A member of the board of deacons of Immanuel Baptist Church (IBC) in Little Rock, Arkansas, has called for the resignation of senior pastor Steven Smith due to alleged years-long mishandling of sexual abuse by former church employees.

In an 11-page letter, David Choate, a deacon at IBC since 2018, called on Smith to resign, stating the lead pastor has “proven himself to be untruthful and untrustworthy.” It’s the latest development in a widening sex abuse scandal that has consumed the prominent SBC megachurch over the past month, as The Roys Report (TRR) previously reported.

The letter, shared last week with the board of deacons and obtained by TRR, chronicled years of the church mishandling reported child sex abuse incidents and failure to implement robust safety policies. Choate closed the letter calling Smith “unfit to serve” because he has “failed to take appropriate action to protect Immanuel children.”

In early December, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette revealed that a former IBC employee, who was accused of sexually abusing a minor, had recently asked to have his criminal record expunged.

The employee, former IBC Assistant Director of Children’s Ministry Patrick Stephen Miller, now 37, was initially charged with second-degree assault. According to an attorney representing multiple alleged victims, Joseph Gates, who compiled relevant facts in a recent letter, Miller molested a girl in an IBC Sunday school classroom in 2015.

However, in a 2022 plea bargain, Miller pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of misdemeanor harassment and was given a one-year suspended sentence, the Democrat Gazette reported.  Miller also wasn’t required to register as a sex offender.

After hearing of the motion to expunge Miller’s record, Gates filed a victims’ response letter on behalf of his clients, objecting to the request.

According to an email from IBC to TRR, families in the church disclosed Miller’s abuse to church leaders in early 2016. Later, another family also reported abuse by Miller to IBC leaders. 

However, Smith, lead pastor since 2017, did not inform the congregation of Miller’s criminal conduct until after the media reported it. “I wish we would have told you about these crimes sooner,” Smith told congregants in a Dec. 10 service. 

The letter from deacon Choate, dated Dec. 17, 2023, also disclosed details of an inappropriate, sexual relationship between a 23-year-old female, volunteer youth leader at IBC and a teenage male. That misconduct reportedly occurred in 2020. And according to Choate, Smith withheld details of the woman’s misconduct from the congregation, putting youth at risk.

The female volunteer has not been charged with a crime, so TRR is not disclosing her name.

According to a report last week in the Democrat-Gazette, Miller’s alleged victims, and the victim of the female youth leader, say the “sexual abuse or misconduct occurred inside the church.”

On Sunday, with Choate’s letter having been circulated to some church members, Smith referred in vague terms to past incidents of the church mishandling reported sexual abuse and noted the church’s response. 

“In terms of these past immediate situations of abuse, we have an investigation that is taking place,” said Smith.

According to a Democrat-Gazette story published on Monday, the Investigation and Communication Committee of IBC consists of nine deacons and an attorney. 

Smith said from the pulpit on Sunday that this ad-hoc internal committee will “very soon” report its findings, based on “a thorough investigation and assessment of what’s happened.”

He added: “We need this investigation, and beyond investigation we need assessment.” 

A court hearing on Miller’s motion to expunge his record has been set for Feb. 1 in Little Rock.

Disputes over church safety policies

In both services on Sunday, Smith declared the day “Caring Well Sunday,” which most Southern Baptist churches recognized on Sept. 24. 

The pastor announced that IBC was adopting its denomination’s “nationally recognized” Caring Well guidelines, an initiative of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission available free to SBC churches since 2019.

“We are in the implementation phase with all of this, so thank you for your patience,” he said. 

However, previously, in an email sent to IBC members on Sept. 7, 2023, Smith had cited a separate set of safety policies as already “adopted.”

Smith had stated: “Our congregation has adopted the MinistrySafe protocols for all our programs and services for minors.”

In his letter, Choate claimed that Smith’s communication last September about the church’s safety initiatives was “an outright lie—and verifiably so.”

Choate claimed his wife, Katie Choate, an attorney and former prosecutor, had been tasked by IBC children’s ministry staff to create church child safety policies in 2014—a year prior to the first incident involving Miller.

According to Choate, IBC did not adopt the plan his wife created, citing cost as one of its reasons.

The deacon added: “As of September 7, 2023, the congregation of Immanuel had not adopted any protocols for the protection of minors, let alone the specific ‘MinistrySafe’-branded protocols that are developed and marketed by the MinistrySafe organization.” 

On Sunday, Smith did not address specific criticisms of Choate’s letter from the pulpit. Instead, he said, “I’ve already given all of my responses to the investigative person in charge of this and all of that will come out in time.”

In a statement to local media, Smith clarified that he had written “a 17-page response to Mr. Choate’s letter” and provided it to the attorney on the internal church committee.

TRR reached out to an IBC spokesperson for the pastor’s response letter or a summary of it but did not hear back. 

Mishandling of reported abuse in IBC student ministry

According to Choate, Smith also misled his congregation about the female youth leader who allegedly abused a male student.

Choate said that in August 2020, the parents of a 15-year-old church member discovered “highly inappropriate romantic text messages” between the minor and female leader.

Reportedly, Smith suspended the volunteer from her duties and “required (her) to undergo counseling.” She resumed her youth leadership role months later, the letter states. 

Subsequently, in August 2023, the woman disclosed that the relationship with the boy was physical in nature, “having been more than kissing but less than intercourse,” stated the letter. Interviews with the alleged perpetrator and victim later confirmed that the woman had sent “numerous nude photos of herself using the Snap Chat app.” (Snapchat automatically deletes photos after a few minutes.)

A month later, on Sept. 7, Smith sent an email to congregants, which contained “numerous knowingly false and/or misleading statements,” minimizing the situation, Choate claimed.

For instance, in reference to the female leader, Smith stated “We removed her from helping in the student ministry…” But she was only temporarily suspended from her youth leadership role. Smith also called the leader’s actions an “inappropriate texting relationship” without mentioning the nude photos she had sent to the minor on her team or the romantic physical advances.

“Dr. Smith’s intentional failure to tell the full truth helped to temporarily hide his own mistakes in handling the situation in 2020,” stated Choate. “But it also critically denied parents of exposed teenage boys the opportunity to talk to their children and learn if they too had been victims.” 

In September 2023, Courtney Reissig, discipleship content director at IBC since October 2021, resigned from IBC. 

In late December, she posted on Facebook that she was not informed of Miller’s abuse.

“As someone on ministry staff, I was not informed about this instance of abuse,” wrote Reissig. “My resignation was over other mishandling of situations that were equally troubling.” 

Fallout from the scandal 

A prominent figure among Southern Baptists, Smith had previously served on-staff at SBC megachurch Prestonwood Baptist in the Dallas area and held positions at two SBC seminaries, including recently at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Missouri. 

In a statement on Dec. 20, Midwestern announced Smith had resigned as professor of preaching and pastoral ministry “to focus on Immanuel Baptist Church during this season of ministry.”

IBC currently has 2,386 members, as reported to the Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC). The convention’s president, Brad Lewter, recently told media, “It seems as though things are coming out that aren’t above reproach, and we just need to get more information.” 

Lewter said he and ABSC staff are seeking answers to know if IBC is “exercising behaviors that would contradict the values” of the convention, including caring for victims of sexual abuse. 

Smith’s remarks on Sunday reflected the weight of the unfolding church response. 

“For us to heal, and for trust to be restored, I have to be able, and we have to be able, to submit ourselves to the scrutiny of any way we can be better, and anything we’ve done wrong,” he said.

Freelance journalist Josh Shepherd writes on faith, culture, and public policy for several media outlets. He and his family live in the Washington, D.C. area.