Compare the terms of repentance with the ones stated below by the group of 84:
We challenge you to make your life match your teaching and your doctrine. Because we have had so many conversations with you about these things over many, many years, and so that you clearly know there is a way for you to repent, we challenge you to repent in these specific ways:
Print, publicly apologize for and stop:
1) Your continued pride, arrogance and anger.
2) Your selfish ambition, seeking to be first and continually drawing attention to yourself in your sermons, your publications and your conversations.
3) Judging and condemning other churches. As pointed out in the Seattle letter to you, the slander towards the New York City Church was never repented of. Numerous other examples litter your writings and speeches.
4) Blaming other people for many of the problems you helped author that are making many of our churches weak.
5) Causing division among faithful Christians by “calling out the remnant†and starting churches where there are existing churches of disciples.
6) Recruiting people to move to Portland and dividing people from their church families in order to start new congregations in the same city.
7) Blaming other people for the problems in your own family.
8) The immoral ethics of sinning deliberately now and asking for forgiveness later.
Take these steps to turn around and guard your heart for the future:
1) Identify a group of five of your lifelong peers who have confronted you on your sin and whom you are willing to submit to for discipling your life, your heart and your ministry.
2) Use your website to promote all people, churches and messages that are biblical and that are advancing the gospel in any way.
3) Build your ministry through planting and watering in your own city. Renounce recruiting and playing politics with the ministry.
4) Regularly invite into your ministry mature brothers who know you well, will speak the truth in love and who are committed to brotherhood unity, biblical doctrine and to evangelism.
5) Publish a statement with the approval of the five brothers in your peer discipling group (see #1) affirming:
a. Your repentance and godly sorrow
b. Your commitment to cooperate with other churches who have the same convictions without your claiming a leadership role and without your having to dominate others.
c. Your commitment to each of the above on this repentance list.6) Reconcile with the churches you have offended.
So why will he listen to DA instead of the other 84? (Doug Arthur was not one of the original 84 or even the 64 from the first letter). How long will he submit himself to the Baltimore Doug’s?
In a way, I feel sorry for them – they were trying to bridge the Kip churches and the rest of the ICoC. In about two or three months, when Baltimore doesn’t grow faster than Portland or when some other criteria is not met: he’ll turn on them as well. I regret that in my own life, I usually learn things the hard way. What’s going to happen to the Baltimore Doug’s is really hard – the real faith-shattering type of hard. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.