Broken People, Broken Pieces or a Broken Pastor?

Erwin McManus’ Self-Censorship

Question:

Why did Erwin McManus alter a document copyrighted in 2000?

My first post here at Solid Foods, “A Revisionist History of the Church on Brady?” raised questions about the public statements Erwin Raphael McManus has made regarding the history of the church he inherited. This post will address a specific incident in which McManus appears to have altered a published document, presumably in reaction to the accusations of a former leader at Mosaic.

* In respect for the family’s privacy, I will not identify the former leader’s ex- wife by name in this article but will simply refer to her by her first initial. Unfortunately, I have no control over what has already been published on the internet by others.

Background

In February 2007, Robbie Sortino, a former youth pastor and pastor at Mosaic, under the leadership of Erwin McManus, published a blog in which he raised serious questions about his former leader.

In the blog,

http://truthdiscovery.blogspot.com/

Robbie Sortino alleges that there have been many people that Erwin McManus has rejected, manipulated and abandoned. In addition, he states that Erwin McManus has created a community with an ethos of emotional and spiritual abuse.

My Search

In an attempt to find any independent evidence that might verify Robbie Sortino's claims I conducted an internet search on March 5, 2007.

That search revealed the following article,

“Broken People Can Become Whole Disciples.” Erwin McManus, Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal, Spring 2000, Vol. XXI, No. 2, Page 48 [The publisher identifies this article as a “Bible study.”]

Direct Link:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/areas/biblestudies/articles/040916.html

Google cached link:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:OKsLNoNfxHwJ:www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/areas/biblestudies/articles/040916.html+broken+people+can+become+whole+disciples&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
[NOTE: I have included the cached link because at the time when I first wrote this post the original suddenly became “unavailable. " I have a copy of the article on file here at Solid Foods.]

In the article, McManus uses the example of “Sarah” as an illustration:

Excerpt:

The challenge for today's church is how to make whole disciples out of broken people. Some people’s brokenness is obvious. Abuse or abandonment has left scars. With others, beautiful exteriors have been carefully crafted to hide what no one really wants to see anyway. Sometimes only their eyes betray them. Or the unsteadiness in the voice, or the almost unnoticeable trembling of the hands.

That was Sarah's case. Who would guess this young wife with two children had just had a lesbian affair? Sarah's infidelity masked a deeper internal fragmentation. How could her husband Michael have known that his emotional inaccessibility would lead to this kind of alienation? Though he loved Sarah deeply, his own background made the prospect of intimacy something he feared almost more than abandonment. Their marriage was fragile, their future uncertain.

Can you make disciples of such people? The road was difficult, but now, 10 years later, Michael and Sarah have a strong marriage and a ministry to others. The ingredient critical to this story is the role of the local church.

At the end of the article McManus writes:

Like Michael and Sarah, Robbie and M*(see above) remind me of God's power to make us whole. Gifted and talented, they could serve as poster children for human potential. Yet, especially for Robbie, a pain-filled childhood and rebellious adolescence left him emotionally broken. Coming on staff prematurely, he had to work out much of his struggles while in the heat of vocational ministry.

I was the brand new senior pastor and he was the home-grown youth pastor. Our first year was tense. Here was a young man who had at one time flipped his car out of control on the highway in an attempt to end his life. Every Christmas he would struggle with depression. From his youth Robbie's heart had been filled with violence and anger. The product of divorce, he hardened his heart to survive, and now he needed that heart tender to serve others effectively. He saw anyone who worked for "the institution" as the enemy, and that included me.

At times I wondered if the past would haunt him forever. It took a lot of prayer and patience to earn his trust and respect, but over time, in community, we saw him shift from building his future through power and intellect to humility and gratitude.
We probably fought every week for two years, and I can't tell you how many times I wanted to dismiss him just for irritating me. Yet today he is one of my greatest friends and there are few people I trust as much.I don't know anyone who works so hard to serve others. No matter how many times he makes a mistake, he is always there seeking forgiveness and making things right. He and M are the kind of models I hope my children emulate. Now, six years later, Robbie is the lead pastor for one of our most promising church plants. There are many like Robbie and M at Mosaic. Our leadership is made up of broken people who have become whole disciples.

