Mahaney and SGM have been dumped by Mahaney's home church, his flagship church, Covenant Life in Gaithersburg, MD. After nearly two years of leadership problems with Mahaney--known to us as "Old Baldy"-- along with the recent class action lawsuit against Mahaney and several SGM clerics over sex abuse coverups, the parent mega-church split ties. Those who've followed the SGM-Mahaneygate debacle are not surprised. Mahaney's little startup in Louisville, KY, as per the picture below, doesn't look like it's doing too well. People have caught on to the Baptacostalist and narcissistic mountebankdom. Here's an article from "The Courier Journal," the home paper for Louisville, KY...not exactly a good advertisement for Sir Mountebank Mahaney.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20121219/NEWS01/312190149?fb_action_ids=504377036274194&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_ref=artsharetop&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%22504377036274194%22%3A556689131026046%7D&action_type_map=%7B%22504377036274194%22%3A%22og.recommends%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%22504377036274194%22%3A%22artsharetop%22%7D
C.J. Mahaney of Louisville gives the sermon during the Sovereign Grace Church worship service at Christian Academy in Louisville. Sept. 30 2012 / Pete Rodman/Special to The Courier-Journal
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20121219/NEWS01/312190149?fb_action_ids=504377036274194&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_ref=artsharetop&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%22504377036274194%22%3A556689131026046%7D&action_type_map=%7B%22504377036274194%22%3A%22og.recommends%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%22504377036274194%22%3A%22artsharetop%22%7D
Sovereign Grace loses another church
Maryland congregation cites leadership conflicts
The congregation sings along during the Sovereign Grace Church worship service at Christian Academy in Louisville. Sept. 30 2012 / Pete Rodman/Special to The Courier-Journal
C.J. Mahaney of Louisville gives the sermon during the Sovereign Grace Church worship service at Christian Academy in Louisville. Sept. 30 2012 / Pete Rodman/Special to The Courier-Journal
A Maryland megachurch, which was the cradle and flagship of Sovereign Grace Ministries for almost three decades, has become the latest to leave the Louisville-based denomination amid conflicts over its leadership and direction.
The decision, approved by 93 percent of voting members of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md., was announced Sunday.
It’s the latest milepost in 11/2 years of conflict involving Sovereign Grace Ministries. Seven smaller congregations have left the denomination in recent months.
Even before Covenant Life left, leaders of Sovereign Grace Ministries relocated its offices and pastor-training program from the Gaithersburg church’s building to Louisville. It also has launched a new pastor-training program in cooperation with Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Sovereign Grace and its president, C.J. Mahaney, are prominent in the multidenominational New Calvinist movement, as is Southern Seminary. The movement emphasizes God’s grace over human free will in saving sinners, as well as church discipline, strong pastoral authority and male leadership in homes and churches.
But former members have criticized Sovereign Grace Ministries for what they call an unhealthy emphasis on sin and heavy-handed control of members’ lives.
In a public statement, Covenant Life pastors did not specify their disagreements but cited a “growing clarity” in the past year that “our differences with the leadership of SGM make it difficult for us to remain as a member church.”
But both Covenant Life and Sovereign Grace officials said they wished each other well and cited the pain of severing once-seemingly inseparable entities and people.
“We are grateful to Covenant Life Church for their significant contribution to the mission of Sovereign Grace Ministries for the past three decades and are indebted to them for the role they played in the founding of SGM, for hosting our Pastors College the past 14 years and for the many ways we have partnered together in our common mission,” Sovereign Grace Ministries spokesman Tommy Hill said in a statement.
“We believe this gospel partnership has been extraordinarily fruitful, which makes it all the more difficult to see it end,” Hill added. “Though no longer in formal association as we would prefer, we nevertheless remain inseparably linked together in the same gospel mission for the glory of God and pray for continued fruitfulness for both as we pursue this mission in the days ahead.”
Covenant Life Church pastors’ statement echoed the sentiment:
“We are united by faith in the same Lord, a bond that is not and cannot be broken. We are sincerely thankful for the vital role the leadership and churches of SGM have played in helping us be a church that treasures the gospel."
Covenant Life officials have declined to comment at length publicly, saying they wanted to keep the deliberations among church members.
But blogs that monitor Sovereign Grace have posted a transcript of a November talk by Covenant Life pastor Joshua Harris in which he said denominational leaders viewed challenges as signs of disloyalty, made major decisions without consulting churches and had a pattern of “minimizing the seriousness of the issues of the past” rather than repenting and reforming.
In all, Covenant Life Church claims 3,965 members.
Mahaney was a founder of Covenant Life in 1982 and later groomed Harris to succeed him — a relationship they once compared with that of the biblical apostle Paul and the younger Timothy.
