SHARPE INTERVIEW PT 2 AVAILABLE BELOW
Dear Readers,
For months, a small number of men have tried time and again to bring a number of concerns to the church administration, the deacon body, and the congregation. We have been intimidated, demonized, and quasi-excommunicated. We have fought as far as we can with the resources and information we have. We have brought you firsthand accounts, disturbing information, and stunning conversations. We have explained our intentions to fulfill the obligations set out in Matthew 18 and 1 Timothy 5. We have used this forum as a means to address the church and attempt to dispel harmful rumors.
For those same months a great many of you have had checks in your spirits similar to ours. You’ve had concerns about the direction of Bellevue. You’ve worried about a lack of civility, a bent toward delegitimization of opposition, a lack of transparency, a fear of, dare I say, hijacking. You, however, have not made your names known. You’ve hidden behind excuses of convenience and need, desiring benefit without cost—cure without pain.
You’ve been content to stand behind the shields of those with courage enough to make their individual names and voices heard. You have allowed these few men to absorb shattering blows and fend off vitriolic attacks, while you have sat comfortably anonymous and silently assenting as others do your work for you . . . and as others suffered for it.
To you, I say that time is ended. Today is the day when you will either stand or fall. Today you will rise up or be trampled. Today you will step into the light or withdraw farther into the shadows—and this perhaps beyond rescue. For today, I lay down my sword and shield. I have completed the mandate as set out in Scripture. We have brought you, the church, issues about our leadership that should concern you greatly. We have fulfilled our duty to church, man, conscience, and most importantly Scripture.
We can do no more than present what we know. Our few voices will not carry far over the sea that is Bellevue. We can warn but a few. You, however, have the ability to take up the cry. It is said in Ezekiel that the watchman who sees danger and remains silent is guilty of the blood shed from his neglect. We will not be guilty of such neglect. Now, the obligation is yours: this is your call to take up. You may remain silent no longer.
I do not know the future. My prayer is that Bellevue will be what it has always desired to be: a beacon of hope sending out its light and His Truth that they might lead us to God’s holy hill. And while we do that, we must, MUST, follow the words and principles laid out in Scripture. We must keep each other accountable, we must attend to the proper rules for confrontation with brothers, we must resolve our differences in the ways dictated in Scripture, and we must remain truthful and transparent. Nothing: not Sunday school attendance, baptisms, giving, or even souls saved—nothing excuses transgression of Biblical principles. We’ve been taught this for many years. Now, I charge you to uphold that teaching.
So today, choose your peril: slink into the shadow to a future of synthetic comfort and looming devastation; or rise, stand in the light, make your names and voices known—do that which hurts most in the moment, so that the future may be healed. You would never tell a man with what might be a tumor that he should simply ignore it because the examination, chemotherapy, and surgery might be painful. You dare not, you must not, do the same here.
I leave you with Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” We have not fainted. You have not fought. Now is the time. May we not fade quietly into the night, trading truth and accountability for the illusion of peace and solace. May the God who sees all that we do have mercy on each of us.
I bid you farewell,
Sincerely,
Josh Manning
