The following is an update from the Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) Board on the civil lawsuit filed against SGM.

SGM's motion to dismiss the suit was heard by Judge Sharon V. Burrell in Maryland’s Montgomery County Circuit Court on Friday, May 17, 2013. The following summarizes the results of the hearing we received from our attorneys:

Judge Burrell dismissed 9 of the 11 plaintiffs on the grounds that their claims fell outside of the statute of limitations. She also dismissed the claims of all 11 plaintiffs as to the Virginia-based defendants (for lack of jurisdiction) and as to Covenant Life School, Inc. (for being the incorrect corporate entity associated with the timeframe of the claims). With respect to the claims of the two remaining plaintiffs against the remaining defendants (including SGM), Judge Burrell dismissed the Second Amended Complaint. She allowed plaintiffs’ counsel 10 days to file a third amended complaint to attempt to clarify with specificity any allegations by the two remaining plaintiffs against each remaining defendant. The court indicated that plaintiff’s counsel may not add new claims or new parties to the third amended complaint. 

Please note that this ruling does not specifically address the substance of the plaintiffs’ allegations. This was a civil lawsuit requesting financial damages relating to an alleged cover up of abuse. It was not a criminal case trying the innocence or guilt of any of these individuals. Sadly, these allegations have damaged the reputations of the named defendants and leave us all in the difficult place of having no clear way to restore them. Let us reiterate that our review of the allegations has not produced any evidence of any cover-up or conspiracy by SGM.  Likewise, defendant John Loftness, our former chairman, has publically denied having ever physically or sexually abused a child. 

We are firmly committed to fully cooperating with authorities should any charges ever be brought against any individual associated with SGM. Furthermore, we are fully committed to compliance with all laws regarding reporting of known or suspected child abuse. 

We, like everyone else, abhor sexual abuse of any kind, especially against children. It is evil and a sin against God and humanity. And we grieve for the very real pain and suffering that any victim of abuse has experienced.  We believe children are a gift from God and commit to do all we can to love, care for, and protect them.

We are most grateful for your ongoing support and prayer through this challenging season. Please continue to pray for all those affected by this civil suit, for God’s will to be done, and for SGM to work through these challenging circumstances in a manner that honors him and that demonstrates that our hope and trust are in him. 

The Sovereign Grace Ministries Board of Directors

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The Executive Committee shared the following announcement with Sovereign Grace pastors yesterday. We pass this news on for your information and continued support through prayer. 

Dear Brothers,

We are looking forward with faith-filled anticipation to our time together in Orlando next month. Thanks again to all who participated in the Ratification Vote. The new polity structure will, we believe, be of great help to Sovereign Grace (SG) churches in fulfilling our gospel mission together. 

In accordance with the new SG Book of Church Order (BCO), this letter serves as formal notice to all SG elders of our previously announced Special Meeting of the SG Council of Elders (CE). The Council will convene at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando, FL, on May 23-25, 2013. 

Each SG church eldership has already identified its representative to the Council prior to the Polity Ratification Vote of April 12. Every SG church eldership that gives notice of inclusion to the Director of Church Care by signing the Letter of Intent is welcome to participate in this CE meeting. Others SG elders are welcome as observers. Also welcome are the elders of those historical SG churches who have not yet signed the Letter of Intent but who are considering doing so. 

This meeting constitutes a “special meeting” since it is not coinciding with our annual Pastors Conference (BCO III.B.2.c). We realize that, as a movement, we are just getting used to functioning with a Book of Church Order and that the language of formality may be a bit foreign to us all. Please do not let formal language detract from what we believe will be a time of significant blessing and spiritual communion among our elders.

The formal business action required by the CE will be the confirmation of the Executive Director.

