Five women have accused Jerry Finchum, the 51-year-old senior pastor of Lee's Summit Baptist Temple in Missouri, of sexually abusing them as teenagers or young adults, according to an investigation by The Roys Report. The allegations put the church's response in focus: the outlet reported that a concern was brought to church leadership in 2018, but the congregation elected Finchum senior pastor five years later and he remains in the pulpit. The women described unwanted touching and attempts to pressure them into sexual conduct, the outlet reported.
The accusations, detailed in a report from The Roys Report, describe a pattern stretching back nearly two decades. One woman told police Finchum attempted to have sex with her multiple times when she was 22 years old and living in the Finchum home. Another said their sexual relationship, which she said he convinced her to enter, lasted several years. A third alleged Finchum climbed into her bed wearing a condom, and one woman reported genital touching at the church multiple times over several years. Most of the accusers were members of Finchum's youth ministry, according to the outlet, and at least one was in her early 20s at the time.
One woman told The Roys Report she began working in the church daycare at age 16 and said Finchum touched her breasts after pressuring her to let him draw on her belly with neon paint. The outlet reported that she told another student, who alerted then-senior pastor Fred Allen. The woman said Allen told her he would handle the situation and would not discuss it further. She said the abuse began in 2016 and that the concern reached church leadership in 2018—five years before the congregation elected Finchum senior pastor.
What Missouri law requires of clergy
Missouri's general child-abuse reporting law lists covered ministers and child-care workers as mandated reporters and requires an immediate report when they have reasonable cause to suspect a child has been or may be abused or neglected; it also says an internal investigation cannot begin before a report is made, according to Missouri Revised Statutes Section 210.115. Section 352.400 exempts privileged communications made to a minister in the minister's professional capacity. The allegations described here do not establish whether a report was made under the law or whether an exception applied.
A Brief Leave, Then Back to the Pulpit
After the 2018 report, Finchum was reportedly required to apologize to the congregation and take a month off from ministry, according to The Roys Report. He returned to leading the youth ministry. The outlet reported that Finchum described his actions as harmless flirting and denied that anything sexual had taken place; it also reported that church leaders did not take the allegations seriously.
Isabel Hubbard told The Roys Report that Finchum asked her to show him self-harm injuries during counseling and that his conduct also included unwanted touching and attempts to kiss her. Hubbard said the experience left her with nightmares and wary of men in positions of power.
Megan Maggard told The Roys Report that Finchum tried to convince her nothing was wrong. She and her family left Lee's Summit Baptist Temple within a week of confronting him. Maggard and Sarah Simpson later identified several other women who said Finchum had sexually abused them as minors. Maggard and Sarah Simpson connected with other women and went to police.
Police Investigated, but No Grand Jury Case
The Lee's Summit Police Department investigated the allegations in 2026, according to The Roys Report. A September police report obtained by the outlet described allegations dating back to 2007. Finchum declined to take a polygraph test and declined to speak with police, the report states.
Court records cited by The Roys Report show the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office declined to bring the case to a grand jury for indictment; the records do not explain why. The outlet also reported that at a March 15 deacon meeting, Finchum said he had evidence disproving most of the allegations but did not share or describe it. According to the report, no deacons present asked further questions.
Chloe Snyder, a former church member who spoke to police, said congregants are discouraged from questioning church leadership. The report also notes that Finchum's wife, Carrie Finchum, has been married to him for 30 years and directed the church's now-defunct daycare program.
Part of a Broader Reckoning in Southern Baptist Churches
The allegations surface amid a years-long reckoning within the Southern Baptist Convention over abuse by clergy and church workers. In May 2022, the denomination released a 205-page list of ministers and church workers credibly accused of sexual abuse, which an independent investigation found leaders had known about for decades while largely keeping the reports secret, according to St. Louis Public Radio. The SBC described the list's release as an initial but important step toward reform.
That list included eight Missouri ministers, as reported by the Missouri Independent. Among them was Robert Michael Black, a former St. Joseph pastor who pleaded guilty in 2011 to attempted child enticement after soliciting sex from a police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl, and Joseph Edmund Conger, a former pastor in Cole Camp and Climax Springs convicted in 2009 of statutory sodomy involving a teenager. Dale Gregory Johnson, a former youth director at Parkade Baptist Church in Columbia, pleaded guilty in 2016 to sodomy and child pornography charges, while Travis Smith, a pastor at First Baptist Church in Stover, received a four-year prison sentence that same year following convictions for statutory rape and other charges involving multiple victims, per St. Louis Public Radio's reporting.
What changed after the SBC investigation
Southern Baptist Convention messengers approved recommendations in June 2024 that included establishing the Ministry Check website and creating a permanent home for abuse prevention and response, according to Baptist Press.
In February 2025, Religion News Service reported that Executive Committee head Jeff Iorg said the proposed Ministry Check database was “not a focus” for the committee.
