This article consists of Part 1 of our Open Letter to all current and former attenders/members of Lake Bible Church, as well as to anyone who has benefited from (Emeritus) Pastor Jim’s radio and books ministries, TFW and JAB. As we will explain in greater detail in Part 2, it is your responsibility as a member of the Body of Christ, based on his biblical teaching about holding one another accountable in right doctrine ( Listen to Colossians 3:16-17, from 12:22-13:30) to take immediate action. In order for you to fully understand the urgent circumstances facing Pastor Jim’s ministries and his family right now, you will need to read both Part 1 and Part 2.
As you may have noticed, we have periodically changed the title of our articles in order to hold different categories of leadership accountable (Senior Pastor, Elders, etc.). Now the focus of this article is on the congregation itself (and wider Christian community). So we will ask you below to carefully study two previous articles that we wrote in late 2022 (after 5 years of intensive research) about one of the greatest threat to our church: the targeted indoctrination of our children with the “Christian” LGBTQ+ agenda.
But first, we would like to explain why we felt compelled to undertake this massive project. Over the past three decades, as we explain in this article, Pastor Jim has tutored us privately in theology, both formally and informally, because of our inability to complete our seminary training in missions due to becoming disabled with M.E. (myalgic encephalomyelitis). Thus, we have used this training, at varying levels of involvement during different times, to assist Pastor Jim in each of his ministries (LBC, TFW and JAB) throughout the decades since we became members of LBC over 30 years ago.
The primary area in which Juli & I have served Pastor Jim has been in theology and discernment. As we wrote to the Elders in our 1/30/23 letter, p.6-7:
Over the decades since her dramatic improvement with her MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity) and M.E. (myalgic encephalomyelitis) after her successful 1995 cancer treatment in Mexico, Juli & I were able to become involved in the ministry at Lake in various areas: Music, Teaching Sunday School, etc.
When I was able to return to work in 1996 due to the same treatments as Juli, I began teaching piano lessons, until various factors in both of our health got worse in 2013. At that time, the Lord clearly led me to switch my focus from teaching piano to taking over and running Pastor Jim’s books ministry… Juli & I devoted all of our available energy (literally, often just a matter of a few minutes/day) to revising and republishing the…books, and to completing new ones, for a total of five.
As you [know]…, we have become quite well-read in current theological issues as a result of our online research, done to help protect the flock at Lake, beginning in 2009. Then in 2015, [a women’s ministry leader] asked Jim if we could help her research the IF: Gathering, which we were happy to do.
It is through the extensive research that we have done over the past ~14 years for Jim’s books and TFW program editing that has enabled us to support all three ministries: LBC, radio & books in the area of theological discernment.
In addition, Pastor Jim commissioned us in 2013 with a massive project—to research and collate all of his TFW programs on key subjects of common interest into an easy-to-use guide for the website. This was completed, finally, in 2020.
The relevance of this historical information is to explain our extensive knowledge of what Pastor Jim has taught about most subjects, and also where those programs/sermons are located in his massive archives (TFW & LBC). He has often commented that we know what he has covered (subject-wise) in his sermons better than he does, since he has been preaching for nearly 60 years and has often repeated books during that time.
Over the years, then, we have interfaced Pastor Jim’s teaching and the information about false teachers that we have researched who have unfortunately infiltrated into the church. We have then communicated with him about which resources are no longer sound.
Next, we would like to explain the above subtitle: “You’re Flying the Gay Rainbow Flag over Your Building!” As you will discover from reading the 2-part series below, both Pastor Jim and the Board of Elders have failed to protect LBC from the dangerous LGBTQ+ agenda. You will discover that many of the popular parachurch ministries that churches have relied upon for many decades have been taken over by homosexual activists and propagandists who want to brainwash our children. And since Pastor Jim failed to take appropriate action in 2020, when we not only gave him this information but also gave him possible alternatives, our church has been openly partnering with evil (See Part 13 for passages such as 2 John 9-11 and others) and financially supporting now-heretical ministries. Hence the subtitle of the article, which was inspired by this picture from Lake’s website showing an actual rainbow over the building:
Therefore, after you read these two articles that we designed to inform Christians everywhere about this insidious danger, we will present the evidence about the failure of LBC’s leadership to protect our church from this heretical agenda.
https://help2needy.com/they-are-coming-for-your-kids-part-1/ 25-minute read
https://help2needy.com/they-are-coming-for-your-kids-part-2/ 20-minute read
[By the way, the Christian discernment Substack channel, The Dissenter, republished these articles in September 2023. Also, we have nicknamed them, “Kids, Parts 1 & 2” for easier reference in the remainder of this article.]
