Covenant Life Church
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. History Covenant Life Church had its roots in a citywide charismatic prayer meeting called Take and Give (TAG) which ran from 1970 to 1979. TAG began as a small Bible study led by Lydia Little, a Washington, DC area resident who had experienced the Jesus People revival in California and wanted to see similar renewal brought to local young people. TAG continued to grow in numbers with the Tuesday night meetings moving from the Blair High School auditorium to a larger auditorium space at Christ Church of Washington. Larry Tomczak and C.J. Mahaney became the main teachers with Jim Orban (eventual son-in-law of Lydia Little) leading worship and a number of other young people taking on other leadership responsibilities as the group grew. At its largest point TAG attracted over 2,000 people, primarily young attendees under the age of 25. In 1977 a small group of people (55 at the first meeting, many of whom were TAG attendees) began to gather in the basement of a suburban Maryland home. Simultaneously, the TAG ministry began to wind down and met for the last time in December 1979. The young church called itself Gathering of Believers. As it grew in size, it met in different schools and facilities around Montgomery County. For a couple of years the church held services at the Cedar Club building on Muncaster Mill Road. It then shifted to a decentralized model with separate groups meeting in College Park, Gaithersburg, Silver Spring, and Wheaton. In the mid-'80s the groups consolidated as Covenant Life Church and met together at Magruder High School. In September 1993 the church opened its new facility on a 45-acre campus located at 7501 Muncaster Mill Road. It expanded to its current size and unique worship space in 2002 under the planning of Dennis Kowal Architects of Somerville, New Jersey. The initial church group practiced "co-equal" leadership with a highly participatory congregation. Church life centered on numerous small groups meeting in member homes. Over the first few years Larry Tomczak and C. J. Mahaney increasingly assumed larger leadership roles. C.J. became lead pastor of the church while Larry provided leadership for a growing association of churches that were either planted by Covenant Life (13 churches in multiple states) or "adopted" on the basis of shared doctrinal convictions and relational ties. Originally called People of Destiny International, the association's name changed over time to PDI, then Sovereign Grace Ministries, and finally to Sovereign Grace Churches (2014). In the early '90s C.J. was selected to lead the association of churches in addition to his responsibilities as senior pastor of Covenant Life. Tomczak relocated to Atlanta in 1996 to plant a new church and left the association by 1998. He later stated that the increasingly Calvinistic theology was a major factor in this