Exclusive: Steve Lawson Claims To Be Repentant, But Trinity Elders Aren’t Buying It
Former Trinity Bible Church Lead Preacher Steve Lawson claims to be repentant, according to exclusive audio of a Q&A event obtained by Protestia, but the elders at the church are not convinced, at least at the time of a church meeting a little under a month ago, and at least according to the elders.
On December 11, 2024, Trinity Bible Church held a church-wide update and fellowship time where they were provided a series of updates and announcements related to Steve Lawson, as well as ongoing capital projects, church expansions, new buildings, budgets, tithing, polity, membership, etc.
The elders of Trinity Bible Church have been tight-lipped about the circumstances and aftermath surrounding the departure of Steve Lawson, with their only public statement in the past four months saying that he’d had an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman and was “removed indefinitely.”
While this silence and vagueness has also extended to church members, many who have departed over the lack of communication and transparency from leadership about this issue, some information has trickled through, in large part due to our reporting.
In particular, we learned that Lawson, 73, was not simply involved in an inappropriate relationship that resulted in him being indefinitely removed from the church, but instead was in a long-term sexual relationship with a woman in her twenties that resulted in him being permanently disqualified. We also learned that he was not an elder of the church, never wanted to be, and had left the state, refusing to submit to church discipline.
To this end, here are some answers to questions raised during the meeting, with the transcript lightly edited for clarity and combining the voices of the elders into one.
What was a timeline of events?
When his sin was found out, Steve was compelled by the young girl’s family to come forward to the elders and confess his sin. That if he didn’t confess his sin, they were going to make the story public.
So, on a Monday evening, he contacted Kent and told him what he had done, a portion of what he had done. They had breakfast on Tuesday morning. We had an elder meeting scheduled that Tuesday evening. Kent told us what happened. Matt, Tim, and I met with Steve on Wednesday morning, about 11 o’clock, at Tim’s office down the street.
At that point, Steve confessed to us a portion of what he had done. Within 24 hours of knowing that- we had no prior knowledge. No one that we knew had any prior knowledge. None of the ministries that he was involved with had any prior knowledge. But within 24 hours of finding out what Steve had done and hearing from his own lips what he had done, we wrote the letter and made it public to the church.
The elders reveal that whereas previously they only publicly said that he was removed indefinitely, they now say he has been permanently disqualified.
He disqualified himself from the ministry, and we put that he had had an inappropriate relationship with a woman who was not his wife.
Well, since that, we also not only told him that he was relieved of all his duties, we stopped immediately any financial compensation that we were giving him.
And um, first days and weeks and as time unfolded, the elders, we have learned that Steve’s sin has permanently disqualified himself from the ministry. What he has done is beyond what a minister of God can do.
And so we, the elders, dealt with this quickly. We dealt with it biblically. We conferred with many other godly men, again to include John MacArthur.
The scope of Steve’s sin has greatly affected his family. It’s greatly affected this church. It’s greatly affected all the ministries, the seminaries that he was involved in.
Turning gears a bit, the elders say that they are unhappy with how the “internet mob” has been handling the situation, saying folks online have “invented a narrative that is most of the time not based on fact.”
That said, as an organization that has covered many statements over the years of pastors being caught up in sin, a good statement should state what happens in sufficiently clear (and not salacious) terms so that no speculation is needed, the manner in which the pastors responded to the exposure, and the clear consequences of the actions.
Trinity’s statement and subsequent silence did not meet those criteria, and this is why people have had a difficult time letting it go, particularly because Lawson wasn’t just a personal and private pastor to a local church, but instead put himself out there as a rockstar public figure traveling the world while involved in many ministries, with the church’s blessing.
The former scenario is far more private than the latter, as for better or for worse, it inexorably puts the local church at risk of having to navigate the fallout when these celebrities fail.
I can tell you this. There is no accountability program as legalistic as you could make it, that would have ever have prevented Steve from this dual life of sin that he was living. He was living a lie. He wasn’t practicing what he was preaching and he lied to everyone in his life. He kept this a secret. And so the Lord revealed it.
Then, to reinforce our previous point:
Moving forward, we will continue to update the congregation as needed. We will only yield to the scriptures and not to the mob on the internet.
We are only gonna tell you what we need to tell you.
The elders suggest that several members who have left the church have done so because they made an idol of Lawson, all without acknowledging that many have left because the elders refused to meet with them and discuss it further.
Church leadership did not name his sin or bring it before the church members until weeks after their initial announcement, after many families had left. According to our sources, families who were not in attendance on the Sunday the elders provided more details reached out to the church leadership to see what was said and what they missed, but they did not receive a reply.
We’ve had people leave the church, we’ve had people that were here because of Steve Lawson. I will tell you this: man’s heart is an idol maker. Man’s heart is an idol maker. And whenever you give a man too much attention, you hold him in too high of esteem, it’s bad for both parties. It’s bad when a man thinks that he’s anything more than a man. Cause we’re all sinners. And it’s bad for the person when you elevate someone beyond what he is and that’s simply a man.
Responding to the issue of searching for a new pastor, they say that they could not hire other pastors while Lawson was there because he impeded them.
We didn’t know this, but, and the Lord has really revealed this and sort of torn back the curtain,. Steve as well as he preaches, was the impediment for us to hire other pastors. And the Lord has removed that.
There are many men who have filled this pulpit over the years. And if I told you their names, you would know who they are. And we have asked them, for years, ‘would you ever consider being the pastor here?’ And the Lord in all that, has never opened the door.