Follow Up Internet Search

An internet search I conducted on March 19, 2007 revealed that the original bible study which appeared on Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal website was “no longer available.” Keep in mind, the article was printed in the hard copy issues of this publication, removing or "altering" its content electronically, on-line, does not erase the existence of the original article.

SPECIAL NOTE: Erwin McManus is a contributing editor to Leadership Journal This is the same branch of Christianity Today which published Erwin McManus' article, "Broken People Can Become Whole Disciples."

An article with the title, “Broken Pieces” has appeared at: http://erwinmcmanus.com/broken-pieces, The Official Erwin McManus website. The text of this article is almost identical to the previously published article.

What is similar:

The most significant challenge for today’s church is how to make whole disciples out of broken people. From my vantage point as pastor of an urban church, abuse, pain, and abandonment are the recurring themes of our contemporary society. Some people’s brokenness is obvious. With others, beautiful exteriors have been carefully crafted to hide what no one really wants to see anyway. Sometimes only their eyes betray them. Except when the conversation begins. Then it’s the unsteadiness in their voice, or the almost unnoticeable trembling of their hands.

That was Sarah’s case. Who would ever guess this young wife with two children just had a lesbian affair? How could her husband Michael have known that his emotional inaccessibility and distance would result in this kind of alienation? Though he loved Sarah deeply, his own brokenness made the prospect of intimacy something he feared almost more than abandonment. For Sarah her infidelity unveiled a deeper fragmentation of her personal identity. Their marriage was at best fragile–their future uncertain.

How can you make disciples of such people?The road to healing and recovery was difficult, but now, ten years later, Michael and Sarah have a strong marriage and a far-reaching ministry. The ingredient critical to this story is the role of the local church in the process of life change.

What has changed:

In the section of the article ironically subtitled “Integrity Comes Through Humility” the paragraphs concerning Robbie Sortino and M have now been omitted. In addition to these omissions, large sections of the original text have also been revised


The Real Sarah and Michael


When contacted about the identities of Sarah and Michael; Pastor Robert Martinez (A former pastor and elder at Mosaic, Los Angeles) stated that, “he could not recall any such persons,” and that he was struck by the detailed similarities between their story and that of the Sortino’s. He believes the story McManus tells about Sarah and Michael is in reality the true story of Robbie Sortino and his ex-wife M.

When Robbie Sortino was asked if he or his ex-wife had ever granted Erwin McManus permission to print their story in his writings, Robbie Sortino’s answer was, “ABSOLUTELY NOT!”

FACT:

Mr. McManus altered a document that has been available to the public for 7 years just one month after Robbie Sortino’s allegations appeared on the internet.

QUESTIONS:

Was this done to avoid a possible lawsuit?

Why would any pastor choose to publicize the details of such intimate, painful, real life crises experienced by a member of his own staff as an example in an article?

Why would a pastor do so without the permission of those involved?

Is this how Erwin McManus treats those whom he describes as "one of my greatest friends;" one of the " few people I trust as much?"

Maybe a partial answer to these questions can be found at the end of “Broken People Can Become Whole Disciples.”

In McManus’ own words:

Brokenness can be the result of many things—abuse, neglect, abandonment, trauma, or sin. We could be either victim or victimizer. Most often we have a dual role.

Hurt people hurt people.

Yvonne W.

(My editorial comments in this post were reviewed and approved by Robbie Sortino.)

IMPORTANT UPDATE

The revised article, “Broken Pieces” has disappeared from: http://erwinmcmanus.com/broken-pieces, The Official Erwin McManus website.

I located another source for the original, unedited, version of "Broken People Can Become Whole Disciples." It was reprinted in Catalyst 2005:

http://209.168.235.4/Newsletters/catalyst/Full/default.aspx?article_id=4