LAKELAND (FL)
Lakeland Ledger [Lakeland FL]
March 15, 2025
By Gary White
- A Lakeland man is suing his former Royal Rangers leader, alleging sexual abuse over 40 years ago.
- The lawsuit also names Victory Church pastor M. Wayne Blackburn and the Assemblies of God Peninsular Florida District as defendants.
- The plaintiff claims Blackburn and another pastor failed to report the abuse and discouraged him from speaking out.
- Blackburn’s lawyer denies the allegations, stating it is a case of mistaken identity.
A Lakeland man names a prominent local pastor and a church organization as defendants in a lawsuit claiming that a youth group leader sexually abused him more than 40 years ago, when he was 7 years old.
Christopher Woods Sr., 47, filed a civil lawsuit against Walter Steverson, the alleged abuser, along with M. Wayne Blackburn, senior pastor at Victory Church, and the Assemblies of God Peninsular Florida District, based in Lakeland.
Boz Tchividjian, a DeLand lawyer, filed the suit on Woods’ behalf March 5 in Circuit Court for the 10th Judicial Circuit, based in Bartow. The suit seeks damages of more than $50,000, stating that Woods suffered “severe psychological, emotional, and physical injuries, emotional distress, mental anguish, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life.”
The suit alleges that Blackburn and the church district failed to protect Woods from Steverson’s abuse in 1983, when Steverson was a volunteer leader of a local chapter of Royal Rangers, a program for boys operated by the Assemblies of God denomination.
Steverson was later convicted of lewd behavior involving a child under 16 and is a registered sex offender.
According to the complaint, Woods’ family began attending the First Assemblies of God Church in Lakeland in or before 1983. Woods’ father worked long hours, and his mother thought the Royal Rangers program “would provide a positive, male role model for her young son,” the complaint states.
Founded in 1962, Royal Rangers is a youth program similar to Boy Scouts of America. Still overseen by Assemblies of God, an evangelical Protestant denomination based in Missouri, the program educated boy Rangers in “morality, patriotism, character building, obedience and various other life skills,” the suit states.Get the Daily Briefing newsletter in your inbox.
Steverson served as a volunteer leader with the Royal Rangers “outpost” based at First Assemblies of God Church in Lakeland, the complaint says. His role included leading weekly meetings.
Suit: Leader groomed boy for abuse
Steverson “paid special attention” to Woods, the complaint alleges, increasing the boy’s trust in and dependence on him. Steverson gave Woods rides to and from Royal Rangers meetings.
The initial instance of abuse occurred when Steverson was driving Woods to a meeting for the first time, the suit claims. With the boy wearing shorts, and Steverson twice touched him on the inner thigh, the second time almost touching his genitalia, the complaint says.
Arriving at the meeting, Woods approached Blackburn and told him what Steverson had done in the car, the complaint alleges. Blackburn took the boy to Karl Strader, senior pastor of First Assemblies of God, and Strader said that Steverson was a good man who was spreading the gospel, telling the boy the contact was likely an accident, the suit says.
Strader told Woods that it would not happen again, according to the complaint.
Blackburn, who overheard the conversation with Strader, then walked Woods back to the Royal Rangers meeting, on the way instructing the boy to keep the “accident” a secret, the suit claims. Blackburn added that Woods’ mother, who had allowed Steverson to give the boy rides, probably would not believe his claim of abuse, the suit says.
Strader and Blackburn allowed Steverson to drive Woods home from the meeting, the complaint says, and on the drive, Steverson apologized and said he had “sinned.”
Neither Strader nor Blackburn reported the alleged abuse to child protective services, as required by Florida law, or to law enforcement or anyone else, the suit says. (Strader, who later led Carpenter’s Home Church, an offshoot of First Assemblies of God, died in 2020.)
Pastor’s lawyer: Mistaken identity
Blackburn’s staff directed The Ledger to a lawyer representing him, Trinity Jordan of the global law firm Dentons.
