C. J. Mahaney

Last updated

C.J. Mahaney
CJ Mahaney Pastor.jpg
Born (1953-09-21) September 21, 1953 (age 70)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationPastor
SpouseCarolyn
Religion Reformed Christianity
Church Sovereign Grace Church

Charles Joseph Mahaney is an American Christian minister. He is the senior pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, and was formerly president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, now known as Sovereign Grace Churches. He was one of the founding pastors and leaders of Covenant Life Church, in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Contents

Under Mahaney's leadership, Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville is a member of Sovereign Grace Churches and works with the Southern Baptist Convention for training and Christian mission work. Mahaney resigned from the presidency of Sovereign Grace Ministries in 2013 in order to plant Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville.

A 2012 class-action sex abuse lawsuit was filed against Sovereign Grace Ministries and listed Mahaney as a defendant. The lawsuit was dismissed due to the statute of limitations; Mahaney released a public statement explicitly denying all claims in the suit. [1] [2]

Biography

Early life and career

Mahaney was born in Maryland into a Catholic household, the middle child of five. He was the son of a metalworker in Takoma Park, Maryland. [3] As a child, he was more interested in sports than God. [3] Mahaney attended Springbrook High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. He reports having been converted to Protestantism in 1972 at age 18 by a friend who shared his faith. He says that a newspaper ad motivated him to join a local prayer meeting known as Take and Give, which evolved into Covenant Life Church. [3]

In 1974, aged 20, Mahaney had met Larry Tomczak, with whom he led and taught a large local prayer group named Tag And Give (TAG) started by Lydia Little. He says his only reading in theology at that time had consisted of the Bible and The Late, Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. [3]

C.J. Mahaney And Pastor Richard Kline after an early C.J. Mahaney speaking engagement circa 1974 at a Tag And Give (TAG) youth outreach at Homewood Rec Center, Wheaton MD Cjmahaneyandpastorkiline.png
C.J. Mahaney And Pastor Richard Kline after an early C.J. Mahaney speaking engagement circa 1974 at a Tag And Give (TAG) youth outreach at Homewood Rec Center, Wheaton MD

In 1977, Mahaney became senior pastor of what had evolved into Covenant Life Church. He cites his reading of the works of 19th century Baptist leader Charles H. Spurgeon and the Reformed theology of John Calvin as influences. [3]

Mahaney was the senior pastor of Covenant Life Church for 27 years before handing the senior pastor role to Joshua Harris on September 18, 2004. In 2012 he planted a church on the east side of Louisville, Kentucky. [4]

Voluntarily leave of absence

In June 2011 Mahaney voluntarily took a leave of absence for self-examination after charges were leveled against him by a former Sovereign Grace pastor. [5] [6] [7] His leave occurred in the wake of accusations from a former top Sovereign Grace pastor who distributed hundreds of e-mails and internal church documents that portrayed Mahaney as focusing on the sins of others below him in the church hierarchy. After Mahaney's departure, the Sovereign Grace board gave a strong vote of confidence to him, saying that he is "a qualified minister of the gospel and this board approves his pastoral and teaching ministry." [8] After an extensive outside review by Ambassadors of Reconciliation [9] of the charges brought against him and affirmation of the Sovereign Grace board, [10] Mahaney continued to serve as president of Sovereign Grace Ministries. Covenant Life Church, the church Mahaney co-founded and pastored for 27 years left Sovereign Grace Ministries. [11]

Class action lawsuit and aftermath

In 2012, a class action lawsuit was filed against Sovereign Grace Ministries alleging that leaders including Mahaney covered up child sexual abuse. [12] [13] The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in May 2013. The Maryland Court of Appeals also dismissed the case after finding that the Plaintiff's lawyer had filed the appeal too early. [2] Since the case was dismissed, a former volunteer at CLC, Nathaniel Morales, 56, was convicted of sexually abusing three young boys between 1983 and 1991. During the trial, Mahaney's brother-in-law, former pastor Grant Layman, admitted that he did not report sex abuse claims to authorities but tried to handle it within the church. [14]

Mahaney co-hosted the Together for the Gospel conference with Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan and Albert Mohler. [15] It was announced that he was pulling out of the 2014 T4G due to ongoing lawsuits against Sovereign Grace Ministries. [16] He returned in 2016 but withdrew again in 2018. [17]

In February 2016, Mahaney was the subject of a Washingtonian magazine article, titled The Sex Scandal That Devastated a Suburban Megachurch - Inside the Rise and Fall of Sovereign Grace. [18]

Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville

Mahaney is currently the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, a church he planted in the fall of 2012 with Bob Kauflin, Brian Chesemore, Jeff Purswell, and Gary Ricucci. He resigned from the presidency of Sovereign Grace Ministries in April 2013 while planting the church. [4]

Personal life

Mahaney met Carolyn Layman in the 1970s, while he was teaching at Take and Give and she was working as a secretary at a Christian conference ministry in Sarasota, Florida, and they soon married. Mahaney has one son and three daughters.

