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At its Sunday morning meeting this Lord’s Day, Covenant Life Church (CLC) in Gaithersburg, MD announced its decision to leave Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) after 30 years of intimate association. 93.3 percent of those church members who voted affirmed the decision of the pastors to leave over grave concerns for the leadership culture of SGM.
For 35 years, C.J. Mahaney considered this church the “dearest place on earth.” He was its senior pastor for 25 of those years until he turned it over to Joshua Harris in 2004. This severing represents an incredibly sad dissolution that no one ever imagined would occur in our life time. The closest of friends and colleagues have now separated.
I remember the day in August 2009 when I separated from Sovereign Grace Ministries. I had no choice but to leave my best friends and life’s work for the same reasons as Covenant Life Church – an increasingly corrupt and abusive leadership culture. My personal history with Larry Tomczak and C.J. goes back to 1978. I graduated from seminary in 1979. From then on I was linked to these men and the ministry we founded together in 1982 – Sovereign Grace Ministries. I served on the Board of Directors for 25 years.
Now, three years after my departure, Joshua Harris and th
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