“We are aware of the lawsuit filed against Pastor Blackburn and the Peninsula Florida District Council regarding events that allegedly occurred over 40 years ago,” Jordan said by email. “While we deeply sympathize with anyone who has experienced abuse, we firmly believe this is a case of mistaken identity. The District is reviewing the Plaintiff’s claims with counsel and will respond to the lawsuit as appropriate.
“With respect to the claims against Pastor Blackburn, he was not an employee of the church where the Plaintiff claims the incident took place, nor was he involved in the youth program at the church where the allegations are centered. These facts strongly indicate that Pastor Blackburn is not the person referenced in this lawsuit, and he emphatically denies that he is the individual referenced in the lawsuit.”’The only girl in class’: Students at Florida Polytechnic offer varying views on gender imbalance
The suit alleges that Steverson again abused Woods during a Royal Rangers overnight camping trip located on property owned and operated by the Assemblies of God Peninsular Florida District. Woods did not want to attend, knowing that Steverson would be present, but feared sharing his fears with his mother because Blackburn had told him she would not believe his abuse claim, the suit says.
During the trip, Steverson got inside Woods’ sleeping bag and caressed the boy’s thigh, the complaint says. The next day, Steverson took Woods on a hike alone and abused him again, the suit says.
After that camping trip, Steverson used his position as a Royal Rangers volunteer leader to gain access to Woods and sexually abused him eight to 10 more times in his car or on the First Assembly’s church property, the suit says.
The final incident occurred in a prayer tower at the church, according to the complaint. A door soon opened, and others walked into the room, forcing Steverson to abandon his plans, the suit says. He tried to abuse Woods again on the drive home, but the boy pushed his hand away, and Woods was never alone with Steverson again after that, the suit says.
The suit states that Woods only within the past four years “discovered a causal relationship between the abuse he endured as a result of the conduct of all of the Defendants and the resulting emotional and psychological injuries he experienced on account of this sexual abuse.”
In an email, Tchividjian said that Woods is suing “only after making every effort to resolve these claims in good faith.” Woods’ awareness of the connection arose through therapy, he said.
Prominent lawyer leads suit
Tchividjian, a grandson of the famed evangelist Billy Graham, is the founder and former executive director of Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, or GRACE, a nonprofit that helps faith-based organizations respond to allegations of sexual abuse. A former prosecutor in Florida, he left a position as a law professor at Liberty University to focus entirely on representing victims of abuse, according to his biography.
Tchividjian estimated that he has participated in more than 100 civil cases involving alleged sexual abuse.
“As you may know, survivors of childhood sexual abuse process their trauma in various ways over differing periods of time,” Tchividjian said.
He added: “With this deeper understanding, Mr. Woods made the courageous decision to come forward and hold these parties responsible for his injuries.”
The lawsuit emphasizes that the Assemblies of God Peninsular Florida District had authority over the local chapter of Royal Rangers and that Blackburn was a credentialed minister acting as an agent of the district.
Victory Church emerged from a split among members of Carpenters Home Church. Blackburn has been the church’s lead pastor since 1989.
“Pastor Blackburn has dedicated his life to serving others with integrity and compassion,” Jordan said by email. “We are confident that as the facts come to light, it will be clear that he was not involved in the alleged incident. In the meantime, we ask for fairness and respect for due process as this matter unfolds.”
The Assemblies of God Peninsular Florida District had not responded by Friday afternoon to a voicemail left that morning. Steverson could not be reached.
Steverson, 59, was convicted in Polk County in 1991 for lewd acts on or in the presence of a child under age 16. He received a 12-year prison sentence for one count and 15 years of probation for eight other counts, court records show.
As of Friday afternoon, Steverson’s arrest affidavit and other detailed records were not available. Florida granted Steverson’s request for early release from probation in 2011, court records show.
A registered sexual offender, Steverson was listed as living in Lake Wales in 2024.
Royal Rangers has faced other lawsuits involving sexual abuse. In 2021, the Assemblies of God settled two separate suits with men who participated in the program as children, according to the Lawsuit Information Center.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.