Anyone familiar with Cerulean Sanctum and with me knows that I maintain a scant advertising profile on the site. I have links to Amazon that feature books I recommend, and I also ran a support link to Gospel for Asia.
For years, I’ve supported Gospel for Asia (GfA) primarily because of its reputation for high standards, genuine concern for the poorest of the poor, continuationist stance, and for its missionary zeal. I have a GfA native missionary bio taped to my office wall so I can pray for him regularly. My church has actively supported Gospel for Asia also. I’ve read books by K.P. Yohannan, GfA’s founder, and found them to be biblically solid and universally excellent. In short, in all these and as a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, GfA passed every part of the sniff test.
Except now, it doesn’t.
I am writing this in response to a story that appears in a recent edition of Christianity Today: “Why Gospel for Asia Got Kicked Out of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.” The website Patheos has added more fuel to the fire. A watchdog website GFA Diaspora also raises some troubling questions. Further, some actions by K.P. Yohannan, if true (and they appear to be), are downright disturbing.
Many solid Christian organizations and notable Christian ministry leaders have been gung-ho for GfA, but a large number of the same have now distanced themselves from the group. For now, I’ve removed my sidebar link to GfA until these issues are resolved.
I have always been leery of associating Cerulean Sanctum with any group. Even promoting GfA came only after a long, hard pondering. It appears my wariness was more well founded than even I could have feared.
All that said, I can also forgive as I have been forgiven. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. If GfA leadership repents and cleans house, I may return the link.
In the spirit of transparency, I wanted to let readers know. Thank you.
Thanks for the gracious but straightforward response to a ministry in trouble. I’m also a sponsor of Gfa and am troubled by what I’ve read and the lack of public response the ministry has given. I, too, hope they change the way they think and act.
Jake,
My church pulled its support last week and one of the elders shared this with everyone. I know it was a hard thing to do, but I’m glad how it handled the situation.
I too read many updates on GFA especially from patheos and one friend of mine helped me to handle the situations with Grace and Love. Being a supporter it was real hard time to make decisions. A friend of mine wrote to me from India and explained things correctly as they have visited many states of India and found out that GFA stands far ahead in reaching the lost than many other ministries. She added, their Bridge of Hope program is one of the best best children program she ever came across. Iam praying for GFA that if anything gone wrong would be corrected soon .