CJ Mahaney is the former president 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 he was one of the founding pastors and leaders of Covenant Life Church. He presently is the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville.

Mahaney was born in Maryland into a Roman Catholic household, the middle child of five. He was the son of a metalworker in Takoma Park, Maryland. As a child, he was more interested in sports than God. It was a newspaper ad that motivated him to join a local prayer meeting known as Take and Give.

In 1974, aged 20, Mahaney had met Larry Tomczak, with whom he led and taught a large local prayer group. In the 1980s, Mahaney became a senior pastor.

CJ Mahaney was the president of Sovereign Grace Ministries. Mahaney was the senior pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland for 27 years before handing the senior pastor role to Joshua Harris on September 18, 2004. He has most recently planted a church on the east side of Louisville, Kentucky.

Additionally, Mahaney co-hosts the "Together for the Gospel" conference with Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan and Albert Mohler and serves on the Council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, and on the board of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

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