? * How do you train and qualify your leaders? * Your Statement of Faith says, “Leadership in the church is male.” Why? * How does an existing church affiliate with Sovereign Grace? * I would like to request that Sovereign Grace start a church in my town. How do I make that request? * How can I be alerted when you start a new church? * How can I find out about the latest developments in Sovereign Grace Ministries? * May I make copies of Sovereign Grace Ministries' online audio and video files? * Is Sovereign Grace a denomination? We prefer to describe ourselves as a family of churches. The distinction is not simply semantic. Denominations are often seen as being defined, in large part, by specific legal or organizational structures that join individual churches together. At the heart of Sovereign Grace Ministries is not structure, but broad doctrinal agreement growing out of a shared passion, especially among our pastors and other leaders, for the centrality of the gospel. Our unity arises from a pervasive passion for starting, establishing, and strengthening local churches with the gospel, for God’s glory. * What are your primary beliefs and doctrinal emphases? At the core of our doctrine is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is our primary passion, both in our proclamation and in our daily lives. We are active and intentional about being a cross-centered, gospel-centered family of churches. Surrounding this core is an emphasis on sound doctrine. We describe our doctrine as being essentially Reformed, yet including a commitment to continuationist practice as biblically defined. Finally, we desire all these convictions to inspire a passion for the local church, the context where all believers are to grow in holiness, be equipped for service, and bear witness to the saving grace of God. Do you want to know more? Please see our Statement of Faith as well as the book The Cross-Centered Life. * How are you different from other churches that identify themselves as Reformed? A helpful way to summarize our Reformed convictions is that we hold to a Reformed soteriology (the doctrine of salvation). We believe that God is sovereign over all things, including the salvation of individual sinners, and that all things, including salvation, have as their ultimate goal the glory of God. Such a perspective keeps the gospel central and grace amazing. We do believe and cherish the doctrines that historically have been called the TULIP (Total depravity; Unconditional election; Limited atonement or, perhaps more accurately phrased, particular redemption; Irresistible grace or, more accurately phrased, effectual calling; and Perseverance of the saints). However, we never want to focus on more narrow aspects of Reformed theology to the neglect of truths that are central, and that we share with many other Christians. These truths include the gospel, sola fide (justification by faith alone), and sola Scriptura (Scripture alone as the sole infallible source of doctrine and authority). While we believe that Reformed theology faithfully represents the teaching of Scripture, our ultimate theological commitment is not to a particular system of theology, but to theology that is biblical. We have no other boast but the cross of Christ. Beyond this agreement on the general tenets of Reformed theology, there are a few aspects of doctrine and practice that are common to many Reformed traditions but to which we do not hold. These include infant baptism, cessationism (the belief that some miraculous spiritual gifts have ceased), and some traditionally Reformed types of church government. Do you want to know more? C.J. Mahaney’s booklet “Sovereign Grace and the Glorious Mystery of Election” discusses God’s initiative in salvation and the importance of interpreting one’s conversion experience biblically. * How can you be both Reformed and continuationist? While such a combination is not common, it is by no means theologically inconsistent. A cessationist perspective (i.e. a belief that the so-called sign gifts of the New Testament came to an end after the apostles) does not follow necessarily from the general tenets of Reformed theology. Indeed, a robust view of the sovereignty of God suggests that believers can expect to experience regularly what some theologians have called the active presence of God. The insistence that gifts such as prophecy were limited to the apostolic age most commonly arises from entirely understandable concerns about the issue of revelation. Scripture is truly, and must remain, the only source of inspired, inerrant, authoritative revelation from God for the faith and life of the church. However, New Testament teaching regarding spiritual gifts in no way implies that the gifts necessarily endanger the role of Scripture in the church’s life. Our experience with spiritual gifts confirms this. The best way to prevent the undermining of Scripture’s authority is, quite simply, to maintain and teach a high view of Scripture. Scripture must be allowed to function in a way that demonstrates that it is indeed God’s normative revelation for the faith and life of the church. This includes allowing Scripture to govern the use of spiritual gifts. We strongly believe that, when the use of gifts is tested and governed by Scripture, two things will happen: God’s people will be edified by the proper functioning of the gifts in accord with God’s purposes, and Scripture will be protected as the only authoritative and normative rule and guide of all Christian life, practice, and doctrine (see our Statement of Faith). * What do you believe about spiritual gifts and the work of the Holy Spirit? We hold to the continuity of all the spiritual gifts given to the church referred to in Scripture. We find nothing in Scripture that suggests that these gifts have passed away or will pass away prior to Christ’s return. Rather, Scripture portrays these gifts as available to believers and vital to the mission of the church. We want to be obedient to Scripture’s commands, not simply to acknowledge spiritual gifts, but to earnestly desire them (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:1). Thus, we are continuationist in that we believe in the present-day work of the Holy Spirit in the many ways that the Spirit’s work is described and manifested in Scripture. However, we are careful to emphasize the broad work of the Spirit. We never want to be preoccupied with the more spectacular aspects of the Spirit’s work to the neglect of the countless ways in which the Spirit is at work in our lives. Most importantly, nothing could be more spectacular, miraculous, or powerful than God’s work of regeneration in a person’s heart. * What is your understanding of local church government? This is an important question, but one that requires a more detailed answer than can be given here. Please see the issue in our Perspectives