We’ve made financial offers. We’ve been real serious about this. We’re going to continue to be serious and intentional. But there was an impediment. These men, for whatever reason, didn’t want to come. We are now in a position where we feel like the Lord….is going to bring us the right men, the right women, the right families for the ministries here. And so we ask that you would pray for that.
We are fishing in some pretty good ponds. We know a lot of people. We want a man who fits with us theologically. We want a man whose heart is after the Lord. We want a man who has the heart of a servant. We want a man who has a wonderful family. And that’s what we desire, so we would ask that you would pray for that.
The elders answer the question of whether or not Lawson was an elder of the church, confirming that he was not.
No. There was a reason why he wasn’t an elder. Number one, he didn’t want to be an elder, and we weren’t led to make him an elder.
I know that has been a stumbling block for some people, but that’s true. He was not the pastor, he was a lead preacher.
He said himself, he did not want to marry or bury. He had pastored in Mobile and he wanted to have a ministry that was more peripatetic, teaching and working at the seminary.
The meeting turns to the question of whether or not Lawson was an official, formal member of Trinity, and they affirm he was.
Both he and Anne were members. And he did go through the formal membership process, so let’s just be clear on that one.
Then a question about whether or not Trinity is considering hiring an interim pastor to replace the “clipped winged” Lawson.
I think the answer to that is we’re always open to that, but we’re looking for people that will be here full-time. And we have a group of men that have been coming and preaching, as you know. That’s been really the ethos from the very beginning, really more because of the tyranny of the urgent, and getting the work started.
And then Steve became more full-time, partly due to COVID his wings were clipped and couldn’t leave. We didn’t have any ability to fly people in. So that’s how that really came together.
So I think the answer is we’re open to that sort of thing. But we want somebody here that’s permanent, full time, dedicated. When they wake up every morning thinking about Trinity Bible Church.
Giving insight into the church’s notions of eldership and leadership, someone asks how big the church will get before they plant churches. (The church runs around 700-750 weekly, and they bought a 1600-seat campus a month before Lawson’s fall.)
They note that because they only have four people in leadership, it will be a while.
I think we’ll know when the Lord leads us that direction. What people have to remember is when you plant a church, you need leadership to go to that church plant. There’s only four of us now, so we don’t have an NIL portal where we can go get elders and send them to Forney or Saxey or someplace like that.
So there’s a lot of these things that go hand in glove. You can’t start a church without a leadership team. So I think the Lord will make that clear when the time comes. Is that fair guys?
When questioned about how they should feel about Lawson’s body of work, the elders liken Lawson’s work to that of Spurgeon.
What Steve taught was still truth…Some people are gonna throw his books away, some people are gonna read his books. That’s your decision.
If you throw away all the books of all the people that you have that are sinners, Charles Spurgeon’s books are going to be trashed too.
Because the topic of membership has been touchy, they answer a question on the process:
We’ve taken a little bit of a time out of the membership process because of what’s been going on. We’re going to kick that full swing.
When we started this, it was interesting how the process changed. When we started this, we really didn’t want anybody to become a member after months and months of being here. There seemed to be a sense of urgency that was built in as more and more people came. The whole reason why we wanted time, and we want time to go by, is because you need time in any relationship to get to know us.
And you may think we’re great one day and then six months later you may not think we’re great, and vice versa. [laughter]
You will meet with an elder at the end of the process. Some of the people have been waiting a long time. We understand it. We are going to double down on it after the first of the year.
Insisting that there’s been a lot of misinformation about church discipline and the suggestion of their lack thereof, the elders retort that they can’t drag him back into fellowship and back to the state against his will.
That they can’t force him to return to his wife if he doesn’t want to.
We would take exception to that…we sought wise counsel from men like John MacArthur and others. We dealt with his issue, this sin swiftly. We dealt with it firmly. We immediately ended his remuneration. We disqualified him and we would now say permanently from ministry.
So we don’t have, that I know in the scriptures, extradition where we can go to Tennessee and drag him back to Dallas. And I think maybe some people want him led through the streets, have tomatoes thrown at him. But we’ve dealt with this swiftly and biblically…There is no timetable in some of these biblical passages. So as time goes on, if there’s something else for us to do, we will do that.
When we exposed him, that was a discipline. And he acknowledged it. So when he says, ‘yes, I agree, and I submit to the elders,’ he has been disciplined and he has acknowledged it. The next phase is the ball is in his court to show repentance. And now he goes back to Anne to his family and others.
So he went from being a social media sensation to complete and utter silence and exile…With regard to Matthew 18, what you don’t get to see many times, and we’ve seen this in the short time that we’ve been a church, is when you enter into Matthew 18, for example, we’ve never gotten to the end of that process because the person leaves.
You understand? They leave. We don’t have to drag people up in front of the church because they’re not there anymore.
Finally, the question of whether or not Lawson is repentant. Is he contrite and broken, or is he digging his heels in?
I’ll just tell you right now, as the guy who’s closest to him. He says he’s repentant and I don’t think he is.
I’m just telling you right now. He will tell you he is, until I see him, until he goes to his wife and he
goes to his family, I don’t care who else he says he’s repentant to.
His wife who’s been married to for 43 years? Nobody else matters.
And this ‘no communication with his wife and children?’ We need to continue praying for him.
A month has passed since this meeting took place, and this represents a snapshot in time.
It is our hope and prayer that the Lord has softened his heart since then, and that he, his family, and his church family are on their way to reconciliation.
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Are your sources for the fact that the relationship was an ongoing sexual one from inside the church? Could you possibly provide any more information about the evidence these sources had to this effect?