North Texas youth pastor charged with sexual abuse of child

NORTH TEXAS — A youth pastor at Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury has been charged with sexual abuse of a child.

Lakeside Baptist Church announced on June 2 that the congregation had been notified that 41-year-old youth pastor Luke Cunningham had been suspended after church leadership learned from outside sources that he had been accused of inappropriate behavior toward minors at another church.

The church launched an investigation and said within days it had enough evidence to fire Cunningham. It also shared the results of its investigation with local and state law enforcement.

On Wednesday, Cunningham was arrested by U.S. Marshals near Lubbock.

Lakeside Baptist Church said it was not aware of any assaults on its students and that it stands firmly against clergy sexual abuse. Church leaders said they “want to do everything possible to encourage national leaders to take their spiritual responsibility, identify perpetrators in the churches and prevent this from happening again.”

“We believe that if the Southern Baptist Convention had a functioning database of offenders, we probably would never have encountered Mr. Cunningham,” the church said in a statement.

Cunningham was booked into the Lubbock County Jail and is being held on $200,000 bail.