The stream of resignations from Indiana’s powerful Life Church is continuing, with the top assistant to the lead pastor set to leave and one of its four campus pastors quitting after just a few months, according to an email obtained by 24sight News and interviews with people familiar with the church.
The top assistant to lead pastor Nathan Peternel, Maria Davis, is set to leave Sunday after two decades running operations for the church. And one of the church’s four campus pastors, Josh Krampitz, is leaving after just a few months on the job, according to people familiar with the departures.
The church, which is led by Peternel and Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, has struggled since Peternel’s son was arrested last year on child sex abuse charges and was discovered with videos of his parents having sex. Peternel’s son was sentenced to six years in prison in February and Peternel himself had his license to pastor suspended by the Assemblies of God and was forced into rehab for four months.
Life Church in central Indiana has four campuses ringing Indianapolis and since 2020 has doubled as Beckwith’s political operation, helping successfully place him one breath away from becoming governor. But since the scandal broke, dozens of families have fled the church and a raft of church leadership have resigned: four campus pastors, the head youth and child ministry, the church’s accountant and even Peternel’s own sister and brother-in-law, who said church leaders were blocking Jesus from entering in a blistering resignation message.
“We do not anticipate any interruption to the ministry or finances of Life Church.” Peternel wrote in an email to church members announcing Davis’s resignation, which was provided to 24sight News.
Peternel and Beckwith did not return requests for comment for this story. Davis and Krampitz did not reply to messages seeking comment.
The large number of departures, from family members to staff, has had some insiders questioning whether the church can continue operating four campuses. Beckwith recently announced the launch of a new medical clinic at the church, run by two church board members, and the church coffeeshop finished rebranding itself as “The Anchor Cafe” this spring. (Neither the clinic nor the coffeeshop openly advertise their connection to the church.)
Life Church stood at the top of Indiana power just a year ago, having locked arms with Charlie Kirk during the pandemic and helped place Beckwith in a statewide office — just a breath away from becoming governor. The church raked in $4 million in donations in 2025, its best year, despite being significantly smaller than megachurches in the area boasting of thousands of regular congregants.
Peternel’s brother-in-law Mike Maleto stepped in as interim lead pastor in March when Peternel left for rehab, but he and Peternel’s sister quit the church in June, one month before Peternel returned. In his parting message, Maleto rebutted claims from Peternel and Beckwith that they were under “attack” from “enemies” outside the church and said instead their failings came from pursuing worldly ambitions instead of sacrificing themselves to God.
In a recent Facebook post, Maleto replied to a post detailing a technique of gaslighting and attacking anyone inside the church who asks questions of pastors or presses for answers. (Former congregants at Life Church were directed by Lt. Gov. Beckwith and the state leader of the Assemblies of God not to ask questions about Peternel.)
Read the full “Jesus, Sex and Politics” investigation here.
“I’ve been an unwitting participant of such behavior for years (going back further than LC) and for that, I’m sorry - praying for wisdom on how best to shed light,” Maleto wrote. “Many leaders don’t know any other way to lead, it’s what has been taught to them and demonstrated for them - so any challenge to that is a challenge to the very foundation of what they believe church leadership to be.”
He included a link to an interview with John and Korey Cooper, leaders of the Christian rock band Skillet, with podcaster Alisa Childers where they reveal the gaslighting and spiritual abuse they suffered at their church of 30 years as it increasingly aligned with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). The multi-platinum artists have been on a media tour recently promoting their most recent album and detailing their experiences, including confronting an authoritarian church leadership — in which the pastor can never be questioned — and the resulting excommunication, including being labeled satanic and demonic.
Life Church, which is affiliated with the Pentecostal Assemblies of God, does not openly associate as being a member of the NAR — a movement popularized by California Che Ahn which calls for taking over government and imposing their worldview as the new law, as well as replacing all corners of society from education to entertainment with their preferred versions — but frequent comments by Lt. Gov. Beckwith, who self-identifies as Christian nationalist, match many of the hallmarks of the NAR.
Researchers and experts, like Matthew Taylor, have regularly noted the key aspects of NAR which seeks worldly domination (dominionism) instead of the older belief of waiting until heaven and leaving aside secular affairs on earth.
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Tom LoBianco is the editor of 24sight News. He is an award-winning journalist and author who has covered the White House, Congress, multiple presidential campaigns and more for CNN, The Associated Press and other outlets. He has spent the last year investigating a sex scandal inside the church of Indiana’s Christian nationalist lieutenant governor, you can get the full coverage here. Email him at tom@24sight.news.
Oh, those RepubliKKKLan Family Values and Christian faith!