Douglas Lay June 20, 2022
Steve Wingfield allegedly engaged in the following behaviors as the lead minister of First Christian Church of Florissant, Missouri between August of 2011 and April of 2016.
1. Steve ignored and covered-up a first-hand account by Scott Seppelt, a former member and elder at FCCF, about an incident between Milburn and a male minor during a church sanctioned trip to Joplin in August of 2011. Scott reported to Steve the following account: “All of us were assigned a fellowship room to sleep in. Once everyone placed their sleeping bags in the room, I noticed 2 sleeping bags behind a bar area. This was strange to me. I asked Brandon what he was doing. That is when he said, ‘that the young boy was shy and didn’t know any of us.’ I instructed him to bring their bags out with the rest of us.” Brandon, an employee of the church at the time, was allowed not only continual access to minors at the church, but also continual access to the male minor who Brandon had been discipling at the time. Steve, as a mandatory reporter, did not report this incident to the authorities, to the elders, to other staff members, or to the mother of the boy. (isitenough.org)
2. Steve ignored and covered-up the first-hand account of Dawn Varvil, a former member and youth sponsor at FCCF, who reported that Brandon Milburn was found in bed with the same male minor stated above in the same sexual position. Dawn also told Steve that Brandon had given an iPad and iPhone to the boy, had included the boy on Brandon’s phone plan, had given the boy a key to Brandon’s apartment, and had allowed the boy to spend the night at Brandon’s apartment. Dawn met with Steve and Scott Strandell in February of 2012. Steve again did not report this to the authorities, to the elders, to the staff, or to the mother of the boy. (isitenough.org)
3. Steve ignored and covered-up additional information from Dawn concerning inappropriate behavior by Brandon Milburn towards five other minors from the church. They included Brandon exposing himself to five boys. Steve and Scott Strandell were informed of the situation in February of 2012. Steve did not report this incident to the authorities, to the elders, to the staff, or to the mother of the boy. (isitenough.org)
4. Steve denied, in a public meeting with church volunteers on April 1, 2015, that Dawn had mentioned anything to him about Brandon Milburn, including the male minor, during the February 2012 meeting between Dawn and Steve. The meeting was recorded. (restorefccf.org)
5. Steve, however, changed that story a week later at another public meeting with volunteers at the church on April 8, 2015. Steve said Dawn did talk to him about Brandon Milburn, but that she did not mention anything about Brandon being in a sexual position with the male minor and buying expensive gifts for him. The meeting was also recorded. (restorefccf.org)
6. Steve filed a frivolous lawsuit on April 16, 2015, accusing four individuals (Titus and Kari Benton, Douglas Lay, Dawn Varvil) of slander and claiming that all the accusations against Steve shared in a Case Study, Is It Enough, were false. Steve was seeking $25,000 in damages plus punitive damages, yet he and the elders publicly said they were not asking for any financial damages. (isitenough.org / restorefccf.org)
7. Steve changed his story again and admitted to being informed by Dawn about Brandon “spooning in bed” with the male minor and purchasing expensive gifts for him. This occurred when Steve met with Ben Merold and Doyle Roth (ministers from Harvester Christian Church) at a meeting with the elders and Titus and Kari Benton on May 8, 2015. Steve’s admission contradicts his lawsuit and reveals the frivolous nature of the lawsuit. (isitenough.org)
8. Steve broke the confidentiality agreement he signed with Douglas Lay and his lawyer in a private mediation meeting a week before the May 8th meeting with Doyle and Ben. Titus Benton reported to Douglas that Steve shared a number of items at the meeting in #7 that Steve had shared at the private mediation with Douglas, thus breaking the confidentiality agreement. (isitenough.org)
9. Steve mislead and deceived the congregation in February of 2014 by publicly stating that Brandon Milburn had moved away from St. Louis two years earlier (indicating Brandon had moved in February of 2012). Yet, Brandon was hired part-time at Gateway Christian Church in February of 2012, working alongside the worship leader, Kyle Shelnutt, Steve Wingfield’s son-in-law. Brandon brought the male minor with him during his time at Gateway. Also, Brandon attended FCCF Sunday night services and volunteered at the youth program on Wednesday evenings from February of 2012 until May of 2012. (isitenough.org)
10. Steve allowed and permitted Brandon Milburn to volunteer as a leader at the church’s VBS middle-school program in June of 2012 with full knowledge of the allegations of six additional sexual abuse victims, including the male minor, from the testimony by Dawn Varvil in February of 2012. (isitenough.org)
OUTCOME
Steve was petitioned by 120 members of FCCF to resign as lead minister on June 15, 2015, partially for the “mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations” as described in this document. After a six-month sabbatical mandated by the elders, Steve, however, returned as the lead pastor in February of 2016.
