Embattled Sovereign Grace Leader Has Close Ties to Mohler, Southern Baptist Seminary

July 18, 2011 2:55 AM

The student audience listened with rapt attention at the February chapel service at Louisville's Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as their speaker slowly and emotionally enunciated his words, gesturing broadly as he warned against "the temptation to be puffed up."

"Pride "is the harsh reality of remaining sin in our lives," said C.J. Mahaney, the leader of a Maryland-based network of churches called Sovereign Grace Ministries, as well as a financial backer of the seminary and a close ally of its president, Albert Mohler.

But even as Mahaney spoke, a crisis was brewing in his ministry over precisely the vice he spoke so passionately against.

For months a former ministry colleague had been writing to church leaders, accusing Mahaney himself of pride, dictatorial conduct and "spiritual abuse" by doling out harsh criticism he was unwilling to receive himself.

"C.J. you must come to grips with the lack of honesty in your life," wrote the minister, Brent Detwiler, a former North Carolina pastor who resigned from the Sovereign Grace movement in 2009.

The crisis erupted last week, when Mahaney took a leave of absence as president of Sovereign Grace.

The charges "are not related to any immorality or financial impropriety, but this doesn't minimize their serious nature," the Sovereign Grace board said in a July 7 statement. They include allegations of "pride, ... deceit, sinful judgment, and hypocrisy," the board said.

Mahaney himself said in a statement he disagreed with some of the specifics of Detwiler's charges but that "God is disciplining me for my sin and leadership failures."

Sovereign Grace Ministries has nearly 100 churches worldwide, predominantly on the East Coast and none in Kentucky or Indiana.

While Sovereign Grace says it plans an independent investigation, Mohler is dismissing the charges against Mahaney.

"I always have had only the highest estimation of C.J. Mahaney as a man and a minister," he said in an interview, adding that the documents show Mahaney "is human but a deeply committed Christian."

SOURCE: Courier-Journal

Peter Smith