Rick Holland Joins the Hall of Shame

It has been nearly two years since I wrote an article about seven celebrity pastors who made their way to C.J. Mahaney’s runaway church plant in Louisville, KY.  These men all delivered sermons at Mahaney’s church – apparently happy to utilize their celebrity status in an attempt to bolster the severely listing ship of Sovereign Grace Ministries and C.J. Mahaney.  If you have been reading my blog you will know that C.J. Mahaney was the leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries during the time period that SGM leadership was doing their best to cover-up a purportedly large scandal of sexual abuse of children in their churches.  Mahaney claimed, and still claims, ignorance of the whole situation, but a child of 3 could detect his Clintonesque lie.

Since the time I wrote my initial article on the shameful seven who preached at Mahaney’s runaway church plant much more evidence has come to light, all very damning to Mahaney and his group of sychophants. Included is the conviction and sentencing to 40 years in prison of Nathaniel Morales.  Morales worked with the youth at Covenant Life Church and sexually abused numerous boys.  His actions became known to church leadership, but they chose not to alert law enforcement, leaving Morales to continue abusing children.  Grant Layman, brother in-law of C.J. Mahaney and a former pastor at Covenant Life Church, testified to this under oath at the Morales trial.  Joshua Harris, who took over duties as senior pastor from Mahaney, also recently admitted this in an interview with the Washington Post. Harris has since resigned from his position of senior pastor at Covenant Life Church.  He decided after 11 years of service it might be wise to get an education.  The decision to step down may be driven by more than a need for education, but time will reveal whether that is the case!

There is now such a preponderance of evidence in this case that any individual with a lick of common sense would rightly wonder how a “man of God” could, with a clear conscience, accept an invitation to preach at C.J. Mahaney’s church.  Yet there seems to be a handful of  men with consciences sufficiently seared that are willing to make the trek to Louisville.

Rick Holland is one such preacher.  One can only guess at Holland’s motives.  He may say he is standing up for his friend, but I would suggest a true friend of Mahaney’s would advise him to resign from the ministry.  My guess is Holland has a burning desire to become one of the big name celebrities – you can detect it in his tweets and the conferences he organizes and speaks at.  Being a friend of Mahaney’s  used to propel one to celebrity status on the conference circuit. Not anymore.  Mahaney is damaged goods.  It seems nobody has gotten the word out to Rick Holland though, and he apparently is not bright enough to figure it out.  Celebrities like Mark Dever, Al Mohler, John Piper and John MacArthur all used to be vocal supporters of Mahaney, but even though they have never retracted their endorsements of the man, they seem to be doing all they can to distance themselves from him, at least publicly.

Back in June of 2014 Mahaney spoke at a conference organized by Rick Holland.  I, along with numerous others, wrote the conference organizers urging them not to have Mahaney as one of the speakers.  Below is my email.  I never received a response or even an acknowledgment of receipt. As a matter of fact I have a friend, Steve, who managed to have a phone conversation with Holland prior to the Anchored Conference. He attempted to dissuade Holland from having Mahaney as a speaker.  He was obviously unsuccessful. During the course of the conversation Holland told Steve he had never received an email from me, so Steve forwarded him a copy.