‘Oh yeah, you like that?’ Megachurch Pastor Brian Tome Suspended Over ‘Crotch Whipping’ Allegations

The senior pastor of one of the country’s largest churches has been suspended pending an investigation into allegations that he whipped a congregant in the crotch with a riding crop.

Brian Tome is the senior pastor of Crossroads Church, one of the fastest-growing and largest churches in America. It consists of nearly 40,000 members spread across fourteen locations in the Ohio and Kentucky area. It advertises itself as a “place for people who have given up on church but not on God.”

During the sermon yesterday, Crossroads Church co-founder and board chairman, Brian Wells, announced that Tome would be relieved of pastoral duties while the church initiated a third-party investigation into an incident that occurred in 2015, which a letter sent to members prior to the service described as “inappropriate physical humor.”

In 2024 a gentleman who’s a member of our community shared an allegation with a Crossroads staff member regarding Brian Tome in an incident that had occurred almost 10 years prior.

At that time, Brian kept a riding crop in his office that had been a gift. In November of 2015, the gentleman entered Brian’s office, saw the riding crop, and asked, what is that?

The allegation is that Brian picked up the riding cropm said “oh yeah, you like that?” And then whipped him in the crotch and then rubbed the man’s crotch with the riding crop.

Wells notes that when the staff member informed Brian of the allegation, he “immediately and very appropriately directed the staff member to contact our board with the clear direction that we should look into it and he should recuse himself from the investigation.”

A member of our board did so, culminating with a joint meeting between the man, the board member, and Brian. After the meeting, the gentleman communicated that the meeting went very well. And then in a separate meeting, the board officially admonished Brian to be mindful of the weight of his words and his actions and the need to be above reproach. We then considered the issue resolved.

It was not to last long. Earlier this week the member contacted leadership again about the same allegations, “sharing frustration with what he feels is a lack of objectivity in the process,” prompting the escalation.

Although no new information has been provided at this point, after careful review, discussion, debate, and a lot of prayer, we decided that the best thing to do for this member, for Brian, and for all of us as a church family is to commission an independent investigation to review the situation and interview all the involved parties.

…based on Crossroads protocol, in a situation that reaches this stage, the staff member, in this case, Brian, is suspended from all church responsibilities until the investigation is concluded.

Wells emphasized that “an investigation does not indicate guilt. It’s simply an organized search for the truth.”

Brian also shared a pre-recorded message from his perspective

It’s not fun. It’s not comfortable, not something I want to do, but I’m in and I’m going along with it. And Beam asked me to just share a little bit tonight from my perspective, and just so you know how I’m doing,

I’m doing fine. And so this is just heart wrenching. It’s tough. It’s- yeah, it’s not good. And I’m thankful, thankful that the independent investigation is going to happen. I’m cooperating with it. I welcome it.

And, you know, we say at staff every day: ‘Hey, it’s a great day to die. Hey, it’s great day to lay down your pride. It’s a great day to lay down your reputations. It’s great day to lay down all this stuff.’

The most important thing is we get to truth and we honor Jesus and the church in the midst of it. So I’m heartened by the steps that are being taken and wish I didn’t have to go through it, but I think the right things are happening under the direction of the board, and that’s me.

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