NASHVILLE (RNS) — On a hot and humid summer day, Thursday afternoon (June 26), a group of mourners gathered in a small chapel at Immanuel Nashville church to say goodbye to Jennifer Lyell.
In the pews for the invite-only memorial service were former co-workers, activists and church leaders, all there to pay their respects to Lyell, a former Christian publishing executive whose career was derailed when she accused her former Southern Baptist mentor and seminary professor of sexual abuse. She died earlier this month after a series of massive strokes at age 47.
“This is a friend’s service, a service put on by friends to celebrate a friend and to celebrate friendship,” said Keith Whitfield, pastor of Temple Church in North Carolina, who officiated.
The service also marks the end an era — one in which leaders of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination admitted they had mistreated survivors of abuse in the church in the past and pledged to make amends. The Southern Baptist Convention passed reforms meant to prevent abuse and to keep track of pastors guilty of abuse as a result.
Those reforms have now largely stalled, undone by lawsuits, denominational politics and lack of funding. However, Lyell’s story played a role in sparking those reforms.
In 2018, she told her fellow executives at Lifeway Christian Resources, the SBC’s publishing arm, that her mentor, a missionary and seminary professor named David Sills, had sexually abused her — forcing her into sex acts she did not...
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