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reformed Baptists</span> Baptists who hold to a Calvinist soteriology

Reformed Baptists, Particular Baptists and Calvinistic Baptists, are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology. Depending on the denomination, Calvinistic Baptists adhere to varying degrees of Reformed theology, ranging from simply embracing the Five Points of Calvinism, to accepting a modified form of federalism; all Calvinistic Baptists reject the classical Reformed teaching on infant baptism as a sign and seal of the covenant of grace. The first Calvinistic Baptist church was formed in the 1630s. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith is a significant summary of the beliefs of Reformed Baptists. The name "Reformed Baptist" dates from the latter part of the 20th century to denote Baptists who retained Baptist ecclesiology, and reaffirmed Reformed biblical theology, such as Covenant theology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Piper (theologian)</span> American pastor and writer (born 1946)

John Stephen Piper is an American Baptist theologian, pastor, and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Piper taught biblical studies at Bethel University for six years (1974–1980), before serving as pastor for preaching and vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church (Converge) in Minneapolis for 33 years (1980–2013).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Harris (author)</span> American writer, former pastor

Joshua Eugene Harris is an American former Evangelical Christian pastor. Harris' 1997 book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, in which he laid out his ideas concerning a Biblically based Christian approach to dating and relationships, helped shape purity culture for many Christian millennials. Harris was lead pastor of Covenant Life Church, the founding church of Sovereign Grace Ministries, in Gaithersburg, Maryland from 2004 until 2015. In 2018, Harris disavowed I Kissed Dating Goodbye and discontinued its publication. The following year, Harris announced that he was separating from his wife, had "undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus" and had given up on his Christian faith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sovereign Grace Churches</span> Network of Protestant churches

Sovereign Grace Churches is a group of Reformed, neocharismatic, evangelical and confessional Christian churches primarily located in North America. It has variously been described as a family of churches, a denomination, and an apostolic network. It has also been described as a cult, due to its unorthodox teachings, systemic control of members, and allegations of covering up child sex abuse. As well as the North American congregations, there are also congregations in Australia, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Great Britain, Germany and Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Covenant Life Church</span> Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, US

Covenant Life Church is a non-denominational, evangelical megachurch in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Established in 1977, it spawned other churches and was the flagship church of Sovereign Grace Churches until it left the group in December 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Mohler</span> American evangelical theologian (born 1959)

Richard Albert Mohler Jr. is an American evangelical theologian, the ninth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and host of the podcast The Briefing, where he daily analyzes the news and recent events from an evangelical perspective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Baptist Church (Hammond, Indiana)</span> Church in Indiana, United States

The First Baptist Church of Hammond is an Independent Fundamental Baptist megachurch in Hammond, Indiana, a suburb of Chicago. It is the largest church in the state of Indiana, and in 2007 was the 20th largest in the United States. Though founded in 1887 by Allen Hill, it was under Jack Hyles' leadership from 1959–2001 when it became one of the megachurches in the United States and during the 1970s had the highest Sunday school attendance of any church in the world. In 1990, the church had a weekly attendance of 20,000. It also operates Hyles-Anderson College, a non-accredited institution established for the training of pastors and missionaries, and two K-12 schools, called City Baptist Schools and Hammond Baptist Schools. John Wilkerson is the senior pastor at First Baptist Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Driscoll</span> American pastor and author (born 1970)

Mark A. Driscoll is an American evangelical pastor and author. He is the founder and primary contributor of RealFaith ministries. He is also the senior and founding pastor of Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, which was founded in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Complementarianism</span> Theological view on gender roles

Complementarianism is a theological view in some denominations of Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism, and Islam, that men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, and religious leadership. Complementary and its cognates are currently used to denote this view. Some Christians interpret the Bible as prescribing complementarianism, and therefore adhere to gender-specific roles that preclude women from specific functions of ministry within the community. Though women may be precluded from certain roles and ministries, they are held to be equal in moral value and of equal status. The phrase used to describe this is "ontologically equal, functionally different".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Dever</span> American theologian

Mark E. Dever is a theologian and the senior pastor of the Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and the president of 9Marks, a Christian ministry he co-founded "in an effort to build biblically faithful churches in America. Dever also taught for the faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge and also served for two years as an associate pastor of Eden Baptist Church in Cambridge."

Eddie Lee Long was an American pastor who served as the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a megachurch in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, from 1987 until his death in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Graham (pastor)</span> American Baptist minister (born 1950)

Jack Graham is the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.

