Prominent Southern Baptist minister Steven W. Smith, who led a historic SBC congregation in Arkansas before resigning in scandal last year, has reemerged at a Houston-area megachurch.
In a video posted last week, Jarrett Stephens, senior pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church (CFBC), announced that Smith will be a featured speaker at their upcoming “Let’s Talk Preaching” intensive for pastors.
“I, along with my friend, Dr. Steven Smith . . . will lead during this time,” said Stephens. “And we’re going to take a deep dive into what text-driven preaching is and why we believe it’s necessary for today’s pastor and preacher.”
A church spokesman confirmed to The Roys Report (TRR) that Smith and his family are members of CFBC, but that Smith “is not now, nor has he ever been employed” by CFBC.
Two other prominent ministers set to speak at the CFBC pastors intensive—Tommy Nelson and Bryan Loritts—have also faced past allegations of covering up or ignoring reports of abuse.
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The Houston megachurch has dealt with its own issues of child sex abuse.
Former CFBC youth pastor Timothy Jeltema pleaded guilty to child sex crimes in 2022, as TRR previously reported. He was sentenced to five years for two charges of online solicitation of a minor, one charge of indecency with a child, and one charge of sexual performance by a child.
Last year, three women who were alleged victims of Jeltema sued CFBC and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) for negligence. In May, their suit was settled out of court under “strict confidentiality.”
Smith failed to disclose reported abuse to congregation
Smith, who previously led Immanuel Baptist Church (IBC) in Little Rock, admitted in December 2023 that he failed to disclose the alleged sexual abuse of minors by former church staff member Patrick Miller.
From 2014 to 2016, Miller, IBC assistant director of children’s ministry, reportedly fondled and sexually abused multiple elementary-age girls during church services, in a closet or other hidden location, as TRR previously reported.
Parents of the alleged victims reported their accounts to the church in March 2016. Yet Smith, who became IBC’s senior pastor nine months later, didn’t publicly disclosed the reported abuse for seven years.
During their Dec. 10, 2023, Sunday service, Smith said to the congregation, “I wish we would have told you about these crimes sooner.”
Miller pleaded not guilty last year to charges of felony sexual assault and kidnapping, reported the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and his case is ongoing.
However, a series of articles in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette revealed that Smith had also mishandled a 2020 report of sexual abuse against Reagan Gray, a church youth volunteer. Gray is accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy she met in the IBC youth group.
In May, Gray accepted a plea deal on charges of second-degree sexual assault, reported KTHV. She is required to register as a sex offender and has been given six years probation.
Last April, Smith resigned after seven years as senior pastor of IBC.
Allegations against two other ministers on conference lineup
According to sources online, in 2016, Smith served alongside Stephens on the preaching team at Prestonwood Baptist Church, a prominent SBC megachurch in the Dallas area.
Now, at CFBC in Houston, Stephens has platformed his friend Smith for the “Let’s Talk Preaching” intensive—and two other controversial ministers.
In the promotional video, Stephens introduced the conference lineup as “some of the top preachers and communicators out there.” He added, “You’ll have the opportunity to hear from men such as Tony Merida, Bryan Loritts, and Tommy Nelson, just to name a few.”
Loritts, teaching pastor at The Summit Church, a multi-site SBC congregation in Durham, North Carolina, was accused of covering up sex crimes committed by his brother-in-law, Rick Trotter. A 2021 investigation concluded that Loritts was “qualified for ministry,” despite the main questions about Loritts’s involvement remaining unanswered.
Similarly, Nelson, pastor of Denton Bible Church, a north Texas megachurch, has been accused of ignoring red flags after a former church youth pastor perpetrated sexual abuse of a minor.
Last year, Nelson retired from his church, while former junior high minister Robert Shiflet is currently serving a 33-month prison sentence for two counts of transporting a minor across state lines to engage in criminal sexual activity.
CFBC did not respond to a request for comment about the other two ministers’ inclusion at the intensive. A spokesman for the Houston church stated, in regards to Smith, that its policies “are informed by the Caring Well guidelines.”
The email linked to an SBC-published resource, The Introductory Guide to Caring Well. In its conclusion, the guide asks ministers to consider a question:
“Why would the lost trust us with a message of salvation if they are not sure if they can trust us with the safety of the vulnerable?”
Josh Shepherd is production editor at The Roys Report and a journalist who writes on faith, culture, and public policy for several media outlets. He and his family live in central Florida.
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9 Responses
I am not listening to anything he preaches.
I advise others to do the same there is no Jesus Christ in this
I knew both of these men. One of them was involved in mishandling a case I was involved in at Southwestern. That case is still ongoing. I worked with the other one at Prestonwood. Wild to see this article and to know them both.
The business of church continues! If the body would wake up and leave these Pastors and Assemblies,they would have no means of financial support.
Hear what you’re saying and though aware that there is nothing new under the sun. There seems to be good evidence that what US capitalism culture has evolved to become, ‘church businesses’ and ‘personality pastors’ are just one of the many results of this.
Though also aware that there has never really been a ‘Bedfordfalls’ scenario in the US, ‘Pottersville’ towns and cities are now quite prominent with many “churches” and “pastors” in the mix. Sanctification anyone? 🤔
This is truly a brood of vipers! People who act like goats. But who believes Jesus anyway? He plainly stated the truth about false prophets, teachers and goats who do not love others in any practical way. But who needs Jesus anyway when we got our celebrity narcissists to worship instead? They preach to us the go$pel that we prefer to the one Jesus taught! Down with Jesus! Up with those who do not give a hoot about the safety of our own children! Are we not great people! God is so impressed with us! Lets throw a bunch of Mammon at them and attend their accursed by God conferences.
A long time ago, I had an experience where I saw up close and personal a cell in hell reserved for goats. These men have no idea what they are doing! Click on my name here if you want to hear my experience. It was the most real place I have ever been, and the most sobering.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. As long is there is money to be made and people to support these goons, the behavior will be repeated over and over. I wonder how many people whose children have been abused in their own churches are tithing so that the abuser or someone that is covering for an abuser can attend this conference and learn how to “preach the word of God to a sinful world”.
Ralph, for weeks now, you’ve been promoting your personal hell ‘experience’ on this site.
Speaking for myself: Can you now entrust that I (and probably many other TRR readers) recognize that this is something of importance to you?
As well, can you entrust someone like me (who admittedly is not a TRR moderator), who beseeches: “I get it. Please stop with the personal, non-TRR promotion / revelation.”
“Ralph, for weeks now, you’ve been promoting your personal hell ‘experience’ on this site.”
He’s been promoting it since at least March 2020 on Wartburg Watch, when he reacted to COVID with Private Revelation that God sent the Plague and Pestilence to punish the churches — “For 20/20 vision, read Exodus 20:20.” Quite a dust-up in the comment threads then & there.
So I did a little search on both YouTube and the Web in general. Found that Visions of Hell testimonies were not just a dime a dozen but a dime a thousand — and none of them agreed with or resembled each other in the slightest. The only constant was Adolf Hitler was always a stop on the guided tour. If all these guys were getting tours of the same place, you’d think there’d be more agreement than that. If there’s any signal there, it’s drowned out by all the noise.
I don’t understand how any remotely thinking brother or sister can sit in these disgusting idolatry houses that call themselves “megachurches”. Whether on the theological/cultural left or right, virtually every last one is an abomination.