Saturday
Nov162019
Seven More Churches Leave Sovereign Grace Churches, Inc. Over Prideful Refusal to Do an Independent Investigation of 35-Year History of Sexual Abuse & Assault
Saturday, November 16, 2019 at 11:59AM This week seven churches were removed from the list of Sovereign Grace Churches, Inc. on its website. These were influential churches with influential pastors. They left over the pride and refusal of C.J. Mahaney and SGC leaders to do an independent investigation of its 35-year history of conspiring to commit and cover up the sexual assault of young men and the sexual abuse of children. An eighth church left in March for the same reasons. I've listed the names of these churches and their lead pastors with some annotations below.
March 2019
Grace Church
Chris Daukas - member of the General Council for The Gospel Coalition in Arizona
Peoria, AZ
October 2019
Crossway Church
Bauer Evans
Franklin MA
King of Grace Church
Paul Buckley – member of the SGC Executive Committee and former Chairman
Haverhill, MA
King’s Cross Church
Jacob Young
Manchester, NH
Christ Church
Jeff Boettcher – chaplain for the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team
Philadelphia, PA
Covenant Community Church
Ian McConnell – member of SGC Leadership Team, Director of Church Planting & Missions
Philadelphia, PA
Crossway Church
Pete Privitera
Millersville, PA
Rob Chisholm
Philadelphia, PA
I’ve written about the earnest appeals for an investigation made by four of these men to the Executive Committee and Leadership Team of Sovereign Grace Churches, Inc.
Sovereign Grace Leadership Team Says Independent Investigation of Child Abuse Is Impossible – Three Prominent Sovereign Grace Churches Publicly Disagree
Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 7:57PM
Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 7:57PM
Wednesday, June 19, 2019 at 6:45PM
The departure of these prominent pastors represents a major division in SGC, Inc. and especially with Mark Prater who is its top official as the Executive Director. It also represents a critical loss of income which is in short supply.
Prater is based in Covenant Fellowship Church in Glenn Mills, PA. That is just outside of Philadelphia. His friends (Jeff, Ian, & Rob) and their neighboring churches in Philadelphia have left. So did Crossway Church (Pete) in Millersville, which is near Lancaster, PA. It is one of the oldest churches in SGC, Inc. I worked with it for 20 years starting in the 1980’s.
Lastly, the two churches in Massachusetts (Bauer & Paul) and the one in New Hampshire (Jacob) have formed a new association called Trinity Fellowship Churches. They approved their Confession of Faith on November 7.
More churches will be leaving Sovereign Grace Churches, Inc. and more damming evidence will be coming out in 2020 that I am not at liberty to share but investigative journalists and others are hard at work. SGC, Inc. should be shut down.
In addition, Jason Hansen left Sovereign Grace Church in Gilbert, AZ (where Rich Richardson is lead pastor) in March. Hansen was a Regional Director for the denomination. He provided oversight to the churches in Pasadena, CA; Orange, CA; Tucson, AZ; Gilbert, AZ; Peoria, AZ; Westminster, CO; Aurora, CO; Juarez, MX; and Aguascalientes, MX.
Hansen and Tyler Jenner (a pastor from Richardson’s church) left the church and the denomination to start Anchor Church nearby as part of the Acts 29 network. Many people went with them.
I point this out because three high ranking leaders have left Sovereign Grace Churches, Inc. in the past seven months.
Everyone is seeing through their corrupt leadership. They have even insisted it would “dishonor Christ and harm the cause of the gospel” to do an open and honest investigation.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at 6:52PM
Postscript: Craig Cabaniss, Former Director of Church Care, & Grace Church Leave SGC, Inc.
Craig Cabaniss and Grace Church in Frisco, Texas left soon after this article was published on November 15, 2019. It represents another major departure. Craig was a top leader in Sovereign Grace Churches, Inc. for many years. He was one of C.J. Mahaney’s favorite teachers and spoke at many of our conferences. Here is his biography.
Craig Cabaniss
Lead Pastor
[as of June 22, 2016]
Craig grew up in the Houston area, going on to study at Baylor University. After graduation, Craig married Ginger and they moved to Pasadena, California where Craig earned his Master of Divinity from Fuller Seminary. While in seminary, Craig was first introduced to Sovereign Grace Ministries through their member church in Pasadena, CA. He later served on their pastoral staff for five years, and then planted a church in San Diego. Craig pastored Grace Church in San Diego for ten years before returning to Texas to lead a team in planting a new church in Frisco. In addition to his responsibilities at Grace Church, Craig serves Sovereign Grace Ministries as the Director of Church Development.
Craig and Ginger have four children: Courtney, Katie, Christopher, and Kevin, and one grandson, Parker.
Craig was the second most influential leader in Sovereign Grace Ministries (now Sovereign Grace Churches, Inc.). Here was his job description in a nutshell. It comes from the Book of Church Order.
“BCO 18.4.4 Director of Church Development Communicates with the Regional Leaders and coordinates care of all Regions.” (p. 70)
In other words, he oversaw all the Regional Leaders who provided “care” for all the pastors and churches in their respective regions.
Craig was a friend. I wrote him. Here’s an excerpt.
From: Brent Detwiler abrentdetwiler@gmail.com
Sent: Saturday, February 29, 2020 4:39 PM
To: Craig Cabaniss craig@gracechurchfrisco.org
Subject: Leaving SGC, Inc.?
Greetings Craig,
I hope you are well in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I noticed you and Grace Church left SGC, Inc. the end of last year when you were removed from the listing of churches on their website. You may not be aware, however, that you still refer to your partnership with SGM on the church website under “Outreach.”
“Outreach is more than a program in the church… Therefore, we start with our partnership with Sovereign Grace Ministries.” …
The Lord’s blessing rest upon you.
Brent
Immediately this entire paragraph was removed from their website.
“Therefore, we start with our partnership with Sovereign Grace Ministries, move to view outreach as a part of growing as believers in our care groups, and then move to more specific and strategic evangelistic ministry.”
That brings the total number of churches who left SGC in 2019 to nine. One in March, seven in October, and one in November. These churches are led by former top leaders and pastors in SGC. And the list doesn’t include top leader, Jason Hansen, who left to plant a new church.
Mark Prater, the Executive Director, works hard to conceal this kind of information from people in the churches while he continues to market an upbeat message about the ever dwindling denomination.
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