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.
