Everyday thousands of children are being sexually abused. You can stop the abuse of at least one child by simply praying. You can possibly stop the abuse of thousands of children by forwarding the link in First Time Visitor? by email, Twitter or Facebook to every Christian you know. Save a child or lots of children!!!! Do Something, please!

3:15 PM prayer in brief:
Pray for God to stop 1 child from being molested today.
Pray for God to stop 1 child molestation happening now.
Pray for God to rescue 1 child from sexual slavery.
Pray for God to save 1 girl from genital circumcision.
Pray for God to stop 1 girl from becoming a child-bride.
If you have the faith pray for 100 children rather than one.
Give Thanks. There is more to this prayer here

Please note: All my writings and comments appear in bold italics in this colour

Thursday, 3 July 2025

More Wolves Among the Sheep - Julie Roys > Steve Lawson - Inappropriate relationship; CEO MorningStar resigns; Two-timing, murdering Pastor gets Life - in Prison, not Eternity

 

Pastor & The Master’s Seminary Dean Steve Lawson Fired from Church for ‘Inappropriate Relationship’ With a Woman

By Julie Roys, The Roys Report

September 19, 2024

5:45 pm CDT

Pastor Steven Lawson has been removed from Trinity Bible Church in Dallas due to an "inappropriate" relationship with a woman. (Video screengrab)


Steve Lawson, Lead Preacher of Trinity Bible Church of Dallas and Dean of D.Min. studies at John MacArthur’s The Master’s Seminary, has been removed from his church due to “an inappropriate relationship” with a woman, Trinity announced today.

“Steven J. Lawson has been removed indefinitely from all ministry activities at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas,” Trinity announced on its website around noon Central Time today. Shortly before posting, the church also sent an email announcement to its congregation.

“Several days ago, the elders at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas were informed by Steve Lawson of an inappropriate relationship has had with a woman,” the elder announcement added. “The elders met with Steve and will continue to come alongside him and pray for him with the ultimate goal of his personal repentance. Steve will no longer be compensated by Trinity Bible Church of Dallas.”

The announcement also reminded readers “that we are ALL sinners” and that Christ’s church “is bigger than any fallen man.”

“The Lord was building Trinity Bible Church of Dallas well before Steve became our Leader Preacher, and He will continue to build this church long after Steve Lawson, or any other man for that matter,” the elders said.

Your tax-deductible gift supports our mission of reporting the truth and restoring the church. Donate $50 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you can elect to receive “Not So Sorry: Abusers, False Apologies, and the Limits of Forgiveness” by Kaya Oakes, click here.


Pastor Steven Lawson preaches at Trinity Bible Church in Dallas, Texas. (Video screengrab)

The Roys Report (TRR) reached out to Trinity for additional comment and clarification about whether the woman involved with Lawson was a member of the congregation or staff at Trinity. The church did not reply by time of publication.

Lawson had been scheduled to deliver the sermon last night at the opening session of the Men of the Word Conference hosted by The Master’s Seminary (TMS), but was replaced by HB Charles. A pinned post on the X account of TMS still lists Lawson as a speaker at the event.

How does a man stand before a crowd like that and preach, knowing he is living in sin? Is there no fear of God in his doctrine?

TRR reached out for comment to TMS, where Lawson also serves on the board, but did not immediately hear back. Lawson was listed as a dean at TMS’s website but was removed in the late afternoon.*

Lawson is the founder and president of OnePassion Ministries “and has dedicated his life to help biblical expositors bring about a new reformation in the church,” the ministry’s website states.

The website also says Lawson is the author of 33 books and is a teaching fellow and board member at Ligonier Ministries.

The Roys Report (TRR) reached out to Ligonier for comment but did not immediately hear back. However, Lawson’s page at Ligonier’s website has been removed.

Trinity Church has also removed the disgraced pastor from its website.

Lawson’s contentious history

Prior to coming to Trinity Church, Lawson pastored churches in Arkansas and Alabama for more than three decades.

In 1995, Lawson began pastoring Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama, according to The Alabama Baptist.

However, in 2003, Lawson and “the entire full-time ministerial staff, including their assistants, as well as the organist and the pianst (sic), resigned.” The reason cited for the mass resignations was a “difference in theological beliefs about predestination between the pastor and some church members.”

