SBC pastor pleads guilty following federal investigation into seminary abuse

North Carolina pastor Matt Queen faced federal criminal charges for falsifying records in May, following a Justice Department investigation into SBC-affiliated Southwestern Seminary.
Weeks before the trial scheduled for November, Queen agreed to plead guilty to making false statements to federal investigators. The maximum sentence could be more than a year in prison.
Outstanding questions in the federal investigation involve other former Southwestern Seminary administrators involved in an alleged cover-up of abuse allegations.

The first Southern Baptist pastor to face a federal criminal charge related to an abuse investigation has pleaded guilty to a felony, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Matt Queen, currently a pastor in North Carolina and former interim provost of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, has reached a plea deal ahead of a trial in the case in the U.S. Southern District of New York . The trial was scheduled to begin on November 13.

Queen’s guilty plea, to making false statements to federal investigators, carries a maximum sentence of more than a year in prison, according to sentencing guidelines. More importantly, although federal investigators have not officially closed their investigation into SBC-affiliated agencies, called entities, Queen’s guilty plea is so far the only tangible result to emerge from an investigation that some originally hoped it would lead to broader prosecutions. .

Queen, whose charges stemmed from his actions while serving as interim provost for Southwest, was not immediately available for comment in a request sent through his attorney, Sam Schmidt.

Southwestern Seminary released its own set of statements on Queen’s guilty plea Wednesday in response to a request for comment.

“From the beginning, Southwestern Seminary has cooperated fully with the Department of Justice in its investigation into sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention,” the statement said. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to continue to do so.”

Queen’s plea is important to the Nashville-based SBC because ministers and leaders affiliated with the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and its agencies, called entities, have not faced federal criminal charges over the clergy abuse crisis during convention.

Federal prosecutors charged Queen in May with falsifying records to conceal an abuse report, an incident that occurred after federal officials began investigating the SBC and its entities. At this point, employees of SBC entities were not expected to cover up new reports of abuse.

The accusation against Queen stems from a meeting between Queen, Southwest Dean Terri Stovall, and former Southwest Chief of Staff Heath Woolman on January 26, 2023, when Woolman asked Stovall to destroy evidence related to a report of abuse. Queen’s memories and documentation of this meeting changed over the course of various interviews with FBI agents. Queen was ultimately completely honest about her memories of that January 26, 2023 meeting and admitted to fabricating contemporaneous notes about that meeting.

Southwestern’s statement Wednesday included a statement from Stovall.

“All of my actions in this matter were motivated by a desire to do what was right for an alleged victim, even if that meant opposing the malicious actions of Queen and other men who are now former employees but occupied positions of authority at the time,” Stovall said. “I am grateful for the diligence of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in holding Queen accountable for her criminal actions.”

Woolman, currently senior pastor of Fruit Cove Baptist Church in St. Johns, Florida, has not faced any criminal charges and Fruit Cove has continued to support its pastor despite public scrutiny. Federal prosecutors never identified Stoval and Woolman by name in court records, but Southwestern confirmed the identities of the two in a May 29, 2024 press release following an article in The Tennessean.

Unlike Woolman’s continued job security at Fruit Cove Baptist, Queen experienced greater instability following the announcement of his arrest and indictment in May. Shortly afterward, the church where Queen pastored, Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, placed Queen on administrative leave.

“The actions alleged in the indictment oppose the moral values of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church, and we condemn all forms of sexual abuse,” Friendly Avenue Baptist leaders said in a statement from May 26.

Queen’s lawyer said in a July 22 filing that the whole ordeal has damaged Queen’s reputation in other ways, such as canceled concerts and deals with publications for the submission of applications.

Before her departure from Southwestern in July 2023 – Queen resigned after the seminary was suspended – Queen was a rising star in Southern Baptist circles for her expertise in evangelism, teaching on the subject at Southwestern and helping to lead the school of Roy Fish Seminary Evangelism and Missions. Queen was scheduled to teach a course at Southwestern in the fall 2023 semester on evangelism with prominent Southern Baptist leader OS Hawkins, with whom Queen also co-authored a book.

Friendly Avenue Baptist was not immediately available to respond to a request for comment on whether Queen would remain employed at the church after pleading guilty to a felony.

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Contact him at [email protected] or on social media @liamsadams.

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