Blogs that monitor Sovereign Grace have posted a transcript of a November talk by Covenant Life pastor Joshua Harris in which he said denominational leaders viewed challenges as signs of disloyalty, made major decisions without consulting churches and had a pattern of “minimizing the seriousness of the issues of the past” rather than repenting and reforming.

A Maryland megachurch, which was the cradle and flagship of Sovereign Grace Ministries for almost three decades, has become the latest to leave the Louisville-based denomination amid conflicts over its leadership and direction.

The decision, approved by 93 percent of voting members of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md., was announced Sunday.

It’s the latest milepost in 11/2 years of conflict involving Sovereign Grace Ministries. Seven smaller congregations have left the denomination in recent months.

Even before Covenant Life left, leaders of Sovereign Grace Ministries relocated its offices and pastor-training program from the Gaithersburg church’s building to Louisville. It also has launched a new pastor-training program in cooperation with Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Sovereign Grace and its president, C.J. Mahaney, are prominent in the multidenominational New Calvinist movement, as is Southern Seminary. The movement emphasizes God’s grace over human free will in saving sinners, as well as church discipline, strong pastoral authority and male leadership in homes and churches.

But former members have criticized Sovereign Grace Ministries for what they call an unhealthy emphasis on sin and heavy-handed control of members’ lives.

In a public statement, Covenant Life pastors did not specify their disagreements but cited a “growing clarity” in the past year that “our differences with the leadership of SGM make it difficult for us to remain as a member church.”

But both Covenant Life and Sovereign Grace officials said they wished each other well and cited the pain of severing once-seemingly inseparable entities and people.

“We are grateful to Covenant Life Church for their significant contribution to the mission of Sovereign Grace Ministries for the past three decades and are indebted to them for the role they played in the founding of SGM, for hosting our Pastors College the past 14 years and for the many ways we have partnered together in our common mission,” Sovereign Grace Ministries spokesman Tommy Hill said in a statement.