series, “Polity: Serving and Leading the Local Church,” by Dave Harvey. * How do you train and qualify your leaders? We believe that the biblical standard for church leadership, on any level or in any position, must include character and integrity, proven through humility and accountability. Gifting is certainly important, but it cannot qualify a man for ministry apart from sufficiently godly character. We believe that the primary responsibility for identifying and training pastors lies with the local church. Using the same criteria mentioned above, pastors have the responsibility to identify and raise up into pastoral ministry men whose character and gifting appear to indicate a pastoral call on their lives (2 Timothy 2:2). Recognizing the limited resources of many congregations, we seek to serve our churches with Sovereign Grace Ministries’ Pastors College. The college exists to train leaders for ministry within our churches, and to support existing pastors with ongoing theological training. Men who display a pastoral call are recommended by their churches and then invited to attend the Pastors College. This is a ten-month program of rigorous academic training within the context of a particular local church, Covenant Life Church, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The local church context provides a model for the students to participate in, observe, and learn from. Thus we build into them the values for local-church life and ministry that we hope to see replicated in the churches we plant. Graduates of the Pastors College serve in a variety of capacities, from internships to staff positions to leading new church plants. After a period of observation and proven ministry, the apostolic team, in concert with the relevant pastors, oversees an ordination process that involves written and oral testing on the wide variety of biblical, theological, and practical concerns related to pastoral ministry. Do you want to know more? If you’d like to know more about our model for identifying and training leaders, you can see “Am I Called? Discerning the Summons to Ministry” For more information about our Pastors College, click here. * Your Statement of Faith says, “Leadership in the church is male.” Why? It is important first to affirm that men and women are created equally in the image of God and are therefore equal in personhood, importance, and dignity before God. As believers saved by the grace of God through the gospel, men and women are co-heirs of the grace of life, and neither can claim special status or privilege in the church. Moreover, all Christians are called to be vital and committed members of a local church, and to use their gifts for the edification of the church and the glory of God. All of this points to the vital role that women are to play in the church. However, in keeping with God’s created design, Scripture restricts women in one area: they are not permitted to teach or to have authority over a man (1Timothy 2:12). The distinction between men and women is therefore not one of worth, but of role. The role differences between men and women reflect the differences in roles among the members of the Trinity, and differences in the creation order (that is, man was created before woman, yet both are equally in the image of God). We therefore believe that all members of the church are to use their gifts for God’s glory, but that the leadership of the church is reserved for men. Yet the leadership role is only a small portion of church life. Women in Sovereign Grace churches have vital roles to play in the building up of the church and the advancement of the gospel, as do men who are not pastors. Women are expected to cultivate their gifts, use them to the glory of God, and labor alongside their brothers for the cause of the gospel. Complementary roles for men and women, including an honor and respect of women equal to that of men, contribute to the overall vitality of the church. Pastors are called to equip the church as a whole for the work of ministry, not to do all the work of the ministry. Because we are all focused on Christ and him crucified, we all share in the joy of seeing the gospel advanced. Do you want to know more? We support the complementarian position of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Two highly recommended books on the subject are Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, by Wayne Grudem (Multnomah), and Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, edited by Wayne Grudem and John Piper (Crossway). The latter is available as a free PDF download. You can also read the Danvers Statement, which Sovereign Grace supports. * How does an existing church affiliate with Sovereign Grace? Quite simply, it takes time and the development of a relationship. Over time and through a process of becoming acquainted with each other—e.g. through conversations, conference attendance, exposure to Sovereign Grace materials, and strategic dialogues with a member of the Sovereign Grace leadership team (or, more typically, a Sovereign Grace pastor representing the team), an interested church becomes more familiar with the doctrine and practices of Sovereign Grace. The goal of this process is to arm the interested church with an accurate portrayal of Sovereign Grace’s strengths and weaknesses, warts and all. This process also affords the Sovereign Grace pastor/team member an opportunity to assess the compatibility of the inquiring church with Sovereign Grace. The goals of this process are doctrinal fidelity, a commitment to mission, and a significant relational component. * I would like to request that Sovereign Grace start a church in my town. How do I make that request? Please click here for the New and Upcoming Churches section, which includes email contact information. * How can I be alerted when you start a new church? We announce our church-planting plans to the public through the Sovereign Grace eNews and our website. To be alerted to our newest churches, latest resources, upcoming conferences, and changes to our website, sign up for the eNews using the link at the bottom of this page. * How can I find out about the latest developments in Sovereign Grace Ministries? You are welcome to subscribe to the Sovereign Grace eNews, a periodic newsletter that announces new churches, resources, upcoming conferences, and other Sovereign Grace news. To subscribe, use the signup link at the bottom of this page. * May I make copies of Sovereign Grace Ministries' online audio and video files? Yes, you are permitted and encouraged to copy our online media content to CDs, DVDs, or other media for distribution, provided that you abide by the following conditions: Copy the entire recording or make it clear it is an excerpt. Do not charge for it. Add the following on all distributed copies, “© Sovereign Grace Ministries. www.SovereignGraceMinistries.org.”