Peternel says he can’t be fired by church board, says state Pentecostal leaders can yank him
Embroiled Pentecostal leader and employer of Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith has rebuffed concerns about sex talk with teens, congregation, but declined interview requests
The head of one of Indiana’s most powerful Pentecostal churches has regularly told members of his church he can’t be fired by the board overseeing him at Life Church, but did reveal how he could potentially be removed in an audio recording obtained by 24sight News.
“I hire and fire pastors, so all employees work for me. The board doesn’t do that. So the board can’t fire someone, right?” Peternel says in the recording, referring to Life Church’s board of directors. His comment mirrors the same proclamation of almost absolute power inside the church he has told other congregants in recent years, former churchgoers told 24sight News.
But Peternel also says in the audio that the Indiana Assemblies of God or the church’s members voting in one of their annual business meetings could possibly remove him as lead pastor of Life Church.
“There is a way that if I like started doing crazy stuff, that like our district officials could hold me accountable to that. There’s a way that, you know, through our business meetings and whatnot if somebody thought that I was running the church into the ground that I could be voted out of the church,” Peternel says in the recording. “Like there is a there is a way that can happen within our system of government.”
Peternel, a top adviser to Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, who also employs Beckwith as one of his pastors, has avoided public comment for weeks as scandal has grown around his politically powerful church. Peternel did not return requests for comment for this story, as he has avoided for previous stories. A church staff member said she would pass along 24sight News’ request for comment to either Peternel or his top assistant, Maria Davis, who the staff member said are the only two people who can comment on church matters.
Peternel’s son was arrested four weeks ago on four felony counts of owning and distributing child pornography. Police also discovered more than 50 pictures or videos of Peternel and his wife having sex on their son’s cellphone.
Peternel’s lone statement since the arrest on October 23rd, in a brief appearance at his Fishers, Indiana church, centered on him retelling Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son and also saying it may have been unwise to have videos of him and his wife having sex.
Since then, Peternel hired a lawyer for himself, but his son has stayed in prison unable to find the $2,500 needed for release and was only recently appointed a public defender.
Peterenel’s son initially said that a lawyer for Lt. Gov. Beckwith, who is himself under investigation in a separate criminal probe after watching a deepfake porn of a lawmaker’s wife, would be representing him. But that lawyer, Devin Norrick, told 24sight News his law firm would not represent Peternel’s son.
In the weeks since his son’s arrest, stories of Peternel’s abuse in church have poured forth from survivors coming forward to tell their stories of Peternel pressuring them as children to discuss their sex lives with him.
When Peternel was starting out as a youth pastor in the late ‘90s, he named his first youth “Stormfront”, over the protestations of church leaders who noted it was the same name as a Florida neo-Nazi group.
Former members of the youth group recently reconnected as adults and formed a group called “Survivors of Stormfront”. They told 24sight News that Peternel regularly asked them and other children about their sex lives, and talked about how he had sex with his wife. He also told the children, sometimes in “small group” meetings at his apartment, about an incident that happened to his wife in college, which he said she was responsible for.
Peternel also assaulted a teen boy at the time, holding him down and spraying Cheez Whiz in his hair and up his nose, in retaliation for the boy hazing other members of “Stormfront” youth group.
In the audio recently obtained by 24sight News, Peternel recounted assaulting the teen with Cheez Whiz but did not mention his discussions of sex with children under his supervision.
In 2016, during a closed-door “pre-marital counseling” session, Peternel pressured a 17-year-old girl and her 19-year-old fiancé to tell him the graphic details of how they had sex and what body parts they used. After the incident was reported to the church, other pastors told Peternel he had violated their rules by not telling others he would be having the session and not having another adult present.
The young couple also reported the incident to The Assemblies of God national headquarters in Missouri but received no response. Last month the now-27-year-old woman reported the incident to the Fishers Police Department, where Peternel’s main church is located.
In the weeks since his son’s arrest and since 24sight News began publishing the accounts of survivors, other former churchgoers have been talking behind the scenes about a culture of abuse and no accountability for Peternel’s actions
Neither Peternel nor anyone else from the church have answered weeks of requests for comment from 24sight News, as questions have continued to bubble up in public.
But Lt. Gov. Beckwith, who works for Peternel in addition to his job as second-in-command to the governor, addressed the scandal for the first time last Sunday in a sermon telling congregants not to ask questions and not to listen to “the enemy.”
A request for clarification on what exactly the lieutenant governor meant in his sermon was deflected by his spokesman to the church, which has refused to answer requests for comment.
During the same service last Sunday, Superintendent of the Indiana Assemblies of God Chad McAtee, who oversees Peternel’s four churches, told the tale of Jesus walking on water and the questions of his apostles to argue that Life Church congregants should not ask questions about what Peternel has been doing.
In the audio, recorded this year, Peternel also said that he had signed Life Church up to be a member of the Association of Related Churches (ARC), and said he had unilateral power to make that decision.
Peternel’s Life Church does not show its ARC membership on its website, but ARC does list Life Church’s four campuses as part of its network.
ARC is a large national network of churches in which churches pay mandatory fees to be members of the network, but like many other religious institutions, has also been beset by financial and sex abuse scandals, according to religious news site The Roys Report.
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The “Jesus, Sex and Politics” investigation:
Beckwith adviser was with son in September when police executed warrant in child porn case - 10/24/25
Beckwith adviser Peternel responds to son’s child porn charges in Sunday video - 10/26/25
AUDIO: Nathan Peternel church message on sex videos, son’s arrest - 10/31/25
Peternel pried teen girl about sex life in closed-door ‘counseling’, woman says - 11/6/25
Beckwith adviser’s son gets public defender as church scandal grows - 11/10/25
Indiana deepfake porn scandal stories:
Topless deepfake video roils Indiana office, lawmaker’s wife targeted, per sources - 8/2/25
Indy prosecutor probes topless deepfake, Haggard blasts ‘pornographic smear’ of his wife - 8/5/25
BREAKING: Lt. Gov. spokesman quits amid deepfake probe - 8/7/25
Lawmaker whose wife was targeted launching Congressional bid - 8/11/25
Lt. Gov.’s office adopts new employee handbook, Gov. calls in Beckwith for meeting - 8/14/25
This sounds similar to a coverup like that of a worldwide church that moved clergy and shielded them from responsibility for their actions. Shame on the Assemblies of God church hierarchy if they’re not protecting victims who have stepped forward seeking closure.