| C.J. Mahaney | |
|---|---|
CJ Mahaney at the Together for the Gospel Conference |
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| Born | September 21, 1953 |
| Residence | Gaithersburg, Maryland, U.S. |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Pastor |
| Religion | Christian |
| Denomination | Sovereign Grace Ministries |
Charles Joseph Mahaney is the former leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries (formerly People of Destiny International or PDI co-founded with Larry Tomczak), a network formed to establish and support local churches, and was one of the founding pastors and leaders of Covenant Life Church, in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
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CJ Mahaney is the leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries. CJ used to be the head pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. After pastoring there for 27 years he stepped down and handed the senior pastor position to Joshua Harris on September 18, 2004. He handed over the church to Harris so that he can devote his time to Sovereign Grace Ministries. He formerly served on the Council of Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and on the board of the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.[1]
In June 2011 he voluntarily took a leave of absence for self examination after charges of "various expressions of pride, unentreatability (inability to accept correction), deceit, sinful judgment, and hypocrisy" were leveled against him by a former Sovereign Grace pastor.[1][2][3] His leave occurred in the wake of revelations from a former top Sovereign Grace pastor who distributed hundreds of pages of e-mails and internal church documents that portrayed Mahaney as focusing on the sins of others below him in the church hierarchy. The documents showed evidence that Mahaney had threatened the movement's co-founder with making private family details public if the man were too openly critical of Sovereign Grace after he left.[4] 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."[5] Mahaney remains on staff at Sovereign Grace ministries. Since stepping down as the leader of the denomination, a Christian reconciliation firm has been called in to help determine Mahaney’s future and whether to create a new structure for dealing with conflicts in the church.[4]
He currently co-hosts the Together for the Gospel conference with Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan and Albert Mohler[6] and serves on the Council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals,[7] and on the board of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.[8]