Former Lubbock Youth Pastor Busted on Child Sexual Assault Charges

Luke Cunningham, 41, was arrested in Shallowater last Wednesday by U.S. Marshalls.

Cunningham was the youth pastor at Turning point until 2020 when he went to work for a church in Granbury. He is currently in custody on a $200,000 bond.

Turning Point Community Church sent the following email to the congregation about the allegations:

On Monday, June 3, Turning Point was contacted by Senior Pastor Mark Forrest of Lakeside Baptist Church of Granbury, Texas to inform us that a recent staff member at Lakeside, and a former staff member at Turning Point, Luke Cunningham, was being reported to local police and Child Protective Services regarding accusations of inappropriate conduct and alleged sexual abuse with minors. During Lakeside Baptist Church’s own investigation of allegations, they learned of potential victims during Luke’s time of service at Turning Point. They have properly reported those allegations to the Lubbock Police Department. Turning Point has been in contact with the Lubbock Police since Thursday, June 6 and is in full cooperation with their investigation. As requested by LPD, Turning Point has not made any public statements so as not to hinder or disrupt the investigation.

From 2016-2020, Luke Cunningham served as Student Pastor at Turning Point. While Luke served on our staff, we received no complaints, no allegations, nor had any suspicion of wrongdoing. All allegations that are surfacing have been brought to our attention after Luke’s employment, not during or before. Currently, we have no information about these alleged incidents, no names, no descriptions of these events. We are awaiting further details from LPD.

To be clear, Turning Point’s leadership had no awareness of these alleged abuses during Luke’s time of service nor had any knowledge of allegations of previous misconduct in other churches prior to serving at Turning Point. We are devastated by these allegations and feel enormous grief for anyone who is a potential victim. Our hope is to provide any assistance we can offer to any victims of sexual abuse to find the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual peace needed to heal and move forward. We condemn any actions of sexual misconduct and certainly assault of any person, especially those under our care.

If you have been a victim or have any information that would prove help to LPD in their investigation, please contact and report what you know.
To the church family of Turning Point, as elders and leaders we want to assure you that we have detailed written guidelines and operating procedures that specifically address the highest expectations of integrity for our pastors in our care for people. What we have learned is devastating and reinforces our determination to secure all ministries, church environments, and pastoral relationships so that they are without any issue of concern.

As elders and leaders, it is our desire and intention to guide our church through this difficulty with as much clarity, transparency, and communication as we can offer. Until we have further information to share publicly, if you need to speak with our elder team, you can come to us in person, or you can call the church office to schedule appointments to discuss anything further.

Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury also released the following statement:

Dear Church Family,
It is with deep grief yet steady resolve that we, your pastors and lay leaders, must update you on the status of the former student minister, Mr. Luke Cunningham.

As we announced to the congregation on June 2, we received information from outside our church that Mr. Cunningham had been accused of inappropriate conduct with a minor in another church. Upon learning of the accusation, we immediately suspended Mr. Cunningham, barred his interaction with the church and students, and conducted an investigation. We determined within days that there was enough evidence to turn him over to the Personnel Committee, who immediately released him from employment.

We also immediately reported what we discovered to law enforcement agencies with the State of Texas and with law enforcement agencies in Lubbock and Granbury. We also spoke to leaders at other churches. We encouraged all those with direct information to contact law enforcement. We also instructed all staff to come forward and cooperate fully with law enforcement. We have just learned that Mr. Cunningham was arrested yesterday by United States Marshals near Lubbock.

Your church has continued our partnership with MinistrySafe, and pastoral and lay leaders are evaluating the events leading to the present crisis so that we can provide the best safeguards for our children and members. Although we are not aware of any assaults having occurred with any of our students, we wish to say again that we stand ready to continue offering help with professional counselors. Moreover, if you or your child have been a victim of sexual abuse or have information that would help law enforcement, please contact law enforcement immediately.
Lakeside Baptist Church stands firmly against clerical sexual abuse. We believe that, if the Southern Baptist Convention had a working database for offenders, we would likely have never been exposed to Mr. Cunningham. We plan to do everything possible to encourage national leaders to exercise their spiritual responsibility, identify perpetrators in the churches, and stop this from happening again. Until then, we plan to re-evaluate and institute our own even more rigorous processes. Out of respect for law enforcement officers, we must refrain from commenting any further about particular people or events.

We ask you to join with us in praying for the victims of clerical sexual abuse, in praying for perpetrators to repent of their gross evil and be brought to justice, and in praying for all the families and churches who have been harmed.

The Pastors and Lay Leaders of Lakeside Baptist Church of Granbury, Texas

See the full report from KCBD here:

The Lubbock Police Department encourages citizens to make a report on sexual assault at any division in the city or at PD headquarters. Citizens can also call (806) 775-2865.