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A Dallas pastor has been removed from his position “indefinitely” over an “inappropriate relationship” he had with a woman, according to the church’s leadership.
Lead Pastor Steve Lawson stepped down from his position with Trinity Bible Church after admitting the relationship. The church has not given any details of the relationship or identified the woman involved.
It announced on Thursday that its elders were “informed by Steve Lawson of an inappropriate relationship that he has had with a woman.”
“Lawson has been removed indefinitely from all ministry activities,” the church said in a statement. “The elders have met with Steve and will continue to come alongside him and pray for him with the ultimate goal of his personal repentance. Steve will no longer be compensated by Trinity Bible Church of Dallas.”
Before joining Trinity, Lawson was a pastor at churches in Alabama and Arkansas for 34 years, ABC 8 reports.
“We would ask for your prayers for the elders, for our Body, and for Steve and his family,” the church statement said. “Let us always be mindful of the words of 1 Corinthians 10:12: “‘Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.’”
Lawson is the latest in a string of pastors to step down over actions that were incongruous with their convictions.
The most notable of the group was Robert Morris, who resigned as the senior pastor at Southlake, Texas’s Gateway Church in June. He left his position three days after he confessed to engaging in “sexual behavior” with a child over the course of a few years in the 1980s.
Morris’s adult son, James, was set to take over the church from his father in 2025, but a “collective decision” between the younger Morris and Southlake’s elders saw him step down as well.
The same month Morris stepped down, Luke Cunningham, 41, of Granbury, Texas’s Lakeside Baptist Church was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a child, according to ABC 8. Cunningham was a former youth pastor in Lubbock.
He was immediately suspended after the charges were announced and was then fired days later when more information came to light.
The following month, Ronald Gaines, 51, who founded and led Koinonia Church in Arlington, Texas, was taken into custody in relation to an ongoing sexual assault investigation. He was charged with indecent assault and sexual assault, according to police.
Last month in Plano, Texas, Terren Dames — senior pastor at North Dallas Community Bible Fellowships — was arrested after he offered to pay a sex worker $150 for their services. He was caught in a police sting, was arrested, and charged with soliciting prostitution.
