Steve Lawson Breaks His Silence: ‘I have Sinned Grievously Against the Lord, Against my Wife, my Family’
Six months after being removed from “all ministry activities” by Trinity Bible Church in Dallas, Steve Lawson has released a public statement concerning the “sinful relationship with a woman not my wife” (his words) that led to his removal, confirming earlier reporting. The statement follows months of calls for a public statement of some kind and confirms the reporting Protestia and others have provided since the scandal broke.
In the statement, Lawson claims repentance for his sin and indicates that he is under the shepherding of two pastors, the elders of a local congregation, and an “accountability team” to counsel him concerning “the decisions [he has] to make. Lawson indicates he is “involved in the life of the church” he is attending, including regular attendance and participating in the Lord’s supper during what he is describing as a “recovery season.”
Notably, Lawson’s letter does not discuss disqualification from future vocational/pastoral ministry, nor does it discuss how his ongoing “recovery season” and participation with another church squares with the claims that he was an actual church member of Trinity Bible Church as was claimed by some but specifically refuted by Protesia.
He writes in full:
It is with a shattered heart that I write this letter. I have sinned grievously against the Lord, against my wife, my family, and against countless numbers of you by having a sinful relationship with a woman not my wife. I am deeply broken that I have betrayed and deceived my wife, devastated my children, brought shame to the name of Christ, reproach upon His church, and harm to many ministries.
You may wonder why I have been silent and largely invisible since the news of my sin became known. I have needed the time to search my own soul to determine that my repentance is real.
I alone am responsible for my sin. I have confessed my sin to the Lord, to my wife, and my family, and have repented of it. I have spent the past months searching my heart to discover the roots of my sin and mortifying them by the grace of God. I hate my sin, weep over my sin, and have turned from it.
My sin carries enormous consequences, and I will be living with those for the rest of my life. Over the years, many have looked to me for spiritual guidance, and I have failed you. I beg for your forgiveness.
I have been undergoing extensive counseling for the last five months to face the hard questions I need to address. I have dealt with sin issues that have been painfully exposed in my heart. I have submitted myself in weekly accountability to two pastors and to the elders of a local congregation, who have shepherded my soul. I am also under the oversight of an accountability team who monitor my progress and give me wise counsel in the decisions I have to make.
I am growing in grace, reading and absorbing the Word of God, putting it into practice, praying, and meeting with other believers. I am involved in the life of the church, attending and participating in prayer meetings, Sunday school, the worship service, and taking communion weekly. I am being fed the Word in the mid-week Bible study. Please pray for my spiritual growth into Christlikeness as I follow Him moment by moment during this recovery season.
I am grateful for the unmerited grace of God in the gospel to extend His full forgiveness to me. Again, I ask for your forgiveness as well.
While I continue to do the hard work of soul-searching repentance, I do not intend to make further public comments for the foreseeable future.
Please pray for the Lord’s mercy and grace as I seek to make right the deeply wrong sins I have committed against my wife and family, and that in His time and way He will bring about redemption and restoration in our marriage, for His glory.
Steven Lawson
About Author
Did he reject the false gospel of Calvinism that made him believe he was predestined to do this sin yet?
Oh shut up, plenty of Arminians commit the same sin
73 year old pastors? I doubt it. Steve Lawson did it because he believed God predestined it. Not because he was a hormone raging 20 year old.
Again with the “repentance from sin” nonsense. There is no such thing in the Bible. Ask forgiveness for your sins, yes. But “repentance” is from unbelief to belief in Christ, and that is done once. “Doing penance” for your sins is Catholicism.
Steven Andersnake only taught you that because he likes beating his wife (alledgedly).
2 Corinthians 7:9 King James Version
“9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.”
Paul is writing about making them repent of allowing a man sleeping with his father’s wife to get away with it in their church, not that they needed to repent of not believing in Jesus.
You and Steven Andersnake would I guess just let a man seep with his father’s wife because repentance from sins is a heresy to the hellbound heretics who want to go to hell.