Statements Regarding the Hiring of Pastor Bryan Loritts
Beginning June 1, 2020, Pastor Bryan Loritts joined The Summit Church staff as executive pastor of teaching and development. From 2003 to 2015, Pastor Bryan served as senior pastor of Fellowship Memphis Church in Memphis, Tennessee. In 2010,
Fellowship Memphis discovered evidence that their director of worship, Pastor Bryan's brother-in-law, engaged in incidents of abuse. Below is a statement from The Summit Church’s directional elders regarding the process of hiring Pastor Bryan as
well as a statement from Pastor J.D. to our members about the matter.
Directional Elder Statement Member Statement
On January 20, 2021, The Summit Church engaged Guidepost Solutions LLC to review Bryan Loritt's response to sexual abuse allegations at Fellowship Memphis in 2010. The Summit Church did their own investigation into this matter before Bryan was
hired in June 2020, and the Directional Elders were convinced that Bryan had not attempted in any way to cover up the incidents of abuse, to protect the abusers, or to discourage victims from seeking justice for their abuses. After talking with the
Caring Well team and desiring to do everything possible to foster a culture in churches that are safe from abuse and safe for survivors, the Summit decided it would be helpful to get an independent firm to review this matter.
On March 22, 2021, Guidepost Solutions released the report from their independent review. That report is available here in its entirety.
Summit Statement and Guidepost Solutions Report