The founding pastor of one of Greater Cincinnati's largest churches is stepping away from leadership duties after a six-month suspension and leave stemming from an investigation into inappropriate behavior toward a church member.
In a Sept. 30 emailto the Crossroads Church congregation, Brian Tome said he will no longer manage the church's operations, but he's not leaving. He said he will instead focus on preaching, mentoring, and outreach through his podcast and other initiatives.
"I greatly missed being around you all. I missed exercising my gifts in leadership and teaching," the email reads. "But the previous role and day-to-day responsibilities I’ve had for 30 years have gotten tiring and no longer light my fire enough to drive the macro Crossroads
mission forward."
The title of senior pastor is going to Kyle Ranson, who was named Tome's successor years earlier and led the church in Tome's absence. Tome said that Ranson will also assume his seat on the church's board.
Church officials suspended Tome in early March after launching an independent investigation into the accusation that he whipped and rubbed a man's crotch with a riding crop during an encounter in his office in 2015.
In a statement about their findings, Crossroads' board members said the investigation confirmed the accusation and revealed other concerns about Tome's leadership. The board members said they would suspend Tome for one month and then place him on a four-month leave.
"While Brian's actions may have been intended in humor, they were inappropriate and not above reproach," the board members wrote. "The past six weeks have highlighted concerns about Brian's leadership style and its impact on staff culture."
Tome returned to the church in late August.
Under Tome, Crossroads grew from a small church that held its first services in a middle school auditorium in 1996 to one of the region's largest evangelical churches. It now operates at nine locations in Ohio and Kentucky.
Crossroads has been at the forefront of a decades-long movement of the Christian faithful away from traditional Catholic and mainline Protestant churches to nondenominational evangelical churches.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Crossroads pastor steps away from leadership after return from leave