Larry Tomczak is a Christian evangelist and author. He co-founded People of Destiny International, a network of churches, and was editor of People of Destiny magazine. Tomczak is the author of several books, most prominently Clap Your Hands!, an autobiography.

New Calvinism, also known as the Young, Restless, and Reformed Movement, is a movement within conservative Evangelicalism that reinterprets 16th century Calvinism under contemporary US values and ideologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tullian Tchividjian</span> American pastor and author

William Graham Tullian Tchividjian is a pastor and author of more than a half dozen books about Christianity and current issues, including One Way Love and It is Finished. He is a grandson of Christian evangelist Billy Graham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Birth Missionary Baptist Church</span> Church in Woodrow Road at Bishop Eddie L. Long Parkway Stonecrest, United States

New Birth Missionary Baptist Church is a charismatic Christian Baptist megachurch in Stonecrest, DeKalb County, Georgia. Its senior pastor is Jamal Bryant since 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Platt (pastor)</span> American Southern Baptist pastor (1978-)

David Joseph Platt is an American evangelical Baptist pastor. He was senior pastor at the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, from 2006 to 2014. At the time he was the youngest megachurch pastor in the United States. From 2014 to 2017, Platt was president of the International Mission Board. He became pastor-teacher at McLean Bible Church in 2017. He is the author of the 2010 New York Times Best Seller Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darrin Patrick</span> American author and pastor (1970–2020)

Darrin Patrick was an American author and teaching pastor at Seacoast Church in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a pastor of The Journey, a fellowship of churches in St. Louis, Missouri, which he founded in 2002. He served as the chaplain to the St. Louis Cardinals and was the author of several books. A prominent figure within New Calvinism, he was the vice-president of the Acts 29 Network, an international church planting organization, and a council member of The Gospel Coalition.

Matt Chandler is an American Baptist evangelical Christian pastor. He is the senior pastor of Village Church, based in Flower Mound, Texas and the executive director of the board of the Acts 29 Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Together for the Gospel</span>

Together for the Gospel (T4G) was a biennial conference for Christian leaders. It was formed in 2006 by Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, C. J. Mahaney, and Albert Mohler. These men were all associated with the New Calvinism movement although they differed on issues such as baptism and charismatic gifts. The first conference also included John Piper, John F. MacArthur, and R. C. Sproul as speakers. The stated aim of the conference was to "encourage and aid ministry leaders with three days of biblical preaching, fellowship, books, and singing." It was held in Louisville, Kentucky. Other speakers included Matt Chandler, Kevin DeYoung, and David Platt.

References

  1. Mahaney, CJ. "A Statement from CJ Mahaney". Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Lee, Morgan (July 1, 2014). "Sovereign Grace Sex Abuse Case Appeal Dismissed by Maryland's Court of Special Appeals". The Christian Post . Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Keeping their eyes on the cross". The Washington Times. December 23, 2002. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville". sgclouisville.org. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
  5. Peter Smith (July 12, 2011). "Mohler backs Mahaney, dismisses claims of abusive leadership". Courier-Journal. Archived from the original on January 19, 2013. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
  6. Why I'm taking a leave of absence Archived September 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , C. J. Mahaney's blog
  7. Lillian Kwon (July 11, 2011). "C.J. Mahaney Takes Leave Over Charges of Pride, Hypocrisy". Christian Post. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
  8. "Sovereign Grace Ministries Board of Directors Announcement". Archived from the original on March 19, 2015.
  9. "Ambassadors of Reconciliation's report on Sovereign Grace Ministries". Archived from the original on May 22, 2012.
  10. "Board Update: Response to Ministry Recommendations". Archived from the original on May 12, 2013.
  11. Jeff Schapiro (December 20, 2012). "Maryland Megachurch Secedes From Sovereign Grace Ministries". The Christian Post.
  12. Allen, Bob (November 19, 2013). "Mahaney, Mohler share speaker platform". Associated Baptist Press . Archived from the original on December 10, 2013. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
  13. Bailey, Sarah Pulliam (May 24, 2013). "Evangelical leaders stand by pastor accused of abuse cover-up". Religion News Service .
  14. "Megachurch Pastor Confesses to Protecting Child Molester for Years". www.christianpost.com. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
  15. "The People & History : Together for the Gospel". T4g.org. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
  16. "CJ Mahaney Drops Out of 2014 Together for the Gospel Conference Due to Sovereign Grace Lawsuit". Christian Post . July 2, 2013.
  17. Allen, Bob (March 8, 2018). "Haunted by old lawsuit, C.J. Mahaney withdraws from Together for the Gospel confab". Baptist News Global . Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  18. Stanley, Tiffany (February 14, 2016). "The Sex Scandal That Devastated a Suburban Megachurch". Washingtonian. Retrieved February 15, 2016.

Further reading