From a Pastor’s Heart: Thad Norvell’s Guest Post on G.R.A.C.E ~ and the Perpetual Shepherding/Discipleship Movement

Boz Tchividjian of G.R.A.C.E invited Thad Norvell, a pastor of a church in College Station, Texas, to share his thoughts and concerns surrounding, as Boz Tchividjian says, ” …the manner and spirit some evangelicals have approached recent issues relating to claims of child sexual abuse and institutional “cover up”.”

Notice in this article, Thad Norvell states, “In other words, in a movement where correcting error is a central task, these temptations loom large. And, when they are indulged, they easily can be mistaken for virtue and become almost self-sustaining.” Having been under the boot of The Shepherding/Discipleship Movement myself, I think this gets down to one of the keys of the matter. The Shepherding Movement (aka SGM, being a child of), was formed because several leaders got to thinking, (yes, they did a lot of ‘got to thinking’), that the ‘wild out of control’ Jesus “Freak” Movement hippies needed some ‘lookin’ after’, with structure, accountability, authority and the rest is history, (history as in, at least in stage one of this movement) The Ft. Lauderdale 5 – Bob Mumford, Derek Prince, Don Basham, Charles Simpson, with Ern Baxter coming on board, off his stint with ministering with William Branham, deemed themselves as the best ‘looker afters’ and then trained others to be ‘looker afters’ of – as they called – “just dumb sheep whose ability to reason was next to non-existent, which prevented them from knowing what was best for them.” (in steps C. J. Mahaney, attending the National Men’s Shepherd Conference, Kansas City, 1975 – The first nationally advertised conference, attended by 4, 700 charismatic leaders and pastors, with Mahaney going on to build a network of churches under this banner. Also see here. For clarity SGM was once called People of Destiny)

Shepherding/Discipleship is not from the dinosaur age, a movement of the past, where one sits around telling ghoulish stories of a day gone by. No - this movement has consistently been snaking its way into churches for years, which brings us to present day SGM and surrounding issues that we see now. See here and here with update here

Under the Shepherding/Discipleship ‘covering, covenant’ – one does NOT break unity – No Matter What – Brotherhood or we could say, ‘good ‘ol boys club – with teeth.’ Read the inner workings and a better understanding of this ‘unity’ – Cynthia Kunsman’s article:

Revisiting Shepherding’s History and Influence in Light of the Scandal at Sovereign Grace Ministries

In David Moore’s book, The Shepherding Movement, he says:

“… the central doctrine—the one that reshaped the church—was that every person must be submitted to another person (Shepherd/Pastor/Discipler), and that all of your major life decisions should be submitted to this person. Effectively, if unintentionally, this put the individual in the position of having two masters– Jesus and a personal shepherd. With time the personal shepherd gains more power, as Jesus gets less. And in time, this creates a system where those who have unquestioning obedience to man are promoted. All kinds of ungodly things came in through these doors. Several books have been written detailing the kinds of abuse suffered as a result. The scary thing about the whole system is that it started out with the intent of promoting accountability, and eventually enslaved people.”

Now!!!!…onto: (an excellent read)

~ Boz Tchividjian’s guest post with Thad Norvell~

Depreciating Humility: The Importance of Being the Best and Being Right

It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor [oppressed] than to divide the spoil with the proud.

“While the temptations to love being right, to yield to pride, and to tolerate or even celebrate arrogance are always lurking for the Church universal, I believe that they present some unique challenges among a group who assumes a vanguard identity (in this case the preservation and resuscitation of the true Gospel). In other words, in a movement where correcting error is a central task, these temptations loom large. And, when they are indulged, they easily can be mistaken for virtue and become almost self-sustaining.

The cycle goes like this: The urgency of the cause reinforces the importance of being right, which further fuels the notion that the most important people in the cause are those most skilled at being right in front of the most people. And if that is true, then those people must be protected and kept on stage at almost any cost. Question them without an air-tight case of disqualifying sin, and you risk being sacrificed for the greater cause.

It’s all very logical. And it’s very common. It just isn’t biblical.” (Excerpt from article) READ IN FULL