Friends mourn Jennifer Lyell, SBC whistleblower

NASHVILLE (RNS)—Mourners gathered June 26 in a small chapel at Immanuel Nashville church to say goodbye to Jennifer Lyell.

In the pews for the invite-only memorial service were former co-workers, activists and church leaders, all there to pay their respects to Lyell, a former Christian publishing executive whose career was derailed when she accused her former Southern Baptist mentor and seminary professor of sexual abuse. She died June 7 after a series of massive strokes at age 47.

“This is a friend’s service, a service put on by friends to celebrate a friend and to celebrate friendship,” said Keith Whitfield, pastor of Temple Church in North Carolina, who officiated.

The service also marks the end an era—one in which leaders of Southern Baptist Convention admitted they had mistreated survivors of abuse in the church in the past and pledged to make amends.

The SBC passed reforms meant to prevent abuse and to keep track of pastors guilty of abuse as a result. Those reforms now largely have stalled, undone by lawsuits, denominational politics and lack of funding. However, Lyell’s story played a role in sparking those reforms.

Reported alleged sexual abuse

In 2017, she told her fellow executives at Lifeway Christian Resources, the SBC’s publishing arm, that her mentor, a missionary and seminary professor named David Sills, had sexually abused her.

Sills was fired from his job at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for what the seminary’s president, Al Mohler, has referred to as abuse. Sills also lost his job as the leader of a missionary organization.

But few details of Sills’ misconduct were made public until a year later, after Lyell learned her former mentor, who once had been a father figure to her, had returned to the ministry.

She then told Baptist Press about the abuse. But her story was changed in editing to claim she had admitted to a “morally inappropriate relationship.”

The story led to a firestorm online, with Lyell being accused of being an adulteress and sinner who had led a good man astray.

At the time, Lyell was the highest-ranking woman at any of the SBC’s major entities—a publishing editor and publisher who’d worked on a dozen bestsellers and a faithful church member who had dreamt of being a missionary and taught the Bible to young children.

Felt abandoned by the SBC

However, Lyell lost her reputation, left her job and struggled to find a way forward. Though Baptist Press eventually apologized, and SBC leaders reached a settlement with Lyell, the damage was done. Lyell felt abandoned by the church she loved and the leaders she trusted, said her friend, Rachael Denhollander.

That especially was true after Sills, who has admitted misconduct but denied abuse, sued Lyell and SBC leaders after he was named in the denomination’s 2022 Guidepost report about how its leaders had responded to abuse.

Denhollander said, in the end, Lyell was seen as disposable.

“She was literally the poster child for the SBC,” Denhollander said. “It was not enough to make her valuable enough to truly fight for.”

During the memorial service, friends remembered both Lyell’s struggles and her remarkable life. Known for her brilliant mind and her knack for finding books that would speak to mass audiences, her supporters said she was also a kind and devoted friend who cared about teaching children to love books, especially the Bible.

Denhollander recalled Lyell had sent her daughters T-shirts that said “I read after bedtime.” When Denhollander texted Lyell a photo of her daughters up late reading, Lyell was more than pleased.

“Tell them keep going—Miss Jen says it’s great,” Lyell texted back.

Former rising star in Christian publishing

Former colleague Devin Maddox, now a vice president at Lifeway, recounted Lyell’s rise from little-known editor at Moody Publishers in Chicago to holding a vice president role at Lifeway.

“Quickly, word spread in the Christian book world about a young, clever, tenacious, new acquisitions editor that was changing the perception at Moody through aggressive acquisitions, insightful editorial and disciplined execution,” Maddox said.

When Lyell arrived at Lifeway, she exceeded all expectations, Maddox added. Despite her successes, she retained a missionary’s heart, he said, especially hoping to teach children about God’s love.

“Jennifer’s greatest ambition was for her children’s Sunday school class to believe that they could hang their lives on believing that if nothing else, the Bible can be trusted,” Maddox said.

Other friends at the service spoke of Lyell’s love for her dog, Benson, the music of Christian singer Rich Mullins and the television show “The West Wing”—her favorite episode was called “Two Cathedrals.”

They also described her sense of humor, her generosity and her ability to see the good in others, despite the heartaches she experienced.

“She had every reason not to trust people, and yet she extended grace over and over and over again that believed the best of those that she encountered,” said Amy Whitfield, her friend and former co-worker. “I am a better person because she shared her whole self.”

At rest, but leaving behind brokenhearted friends

During a sermon, Russell Moore, editor of Christianity Today, read a New Testament passage from Luke’s Gospel about a woman who was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ robe as he walked through a crowd—a passage he had read to Lyell as she lay dying in a hospital bed. Lyell had been found unconscious in her home after missing a doctor’s appointment and never recovered.

In that passage, the woman, who had been ill for years, sought to hide from Jesus.

That was not quite like Lyell, Moore said, who was not one to hide in a crowd and likely would have approached Jesus “and tried to sign him for a contract.”

Yet, she, too, knew what it was like to suffer for a long time and feel forgotten. But Jesus saw her, like he saw the woman in the parable. And Jesus has not forgotten Lyell, even in death, Moore said.

“So, we commit Jennifer to sleep for a little while, and we do so with hope,” he said. “Jesus knows where to find her.”

In giving her tribute, Amy Whitfield, who is married to Pastor Keith Whitfield, summed up the feelings of many of the mourners as she quoted from a Mullins song called “Elijah.”

The song about a biblical prophet who was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind was one of Lyell’s favorites. In the song, Mullins, who died in 1997 at 41, sang about wanting to go out the same way.

“It’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park,” he sang. “And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye.”

Whitfield, who was also at Lyell’s deathbed, said she believes her friend felt the same.

“I know that her whole self is at rest, and it did not break her heart to say goodbye,” she said. “But it sure has broken mine.”