Now that you have read these two articles, we will explain how and when Pastor Jim and the Board of Elders have failed to address this serious danger. This will provide further documentation of the inexplicable changes in Pastor Jim’s doctrine and behavior (that we have detailed in our previous 4 TFW articles) after his prior 56 ½ years of obedience (June 1963-January 2020).
We will cite again the opening of our first letter to the Board of Elders on 1/30/23 (bolding added):
Juli and I are writing to request an immediate investigation by the appropriate LBC elder(s) into Pastor Jim’s medical and spiritual competence to continue performing the role of Senior Pastor at Lake Bible Church. As we will explain, the reason for our urgent request is that we desperately want him to be able to remain at Lake. However, due to a new, unspecified medical condition, Pastor Jim began in 2015 to exhibit an uncharacteristic pattern of overt disobedience to his own teaching from God’s Word, both in his personal behavior and his teaching…
As one might expect with a health-related problem, Pastor Jim’s disobedience was neither total nor uniform at the outset (from March 2015-Jan 2020). But according to LBC’s Constitution (p.16-17), a pastor may bring reproach upon Christ and the church by violating scriptural commands contained in these passages, among many:
1 Tim. 3:1-7, Phil. 2:15, Col. 4:5 and 1 Timothy 4:5 (this is a probable typo; 2 Tim. 4:5 was probably intended)
According to the Apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy, a pastor is to be an overseer of the doctrine and behavior of the church. In 3:1-2, he says:
1It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. 2An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
And at the end of Paul’s second epistle to Timothy (4:5), he says:
“But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
But in January 2020, Pastor Jim informed us through a trusted emissary that he was no longer healthy enough to supervise all of the doctrinal content being taught at LBC, as he had always done beforehand. He stated that he was now unable to handle the emotional pressure of holding LBC’s ministry leaders accountable for their strict adherence to God’s Word.
This news represented a grave departure from Pastor Jim’s lifelong biblical commitment to prioritizing the teaching component (including correcting false doctrine) of pastoral ministry. In 1 Timothy 5:13-17, he explains:
@21:05, So here in chapter five, verse 17 and verse 18 will seal the case. The idea is that within the class of men who govern local bodies who are their shepherds, those who apply themselves diligently to preaching and teaching, those should be more amply supported than those not as intensively engaged in this work, hence our word, ‘honorarium,’ as a material symbol of honor. Now this bifurcation, what do I mean, this separation that’s referred to here, let those be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching, implying that some were not so involved. This bifurcation suggests that in the primitive organization of the local churches, there may have been those shepherds who were more focused on running and maintaining the churches than on teaching the church and devoting themselves rigorously to that ministry.
In fact, we still see that today, often times where a pastor is a better administrator of church life than a teacher or mentor in Christian faith and practice. The former pastor, who’s a good administrator of church life, is not without value, but the latter requires the most investment of time and does the church the most good in the long run. I’ve always said, as a pastor, in a church of any size, and mine is no mega church, but a church of any size, a pastor is the functional equivalent of a CEO as well as a shepherd. If I’m going to neglect one or the other, it’s going to be the CEO aspect. I’m going to be a shepherd first, God willing. Paul says, of those who excel at preaching and teaching, take good care of them, double care. For these are not weekend warriors, as the saying goes. By necessity, they have withdrawn themselves from the marketplace for the sake of your souls. So you, as a church, you allow them the freedom to do that. Honor them amply. That seems to me to be the spirit of his direction. And we should remember that. @23:16
And in 2 Timothy 1:13-18, Pastor Jim again stresses the crucial role of pastors and lay elders to protect the flock from false teaching:
@12:49, Then he tells Timothy, “Guard the deposit of the truth entrusted to you as a steward. Guard through the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, the treasure or good deposit which has been entrusted to you.” Here, the good deposit refers to the Gospel. Folks, it is not enough for us as ministers of Jesus Christ to adhere to the faith, the body of doctrine, the body of belief, once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). It’s not enough for us as ministers also to teach it to others. This is a large part of our stewardship, to be sure, but another trust, another charge we have, is to be gatekeepers. And by that, I mean part of our responsibility, part of our stewardship, is to guard the gospel. And this is consistent with what was in the last verse (v.13), to guard the gospel or the good news from corruptions. Corruptions through devilish accretions or subtractions or also obfuscations that befog it.
