DALLAS, Texas — The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention paused in prayer Wednesday to mark the death of Jennifer Lyell, a former Lifeway Christian Resources executive and abuse survivor who played a key role in the Southern Baptist Convention’s response to sexual abuse allegations.
During the Wednesday morning session, Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS), the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention, was asked to pray for Lyell, who died last week at 47.
Messenger Paul Cooper of Marshall Baptist Church in Marshall, Illinois, identified himself as a former student at Southern Seminary between 2001 and 2004, adding that he “loved my time there.”
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“There was another student who attended at the same time as me named Jennifer Lyell. Jennifer was sweet and kind and gracious, and we sadly found out right before the convention that she passed away, and I feel it’s appropriate that her name be mentioned, that she was part of all the abuse reform issues,” said Cooper.
“Dr. Mohler, I know in the past you have stood with her, knew her well, and so I ask if it would be appropriate if you would lead us in a prayer to pray for her family and friends as we grieve this great loss.”
Mohler responded, “Well, brother, that cannot be wrong. So, let’s pray.”
In his prayer, Mohler referenced Lyell’s “legacy of suffering.”
“Father, we recognize that sometimes just to invoke one name is to invoke an entire legacy of suffering,” he said. “Father, we pray that you would minister to her family and friends. “
Here’s the prayer request for Jennifer Lyell’s family and friends and Dr. Mohler’s prayer. pic.twitter.com/CTL5b0IWXy
— Matt Beard (@MattBeard) June 11, 2025
He added, “Father, we also pray that you will make of Southern Baptists of every level, that you would discipline and instruct Southern Baptists at every level, to be faithful at every level in responding to sin in every form.”
Rachael Denhollander, an attorney, former gymnast and advocate for abuse survivors, announced Sunday that Lyell died June 7 following multiple “catastrophic strokes” days earlier.
A native of Marion, Illinois, Lyell earned a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University and a master’s in divinity from SBTS. While a student at SBTS in 2004, a 26-year-old Lyell met Professor David Sills, a married man in his 40s who headed the missionary nonprofit Reaching & Teaching International Ministries.
After graduating from SBTS, Lyell became director of book publishing and merchandising at Lifeway, reportedly helping to publish over a dozen New York Times bestsellers.
In 2019, Lyell went public with allegations against Sills, telling Baptist Press that her former mentor at SBTS had sexually abused her while she was a student at the seminary.
Lyell had previously told her superiors about the abuse in 2018, with Sills having reportedly admitted to engaging in inappropriate behavior and being removed from his position at SBTS.
Lyell went public with her allegations against her former mentor when she learned that Sills had been appointed to serve as a missionary for a non-SBC entity.
However, the initial BP story published in 2019 made the abuse sound like a consensual affair, which led to Lyell being heavily attacked, especially online. She lost her job at Lifeway.
For its part, BP retracted the story months later and issued an apology, noting that “Lyell came to us with an allegation of abuse and should have been cared for throughout the entire process.”
“Baptist Press ultimately failed to convey that the heart of Lyell’s story was about sexual abuse by a trusted minister in a position of power at a Southern Baptist seminary,” stated the official SBC news entity.
“This entire season of discovery of and enlightenment about sexual abuse within Southern Baptist churches and entities has caused tremendous pain and sorrow for many. We are grieved at the trauma that survivors of sexual abuse have endured and continue to endure.”
Lyell’s public accusation was part of a broader effort to hold SBC entities accountable for how they responded to credible accusations of sexual abuse and harassment.
In May 2022, Guidepost Solutions released a detailed report concluding that SBC leaders had mishandled some sexual abuse allegations, intimidated victims and resisted efforts to make churches safer, mainly to avoid legal liability.
Lyell’s experiences of being abused by Sills and the prolonged effort to get the BP article retracted were extensively documented in the Guidepost report.
In November 2022, Sills and his wife filed a defamation lawsuit against Lyell, the SBC, Southern Seminary, Lifeway and other parties, alleging that he was unjustly scapegoated by the denomination.
