Assemblies of God leaders address sex abuse scandal that roiled Chi Alpha campus ministry

This article is part of “Pastors and Prey,” a series investigating sex abuse allegations in the Assemblies of God.

Speaking to thousands of pastors gathered Wednesday in Orlando, Florida, for a biennial meeting of the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal denomination’s senior leader, Doug Clay, began by addressing an issue that has “put a stain on the church and a scar on people’s lives” — sex abuse in the Chi Alpha college ministry.

On Monday, an NBC News investigation examined how Chi Alpha pastors guided hundreds of students to Daniel Savala, a convicted sex offender heralded by some as “the holiest man alive.” In signed statements, lawsuits and criminal filings, at least 10 men and boys have accused Savala of sexually abusing them, many at his Houston home and in his backyard sauna. The reporting revealed that senior Assemblies of God officials were warned repeatedly about Savala but failed to cut off his influence, allowing more teens and young men to be abused.

Two days later, Clay and other Assemblies of God leaders defended their handling of the matter and pledged to take steps to prevent anything like it from happening again.

“We’re committed to identifying within our system, within our structures, what’s broken, what can be fixed to prevent these kinds of things,” said Clay, the denomination’s general superintendent.

But the promises didn’t satisfy some of Savala’s accusers, who say they’re still waiting for the Assemblies of God to release a full accounting of what its leaders knew and how they responded to years of warnings about Savala. Assemblies of God officials said Wednesday that they wouldn’t publish an internal investigation into Savala’s abuses to protect the privacy of those involved.

Joseph Cleveland, a former Chi Alpha member who says Savala sexually abused him for more than a decade beginning when he was 15, said he was disappointed by what he saw as a continued lack of transparency.

“In my opinion no Assemblies of God minister, at any level, took actions needed to rid their ministry of Savala,” said Cleveland, noting state denomination officials were warned about Savala as early as 2013. “It’s common knowledge that pedophiles escalate in their crimes over time, and the Assemblies of God did not even investigate these Chi Alphas to find out what was going on.”

Do you have a story to share about the Assemblies of God’s handling of sex abuse allegations? Email reporter Mike Hixenbaugh.

The focus on the Chi Alpha abuse scandal brought a somber tone to what’s meant to be a time of celebration and reflection. The General Council of the Assemblies of God — the U.S. governing body of the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination — meets every two years to elect officers, consider policy changes and celebrate victories in its mission to spread the gospel. The denomination has nearly 3 million members across 13,000 churches in the United States.

In prepared remarks, denomination leaders spent more than 30 minutes outlining changes they have made in Chi Alpha, a co-ed ministry on hundreds of college campuses, including new training in sex abuse prevention. They also described their efforts to investigate since several young men came forward accusing Savala of abuse in 2023.

Dozens of boys and young men have described how Savala spun his own twisted version of the gospel. In a quiet, comforting voice, he read Scripture and offered answers to life’s deepest mysteries. To get closer to Jesus, young Christians from across Texas learned, they needed only to get closer to Savala. And to do that, the first step was often the same: stripping naked in his sauna.

Savala was arrested in 2023 and charged with sexually abusing four boys since 2005, all of whom he met through pastors connected to Chi Alpha. He has yet to enter a plea to any of the charges, and he and his lawyers didn’t respond to requests for comment.

“There are no words,” Donna L. Barrett, the denomination’s general secretary, told the pastors gathered in Orlando on Wednesday. “No words that can capture the sorrow we feel for those targeted and impacted by this.”

Barrett acknowledged that the Assemblies of God’s national office received reports about Savala’s connection to Chi Alpha in 2018 — six years after he’d been convicted of child sex abuse in Alaska. She said the national office responded by contacting church officials in Texas and believed that Chi Alpha pastors were warned to stay away from Savala.

Barrett also defended the denomination’s refusal to release the findings of an investigation by a law firm, because, she said, doing so would violate the privacy of victims and deter others from coming forward. Ultimately, Barrett said, the evidence showed that nobody in the national office “had information that any sexual misconduct was occurring in Chi Alpha until 2023.”

“Even if misrepresented in public forums, we are deeply committed to follow this principle: What did you know? When did you know it? And what did you do with the information you knew?” Barrett said.

Ron Bloomingkemper Jr., a former Chi Alpha member and activist who says Savala propositioned him in the 1990s, isn’t satisfied with the answers the Assemblies of God has provided and is calling for greater transparency. The same concern drove him to launch an online forum in 2023 to expose abuses in Chi Alpha. The website triggered dozens of testimonials about spiritual and sexual abuse in the ministry, followed by a cascade of lawsuits and criminal charges against Savala and some of his protégés in the Assemblies of God.

The denomination dismissed six ministers who had ties to Savala — including at least one now facing criminal charges — and suspended four others who were ordered into a rehabilitation program meant to restore them to ministry, Barrett said Wednesday.

Bloomingkemper said those actions didn’t address what he sees as the root of the problem: a leadership culture that he says didn’t take necessary action to protect students from a sex predator until public pressure built.

“Nothing happened of any significance until the forum was launched, the news media picked it up, and the lawsuits started,” Bloomingkemper said. “If those three things didn’t happen, Daniel Savala would still be in there, abusing kids. Nothing would have changed.”