Last week, a major development occurred in the Steve Lawson adultery scandal in which Steve Lawson was revealed not to have been a pastor at Trinity Bible Church in Dallas. Though at a minimum Trinity Bible Church hid this in plain sight, the reporting that Lawson was also not even a member of the church gained just as much traction. Evangelical Dark Web pointed out that Steve Lawson operated in ecclesiocentric circles, ones that have a far higher-than-average view of church authority. This calls into question the vetting process of some of the ministries that platformed him, mainly G3 Ministries, The Master’s Seminary, and Grace Community Church.
Perhaps Lawson was grandfathered in when he left a church to be a preacher at Trinity Bible Chruch, and so they did not renew their vetting process when he changed professions. After waiting a week, G3 Ministries felt compelled to release a statement. Josh Buice of G3 begins by defending the ministry.
The waves of sin are often severe, and the impact is often far more broad than anyone would have imagined. In the aftershock of sin, emotions rage and disappointment presses people to assign blame. However, the blame game is a path that’s filled with many traps and snares.
In recent days, various reports, articles, and podcasts were released that purported the idea that Steven Lawson was not a member of Trinity Bible Church. As you can imagine, the news spread far and wide—adding salt to already open and very sensitive wounds.
In several of the reports, G3 Ministries was openly critiqued for our willingness to platform someone who was not a member of a local church. As a result, we would like to address these matters and provide clarity on the muddy waters regarding this situation.
After the reports were published about Steven Lawson’s lack of church membership, we sought to verify these reports. What we have discovered is that these reports are indeed false. The facts are clear—Steven Lawson and his wife are members of Trinity Bible Church. We have verified this information from two sources within Trinity Bible Church. It is not clear how these rumors began to spread, but like a destructive wildfire, such false accusations need to be stopped.
The goal in this statement is not to provide cover for Steven Lawson regarding his sin. However, it is essential that we as brothers and sisters in Christ avoid sin in our response to sin. Rumors and slander only provide further injury to the Lawson family, Trinity Bible Church, and other organizations who partnered with Steven Lawson in his public ministry (Prov 20:19).
Furthermore, it’s our goal to speak with transparency regarding our knowledge of the situation from the beginning in order to avoid the appearance of complicity and compromise. May light shine in the darkness and may the truth provide clarity to a very difficult situation (Prov 12:17).
May the Lord heal broken hearts and strengthen local churches as we learn big lessons about perseverance, restoration, and a proper open rebuke of a public figure who sins.
G3 Ministries assert that two witnesses have confirmed that Steve Lawson is a member of Trinity Bible Church. Pastors Derek Brown and Cliff McManis of Creekside Bible Church in Cupertino, California, in the With All Wisdom podcast episode that made this story go viral call out G3 Ministries
“But this is important because you go back to the very beginning when we were being lectured by all kinds of people, including G3 Ministries (who) made a statement early on and said we need to let the local elders at Trinity Bible Church handle this and the discipline process and the restoration process, and the rest of us need to just be hands off, be quiet, don’t ask questions. Literally. Leave it to the local church. And then Tim Challies in his panel said the same thing. It’s kind of a rebuke. ‘You Christians out there, quit trying to micromanage this. This is the local church elders’ responsibility. Trust them. They’re godly men.’ They’re saying that in ignorance. And so now Trinity Church admits, ‘we can’t do anything. So who’s holding him accountable?”
Evangelical Dark Web also called out G3 stating, “these ministries never asked questions while profiting from Steve Lawson’s celebrity and message.” Protestia, though seemingly called out in the G3 statement did not comment on G3 Ministries, other than publishing what With All Wisdom said.
With All Wisdom has put out a statement in response [emphasis added]:
Today G3 Ministries released a statement concerning the allegation that Steve Lawson was not a member at Trinity Bible Church. In their statement, Josh Buice said that, based on testimonies G3 had acquired from two people at Trinity Bible Church, these allegations are false: both Steve and his wife are members at Trinity. However, this testimony is in conflict with what we learned from a staff member at Trinity.
