Former Texas youth pastor charged with sexual abuse of child

A former Texas youth pastor appeared before a Lubbock County judge on Thursday on charges that he sexually abused a child.

Luke Cunningham, 41, a former student pastor at Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, was arrested by U.S. Marshalls on Wednesday, according to a Lubbock County Jail boarding sheet.

Cunningham is accused of inappropriate conduct toward a minor who is not a member of the Lakeside Baptist Church, the church said in a statement.

He has since been fired from Lakeside Baptist.

Before Lakeside, Cunningham served as student pastor at Turning Point Community Church in Lubbock from 2016 to 2020, according to published reports.

Emails to Turning Point seeking comment were not answered.

However, in a statement from Lakeside Baptist Church, church leaders said they “immediately reported Cunningham to Texas authorities in Lubbock and Granbury.” The statement added that the church had informed other church leaders and urged anyone with direct information to contact police.

Lakeside church leaders said they were “not aware of any assault on any of our students. We want to reiterate that we are ready to continue to offer help with professional counselors,” the statement said.

The statement also targeted the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) failure to develop a sex offender database. As previously reported The Roys Report (TRR), an SBC task force tasked with implementing anti-abuse reforms concluded its work last week without publishing a single name in a database of abusers.

“Lakeside Baptist Church stands firmly against clergy sexual abuse. We believe that if the Southern Baptist Convention had a functioning database of perpetrators, we probably would never have encountered Mr. Cunningham,” the statement said.

“We intend to do everything possible to encourage national leaders to fulfill their spiritual responsibility, identify perpetrators in the churches and prevent such incidents from happening again,” the statement said.

Lakeside Church officials said they plan to re-evaluate their processes and implement even stricter procedures.

Court officials said Cunningham appeared in court Thursday and bail was set at $200,000.

Lakeside Baptist informed its congregation of the allegations against Cunningham on June 2.

“Upon learning of the allegation, we immediately suspended Mr. Cunningham, barred him from contact with the church and students, and launched an investigation,” the statement said.

Lakeside Baptist Church leaders “concluded within days that there was sufficient evidence to refer him to the Human Resources Committee, which promptly terminated him from his employment.”

According to the church’s statement, Lakeside Baptist Church is working with MinistrySafe, adding that pastors and lay leaders are assessing the events that led to the current crisis so that we can provide the best possible protection for our children and members.

“We ask that you join us in praying for the victims of clergy sexual abuse, that perpetrators will repent of their grave evil and be brought to justice, and that you will pray for all the families and churches that have been harmed,” the statement said.

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