A staff member at another Baptist church in town told The Alabama Baptist that Lawson and some of his church members had disagreed for years. But Lawson decided to leave when more than 300 people signed a petition calling for his resignation.

Bill Whitfield, a part-time minister at Dauphin Way Baptist told the newspaper that Lawson was a “five-point Calvinist who believed in double-predestination”—the doctrine that God chooses some people to be saved and others to be damned.

Whitfield added that the expository preacher lacked a “compassionate spirit” and believed anyone who disagreed with his beliefs “could not comprehend the gospel.”

Lawson then planted another church in Mobile with those who followed him from Dauphin Way, Christ Fellowship Baptist Church.

After about a decade, Lawson left Christ Fellowship Baptist Church and moved to Dallas, where he eventually became a teaching pastor at Trinity Bible Church, which launched in 2018.

Close friendship with John MacArthur

For decades, Lawson has been not only a colleague but a close friend of author and pastor John MacArthur, who’s also known for his doctrinal dogmatism.

When MacArthur pulled out of Ligonier Conference in March 2022, about 10 days after TRR reported that MacArthur had protected a child abuser and shamed the abuser’s wife, Lawson posted a picture golfing with MacArthur on Instagram.

Lawson has called MacArthur “the greatest influence on my preaching” and also referred to MacArthur as the “greatest expositor of our day.”

At a TMS conference in 2020, Lawson was even more effusive, saying, “It seems that in every generation, there is one man who is uniquely positioned to have the dominant voice in the church. . . . I really believe in the 21st Century that it is John MacArthur who has been raised up by God in an unprecedented manner.”

Lawson holds a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary and a DMin from Reformed Theological Seminary.

According to his website, Lawson is married and has three sons and one daughter.

And they must be so proud of him!

*After we published this story, TMS removed Lawson from its website. We have updated our story accordingly.

Julie Roys is a veteran investigative reporter and founder of The Roys Report. She also previously hosted a national talk show on the Moody Radio Network, called Up for Debate, and has worked as a TV reporter for a CBS affiliate. Her articles have appeared in numerous periodicals.


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President of MorningStar Resigns, Then Admits Sexual Misconduct



Chris Reed, CEO and president of the prophetic ministry MorningStar, resigned Tuesday, telling The Roys Report (TRR) it was because he’s “standing on the side of victims,” who are suing the ministry. But Wednesday, after TRR confronted him with allegations he pursued a woman sexually in 2021, Reed admitted sending the woman “terrible” sexual texts and kissing her.

Reed still maintains he resigned because of the lawsuit filed August 7 against MorningStar, alleging that the ministry mishandled child sex abuse by a former volunteer leader, Erickson Lee. The alleged abuse occurred before Reed became MorningStar CEO. And Reed said he doesn’t want to be “the face of” a ministry engaged in a legal battle.

However, in the wake of the resignation, TRR learned of the allegations of sexual misconduct in 2021 and was able to contact the woman involved. At the time of the misconduct, Reed, who’s married and has six children, was the pastor of MorningStar Fellowship Church and in line to become CEO of MorningStar.

The woman, who asked TRR to use only her first name, Kathryn, was seven years younger than Reed and a student at MorningStar where Reed was a leader. (TRR has a policy of not naming alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse, unless they request otherwise. Experts consider any sexual involvement between a person in spiritual authority and someone under him abuse because of the power differential.)

“I sorely regret it,” Reed told TRR. “I take full responsibility for it. It wasn’t her fault at all. I’m fully, fully to blame.”

chris reed morningstar

Pastor Chris Reed prays for attendees at a Morningstar Ministries’ Youth On Fire event in spring 2024. (Video screengrab)

Kathryn told TRR that Reed started the relationship with a prophecy about her. The two then met frequently alone in Reed’s van during November and December 2021. Reed would often kiss her, Kathryn said, and one encounter included Reed touching her genitals. Reed also sent her “vulgar” texts, she said.

“I felt very bright and shiny that I was being given attention by the great Chris Reed,” Kathryn told TRR. “We kissed all the time . . . He said things that a man of honor, even with his wife, should not have said.”

Reed told TRR on Tuesday that the relationship involved texting only and claimed he stopped it and decided to set a boundary.