As we noted in our podcast (Episode #98: Some Updates on the Steve Lawson Situation), when asked about Lawson’s membership status, this staff member “waffled” and never confirmed that Steve was a member at Trinity. Furthermore, this staff member stated that Trinity would not be managing the Matthew 18 process. If Lawson was indeed a member, it is strange to us that (1) the staff member would not answer this question directly in the same way they confirmed our question about Lawson’s non-pastor status; and (2) they reported that Trinity would not be managing the Matthew 18 process.
This latter point is important because if Lawson is a member, it is clearly Trinity’s responsibility to manage the discipline process. It is precisely this reason that G3 said in their initial statement (when the news of Lawson’s “inappropriate relationship” first broke) that Lawson’s local church is the “appropriate context” in which to handle this situation, not G3 or any other sub- or para-church ministries. We agree with G3 that the local church should manage the discipline process for erring members. The question is, if Lawson is a member, why were we told that Trinity would not be overseeing this process?
We should also be clear that we are referring to formal membership. We are not asking if Steve and his wife were regular attenders or if they would say that Trinity was their “home church.” We are asking if Lawson had gone through an official process and been placed on the membership rolls. We have just verified from a member of Trinity (not the staff member mentioned above) that they do have a formal membership process. This member was unable to verify that Lawson had gone through a formal membership process and had been placed on Trinity’s rolls.
Above all, we pray that the truth would be revealed in this situation. We believe that Trinity should make a public statement concerning at least two points: (1) Lawson’s membership status at Trinity; and (2) their role in managing the Matthew 18 process. We also believe the leadership at Trinity should renounce their practice of allowing guest teachers and non-pastors to become the main or lead preachers of their congregation. A statement that consists of these elements would be very helpful and allay much confusion.
With All Wisdom calls out the inconsistency of Steve Lawson being a member while also not being under church discipline. Protestia has similarly not backed down on this story, implying that G3 is acting with public relations in mind. With All Wisdom reported their findings on the basis of two or three witnesses, yet G3 says their witnesses prove Lawson was a member. Protestia will publish their statement soon.
This is a developing story.
2 Responses
Yeah, I don’t fault G3 for reporting they think is wrong and speaking out. They said they spoke to folks, but here’s where my hair begins to itch. G3 in its statement doesn’t say to whom they spoke to get this clarification. As I pointed out in their comments, if this was a lay person, its entirely possible that someone seeing them there regularly perhaps even still, might presume that they are formal members, without knowing anything else about it. Furthermore, if Trinity is a multi-campus mega church, its entirely possible that one campus is not as fully informed as the main campus and elders. (I don’t know if they have multiple campuses, but its a thought that has occurred to me)
Many want to use G3’s statement to bash believers, who see gray, and lack of clarity in the statements from Trinity, andt hey want to say that we are not owed an answer. The problem is, if Trinity is part of a fellowship of churches or something like the SBC, we as fellow believers, need to know, so that we can innoculate ourselves against falsehood, so far Trinity has done a rather poor job, publicly with this. Note, I’m not saying G3 is lying, but when it involves matters that can be determined as actual fact very easy, and we are unable to site anywhere where this fact could be, and reference the source, that to me gives me great heart burn.
For some of us, we have christian family, who are in circles that have used Lawson’s material, G3 says they had to remove that material, but still fails to explain the reasoning as to why. This philosophical contradiction between MacArthur saying Lawson’s theology was perfect, but he was a wolf, and not in the position he should have been, then removing his videos everywhere, doesn’t to me scream perfecft theology, it screams cover up. What are they hiding in Lawson’s videos and writings that they removed? When did it become okay to burn texts in order to save ourselves from answering difficult questions about a situation like this? I anticipate some awkward Christmas conversations because of Lawson’s fall from ‘grace’.
I hate that there are still, even now, questions about Lawson, and the longer this drags out the more it tarnishes every subministry that tried to benefit from his name. If those ministries actually were doing good as many still claim, then the lack of transparency (and it is a lack of transparency), is harming good work being done by others.
That’s my concern.
So the podcasters spoke to an unnamed person originally (ONE “witness”) and G3 spoke to two unnamed persons, each arriving at different conclusions. That is certainly problematic for the cases of either side, although the questions and conclusions of the podcasters seem to bear greater weight. Also, the fact that neither mention Trinity elders as their source is also a problem. It’s time for the elders of Trinity to speak clearly about what is going on.