Tim Somers, an ex-youth pastor who worked at Steven Furtick’s Elevation Church in North Carolina, has been fired after police launched an investigation. More than a decade ago, Somers is alleged to have engaged in inappropriate conduct with students at a church in Texas. In response to the allegations, he was let go from his position, and Elevation is cooperating with the police.
“Recently, allegations were brought forward about Tim Somers’ conduct while serving at a church in Texas approximately 12 years ago,” said a spokesperson for Elevation Church. “As soon as Elevation learned about these allegations, we reached out to local Texas authorities and immediately placed Tim on leave. No charges have been filed. But Tim understands how impactful these allegations are for his role in ministry, and we have agreed he will no longer serve on staff.”
Garland Wolf, Red Oaks Police Department Chief of Police, confirmed that charges have not been filed yet. He said that there is an ongoing investigation of “serious allegations that can or will impact a person’s life for many years.” “We are still attempting to narrow down the timeline of events, the actual location of the offense(s), who may have been involved as suspects, and who may have been involved as victims,” he explained.
“Further, the investigation is being conducted to determine what and if anything occurred on church property or in the jurisdiction of Red Oak, Texas,” Wolf said. Mr. Tim Somers’s name has come up, but no charges against him have been filed at this time, and as previously stated, this is an ongoing investigation.” He has described the investigation as “through.”
Chris and Cara Railey, pastors at the church, released a statement to the press. “This week, we became aware of a situation that was disclosed by a former youth ministry intern who served at Oaks Church,” they said. “[T]his former intern, who was serving as youth pastor at another church, disclosed to that church’s leadership that he had inappropriate contact with a minor who attended Oaks Youth at the time.”
“To ensure the matter is properly investigated, we quickly reported the matter to the Red Oak Police Department,” they continued. “We were devastated to learn this. Since that time (Nickerson’s confession) additional students have come forward to share their experiences from the same time period approximately 10 years ago. The experiences they shared with us range from inappropriate text messages to inappropriate contact between youth leaders and youth students and we immediately reported this to the authorities.”
“To the Red Oak Police Department, we are very grateful for the thoroughness and the dedication that the police department has shown as we’ve given them this information,” they concluded. “Our detectives are working and have been working diligently to gather facts and statements to further our investigation, which we hope will lead to an ultimate resolution of the allegations against several persons,” stated the authorities. ” I cannot speak to what information the Oaks Church is putting out to their congregation or the public or where they have derived their information.”
“These are serious allegations that can or will impact a person’s life for many years. We are doing what we need to do to seek justice for the victims, prosecute the offenders, and exonerate the innocent as maybe the case. We are scheduling meetings with persons who have come forward and we are conducting interviews and taking statements from those who want to cooperate with our investigation,” Wolf concluded. “We hope to move forward soon.”