“After the Executive Committee has chosen the Executive Director candidate, he must be confirmed by a simple majority of the Council of Elders.” (BCO III.B.3.g)

After careful consideration, including the review of input from our pastors, a detailed interview process, and much discussion and prayer, the Executive Committee has chosen Mark Prater to be the first Executive Director of the SG Leadership Team to be put forth for confirmation. The Committee believes that Mark is most suitably qualified to direct the Leadership Team in the near future. Mark has ably proven himself as the Regional Leader of a strong Region and as the Acting Director of Church Care and Church Planting. The Committee believes Mark is the best choice among several qualified candidates to bring the necessary leadership at this most critical moment in our history and to meet our most pressing needs: the implementation of our new polity, the restoration of trust and unity among the elders of SG, the facilitation of the care of our participating churches, and the coordination of our Regional Assemblies and our movement in the planting of new churches domestically and internationally. The Executive Director’s responsibilities are outlined in the Leadership Team section of the BCO (III.E.4.a).

We will be supplying each Council of Elders delegate with more extensive biographical information and justification of our decision to select Mark Prater. We do this so that each delegate can carefully and prayerfully consider his vote of confirmation. Furthermore, the Council of Elders meeting will include a formal nomination and discussion of Mark’s candidacy before a final vote is taken. A more detailed agenda of the meeting will be forthcoming in the next week or two.

Again, it is with much anticipation that we approach the convening of our first SG Council of Elders meeting. This meeting will mark a new chapter in the life of our family of churches. We ask that you all approach this time together prayerfully and in faith for what God will do in our midst.

Grace and peace in the name of the Lord Jesus,

Your brothers on the Executive Committee

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Our family of churches owes a debt of gratitude to C.J. Mahaney for co-founding and leading Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) to establish and build gospel-centered churches for the past three decades. C.J.’s leadership and example have helped to instill so many of the values that have shaped our family of churches, and none more so than our gospel-centrality. We are grateful for the central role his preaching and personal passion have played in making the gospel more clear and more precious to all of us in SGM. His desire to transfer the gospel to the next generation has helped keep our mission central, leading directly to the founding of our Pastors College where 252 men have been trained since 1997. C.J.’s vision to see theologically rich songs written and produced for congregational singing resulted in the formation of Sovereign Grace Music which recently released its 61st album. And his influence and leadership in the larger body of Christ have enriched SGM by introducing a breadth of relationships and teaching to our churches. 

As previously announced, C.J. will transition from his role as President on April 12 at the time of the polity ratification vote. Though no longer serving in this leadership capacity, we are grateful that C.J.’s influence and partnership do not end here. We share his joy in seeing him back regularly preaching and pastoring in Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, and we look forward to benefitting from C.J.’s continued investment in the mission of SGM through his service there and in the larger body of Christ. Please join us in praying for C.J. and his family during this transition.

* Read, "A Word of Thanks from C.J. Mahaney"

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The following letter and attachments went out to the Sovereign Grace pastors today from Phil Sasser on behalf of the Polity Committee and the SGM Board of Directors.

Dear Brothers,
You are receiving two documents.

• The first is a “clean” copy of the Revised Polity Proposal, which includes the Book of Church Order along with accompanying prefatory material.
• The second document is a marked up version showing all of the additions, deletions, or changes made to the original Polity Proposal. The second document will be difficult to read. We included it so that you could see the editing process and what was changed and how exactly it differs from the original. Disregard all the different colored fonts in the marked up copy. They’re related to the various layers of the editing process.

Again, the Polity Committee and the SGM Board of Directors would like to thank you all for your feedback on the original proposal. Interacting with your questions and comments greatly served us in this process and resulted in many changes you will see in this new version. Our interaction with so many of you was an invaluable experience. Thank you.

The SGM Board has scheduled the ratification vote on the Revised Proposal for Friday, April 12, 2013. As we communicated in our last update, the date of the ratification vote was moved back in order to allow a longer period of time for examination. The ratification vote will be held in a manner consistent with the Polity Proposal. I.e., it will be voted on by a “provisional” Council of Elders. That means that every SG church eldership must delegate one of their number to represent them in the vote. Mark Prater will oversee the ratification vote process, so you will need to send the name of your representative to Mark (mprater@covfel.org) no later than April 5th. We anticipate that the vote will be by some kind of electronic communication. Once all the votes are in we will let you know the result and post it on the SG website.

Should the polity be ratified, the next important date in the process is the church’s declaration of participation in SG, that is by Friday, May 3, 2013. We are foregoing the signing of the more formal SG Partnership Agreement pending a legal review of the document. Instead, we are asking that participating churches sign a more informal “letter of intent.” A copy of this is included in the proposal. Mark Prater will communicate further details on the polity implementation process.

