Pastors resign from Life Church

Head of youth ministry, Pendleton church campus leaving as Nathan Peternel, Ind. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith try to stem departures

Jan 07, 2026

Indiana Lt. Gov Micah Beckwith reads his cellphone while presiding over the state Senate, January 6, 2026. (Screenshot by Tom LoBianco/24sight News.)

The head of Life Church Indiana’s youth ministry and the pastor of one of its four campuses have resigned amid growing reports of abuse and a criminal case rocking the politically plugged in church, according to an announcement obtained by 24sight News Wednesday.

Pastors Tina Pavy and Ross Steele are leaving, marking the first departures from inside a very tight-knit circle in Life Church. Church leader Nathan Peternel and Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, who leads one of the church’s other campuses, have tried to for months to get congregants to stop talking about the arrest of Peternel’s son and Peternel’s own behavior with minors.

The email announcing their departure did not reference the Peternel son’s criminal case or reports of abuse, only saying that Steele would be leaving to start his own church and Pavy was leaving after 16 years of pastoring.

“We celebrate both Pastor Ross and Pastor Tina and joyfully send them with our love, prayers and blessings as they step into what God has next,” reads the announcement sent Wednesday afternoon, signed by the “Life Church Leadership Team”.

Members of Life Church’s leadership and staff met all day Tuesday for their regular staff meeting. Beckwith, who presides over the Indiana state Senate as part of his state job, could be seen engulfed in his cellphone Tuesday afternoon as lawmakers debated measures in the state capital.

Peternel, as he has for more than two months now, did not return a request for comment Wednesday. An email sent to the church’s public relations address was not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.

Peternel’s son is facing seven felony charges stating that he owned and distributed child sexual abuse material. But the discovery on the son’s cellphone of more than 50 videos or pictures of Peternel and his wife having sex or naked has caused almost more uproar at the Pentecostal church.

Peternel at first declined to explain why their son had the videos, then weeks later accused his son of getting high and hacking into a password protected account. Peternel has preached regularly about sex for decades and told members of his youth groups over the years that if they avoid pornography and abstain from pre-marital sex they can film themselves after they’re married.

In 2016, during a closed-door pre-marital counseling session, Peternel demanded that a 17-year-old girl and her fiancé tell him how they had sex in explicit detail. The young couple complained to the church and the national Assemblies of God. A decade later Paige, whose full name is being withheld, filed a police report with the Fishers, Indiana police.

Members of Peternel’s first youth group started in the late ‘90s, which he named “Stormfront” over protests that it shared a name with a neo-Nazi group, have recounted Peternel demanding he tell them about how they had sex and talking extensively with them about his own sex with his wife.

Peternel and Beckwith have worked closely together for more than five years, co-hosting a podcast named “Jesus, Sex and Politics” and campaigning for office in large part on promises to fight LGBTQ+ activists and public libraries they have accused of “grooming” children. The two haven’t recorded a new podcast since a few days after Peternel’s house was searched by police, and have deleted two episodes of the show, including one dealing with child abuse and sex trafficking.

Pavy and Steele’s departures come as dozens of families have left the influential Indiana church in the last two months.