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“Look To the Cross More”: A Response to the “Gospel-Centered” Movement

Last week I received a letter from my friend Ana. The first part of her first question read:

In the Reformed/Gospel-centered movement, the focus seems to be on how sinful and wicked and powerless we all are and how comforted and relieved we should be when we look to the cross. It seems like the answer to most problems is to look to the cross more. I don’t even know exactly what that means. For me, it encouraged a miserable cycle of wallowing in how awful I am and basing the Christian life on the feelings I get when I think of Jesus dying for me.

Here is my reply: Continue reading ““Look To the Cross More”: A Response to the “Gospel-Centered” Movement”

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“Better Than I Deserve”

If you’ve listened to Dave Ramsey at all, you’ve heard it as a response to “How are you?”

If you listen to country gospel, you might have heard it as a song.

If you’ve been looking, you’ve seen it in blog posts (and more blog posts) and maybe even on T shirts.

If you’ve sat under C.J. Mahaney or any of his disciples, you’ve heard it in sermons and greetings at church.

It sounds like a cute catch phrase. To some people it sounds humble.

And Biblical. Continue reading ““Better Than I Deserve””

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Rachael Denhollander, SGM, and Bob Jones University

In a recent interview (which you can watch here), Rachael Denhollander, who spoke in court against the sexual-abuser-disguised-as-a-doctor Larry Nassar, talked about the horrific ignoring, enabling, and victim-blaming that has been perpetrated in USA Gymnastics and at Michigan State University (which she detailed in her victim-impact statement). Here are her words in that interview: Continue reading “Rachael Denhollander, SGM, and Bob Jones University”

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4 Ways Teaching Christians to Embrace “I’m the Worst Sinner I Know” Is Harming the Church

SermonTitleSome background of the teaching

When CJ Mahaney began proclaiming “I’m the worst sinner I know” somewhere around the late 1990s, it certainly wasn’t the first time this teaching had been promoted. But from what I could find, this was when it began to go mainstream.

Mahaney himself claimed it regularly, often even as a way of introducing himself when he would stand up to speak. “I’m CJ Mahaney, and I’m the worst sinner I know.”

But it isn’t only Mahaney who is supposed to be the worst sinner he knows. Each one of us Continue reading “4 Ways Teaching Christians to Embrace “I’m the Worst Sinner I Know” Is Harming the Church”

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Taking Up Offenses

If Bill Gothard had lived at the time of William Wilberforce, he might have called him aside just before one of his impassioned speeches against the slave trade to Parliament (many or most of whose members greatly benefited directly or indirectly from the slave trade) and said, “Brother, you shouldn’t be doing this. You know we shouldn’t be taking up offenses.”

[I’m so tempted to go on a slight rabbit trail and say that if C J. Mahaney Continue reading “Taking Up Offenses”

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Maintaining a False Unity (A Commentary on the SGM Scandals)

CJ Mahaney, former head of Sovereign Grace Ministries

I’m learning about some pretty horrific stuff that’s been allegedly going on in the Sovereign Grace Ministries circles. Not that I was unfamiliar with the problems there—SGM Survivors have been blogging since about 2007, and I’ve known about the blogs and occasionally looked at them. But recently the details have been described more graphically, and the case is going to court. With Facebook, especially, the situation has become ever more public. Continue reading “Maintaining a False Unity (A Commentary on the SGM Scandals)”