To observe the course of mentally; keep up on or informed about; To record transactions, accounts, or events in; as, to keep books, a journal, etc., by Amy Smith
I have heard that an announcement was made at Prestonwood Baptist Church last Sunday, June 16, during the services, that executive pastor Mike Buster has stepped down. I am told that this is allegedly a forced resignation, and that senior pastor Jack Graham‘s son Josh Graham has been promoted to “Associate Executive Pastor.”
My source has shed light on the alleged reason for his departure according to conversations with several church deacons:
Mike was forced to resign.
It has to do with financial impropriety
Mike made some personal investments with a church member (I believe the last name is Adams or something like that) who is now in prison for his fraud. Mike invested some of (now deceased) minister Joe Perry’s money in the deal. Something improper happened and the FBI has been in and around the church investigating Mike and several people.
Mike also tried to get his grandkids into PCA (Prestonwood Christian Academy) for free. The written policy states that grandchildren of employees get a 50% discount but Mike played the head of the school and Jack Graham against each other to try to get free tuition and he got caught.
All of this combined got Mike ousted. This is clear b/c there was no retirement celebration. Usually when people depart Prestonwood after far less time than Mike has been there, then there’s some big celebration about it. Mike just quietly was shoved out last week.
There was an announcement by pastor Jack Graham at the end of the service last Sunday. It was very brief, but Jack did mention that there would be a time to honor Mike this coming Sunday, June 23.
Prestonwood Baptist is my former church. I was very involved during high school and college and worked as an intern during summers when I was in college. Our wedding was at Prestonwood, and lead pastor Jack Graham and associate pastor Neal Jeffrey officiated. In 1989, our then youth music minister John Langworthy was accused of child sexual abuse by several boys. The church staff was informed, but they did not report him to police as required by law. Langworthy was forced to leave quickly and moved back to his home state of Mississippi.
On May 22, 2022, the Guidepost report on sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention was publicly released. Prestonwood Baptist Church and lead pastor Jack Graham were featured in the report. Jack Graham refused to respond to Guidepost’s interview requests. The report highlights the case of convicted child sex offender John Langworthy whose confession was captured on video in August 2011. He confessed to sexually abusing boys at churches in Texas and Mississippi. His confession led to his arrest after victims came forward in Mississippi shortly after news reports circulated in Texas and Mississippi.
In Texas, he was on staff at Prestonwood Baptist Church as a youth music minister in the mid to late 1980s. He was my youth music minister while I was in high school and active in the youth group at Prestonwood. He lived with my family for a time while he was attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He sexually abused several boys from Prestonwood Baptist that I have personally spoken to, one of which assisted the Hinds County, Mississippi prosecution. Prosecutors said Langworthy was involved with youth choirs at First Baptist Church of Jackson and Daniel Memorial Baptist Church in Jackson during the early 1980s while he was a student at Baptist-affiliated Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi. He met his victims through involvement with these churches.
At the annual meeting in 2004, Jack Graham as SBC president thwarted efforts to establish a child abuse study committee.
At that time in 1989, I was a college student and an intern on the Prestonwood youth ministry staff during the summer. It was shocking and devastating to me personally to find out someone I looked up to, like a family member, had done so much harm to kids. Some of the victims were my friends. I wrestled for many years with the way it was mishandled and swept under the rug. By 2010, I began to search for Langworthy online and found him working at Morrison Heights Baptist Churchin Clinton, Mississippi and as a high school choir teacher at Clinton High School. I was immediately moved to action at the thought of a sexual abuser having had access to kids for over 20 years after Prestonwood officials had failed to report him to law enforcement. Through online searching for anyone who was addresing ”baptist pastor abuse,” I found Christa Brown and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
I first reached out to Neal Jeffrey at Prestonwood in the fall of 2010. Neal was my youth pastor at Prestonwood. Neal is now Associate Pastor of Pastoral and Preaching Ministries. I also sent an email to Mike Buster, then executive pastor at Prestonwood. I urged them to help protect kids and report the allegations of abuse that they had been informed about in 1989. My efforts to receive help from Prestonwood were unsuccessful.
I also asked my parents to help. Neither my mom or dad would speak with me about Langworthy. I was also very concerned because I have 2 younger brothers and Langworthy had lived in our home for a time. My parents became very angry with me for working to get Langworthy reported and prosecuted. In 1989, my dad Allen Jordan was a deacon at Prestonwood Baptist Church. According to him, he was involved in helping Langworthy pack and leave Dallas. My dad also has told us that he knew that attorney Randy Addison “handled it for the church.”
A mom of a Langworthy survivor from Prestonwood recalled that my dad called and spoke with her and her husband in 1989 and discouraged them from reporting their son’s abuse to police.
My parents have since shunned me. They told me and my husband in 2012 that they do not want to see us again. They stated in an email that we needed to live our lives without them. We had requested that we meet with them and a counselor/mediator. They said no because this was all my fault, and I needed to issue written apologies to John Langworthy, Neal Jeffrey and Jack Graham.
I have posted links below to my emails with Prestonwood staff. In a November 2010 email, pastor Neal Jeffrey told me that he had contacted church attorneys who were involved with the Langworthy abuse allegations in 1989. Neal said the attorneys had saved their notes from the time. I was told by one of the Prestonwood survivors that several abuse victims met with church lawyers and gave statements, but this information was not reported to law enforcement.
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By January 2011, I was in touch with a few of Langworthy’s victims who were willing to help bring exposure to what had long been covered up. They were also very concerned that kids were still at risk. We were not just going to go away as church officials in Texas and Mississippi, as well as Clinton public school officials, had hoped. By May 2011, Langworthy was allowed to resign for “mental and emotional reasons,” or something to that effect. His resignation only garnered more questions. On August 7, 2011, Langworthy confessed from the pulpit in the Sunday morning church service at Morrison Heights Baptist Church. See lead pastor Greg Belser’s emails to me and a survivor in the links below this post. Later that day, after Langworthy’s confession, I posted a comment on the New BBC Open Forum blog asking if anyone present in the church service would be willing to confirm to a news reporter what had been said. I got an even better response. Overnight someone anonymously sent me video of Langworthy’s confession.
I sent the video to investigative news reporter Brett Shipp at WFAA Channel 8 News in Dallas. That day I went on camera and told my story. It aired as the top story at the 10 pm newscast on August 8, 2011. News spread to Jackson and Clinton, Mississippi. Other stations requested the video and ran the story. A few days after news spread in Mississippi, victims began to come forward to police and report their sexual abuse as children from 1980-84. I sent the video confession to Hinds County prosecutors at their request. Langworthy was arrested and indicted a few weeks later.
Executive pastor Mike Buster gave the statement to WFAA when my interview about Langworthy aired.
Langworthy was accused of molesting 5 boys between the ages of 6 and 13 between 1980 and 1984. The incidents happened while Langworthy was babysitting each of the children at his sister’s home in Jackson and at his dorm room at Mississippi College, according to the indictments. Langworthy was sentenced to 10 years on each of the five counts, but under the plea agreement, he did not go to prison. Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Bill Gowan suspended the 50-year sentence. He served 5 years of probation and had to remain a registered sex offender for the remainder of his life. He passed away in 2019.
