According to The Christian Post, when Woodson’s story broke, Savage downplayed what had happened, portraying it as consensual and implying that Woodson was lying. “The atmosphere was very flirtatious,” he said in a radio interview. “That flirtatious environment continued to move forward, which led to us making out, some heavy petting. It was a very mutual, spontaneous, physical moment. Our hormones were obviously very much in that moment, and she performed oral sex…I do not believe I broke the law.”
After a two-month leave of absence during which an investigation was conducted and Andy Savage retained Conlee’s full support, the former announced that he was resigning from Highpoint. He said,
As I’ve reflected during my leave of absence, I have come to see that many wrongs occurred in 1998. The first was my inappropriate relationship with Jules, which was not only immoral, but meets the definition of abuse of power since I was her youth pastor; therefore, when our relationship became physical, there could be no claim of mutual consent. Another wrong was the failure to follow due process afterward; Jules deserved, and did not get, a full investigation and proper response 20 years ago.
Several months later, Chris Conlee also resigned. A joint statement issued by Conlee and the church’s trustees said, “The Trustees and Chris have mutually agreed that the time is now right for Chris to pass the baton. This will enable us to recalibrate our search for a new Teaching Pastor into the search for a Senior Pastor…To enable this, Chris will resign from Highpoint Church and pursue God’s heart for the expansion of his ministry as a visionary leader.”
Woodson decided to come forward after staying silent for years partly because a girl she had known in the youth group reached out to her and partly because of the #metoo movement. When asked why she did not come forward sooner, she told WMC Action News 5, “It’s very hard to tell your story. It’s very hard to speak up, especially when you feel pressured by the church to be silent.”
Andy Savage and Chris Conlee Start New Churches
In the fall of 2019, less than two years after resigning from Highpoint, Andy Savage started a new church in the Memphis area called Grace Valley Church. Woodson told Roys that this was “shocking news. His repentance just has not seemed genuine at all…there is a real pattern of deceptive behavior that unfortunately, I feel is a very—not only biblically, but morally and ethically—a disqualifier from the pulpit.”
GRACE’s Boz Tchividjian responded to the news by tweeting, “A common tactic of church leaders who have used their power and authority to sexually victimize is to place themselves back into positions of leadership while piously gaslighting and guilting those who object by accusing them of being unforgiving, unmerciful, & un-Christian.”
A common tactic of church leaders who have used their power and authority to sexually victimize is to place themselves back into positions of leadership while piously gaslighting and guilting those who object by accusing them of being unforgiving, unmerciful, & un-Christian. 1/2
— Boz Tchividjian (@BozT) October 27, 2019
The recent announcement that Chris Conlee would be starting a new church of his own came from his wife, Karin. In a blog post, she said that she and her husband would be returning to Memphis from Cleveland and stated,
As we come back to the city we love, I do have a little apprehension. I think of the way Satan likes to work. Silence, half-truths and division are three of his favorite weapons. In relationships, we often fill in gaps of silence with distrust. We take conjecture and speculation and create a new narrative that divides. It’s the same familiar formula that destroys friendships, families, cities, and countries. We assume the worst about each other and then build our walls.
The announcement about Chris Conlee’s new church seems to have been just as much of a shock to Woodson as the one about Andy Savage’s. Spiritual abuse researcher Wade Mullen and victims advocate Rachael Denhollander joined her in expressing their dismay. Denhollander posted the following tweet:
I stand with @juleswoodson11. https://t.co/wQdTUBtBhK
— Rachael Denhollander (@R_Denhollander) August 11, 2020
Mullen responded to Woodson, saying, “I’m so sorry Jules. This is wrong and shouldn’t be happening. I hope more and more people will see the madness of it all.”
