LAGRANGE (GA)
Brent Detwiler [Gilbert, AZ]
May 16, 2024
By Brent Detwiler
Sovereign Grace Church of LaGrange, Georgia was adopted by Sovereign Grace Churches in September 2014. In 2018, a deacon was found guilty of incest, aggravated sexual battery, and child molestation. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. This was not the first time. He was also sentenced in 2000 for child molestation, put on probation, and entered into the sex abuse registry.
Now, the lead pastor, has been arrested for sexual battery and child molestation related to his oldest daughter. He is in jail awaiting an indictment by the Grand Jury. His wife also alleges emotional and physical abuse. She has filed for a restraining order, custody of her daughters, and divorce. Their marriage has been on the rocks for over a decade, and this was known to denominational leaders in Sovereign Grace Churches.
Both these men were approved as above reproach when signs clearly indicated otherwise. They should never have been appointed a pastor or deacon. As a result, the gospel has been disgraced throughout the community, county, and region. The story has been picked up by several regional news outlets including Atlanta News First Television Station, and by national publishers like The Roys Report and MinistryWatch.
These three articles lay out the evidentiary facts of both cases. They are grievous to read. The sexual abuse of children by esteemed Sovereign Grace leaders continues.
Russell Tusing, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in LaGrange, GA, Arrested for Sexual Battery & Child Molestation
Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 5:32PM
Russell Tusing Is Another in Long Line of Sexually Perverse Leaders in Sovereign Grace Churches. Sarah Tusing Gets Protective Order & Files for Divorce.
Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 11:47PM
Convicted Child Molester Vince Sievert Allowed to Serve as Deacon by Russell Tusing, Mark Prater, & Keith Collins. Predictably His Abuse of Children Continued.
Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 6:21PM
I’ve also been made aware of a third case of alleged incest known to Russell and Sarah Tusing, Michelle Sievert, and Dale and Sarah Jackson. It too was covered up. The information came from a former pastor in the church. Here is a small portion of what he wrote me.
From: [Former Pastor]
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2024 9:17 AM
To: Brent Detwiler
Subject: SGC Lagrange Ga
I not sure if you are aware but there is another SGC Lagrange issue of molestation that never made public or reported.
I do not want to get involved or have my name put out there. But Russell knew about the wife’s charges and it was never disclosed.
From: [Former Pastor]
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2024 11:36 AM
To: Brent Detwiler
Subject: Re: SGC Lagrange Ga
I can share this. The daughter told her mother [Kelly] that her dad [Dean] had been sexual with her. He denied the allegations.
The mother at some point packed up and moved out of the house in a day. The father came home after work and found all his wife’s and children belongings were gone. She kept her intentions to do so secretive and never reported her daughter’s accusations.
Russell met with the father and informed him he had to leave as the wife desired to stay at SGC Lagrange.
I also received this information from another source. Kelly told this person at a wedding in April 2021 that one of her daughters (name withheld) was being molested by Dean.
“They [Dean & Kelly] weren’t at SGC at the time [2000], they’d left several years before and started attending Rosemont Baptist Church. Michelle, Sarah T, Sarah J, Dale, and Russell waited til Dean went to work his third shift job and all of them moved Kelly and the kids and basically the whole house out to Dale and Sarah’s house. Kelly left Dean a note on the kitchen table. She stayed with Sarah and Dale for a few weeks, then Rosemont gave her $10,000 they had raised for a mission trip.”
I asked, “Do you think all the people who helped move Kelly and children out knew about allegations of child molestation?” The answer, “Yes, 100%.”
Those people were Russell and Sarah Tusing, Michelle Sievert, and Dale and Sarah Jackson.
The Jackson’s divorced in April 2023 allegedly because, “He was publicly cheating on her and was caught on camera having relations with a well-known real estate agent at the gym. The church was never told anything.” That according to a knowledgeable source.
I’ve also interacted with Jennifer Wellborn-Conte. Vince Sievert was her youth pastor. He molested her round 1998. He was found guilty but only received a 15-year probation. It did not deter him in the least. He immediately began to abuse his daughter and then moved on to other girls.
He was rearrested for all kinds of perverse crimes and sentenced again in 2018. This time he got 20 years in prison.
Jennifer posted my third article on her Facebook page. She made this comment.
Jennifer Leigh Welborn-Conte
April 23 at 4:01 PM
If you know then you know…
So many ppl were failed by Troup County for so many years.. & at the end of this 20+ year nightmare, He SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN LIFE!!!! but today, I am satisfied that he is at least locked up where for at least the next 20 years he can’t hurt anyone else!!!
I was mocked, called a liar.. BUT *I WAS A KID* & @ the end of the day Remember that!! You know who you are!! THANK YOU JESUS for MY MAMA!! A BELIEVING Mama, who LOVED HER CHILD!!!