Sovereign Grace and Covenant Life leaders began to diverge publicly after the July 2011 release of documents compiled by a former colleague of Mahaney, alleging dictatorial and unaccountable leadership by Mahaney.
Mahaney disputed many of the claims but stepped aside for several months until the denomination found him fit to return to ministry. An outside group of mediators reported this year that, while some people value their experiences in Sovereign Grace churches, others had been hurt by a harsh emphasis on sin.
Both the church and the denomination have also been implicated in a lawsuit filed against Sovereign Grace Ministries in October in Maryland that alleges the church created a culture of fear and unquestioning obedience that allowed sexual abuse by members to persist.
Before the recent departures, the denomination claimed about 28,000 members in about 90 churches worldwide, most in Atlantic coastal states.
Mahaney is also leading the denomination’s first congregation in Kentucky, Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville.
The congregation began meeting at Christian Academy of Louisville’s English Station campus this year and announced it will begin meeting at the Louisville Marriott East in January.
The decision, approved by 93 percent of voting members of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md., was announced Sunday.
It’s the latest milepost in 11/2 years of conflict involving Sovereign Grace Ministries. Seven smaller congregations have left the denomination in recent months.
Even before Covenant Life left, leaders of Sovereign Grace Ministries relocated its offices and pastor-training program from the Gaithersburg church’s building to Louisville. It also has launched a new pastor-training program in cooperation with Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Sovereign Grace and its president, C.J. Mahaney, are prominent in the multidenominational New Calvinist movement, as is Southern Seminary. The movement emphasizes God’s grace over human free will in saving sinners, as well as church discipline, strong pastoral authority and male leadership in homes and churches.
But former members have criticized Sovereign Grace Ministries for what they call an unhealthy emphasis on sin and heavy-handed control of members’ lives.
In a public statement, Covenant Life pastors did not specify their disagreements but cited a “growing clarity” in the past year that “our differences with the leadership of SGM make it difficult for us to remain as a member church.”
But both Covenant Life and Sovereign Grace officials said they wished each other well and cited the pain of severing once-seemingly inseparable entities and people.
“We are grateful to Covenant Life Church for their significant contribution to the mission of Sovereign Grace Ministries for the past three decades and are indebted to them for the role they played in the founding of SGM, for hosting our Pastors College the past 14 years and for the many ways we have partnered together in our common mission,” Sovereign Grace Ministries spokesman Tommy Hill said in a statement.
“We believe this gospel partnership has been extraordinarily fruitful, which makes it all the more difficult to see it end,” Hill added. “Though no longer in formal association as we would prefer, we nevertheless remain inseparably linked together in the same gospel mission for the glory of God and pray for continued fruitfulness for both as we pursue this mission in the days ahead.”
Covenant Life Church pastors’ statement echoed the sentiment:
“We are united by faith in the same Lord, a bond that is not and cannot be broken. We are sincerely thankful for the vital role the leadership and churches of SGM have played in helping us be a church that treasures the gospel."
Covenant Life officials have declined to comment at length publicly, saying they wanted to keep the deliberations among church members.
But blogs that monitor Sovereign Grace have posted a transcript of a November talk by Covenant Life pastor Joshua Harris in which he said denominational leaders viewed challenges as signs of disloyalty, made major decisions without consulting churches and had a pattern of “minimizing the seriousness of the issues of the past” rather than repenting and reforming.
In all, Covenant Life Church claims 3,965 members.
Mahaney was a founder of Covenant Life in 1982 and later groomed Harris to succeed him — a relationship they once compared with that of the biblical apostle Paul and the younger Timothy.
Sovereign Grace and Covenant Life leaders began to diverge publicly after the July 2011 release of documents compiled by a former colleague of Mahaney, alleging dictatorial and unaccountable leadership by Mahaney.
Mahaney disputed many of the claims but stepped aside for several months until the denomination found him fit to return to ministry. An outside group of mediators reported this year that, while some people value their experiences in Sovereign Grace churches, others had been hurt by a harsh emphasis on sin.
Both the church and the denomination have also been implicated in a lawsuit filed against Sovereign Grace Ministries in October in Maryland that alleges the church created a culture of fear and unquestioning obedience that allowed sexual abuse by members to persist.
Before the recent departures, the denomination claimed about 28,000 members in about 90 churches worldwide, most in Atlantic coastal states.
Mahaney is also leading the denomination’s first congregation in Kentucky, Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville.
The congregation began meeting at Christian Academy of Louisville’s English Station campus this year and announced it will begin meeting at the Louisville Marriott East in January.
I hate to admit this, but I live near Gaithersburg, MD, and don't know squat about this Sovereign Grace Church.
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