As much as we Americans are conditioned to be positive, there is a negative side to our job as ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We, not just us pastors but elders or deacons or whatever your church leaders are called, we must be vigilant. We must always be on the lookout for predators and purveyors of false doctrine, and we must be ready to expose and rebuke their errors. Now, some people don’t like to hear that. They don’t want to hear anything negative. We can’t worry about that. We’ve got to do our job. Ends @14:27
Therefore, based on Pastor Jim’s consistent, lifelong teaching all throughout Scripture (including the above passages) on the responsibility of pastors to protect their flock from error (See also Pastor Jim’s Pastor’s Manual, p.173-190, #20, “Pathogens in the Pews,” and this article summarizing the key passages about the need for pastors to be vigilant regarding false teachers), he had just indicated to us by this statement that he was no longer medically or spiritually fit to hold the high office of Senior Pastor. Thus, he had just disqualified himself from the pastorate.
However, Juli & I would not allow Pastor Jim to abdicate his responsibility to provide doctrinal oversight, so we continued to monitor the LBC website for false teachers. A few months later, in early April, we alerted him about a children’s book for Easter that a staff member had posted on LBC’s website for parents to read to their children. It was written by Jared Kennedy, a pro-LGBTQ author for Russell Moore’s ERLC website, who had also recently penned (July 9, 2018) an article entitled, “What Do I Do if My Child Doesn’t Seem to Fit with Typical Gender Norms,” positively citing, three times, a known heretic, Dr. Nate Collins.
As we detailed at the end of Kids, Part 1, Collins was a key leader in the “Same-Sex Attraction” movement, having spent 15 years at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) under the guidance of Drs. Albert Mohler and Russell Moore as a student, a teaching fellow, an instructor, and finally as a PhD recipient in 2017). Collins also was the co-founder of the perverted Revoice Conference (promoting “Celibate” Same-Sex relationships) in 2018 with Preston Sprinkle.
Pastor Jim insisted that Kennedy’s book be taken down from the website, but the staff member simply replaced it with another heretic’s children’s book instead, TGC’s Kevin DeYoung.
Then we wrote Pastor Jim on April 13, 2020, “So there’s no way that he [the staff member] can plead innocence about who these people are [referring to other false teachers that he had associated with and publicly endorsed, such as Trevin Wax, the Alistair Begg family, and Thabiti Anyabwile]. And if he was just ignorant of what he had promoted [Kennedy’s Easter book for children] and sorry for it, why hasn’t he taken down The Gospel Project … [or] LifeWay’s VBS, and promoted yet another false teacher, Kevin DeYoung, just in the last week?” “[He] is promoting pro-gay, pro-NAR heretics by using these materials.”
So while DeYoung’s popular 2015 book on homosexuality, What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality?, pretends to take a conservative stance in the main body of the work, the only resources he lists in the appendix are those of the pro-LGBTQ movement, not the biblical conservatives. In addition, DeYoung clearly accepts the worldly psychological concept of a “sexual orientation,” stating that it is not addressed in the Bible. While he condemns homosexual acts as inherently sinful, he does not do the same for the “orientation” or the desire itself, calling it simply “disordered.” By 2020, DeYoung had become a key player, and eventual successor, in the pro-LGBTQ wing of the PCA.
As you know from reading our articles above, Kids, Parts 1&2, this is the “Same-Sex Attraction” Trojan Horse heresy being peddled by the TGC, ERLC, and much of the SBC, including LifeWay publishing.
However, when we presented this information about DeYoung to Pastor Jim, he refused to take this children’s book down from the LBC website.
