Betrayed: More Details About Steve Lawson’s Double Life Revealed
Additional details are becoming known concerning the adultery and recent disqualification of former Trinity Bible Church pastor Steve Lawson. According to inside sources speaking to Protestia on condition of anonymity, the fixture in conservative, reformed evangelicalism was “living a double life in the heart of the reformed community.”
The young woman Lawson developed an “inappropriate relationship” with is an alumnus of The Master’s University (TMU). However, the two did not meet because of Lawson’s role as head of the Doctor of Ministry program at The Master’s Seminary (TMS, which resides inside Grace Community Church, 17 miles south of the university), but due to her attendance at the church that housed the seminary where Lawson taught. Lawson served on the board of TMU, but this appears unrelated to his relationship with the woman, who had attended Grace Community Church as a child with her family, moved away, and returning to the area to attend college at TMU.
According to witnesses close to the situation, the young woman’s family was close to Lawson and supportive of his ministry. Lawson accepted the lead preacher position at Trinity Bible Church in Dallas around the same time the young woman graduated from TMU, and Lawson’s time away from home teaching expository preaching at TMS (as well as his frequent traveling for preaching appearances and conferences) provided both the proximity to the young woman and the distance from family needed to engage in what amounted to not just an affair but a secret second life that reportedly saw him paying for travel for the young woman to rendezvous with him during ministerial trips.
While Trinity Bible Church and the various ministries Lawson was involved with (his OnePassion Ministries, The Master’s Seminary, Ligionier, G3, etc.) have been relatively silent on the particular circumstances of Lawson’s affair, what appeared to be his immediate firing from ministry and his material’s swift removal from the internet is likely the end of a months-long investigative process, as inside sources report that the illicit nature of the relationship between Lawson and the young woman was suspected as early as March.
Reports have publicly circulated of whistleblowers reporting their concern with Lawson’s interaction with the young woman only to face retaliation from authorities at both Grace Community Church and The Master’s University, but Protestia has yet to confirm the validity of such claims.
Any evidence that affiliated ministries or staff at Grace Community Church knew about Lawson’s double life has yet to materialize, yet Grace to You Executive Director Phil Johnson recently offered details that Protestia has been able to confirm from other insider sources, including the age of the woman, the length of the affair, and that she currently lives “nowhere close” to any of the ministries where Lawson served. It has yet to be confirmed whether or not Lawson and the young woman have ended their relationship, but she was not under Lawson’s instruction at either the Master’s University or the Master’s Seminary and was a legal adult at the time the adulterous relationship began. At this time, Protestia is choosing to keep the young woman’s identification private per her family’s wishes.
It is our ongoing position that repentance, healing, and closure for those harmed by Lawson (particularly in light of his apparent swift removal from public ministry) requires more transparency than what has been offered to date. This is a developing story.