“According to Stovall, Woolman instructed her to make the document ‘go away’ during this conversation,” said Dockery.
The SWBTS president said that in August 2022 all seminary employees had been made aware of the DOJ’s investigation into the SBC. In November 2022, “employees with relevant information had been made aware of the subpoena, including the need to preserve and produce any responsive documents.”
Dockery said that when he later spoke to Woolman, Woolman denied telling Stovall to get rid of her document. Queen also repeatedly denied hearing Woolman tell Stovall to make the document “go away,” according to Dockery.
“For nearly five months we operated within the tension of knowing that employees in whom we had confidence had differences of recollection regarding the January conversation,” Dockery said.
It is in relation to Queen’s allegedly conflicting accounts of this January meeting that Queen has been charged with obstruction of justice. The DOJ claims that Queen produced notes verifying his initial description of the meeting, in which he said that Woolman did not instruct Stovall to destroy her document.
But later in June, the DOJ says Queen provided contradictory information, and then Queen testified under oath that he had in fact heard Woolman tell Stovall to destroy the document.
According to SWBTS, the seminary placed Queen on administrative leave in June 2023, and he subsequently resigned as the seminary’s interim provost. Queen was appointed lead pastor of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, in February 2024. However, on May 26, five days after he received the federal charges, the church announced that Queen was on leave from his duties as lead pastor.
RELATED: Matt Queen on Leave From Pastoral Duties Following Indictment
In April 2023, Woolman became a candidate for the position of lead pastor at Fruit Cove Baptist Church in St. Johns, Florida, and he accepted the position in May 2023. Dockery said that he gave “a brief affirmation of [Woolman’s] candidacy to the church given his then role at the seminary, given the fact that he had been a quality student in one of my doctoral seminars, and given the information available to us at the time.”
However, Dockery added, “If asked to provide the same recommendation today, and based on information received subsequent to that time, I would not be able to provide the same recommendation.”
Federal investigators have not issued charges against Woolman. ChurchLeaders reached a DOJ spokesperson, who declined to comment on whether there are any forthcoming charges against him. ChurchLeaders reached out to Heath Woolman and Fruit Cove Baptist Church for comment and will update this article in the event of a reply.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that in August 2022 SWBTS employees were made aware of the federal grand jury investigation and the mandate to provide any relevant documents. In fact, in August 2022, employees were made aware of the DOJ investigation into the SBC, and in November 2022, employees with relevant information were told of the subpoena and need to produce relevant documents.
