The Mid Eva Hypocrisy of G3 Ministries

Last week, G3 Ministries insisted that Steve Lawson was a member of Trinity Bible Church. Protestia and With All Wisdom responded in kind with their own statements on the issue. After all, G3 Ministries accused Protestia and With All Wisdom of gossip and slander. However, the fact of Lawson’s membership remains inconclusive and is moot based on the fact that Trinity Bible Church is not carrying out church discipline. The episode is the latest example of G3 Ministries attempting to control the narrative of a church scandal that impacts their credibility.

As previously stated, G3 Ministries has an ecclesiocentric view of authority. They view church polity so high they use the term “sub-church” to describe their ministry rather than parachurch. As such, the Mid Eva personalities of G3 admonished Christians to let the elders of Trinity Bible Church handle Steve Lawson. In other words they wanted people to shut up about it and accuse Christians of gossip in the meantime.

The reporting on Lawson’s arrangement with Trinity Bible Church revealed a glaring hypocrisy in G3’s brand. Steve Lawson was an overt hireling, an affront to G3’s view of church polity, yet one they profited off of for years. People would go to G3 for Steve Lawson among other major speakers. The G3 personalities, Josh Buice, Scott Aniol, and Virgil Walker are not conference draws in and of themselves. It is hard to believe that no one at G3 ever stumbled upon Trinity Bible Church’s website to see the peculiar detail of Lawson listed as a “lead preacher” and not an elder or pastor when compiling a quick bio for him to put on their website.

Nevertheless, even if blameless in this regard (and let’s assume they are unwitting), G3 has been focused on defending its reputation, and accusing others of slander and gossip over interpretations of evidence is part of that. If Steve Lawson is not under church discipline, then it doesn’t matter if Trinity Bible Church can conjure a membership roll with his name on it.

This brings us to the other story where in contrast, G3 was chomping on the bit to weigh in on a Baptist church’s ecclesiastical matters. Tobias Riemenschneider launched a slanderous campaign against Joel Webbon demanding church discipline for one of its members over unsavory memes. G3 Ministries and Joel Webbon are not on the best terms publicly as G3 Ministries largely failed to defeat Christian Nationalism in 2023 despite their numerous attempts. But for Joel Webbon, a private enemy of theirs, they gladly promoted slander against him over an in-church matter.

Scott Aniol would delete this post promoting Riemenschnieder’s lies. But the lies spread to hundreds of thousands potentially, and the retraction to just tens of thousands. Scott Aniol did not apologize for promoting slander.

Nevertheless, when it comes to personal beef, G3 has no problems disregarding Baptist church polity to promote an international struggle session against a pastor they don’t like. Because it’s not the principle, it’s the personality.