civic
Well-known member
Trinity Bible church said the following :
“Steve Lawson needs to be held accountable because of James 3:1, and yet that’s the responsibility of the local church elders, and he’s a Bible teacher, but he’s not even a member of that church. So the local elders of Trinity can’t hold him accountable- he’s not cooperating. You say he has to be held accountable, and the question is, how? Yeah. I mean, how do you… He has no (unintelligible) place of accountability. He’s just been serving in all these areas of ministry, different ministries.
He’s a guest preacher at Trinity Bible Church. He’s at the D.Min program at the Masters Seminary, how are they going to hold them accountable, first and foremost? It’s not their responsibility; he’s not a member of Grace Church. And the seminary there is not a church. Ligonier is not a church, and he’s on the board there and the teaching fellow there. So do they hold them accountable? One Passion Ministries, that’s his ministry. He’s the man. He runs the thing. He’s the founder, CEO, and president. Who’s going to hold him accountable there? And how do you hold him accountable for a parachurch ministry?
So there’s really no ultimate accountability for not a member of a local church.
Those parachurch ministries don’t have a structure of church discipline like the church does, and Jesus handing the keys over to the church saying, ‘that’s our responsibility’ to hold someone like him accountable. And so no one has the instrument by which to hold him accountable, it seems, which is remarkable.”
Ultimately, the model of building the local church on the backs of guest preachers demonstrates a compromised ecclesiology that is so intrinsically and fundamentally flawed that it betrays a foundational problem. This whole notion of “I’ll preach at your church all the time but I won’t be your pastor” suggests Trinity Bible Church’s faulty ecclesiology is at least partially, if not significantly, to blame in this kind of situation, and explains why they are so reticent to speak up now.
protestia.com
“Steve Lawson needs to be held accountable because of James 3:1, and yet that’s the responsibility of the local church elders, and he’s a Bible teacher, but he’s not even a member of that church. So the local elders of Trinity can’t hold him accountable- he’s not cooperating. You say he has to be held accountable, and the question is, how? Yeah. I mean, how do you… He has no (unintelligible) place of accountability. He’s just been serving in all these areas of ministry, different ministries.
He’s a guest preacher at Trinity Bible Church. He’s at the D.Min program at the Masters Seminary, how are they going to hold them accountable, first and foremost? It’s not their responsibility; he’s not a member of Grace Church. And the seminary there is not a church. Ligonier is not a church, and he’s on the board there and the teaching fellow there. So do they hold them accountable? One Passion Ministries, that’s his ministry. He’s the man. He runs the thing. He’s the founder, CEO, and president. Who’s going to hold him accountable there? And how do you hold him accountable for a parachurch ministry?
So there’s really no ultimate accountability for not a member of a local church.
Those parachurch ministries don’t have a structure of church discipline like the church does, and Jesus handing the keys over to the church saying, ‘that’s our responsibility’ to hold someone like him accountable. And so no one has the instrument by which to hold him accountable, it seems, which is remarkable.”
Ultimately, the model of building the local church on the backs of guest preachers demonstrates a compromised ecclesiology that is so intrinsically and fundamentally flawed that it betrays a foundational problem. This whole notion of “I’ll preach at your church all the time but I won’t be your pastor” suggests Trinity Bible Church’s faulty ecclesiology is at least partially, if not significantly, to blame in this kind of situation, and explains why they are so reticent to speak up now.
Steve Lawson Was Not a Pastor, Elder or Even a Member at Trinity Bible Church: An Update
Six weeks have passed since Trinity Bible Church revealed that Steve Lawson was disqualified from...
protestia.com