Similarly, TRR spoke Tuesday with MorningStar Founder and Chairman Rick Joyner, who will be taking over as MorningStar CEO. Joyner didn’t think the relationship “crossed any kind of a line.” He added that he met with Kathryn about the matter and made sure she was okay.

“We thought it had gone far enough that it needed discipline and restoration, and boundaries set with female students,” Joyner said Tuesday. “Chris was all for it. I think Chris handled it in the best way it could’ve been done.”

morningstar rick joyner chris reed
On Dec. 8, 2022, Morningstar Ministries Founder Rick Joyner and then-President Chris Reed appear on “The Jim Bakker Show” for a joint interview. (Video screengrab)

However, on Wednesday, when confronted by TRR with the woman’s allegations, Reed admitted he met Kathryn alone in a public parking lot, where they only hugged. When TRR asked if they also kissed, Reed said yes, but denied any kind of sexual touching.

“There was no sexual encounter,” he said. “She’s never seen me unclothed or touched me unclothed. I’ve never seen her unclothed or touched her unclothed.”

TRR called Joyner on Wednesday for comment, as well, but he did not respond.

Kathryn said she’s speaking up now because she believes in a good God.

“It’s not about me; it’s about the Lord,” she said. “It’s about the goodness of God.”

Kathryn shared the private Facebook messages Chris initiated with her in November 2021, showing Reed pursued her and called her more “special” than other students. He also prophesied over her, asked for her class schedule, gave her his personal cell phone number, and asked if she had a tattoo.

Both Kathryn and her mom, Karen, who also asked to be identified by only her first name, told TRR that Kathryn disclosed the matter, including sexual texts to several MorningStar leaders in February 2022, with Karen also present. Kathryn said she no longer has the phone with the sexual texts on it.

Karen, who brought her kids to MorningStar because she believes God led them there, said she hopes revealing this now will lead to redemption and restoration for all.

“We want (Reed) to get the healing and restoration he needs and also (Kathryn),” Karen said. “I’ve always been about getting people the resources they need so they can be fully restored.”

morningstar
MorningStar Fellowship Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina. (Photo via social media)

Reed told TRR he became MorningStar’s CEO in March 2023, a year after originally scheduled because of his misconduct. Reed said he stepped down from public preaching for a short time but continued in other leadership responsibilities at MorningStar throughout 2022.

Reed also said he publicly told the church that he’d done something “wrong” but didn’t go into specifics.

“Here’s what I told the church, ‘I take full responsibility for it. There was a situation in my life where I needed the grace of God. It did not involve sex or money or notoriety, but it was still wrong and I had to talk to my elders in my life and be accountable about it,’” Reed said.

Lawsuit prompts resignation

Initially, Reed sent a cryptic letter to staff Tuesday, announcing his resignation, which he admitted “may come as a surprise, and perhaps even a shock, to some of you.”   

He added, “There are many reasons behind this choice, but primarily, after three years of serving here, including over a year as CEO and President, I have come to realize that I cannot continue in this role.

“My calling has always been, and remains, to prophesy, pastor, teach, preach, and write.  That is why I have made the decision to return fully to what God has called me to.”

At least he is one step ahead of Steve Lawson.

Later on Tuesday, Reed told TRR he resigned because of the lawsuit. When TRR asked if he resigned due to any allegations made about Reed, he added that he wanted to be transparent about a texting relationship “several years ago.”

morningstar
Erickson Lee (Photo: York County Sheriff’s Office)

The lawsuit against MorningStar was filed August 7 in the York County Sixteenth Judicial District in South Carolina. It alleges that Erickson Lee, who led MorningStar’s “Young Special Forces” ministry for young teenage boys from 2019 to 2022, abused multiple children tied to the ministry. 

The alleged abuse happened before Reed took over from Rick Joyner as MorningStar CEO.

Reed told TRR Tuesday, “I don’t want to be involved in being the face of a ministry and answering questions about a legal battle that didn’t involve me. I walked away with nothing because I won’t fight against minors who were abused . . . I’m standing on the side of victims.”

One of the alleged victims, called “John Doe,” and his parents are suing Lee, Lee’s father Doug Lee, MorningStar Fellowship Church, Rick Joyner, former MorningStar VP Dave Yarns, and 10 unnamed MorningStar staff or ministry associates. The suit alleges that multiple leaders, including Joyner, failed to tell staff or students about allegations against Erickson in early 2023.

