Sadly, this year, Tchividjian’s marriage with his wife has ended. Tchividjian was also caught in adultery and has now stepped down from ministry.
However, unlike the Mark Driscoll controversy, the Tchividjian issue has been handled biblically. Tchividjian has repented and will not be restored to pastoral ministry again.
(Hey Brian Houston – want to invite Tchividjian speak at your conference? Tchividjian is also a big name that preaches the REAL GOSPEL. Or do you like frauds that make you look like you are a best selling author?)
Tullian Tchividjian
However, it was easy for people to confuse where Tullian Tchividjian was serving. False reports were made that Tchividjian was serving at Bill Hybels Willow Creek church. This is simply not true. Unfortunately, another church in America is also called Willow Creek which was “founded in 1983 under the oversight of nearby Orangewood Presbyterian Church in Maitland“.
The Willow Creek Tchividjian is serving appears to be orthodox while Hybel’s Willow Creek is an apostate Church Growth/Seeker cult.
Bill Hybels is one of the major players of the # PDL Cult. Specifically emphasising Church Growth Leadership and Purpose Driven philosophies, disguised as Christian teachings.
The Reformed Arsenal recently reported wrongly on this story and has offered an apology which we would like to pass on to our readers.
The Reformed Arsenal writes:
Earlier today, I recieved the following letter, forwarded to me by a person in the Central Florida Presbytery.
Dear Fathers and Brothers –
Our decision to invite Tullian Tchividjian to relocate to Orlando, join Willow Creek Church, and even serve as a member of our support staff was motivated by love for Christ, the peace and purity of His Church, and Tullian and his family.
Our Session voted unanimously to extend these offers, confident that we were in a unique position to offer Tullian a safe haven to continue in his healing and repentance. Tullian attended Willow Creek during his seminary years; maintains encouraging friendships with members of our congregation and community; and will benefit from a church body that knows him and will endeavor to love him accordingly, in the grace and peace of Christ.
As a member of the Presbyterian Church in America, I proactively reached out to the South Florida Presbytery through the chairman of the committee overseeing Tullian’s care and discipline process. I wanted to make sure that we were pursuing this course decently and in good order.
We received an encouraging word that while Tullian was indeed deposed from the office of teaching elder, he was not excommunicated or given further censure. I was very clear in our intent, and nothing in the conversation led me to believe that we were circumventing the South Florida Presbytery’s decision. We proceeded in good faith. If we were mistaken, it was a joint error. However, and more importantly, I am confident that our system of government can accommodate the error and correct it in a manner that promotes Tullian’s growth in grace and the peace and purity of Christ’s Church – all with gentleness and respect.
The position offered to Tullian is a non-ordained, support position. Recognizing his deposition from office, it does not involve any functions unique to the office of elder in general or teaching elder in particular. It provides him a community of grace in which to work and worship; the means to provide for his family; and an opportunity to display his repentance before the body of Christ. For these reasons, we are overjoyed and eager to welcome him into our church family.
Please pray for us and all involved in caring for Tullian and his family.
Sincerely,
Kevin Labby, Senior Pastor
Willow Creek Church
Although there has not been a formal statement made by the Central or Southern Florida Presbytery’s, I have good reason to think that the leadership of the Central Florida Presbytery does not believe that a violation has occurred.
Just as Luther had to clarify the various kinds of statement he has made, I so must also.
1.I still believe that this is an unwise decision, and that it is inappropriate for Tullian to be serving in any role as an employee of the Church, especially one that is in any way tangentially connected to the ministry of the Gospel. I do not regret making statements to that effect, nor do I withdraw them.
2.I still believe that the conclusions I drew were reasonable conclusions based on the information which was made publicly available. I am intentionally not deleting the posts, since I do not feel it is appropriate to erase the evidence of my former mistakes, and I think that were my conclusions not proven incorrect with the revelation of further information, it represents an appropriate and biblical exhortation.
3.I made strong statements regarding Chris Rosebrough and his inconsistent approach in the matter. While I still believe that there are inconsistencies in his approach, I do regret making strong statements without all of the facts. I ask that Chris forgive me for speaking rashly.
4.I made strong statements regarding the implications of this transition and what it says about Tullian’s repentance and submission to Church discipline. I ask that Tullian forgive me for making erroneous conclusions and speaking publicly regarding them.
5.I made strong statements regarding the leadership of WCC regarding this decision. As stated above, I still believe this to be an unwise decision that is ultimately not beneficial for Tullian, his family, the congregation members of WCC. I ask that Kevin and the other leadership at WCC forgive me for speaking rashly.