In the midst of challenging times, we are nevertheless hopeful, even excited, about the future of our family of churches. We are buoyed by the knowledge that Christ is building his church and that none of his purposes will fail. May God grant us his grace to ever proclaim his glorious gospel and to live lives worthy of such a gospel.

On behalf of the Polity Committee and the SGM Board of Directors,
Phil Sasser

SGM Polity Proposal Final
SGM BCO Marked Up

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The Sovereign Grace Board wrote the following letter to update the Sovereign Grace pastors on a change with the Board. Thank you for your continued prayer and support.

Dear Friends,
After serving the past 20 months on both the Interim Board and the current SG Board, Craig Cabaniss submitted his resignation from the Board at our recent retreat. After such an extended time of serving on the Board, Craig and the elders of Grace Church Frisco believe that it is wise for him to resign so he can give more of his time to support their local church, and we support that decision. We are deeply grateful for Craig’s hard work over the past two years. He has consistently been a source of wise, pastoral input and represented our churches in a manner that we believe has been pleasing to God. We will miss Craig's participation very much in this key role.

As with John Loftness’ vacancy, we do not plan on filling that position until the new Polity is implemented, should it be ratified. The remaining seven Board members currently plan on serving until we make this transition.

Thank you for your prayers for Craig as well as for the Board as we trust God for grace and wisdom to lead us in our gospel mission together.

With gratitude,
Your brothers on the Sovereign Grace Ministries Board

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The Sovereign Grace Board wrote the following letter to update the Sovereign Grace pastors on a couple key changes. We pass this on to you to help inform your continued prayers for Sovereign Grace. 

Dear Friends,
Thank you for your prayers and support as we met this past week to discuss the edited Polity Proposal and to address various key issues during this challenging season. We need God’s wisdom and grace to know how to best serve this family of churches we love so dearly. Your prayers are very important and much appreciated.

One key item we discussed was John Loftness’ request to resign from the Board. John has worked hard to serve the Board and our churches since July, 2011. He has logged countless hours as a Board member and since March, 2012, as the Chairman of the Board. He has done all this while serving as the Senior Pastor of Solid Rock Church. The time required in chairing the Sovereign Grace Board added to John's already full schedule in both serving his church as well as caring for members of his extended family who are in poor health. Now that the edited Polity Proposal is ready for presentation, John felt it was time to step back from his Board duties and give more time to these other very important priorities. So effective immediately, John will no longer serve as Chairman of the Board nor as a member of the Board. We thought it wise to not fill his slot as a Board member until the new Polity is implemented, should it be ratified.

We are grateful for John’s hard work and leadership amidst a very challenging season. He has selflessly given himself to working with and leading the Board as we seek God’s wisdom and grace for our family of churches. He has shown himself as a man committed to the authority of God’s word and eager for the health and fruitfulness of God’s people. We as a Board love and respect our brother, we will miss serving with him, and we are grateful for his on-going support of the Board. We count it a deep privilege to have co-labored with John, our friend and brother. Please pray with us for a season of rest and refreshment as John gives himself anew to serving those in his extended family and in his church.

The Board elected Paul Buckley as the new Chairman of the Board. Please pray with us for Paul as he seeks to lead the Board in serving you as the Pastors and members of Sovereign Grace churches. Let’s trust God together to give us wisdom and grace so we can both respond to him and forward our gospel mission from him, all for his glory.

With gratitude,
Your brothers on the Sovereign Grace Ministries Board

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The Chairman of the Polity Committee, Phil Sasser, wrote the following letter to update the Sovereign Grace pastors on the work of the Polity Committee. We pass this letter on for your information and continued support through prayer.

Dear Brothers,
The SG Board of Directors met this week to consider the Polity Committee’s recommended revision of the Polity Proposal and to make its own edits of the document before it is sent out to you for consideration and ratification. I’m pleased to announce that the Board was able to complete its task. We are very excited about the Revised Polity Proposal and we hope that you all are too. The Revised Polity Proposal will have incorporated many of the changes that our pastors have recommended, and we are grateful for your input.