“Erickson Lee was quietly asked to step down,” the suit alleges. “Morningstar, Joyner, Yarns, and Doug Lee allowed a predator to run a church youth organization for years and then when caught, they tried to cover it up.”

Lee, who was a former Marine on his way to being a cop, ran the program “with little supervision,” the suit states. Soon, Lee gave Doe alcohol, vapes, and pornography, and took boys on overnight trips, according to the lawsuit.

On one trip, “Erickson Lee then forced the boys to get naked in front of him and then take a shower together,” the suit alleges. It adds that Lee began sexually abusing Doe when Doe was 14.

Last year, Lee was arrested by the York County Sheriff’s Office  Special Victims Unit for dissemination of obscene material to a person under the age of 18, assault and battery, and criminal sexual conduct.

Joyner called the lawsuit’s accusations against the ministry “outrageous” in a statement MorningStar emailed to TRR and also posted, but later removed, from MorningStar Ministries’ app.

“They alleged many outrageous things about the ministry that are not true,” Joyner wrote in the statement. “None of the leaders of MorningStar were charged with anything or were in any way involved in this.”

Alleged use of prophecy to perpetrate abuse: ‘There is something special on you’

According to Kathryn and her mother, Karen, Reed’s sexual predation was a betrayal by someone both women looked up to as a spiritual leader.

Karen said she prayed for 10 years about moving her family to the MorningStar community. Kathryn remembers she was 17 when she began attending MorningStar Fellowship Church.

“I had my first prophetic experience there,” Kathryn said. “Everything with my spiritual mentoring started at MorningStar.”

Kathryn went to several prophetic conferences over the years, including the Advanced Prophetic Conference in 2020 where Reed spoke.

When Reed moved to MorningStar in 2021 to pastor and prepare to take over from Joyner as CEO, Kathryn said she finally met Reed for the first time. She said she gave him a prophetic word about a book he was writing.

A few months later, on Nov. 7, 2021, Reed private messaged her on Facebook, opening the conversation with a prophecy about her.

“I really wanted to tell you that I felt today you came throw (sic) rough season successfully at some point,” he wrote in a private Facebook message. “But I see you getting a second wind and gaining traction for your destiny.”

chris reed morningstar
Pastor Chris Reed speaks at a Morningstar Ministries’ Youth On Fire Conference in October 2023. (Photo: Facebook / blurred for privacy)

A few texts later, Reed said she was special.

“I’ve got to know a few of the students,” he wrote. “But I think there is something special on you.”

That same day, he also asked her age, her class schedule, told her he would be taking over from Joyner as CEO, and told her to reach out anytime. Two days later, he said he saw her and sensed she was struggling. Then he gave her his personal phone number, telling her not to share it with anyone else.

“I can’t extend my time personally to everyone,” he wrote. “But I feel like I am for you.”

She said he later asked her to store his number in her phone under a different name.

She would later see his prophecy, texts, and other spiritual conversations with him as “manipulation” that quickly escalated to a physical relationship.

“He gave me this false word of knowledge . . .” she said. “Then I got sucked in and the manipulation started.”

He sometimes sent Kathryn money, which she verified by showing TRR a Dec. 21, 2021, gift of $250 from Reed in her cash app. When he visited her class, she said he’d text her and tell her she looked “sexy.” He used the Bible to explain the temptation.

“The thing that started getting me concerned is when he would start justifying the relationship,” she said. “He would compare himself to David in the Bible.”

She also shared a Dec. 8 journal entry with TRR in which she said she’d “fallen in love with a man who was already spoken for.” 

“I’ve compromised my moral compass and given into my flesh over and over again,” she wrote. “I’m a foolish woman. I wish I could write his name, but I cannot.”

Meanwhile, Karen said she saw Kathryn texting with Reed often and pried for more information, until Kathryn disclosed more details.

Kathryn told TRR that after the sexual touching in Reed’s van, she and Reed started pulling away from each other. By late December, they mutually decided to end things but not tell anyone.

But in February, two MorningStar leaders, Justin Perry and Tom Hardiman, called Kathryn in for a disciplinary meeting, Kathryn said. She said she had struggled with addiction and had a marijuana joint in her car that she’d smoke to help with her anxiety.