6.Because I have sinned against my brothers, I have also sinned against God. I trust in the finished work of Christ who not only began a good work in me by justifying me, but also to complete that good work in me by perfecting me in sanctification.
Source: The Taste of Crow, The Reformed Arsenal, http://reformedarsenal.com/2015/09/02/the-taste-of-crow/, (Accessed 04/09/2015.)
Categories: Willow Creek
Whether it’s been handled biblically is highly questionable. Like Arsenal I agree it is still unwise. How the presbytery can sign off on him divorcing her so quickly after this debacle ESPECIALLY when they both sinned in the same way is beyond me. I have imagined up the wildest scenarios and it simply does not compute, BIBLICALLY unless you want to be a hard hearted pharisee. It shows that Tullian’s message of grace for the undeserving sinner is just a ruse. It only works if someone repents at the moment you demand it. Another variation on that is when someone who is in the wrong (or even if he is believed to be in the wrong) announces “I’m ready to forgive you.” Even done with the floweriest prose that doesn’t work very well. God can do it, because he is not ever wrong. When a person does it, he sounds like he thinks he’s God. I’ve had that done to me too.
People keep telling me “there’s no formula for repentance” which is exactly what I say all the time. Except that there does seem to be when it comes to the woman in this particular scenario. Maybe her repentance is just taking longer. If there’s no set formula for repentance, there can’t possibly be a set formula for forgiveness either and everyone should just cut us dissenters some slack because clearly, we’re also forgiving… in our own way. (Not that we had anything to forgive him for, since he didn’t actually sin against us, I’m just using the terms that have been used against us facetiously.)
Sure glad God is more patient than to give us 2 months to figure out what we are doing is wrong!
I had commented on Paul Tripp’s FB page that TT could not have even begun to fix his marriage until after he stepped down and threw his wife under the bus so at minimum it’d been 2 months before he decided to put the final bullet in the heart of his marriage. (incidentally his sister seemed to like that comment, as well as my comment in agreement with another responder who said Tripp’s article was all SPIN in behalf of his friend Tullian.) Before that stepping down, he was still undermining it because a truly wise repentant, marriage-reconciling man doesn’t have the attitude that says go out and cheat in response, and damage the marriage further. And since his stepping down everything he has done publicly has only served to undermine his case and cement in my mind that he’s a seeker driven attention whore who uses his family for crass sexual-sin-minimizing jokes in his messages. It would be utterly miserable to be married to such. Not that that excuses cheating, but someone doesn’t abandon a 20 year marriage with three kids on a whim. TT seems to be behaving as if no one should ever abandon *him* when all along his message is that we all deserve such treatment but don’t get it because God is merciful.
(if indeed she did cheat, which I reserve the right to be skeptical of since she made no accusation or confession herself and if she did only makes her as bad as him… and he’s getting all the defense here so…)
It stands to reason that Kim has been unhappy for a long time. What wife can survive three kids with a husband who is always gone and receiving such public accolades? Maybe she isn’t a Ruth Graham. Is that a sin? It’s the woman he married, and that is his first priority. Why is it ok that he hasn’t given it more than two months to his 20 year marriage (dubious that it is that) nor treated her according to the long suffering he has advocated for (even using her as a theoretical sermon illustration of this sometimes)? If he reacted this way to her sin, then he has a whole lot more to work on in the department of generally healthy relationships ( not confined to romantic relationships either) than just this latest sinful action.
The very fact that she has not made any accusation but simply said that his story differed from hers after he threw her under the bus before the world is a bit telling. Isn’t the man supposed to protect the woman?
But then when seeker driven pastors run into someone who doesn’t comply with the program, that’s what they do.
Who said this? No googling!
“No church government can tolerate such an insurrection from those who will not listen to admonition, refuse all counsel, and will stop at nothing until they have overthrown legitimate authority and replaced it with their own.”
hint: the author of this line had recently come into a church and fired most of the staff and replaced it with his own.
And no it wasn’t Kevin Labby although last January Labby preached a sort of vision casting sermon too, where he talked about the importance of submitting to leadership even when they are wrong and they make changes you don’t understand. Same line every Transitioning pastor uses to justify dumbing down the church and its message, making bad/unbiblical/unwise decisions, and turn it into typical Evangelical CoWo.
And it’s funny how people who expose this kind of purpose driven hostile takeover falsehood for a living can’t see it when they’ve got an emotional connection with the person.
#favoritism #goodoldboysclub
“Tchividjian has repented and will not be restored to pastoral ministry again.”
Tullian has repented. But how do you know for 100% certainty that he will never be a pastor again? You can’t.