Her mother was Sherry Welborn, now deceased. She was the Troup County Chief Deputy Clerk of Superior and State Courts in Georgia.
Jennifer also wrote me.
Facebook
April 24, 2024
If it weren’t for my Precious Mother, who listened and believed her child, he would have never been prosecuted the 1st time. It’s just sad that probation was all he got. So that he could then hurt his own children. Children that God blessed him with.. but Michelle.. oh Michelle, she KNEW!!! she knew what & who he was. She called me a liar, so many things. And then it happened to her babies. I can never understand. If I for one second thought my husband had EVER DONE ANYTHING to ANYONE. it would be over!!! She stood by him. By his lies & deception and lived on that lie until it broke her and her poor children.
Others have also told me Michelle knew about the abuse of her four children and did nothing to stop her husband, Vince. In fact, she knowingly allowed it to continue for years. She is a wretched woman in my opinion. This was known to Tusing and others leaders in the church. Despite it, they made her a deaconess in 2021 or 2022. Her son Austin is also on the SGC-LaGrange leadership team.
This week, I sent 8-pages of evidence and information to the LaGrange Police Department.
I have never seen a church so characterized by divorce, adultery, incest, lawlessness, and the like. This is unsurprising given its history.
The initial senior pastor, Clay Williams, stepped down for adultery the same year he and Russell started Sovereign Grace Church of LaGrange.
From two different sources.
“I warned the elders (Russell was one) about the pastor’s ministry, marital and money issues. I departed and they refused to address the pastor’s issues. Within months he had committed adultery, then left his family and gotten another lady pregnant. Then abandoned his family, divorced his wife and married the pregnant woman. … Russell inherited the church after the former pastor got involved in adultery. The church was the remnant of Courts of Praise and they formally changed the name to SGC.”
I asked, “What year did SGC-L start? Who was the initial sr. pastor if any? Russell became the sr. pastor in August 2011. A: 2010. Clay Williams but he stepped down due to infidelity (he cheated on his wife).”
This man trained Tusing but Tusing was already a problem.
Before SGC-LaGrange began he was part of the Reformation Family of ministers. They ordained him to gospel ministry. The ordination was revoked, however. A person involved in the defrocking told me, “We had to revoke his credentials and executed a document calling on him to repent. All who he has served with signed the formal document. Yet, refused to repent.”
This history was known to Mark Prater, executive director of Sovereign Grace Churches, and Keith Collins, regional director over the churches in GA, LA, and FL.
They also knew Sarah Tusing got a Standing Order Regarding Domestic Relations from the courts to protect herself and the girls from Russell in 2014.
Russell is a danger to his wife and children. Sarah recently got a 12 month protective order against him. It says in pertinent part.
FAMILY VIOLENCE TWELVE MONTH PROTECTIVE ORDER
This order shall be in effect for up to twelve (12) months from April 23, 2024 until April 23, 2025.
That the Respondent [Russell] has violated the Family Violence Act, O.C.G.A. ~ 19-13-1 et seq., by committing family violence, has place the Petitioner [Sarah] in reasonable fear of Petitioner’s safety, and represents a credible threat to the physical safety of Petitioner and/or Petitioner’s child/ren. Respondent is hereby enjoined and restrained from doing or attempting to do, or threatening to do, any act of injury, maltreating, molesting, following, harassing, harming, or abusing Petitioner and/or the minor children in any manner.
If Tusing gets out of jail on bond (which has not been granted to date) he will be rearrested if he violates anything in this order. By the time this order ends I expect he will be in prison for a long time.
In addition, they knew Vince Sievert was a registered sex offender when he was made a deacon around 2014. They also knew about Michelle Sievert but allowed her to become a deaconess around 2021.
Sovereign Grace Churches is not serious about the qualifications of pastors, elders, overseers, deacons, or deaconesses. For example in the case of C.J. Mahaney. He has covered up the sexual assault of young adults going back to 1980 and the sexual abuse of children going back to 1991. It is all documented in thousands of pages of evidence church members in the denomination have been told not to read.
Sovereign Grace Church of LaGrange is a reflection of Sovereign Grace Churches.
The church website has now been taken down. You can find a copy here. They still have up their Facebook page with the last entry on March 18. It is sacrilegious.
They have a phone number but no one picks up. You have to leave a message. The recording also says, “We Exist to Delight in, Declare and Display the Glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.” I cringe and think what a reproach to those who call, like the press, asking about Russell Tusing, who is in jail for sexual battery and child molestation.
This follows the 2018 conviction of Vince Sievert which was followed closely in the LaGrange community and throughout Troup County.
This church cannot be trusted. It should be shut down. If not, it should be removed from the denomination.