Kathryn hadn’t intended to share with them what had happened with Reed but ended up telling them about the kissing in the car and van. She said she also showed them sexually explicit text messages from Reed, including one in which she said he wanted to tie her to a bed and do sexual acts to her. Karen attended the meeting with the leaders too and confirmed this with TRR.

chris reed
Chris Reed (Photo: Instagram)

Neither Perry nor Hardiman immediately returned messages TRR sent them asking for comment. Hardiman now directs MorningStar’s Fellowship of Ministries. Perry is no longer an employee.

A few days later, Joyner invited Kathryn and Karen to meet with him, Perry, and Hardiman to explain what happened. Kathryn said she disclosed all but the genital touching to Joyner.

Karen said Joyner was compassionate to her daughter, offering her counseling money.

“But he did say, ‘Either you trust us or you don’t,’” Karen said.

Despite the allegations, Joyner resigned as MorningStar CEO in 2023, and Reed assumed the top leadership role.

Kathryn said she hadn’t intended to speak publicly.

“I have held my tongue for almost three years,” she said. “You know when you’re waiting and you’re praying and it’s almost like you’re waiting on a breakthrough for so long, you kind of forget about it?”

But she said when TRR called her Wednesday following an anonymous tip, she believed it was an invitation from God to finally speak.

“I feel like God woke me up this morning in preparation for your phone call,” she told TRR. “It was like, ‘Oh hey, my daughter, put your armor on this morning. Let’s go.’”

Correction 8/30: A detail regarding the 2021 relationship between Kathryn and Reed was clarified for accuracy.

Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.

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Pastor Who Strung Along Two Girlfriends and Killed One on His Wedding Day Will Spend Life in Prison



A Georgia pastor, who strung along two girlfriends for a decade and murdered one of them on his wedding day, will spend the rest of his life in prison, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled last week.


William Pounds
, the former pastor at King’s Chapel Memorial Church, in Perry, Georgia, was convicted in 2015 of killing Kendra Jackson, a 46-year-old, divorced mother of three. The Supreme Court of Georgia reviewed the case and ruled last week that the “evidence presented at trial was sufficient to support the conviction for malice murder.”

According to the trial testimony, Jackson and Pounds met in early 2000 and were in a long-term relationship. But in 2005, Pounds met and became romantically involved with another woman, Vicinda Crawford.

“Pounds was repeatedly able to convince each woman that he had left the other and wanted to be with her,” the ruling stated. For the next decade, Pounds became engaged to each woman, sometimes to both at once, court documents show.

For the next 10 years, Pounds juggled his relationships with both women until May 31, 2015, the ruling states.

That’s when Pounds’s church was hosting “Pastor Appreciation Day,” and the cheating pastor brought Jackson with him to church. But Crawford came separately to church to surprise him and discovered Pounds’ ongoing relationship with Jackson, the ruling states.

On June 12, 2015, Pounds was set to marry Crawford. But on that day, his other girlfriend, Jackson, was found dead of a gunshot wound.

Pounds told investigators that an upset Jackson had grabbed Pounds’ .40-caliber Springfield Armory pistol from his bedroom dresser and fatally shot herself in the head, after learning he was marrying Crawford, according to The Macon Telegraph.

But evidence at trial showed another version.

Crime-scene reconstruction and blood-pattern analysis agents testified there was “no evidence that Jackson had the gun in her hand” and “fired the fatal gunshot.” 

There was also testimony that Pounds had hit Jackson and given her a black eye. Plus, there were discrepancies in Pounds’ statements on how Jackson was shot.

In an earlier version, Pounds claimed Jackson shot herself, while the two wrestled over the gun. Later, Pounds said he was trying to take the gun away from Jackson when she was shot.

At trial, the prosecution called into question Pounds’ use of a Bible during the trial.

“Perhaps he should have spent more time reading his Bible instead of juggling two fiancées,” said prosecutor Jason Martin, The Macon Telegraph reported.

During his sentencing, Judge Howard Z. Simms said, “Mr. Pounds — and I’m not gonna dignify you by calling you Rev. Pounds, you didn’t earn that — you are a liar. You are a manipulator. And frankly, you are an outright charlatan . . . (and) I don’t believe that the truth is in you,” the Macon Telegraph reported.

Sheila Stogsdill is a freelance print journalist and digital reporter, primarily covering crime issues for KSN/KODE.





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