It just hit me one day that where is Jesus in all this “gospel-centered”  or “cross-centered” talk?  It feels strange just little ‘ole me thinking this when there’s so many avid followers who are leaders and godly people of the g.centered or c.centered thinking, but I couldn’t shake it, especially after remembering the way it used to be when I had friends who’s every other word was “Jesus” and messages from the pulpit that dripped with the name of Jesus.  Granted, there are some who seem to maintain their relationship with Jesus well in the SGM circle, but I don’t which is not surprising considering the sheep follow the leader.   I miss Him, but am so far away that I barely even remember what I miss.   Just glad we’re on the upward spiral now and looking forward to that day that we will be closer to Him.

Thanks again to all 4 of you for taking time to respond.

 That was when I started my journey back to Him and began intentionally focusing on Him instead of “the cross” or “the gospel”.  I love the gospel because of Jesus.  I love the cross because of Jesus.  But without Him, that message (the gospel) and that object (the cross) is meaningless.

Knowning Jesus and finding others who are in love with Him has been so refreshing. 

In Christ alone my hope is found…. 

One of the biggest reasons my husband and I left PDI/SGM in 1997 was the fact that we rarely heard Jesus talked about.  The focus was always on sin.  I can tell you now, 13 years post pdi, our focus is all about Jesus.  We walk beside Him like we are super-glued to Him.  There is nothing more refreshing, more satisfying, than being taught by the Lord.  The difference between drinking the waters of sin doctrine verses the waters of grace doctrine is like drinking city water verses beautifully crisp, cold water from an artesan well. 

I take a major issue with the “cross-centered” teaching that trumps Jesus-centered teaching at SGM.  I don’t know if all the churches are like this, but it seems that’s the case.  I’m pretty sure that people believe that if you really understand this teaching, you understand that you get to Jesus somehow in it, but why not just teach Jesus… like, run “to Jesus” instead of “the cross”?  I have been in this church and have missed the focus on Jesus and my relationship with Him has suffered.

We have also suffered from the lack of discipleship apparently because the leaders decide who is the one annointed for ministry and who gets attention from whom which apparently involves a lot of pointing out sin.  I know some very gifted people interested in growing who have wasted years of their lives as a result of this leadership. 

It seems there’s a lot of repenting going on in the SD church which is great, but I still take issue with the theology of cross-centered teaching or at least how it is applied at this church and hope that someday the teaching becomes more Jesus-centered.

FSGP, a healthy skepticism is what keeps us from following false shepherds off a cliff. 

Thanks for replying. 

1. Ultimately, is not all of our sin(yours, mine and others)  rooted in a tendency toward self-worship and the desire to exalt ourselves above God and others?  Jeremiah 17:9 reminds that we all need to have a healthy suspicion of our motives but the problem in SGM is that the need to guard our hearts has often been turned into a means to control people, inhibit people from bringing questions to church leaders and even manipulate those with leadership potential into just being compliant tools.

2. You are correct that pastors are needed to care for the church but if we look at the book of Ephesian pastors also called to equip the church for the work of service. Unfotunately, in SGM’s ecclesiology, the preaching role and gift of the pastor is more strongly emphasized than other roles and I think this one of the reasons why most SGM churches have so few ministry opportunities available to the members other than being ushers, parking lot attendents, bookstore helpers and so forth.   The roles I just mentioned are important to the functioning of a local church but there are many gifted people in SGM churches whose gifts and talents are being wasted bcause the pastors of these churches do a poor job of equiping the saints.

3.  Actually much of my experience in SGM was generally good and as I hae said here before I am grateful to God that he used SGM to deepen my understanding of reformed theology. I am part of a PCA church now and I enjoy it and I could not go back to SGM primarily because the denomination is not truly reformed despite adopting reformed language and theology.

 I was a part of SGM for almost twenty years and served in various capacities and the problem I had toward the end of that time was that the more I advanced in leadership and become privy to the inside (and trust me in all SGM churches there is an inner circle and an outer circle), I saw that things on inside are not what they appear to be on the outside.

I appreciate your response here and on survivors, dude

If you want some answers, my contact info is on the “about” page. We won’t be sharpening each others iron, as that’s really part of being in relationship or community.

I believe this as well. I see it very much like the RCC. We have true brethren in the Catholic church but they are in bondage to the infallible ex-cathedra pronouncements of the Pope. I see SGM as a reflection of that same system to some degree, without the Mary queen of heaven worship or the prayers to dead saints. You do have the leader worship but it isn’t on quite the same level, and of course there is the Pope who can’t be questioned.  Eventually as part of sanctification and walking in truth, you have to come out, no matter how grievous the loss of relationships.