Two months after returning, Steve shared during a sermon on April 3, 2016 that he was falsely accused of not reporting the abuse of the two victims who came forward and pressed charges against Brandon Milburn in February of 2014. Steve said,
“The boys who were abused came forward as they became adults and talked about that. And though we did our best to cooperate with the police and all that, there were accusations that we knew about it and did not report it, which were false.”
However, Steve was NEVER accused by anyone of not reporting the abuse of those two boys. He was accused, however, that he did NOT report knowing about the six additional victims, including the male minor from February of 2012, mentioned in examples 1,2, and 3 above. (isitenough.org)
In 2020, Steve Wingfield’s alleged cover-up appeared in the book, High on God: How Megachurches Won the Heart of America (Oxford University Press). The authors identified 56 mega-church scandals, with nearly all of them between 2012 and 2020. The authors found that 27% of the churches involved in sex scandals “involved churches or pastors accused of covering up sexual abuse, not informing the police, or being negligent with the hiring and monitoring of employees” (page 208).
One of the examples involves Wingfield:
“Steve Wingfield, senior pastor of First Christian Church of Florissant near St. Louis, took a six-month sabbatical after he was accused of ignoring warning signs regarding the behavior of one of the church’s youth pastors (Brandon Milburn, who has been sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for serial child molestation and sodomy of an eleven-year-old boy). The accusations between Wingfield and his accusers were that Wingfield, rather than confronting Milburn and a culture of abuse, instead sued the whistleblowers. He later dropped the suit, and after coming back from his paid sabbatical, became even more stubborn in claiming that he had done everything he could for the sake of protecting the children and youth at his church.”
“When a pastor sues parts of his own congregation, a system of conflict remains and the potential for reconciliation is slim at best. Moreover, Wingfield’s actions indicate a strategy to protect a system that has been found to abuse children” (pages 208-209).
On September 21, 2021, a civil lawsuit was filed against Steve Wingfield and First Christian Church of Florissant by a plaintiff, John Doe 2, requesting a jury trial. The three counts include: 1) Intentional failure to supervise clergy against FCCF and Wingfield; 2) Intentional infliction of emotional distress against defendants FCCF and Wingfield; 3) Negligence per se against defendant Wingfield.
Six months later, Joy Taylor, a former member and deacon at FCCF, wrote a book, “A View from the Pews: The Inside Story of a Broken Church” about Wingfield and FCCF. Taylor writes:
"This is the true story of a church in America's "Bible Belt", the First Christian Church in Florissant, Missouri; a church with a meager beginning and record of steady growth for forty-nine years until the weight of sexual abuse charges against a youth minister left it and its congregation, broken. This is a case history and analysis of those events. While assembling the documents, writings, and comments for this study, I realized that the issue went far deeper when the youth minister, Brandon Milburn, was brought to justice and convicted of sexual misconduct against multiple victims. I ask myself, "What about the victims? Who are the victims of this saga? Who are the perpetrators, the abusers?" Through documented information and personal experience, along with added expert analysis, I leave you to draw your own conclusions."
Steve Wingfield, having not acknowledged any wrong doing, continues today—as the lead pastor.
[1] The male minor’s story was written about in an article in the River Front Times on May 6, 2015. He was referred to as Nathan Rayner, a false name to protect the boy’s identity. https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2015/05/06/a-youth-ministers-downfall-is-tearing-first-christian-church-of-florissant-apart?showFullText=true
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