Jonathan Peternel pleads guilty to four felony counts of child exploitation, abuse

Life Church lead pastor Nathan Peternel says, ‘There will be a story I’ll share at some point’

Jan 16, 2026

Jonathan Peternel (L) and Life Church lead pastor Nathan Peternel and Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith (R). (Screenshot of YouTube, Mugshot via Fishers Police Department. Graphic by Tom LoBianco/24sight News.)

ANDERSON, Ind. _ Jonathan Peternel, the son of a powerful Indiana pastor, changed his plea Friday to guilty on four felony counts related to more than 200 videos of gruesome child rape and torture found on his phone last year.

The son of Life Church’s lead pastor who had initially pleaded not guilty to the child exploitation and abuse charges will now face sentencing next month in a criminal case which has rocked the Pentecostal church of Indiana’s lieutenant governor for months now.

Life Church lead pastor Nathan Peternel, his wife Christina and a large gathering of Peternel family and top church members packed into the small Madison County courtroom Friday morning to await Jonathan Peternel’s hearing.

Jonathan Peternel looked briefly at his father and mother, seated in the front row of the courtroom, as he walked in with other inmates before looking away. As the court worked through a standard retinue of criminal cases Friday morning, Nathan Peternel jutted his jaw out a bit and tilted his head back while Jonathan, his son, sometimes scanned the room or kept his head down.

Two months prior, Jonathan Peternel sat alone in court, with none of his family present as the judge asked him why nobody had paid the $2,500 needed for his release. Now, on a cold, snowy morning, Jonathan Peternel sat at the defense table with his public defender as the prosecutor read through the gruesome details of the videos of child rape and torture found on his phone. Speaking in a much lower tone, almost muttering, the prosecutor read through the four counts.

As the circuit judge read through each felony count, one count of child exploitation and three counts of possession of child sexual abuse material, Jonathan Peternel bowed his head and replied “Guilty” each time.

Asked by 24sight News after the hearing how he felt, Nathan Peternel said “Very broken-hearted for every party involved, it’s a very sad situation.“

“There will be a story I’ll share at some point that will lead to that, I’m just not able to share it at this time,” he said when asked how Jonathan Peternel ended up in court.

Jonathan’s arrest last October has touched off a larger scandal in the church where Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith is employed as one of its top pastors. Since his arrest, former youth group members and congregants have stepped forward with reports of Nathan Peternel regularly demanding they tell him about their sex lives, regularly talking about his own sex life and at times urging congregants to make homemade pornography of them and their spouses.

While it did not come up during Friday’s hearing, people inside the closed-off Life Church have pushed for months to find out why Jonathan Peternel was also found with more than 50 videos of his parents having sex or naked. Nathan Peternel accused his son of being high and hacking into a password protected account, but behind the scenes has also accused his wife of forcing him to film themselves having sex.

Reports of Nathan Peternel’s behavior with teens, his congregations and changing stories about his son and the sex videos have led to a steady stream of departures from the four-campus Pentecostal church which just a year ago was hosting major Republican politicians and hundreds of congregants celebrating in placing one of their own second-in-line to the governor.

Two of the church’s top pastors submitted their resignations shortly after the New Year.

Beckwith and Peternel have tried unsuccessfully for months now to stop congregants from asking questions. The pair used to co-host a podcast, “Jesus, Sex and Politics”, but haven’t made any new episodes since shortly after police searched the Peternels’ home. They also deleted two episodes of the show, including an episode focused on fighting child abuse and sex trafficking.