We had hoped to get the Revised Polity Proposal in your hands today. Now it looks like it will be next Friday (Feb. 22^nd) before we can get it finished. The reason for the delay is threefold:

• First, the sheer number of edits that we made in light of feedback we’ve received over that past 90 days, especially with many of them coming during the last week of January.
• Second, I've had some illness in the last month that has slowed me down considerably during the final editing process.
• Third, we wanted to make sure that the final draft was as clean (typos, etc.) as possible before we sent it out. Thank you for your understanding.

Another change that the SGM Board made was to move the date of the Ratification Vote back to April 12, 2013. The Board thought that only giving 30 days to process the Revised Polity might not be enough time. So we’ve decided to push the date back another couple of weeks in order to give each elder and eldership more time.

That, in turn, will push back the date for churches to declare for participation in the initial SG Regional formation if the Proposal is ratified. The new date is now May 1^st, although churches could do it as soon as the results of the Ratification Vote are announced. On a related note, the declaration by the churches to participate in the initial Regional formation will be made by signing a “letter of intent” and not by signing the more formal Partnership Agreement. This is because we need a thorough legal review of any formal agreement to insure that no church has liability exposure for anything that occurs outside of the local church.  

We will include a cover letter with the Revised Polity Proposal spelling out all of the particulars of the Ratification Vote process, but we wanted to get these date changes out to you as soon as possible. 

If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to send them to me at psasser@sovgracenc.org. 

On behalf of the SGM Board of Directors, its Polity Committee, and the SGM Leadership Team,
Phil Sasser

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The pastors of Covenant Life Church have informed us of their church's decision to end their formal relationship with Sovereign Grace Ministries. Though we are deeply saddened by this news and would prefer that Covenant Life Church remain with us, we respect their prerogative to do what they believe is best for their church. Though no longer in formal association, we remain inseparably linked together in Christ and our common gospel mission for the glory of God.

We were able to meet with the CLC pastoral team this week and convey to them our respect, affection, and gratitude. We also were able to communicate our desire that they remain or consider returning at some point, trusting that any differences could be resolved. Additionally, we expressed our mutual commitment to support each other as we continue to walk in the gospel of grace. We are deeply indebted to CLC for the role they played in the founding of SGM, for hosting our Pastors College for the past 14 years, and for the many other substantial benefits of our long time gospel partnership. This church has played a special role in the history of SGM and will always have a special place in our hearts.

With sadness but also deep gratefulness and love, we wholeheartedly commend CLC to the Lord. We pray for their future faithfulness to the gospel and fruitfulness in its proclamation.

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This past week the Sovereign Grace Ministries Board of Directors met to consider the polity proposal presented to us by the committee we appointed this past Spring. We made some edits but largely adopted it as presented, so as it stands it is substantially complete and close to being ready to send to our pastors for their comment and review. We plan a ninety-day review period during which time we will engage SG pastors for their comment, making appropriate changes at the end of the process. Then we will prepare a final document to put before our pastors for a ratifying vote. Details on the adoption process will be in the polity package we’ll send out later this month.

This week we are incorporating the SGM Board’s edits. Next week we will get a review from theologians outside of SG to see if any aspect of it could have unintended consequences which we missed. Our plan is to finalize edits by October 27, get one last approval from the Board, and then send it to our pastors electronically October 28. We’ll also have hard copies at the Pastors Conference where we will take a session to explain the thinking behind it in its entirety and in its individual parts. That session will include a time to interview members of the Polity Committee as well. 

This new governance structure is much needed and our thanks goes to the Polity Committee whose members toiled in meetings and in private to give us structures for relating to each other as pastors and pursuing our mission together. No polity can replace truth and love, but appropriate polity, applied with humility, can provide us with structures which will support life and growth and the pursuit of our mission together. This is our hope and our intention. Please pray for wisdom to create a governance that pleases God and pray that when we finally adopt it, we will have the humility to apply it by grace. 

Much grace to you all, 

The Sovereign Grace Board

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This letter from Tommy Hill to the Pastors of Sovereign Grace Ministires explains a recent change made to the Sovereign Grace articles of incorporation and bylaws. 

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