North Carolina pastor on paid leave after federal plea

Pastor Matt Queen remains on paid administrative leave from Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C., chairman of the deacon board Darin Humbard told congregants Sunday. Queen last week pleaded guilty to a felony charge in federal court after he was accused of hindering a federal investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention and its entities.

Back in May, the board placed Queen on leave and formed a committee to review his status at the church when the U.S. Department of Justice charged him with obstructing justice.

Queen originally pleaded not guilty to the charge. Last week, he pleaded guilty after prosecutors changed the charge to making a false statement, Green’s lawyer Sam Schmidt told The Tennessean.

The deacon board committee plans to present a formal review of Queen’s status on Nov. 2, Humbard said, and will then meet with the church’s personnel team. Humbard on Sunday told the church that leaders had met with Queen but had not come to a resolution. In a statement released last week, the church asked for continued prayer as the congregation navigated the issue. The Church is against any behavior that erodes trust or integrity, it said in a statement. Queen formerly served as a professor and interim provost at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and FABC appointed him as senior pastor in February this year.

What are the charges brought against Queen? The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams claimed Queen created false documents to corroborate false testimony he gave to federal investigators. During an investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention and its entities, officials were looking into a case of alleged sexual abuse that occurred in 2022 at the seminary.

Prosecutors have said Queen witnessed a seminary official ordering another employee to destroy a report containing evidence. In May 2023, Queen told the FBI that he had not heard the conversation and in June that year he provided investigators with fake meeting notes to back up his claim, according to the prosecution. Later that month, Queen testified under oath that he had in fact heard the seminary employees planning to destroy the report.

The charge of giving a false statement carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, though Schmidt expects the judge to recommend Queen serve several months. He will be sentenced in February 2025, according to the church.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report in The Sift about the SBC selling its headquarters to pay for expenses related to the sex abuse investigation.