SBC Candidate Clint Pressley's Church Reports Alleged Abuse by Volunteer

A volunteer at Hickory Grove Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in Charlotte, North Carolina, was arrested last month after church leaders learned he had been accused of abuse sexual assault by a student at the church's Christian school.

The student told church officials in April that her father, Jeffrey Riesenberg, who volunteered for the church's student ministry for a decade and served as a coach in its recreational program, had attacked. She said she did not tell other members of her family about the alleged abuse.

“Administration officials immediately reported this disclosure to Child Protective Services and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police were dispatched to begin an investigation,” said Hickory Grove Pastor Clint Pressley, currently running for office. the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention, to church members in a letter dated Jan. 1. Can.

Riesenberg was arrested and charged May 9 by the Union County Sheriff's Office with two counts of alleged abuse, according to a daily bulletin released by the Sheriff's Department.

The student and her family are well-liked in the congregation, according to Hickory Grove Executive Pastor Steve Adams, who said the church was trying to care for them in a horrible situation.

Church leaders felt it was important to tell the congregation what happened, Adams said.

“Although these alleged criminal acts did not take place at Hickory Grove Baptist Church (HGBC), HGCS, or in Mecklenburg County, we are informing you because Riesenberg has previously volunteered in our ministry student on the Harris campus from 2011 to 2021 and in our recreation ministry from 2014 to 2017.” Pressley told church members. “We further notify the families of children who may have interacted with Riesenberg in these ministries.”

In his letter, Pressley outlined the Church's policies regarding child abuse, saying all allegations of child abuse “are immediately reported to appropriate law enforcement and child welfare authorities.” , regardless of how much time has passed.” Pressley also said the church also offers sexual abuse prevention training and has told church members how to sign up.

Pressley is one of six pastors running for president of the SBC, whose annual meeting begins Tuesday in Indianapolis. The meeting will focus in part on the SBC's ongoing efforts to combat sexual abuse in its member churches.

“We do not tolerate any abusive behavior,” Pressley said in his letter. “Sexual abuse is particularly heinous. This is a despicable injustice that we condemn in the strongest possible terms. Every victim must feel that they can talk about it, report it freely, and be listened to and supported.

A series of reforms passed at SBC annual meetings in recent years have stalled. A national task force charged with implementing these reforms is expected to be disbanded next week, with several of its most important tasks remaining incomplete. Task force leaders said in a report last week that progress has been made at the local level, with churches increasingly aware of the need to take abuse prevention seriously and more likely to know what to do when abuse occurs.

Pressley is not the first SBC presidential candidate to address the issue of abuse in his own congregation. In 2022, Florida pastor Willy Rice, then a leading candidate, withdrew from the race after news broke that a deacon at his church had a history of “sexual sin that could also be described as abusive.” . Rice recently claimed that concerns about abuse were exaggerated and that the abuse crisis had been “hijacked” by liberal activists.

An Arkansas SBC pastor resigned earlier this year after months of controversy over alleged abuse at a prominent Little Rock church. In that case, a former staff member was arrested for alleged abuse, but church leaders did not tell the congregation for years.

Bob Smietana is a national reporter for Religion News Service.