This was inexplicable to us, since Pastor Jim had just recently denounced proponents of the SSA heresy, as we quoted him in Kids, Part 1:
“Along with that, they [the ‘Christian’ advocates for the LGBTQ+ ‘community’] condone the effort to “naturalize” homosexuality and to declare homosexual affinities just another example of human diversity rather than another sad example of the whole garden of human perversities. Some of them are so anxious to placate the culture and court its affirmation that they even come forward, if you can believe it, with proclamations of repentance and confession for their historic sins for doing injury to the “alphabet community” with their “judgmental” stance inherited from the past (meaning the Scriptures). This biblical stance proclaims that so-called same-sex attraction is a lust to be progressively mortified by the Spirit working through the Word, just as other sinful desires should be. Notice that it is a temptation to be rejected, not proof of an unchangeable orientation. Yet I fear we are not done with these ever-evolving travesties. The same cultural sycophants can be expected, as it gathers momentum and on the same specious logic, to jump up in support of normalizing pedophilia. It’s coming.”
Then in early May 2020, we noticed in the LBC Bulletin that pro-LGBTQ advocate Ed Stetzer (whom you read about in Kids, Part 2 above) had been tapped by AWANA as a speaker for their free online Child Discipleship Forum :
So we followed Pastor Jim’s preferred procedure for bringing problems to his attention. He frequently says, “Don’t just tell me what the problem is; come up with a solution as well, if possible.” So we did just that, contacting a respected pastor and obtaining two viable alternatives to replace the AWANA curriculum that were compatible with Pastor Jim’s Reformed theology.
However, when we passed along this information to Pastor Jim, he merely indicated that he had forwarded it to the appropriate person, and we never heard about it again. It has now been 4 ½ years, and LBC is still funding this pro-LGBTQ+ “ministry” (AWANA) to the tune of $100/child per year (2022 figures).
Another infiltration of the LGBTQ+ agenda we described in Kids, Parts 2 was LifeWay’s The Gospel Project (Sunday School Curriculum), announced by the LBC youth staff in September 2017 (begin listening @1:02:00, listing of resources for parents @1:14:49, mention of The Gospel Project Curriculum @1:15:37; @1:16:33, Parent forum with ERLC’s “Christ-Centered Parenting” (led by pro-LGBTQ Russell Moore); 1:18:17, Gospel Project Curriculum is the same for all ages).
(Here is the archived link, if video fails to play: https://web.archive.org/web/20240505015100/ )
Not only does LifeWay itself promoting pro-homosexual resources (including children’s books!) from “Celibate Gay priest” (and now Associate Pastor at Russell Moore’s church, Immanuel Nashville) Sam Allberry and his fellow leader, “Pastor to Pastors” Ray Ortlund (who recently endorsed Kamala Harris for President, a woman who is anti-Christian and pro-abortion all the way until birth), but The Gospel Project itself was co-founded by pro-LGBTQ activists Ed Stetzer and Trevin Wax (as detailed in Kids, Part 2). Remember that Matthew 7:18 states, “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.”
So then, is this the type of leader whom you want to create your children’s “Christian” curriculum? Well, that’s what LBC continues to teach, to this day:
Also, why was Pastor Jim now willing to accept LifeWay resources to be used all over his church after just recently challenging SBTS President Dr. Albert Mohler in 2018 to speak out against the heretical publisher (in this email excerpt below)?
From: Jim Andrews <jima@lakebiblechurch.com>
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2018 10:40 AM
To: presoffice@sbts.edu
Subject: Your wrath of God articleDr. Mohler –
[Pastor Jim wrote this challenge to Dr. Mohler in paragraph 3 (a total of 60 words) of this email to use his voice and influence against LifeWay.]
Therefore, since Pastor Jim abdicated his responsibility to fully supervise the doctrinal content of all LBC ministries in early 2020, and the Board of Elders failed to hold him accountable for his own personal sinful behavior (as described in our communications with them) in 2023-2024, it is now the duty of those who care about the direction of Lake Bible Church to hold their leaders (both current and former) accountable for these decisions and to insist upon biblically sound replacements. (By the way, the Reformed resources we had located could have been used to replace both the AWANA and The Gospel Project curricula.)
We will give further details on what this means and how it should be done biblically in the next article, “What’s Wrong with Lake Bible Church? Part 2: You’re Enabling My Dad to Endanger My Life!”
No comments will occur except on part 2