(UNITED KINGDOM)
Christianity Today [Carol Stream IL]
November 2, 2026
By Christianity Today
The new allegations against Steve Timmis come after reports of spiritual abuse in 2020 led to his ouster from the major church-planting network and the church he founded.
ollowing his 2020 ouster from a leading church-planting network over allegations of spiritual abuse, UK pastor Steve Timmis is now facing charges for rape.
Police in South Yorkshire, United Kingdom announced October 29 that they charged Timmis, the former chief executive of Acts 29, and his wife, Janet, with eight counts of rape. The charges concern allegations involving one victim, a news release from the police said.
The release did not elaborate on what led to charges against the couple, but it said the offenses took place between May and September 2008. Timmis and his wife were not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.
South Yorkshire police asked for help with more information, saying their investigation indicated former church members would likely have information about the reported incident. They didn’t say whether the alleged victim was a part of The Crowded House, the influential church Timmis founded. The church was known for a model of intensive gospel community, where Timmis emphasized “ordinary life with gospel intentionality.”
Former members played a key role in publicizing information that led to Timmis’s resignation. About 15 people who worked under Timmis at The Crowded House and Acts 29 came forward in a Christianity Today report in February 2020 and described a pattern of intimidation and bullying. Timmis resigned from Acts 29 a few days later.
His departure sparked a deeper examination of the top Reformed evangelical church-planting organization cofounded by pastor Mark Driscoll.
In the aftermath, UK Christians also had a wider conversation about how to identify spiritual abuse and how to draw a line between a challenging message and a toxic culture of control.
The Crowded House, which Timmis resigned from shortly after his ouster from Acts 29, rebranded as Redeemer Church Sharrow Vale and commissioned a third-party inquiry into its leadership. As a result of the inquiry, Redeemer Church Sharrow Vale appointed safeguarding leaders.
“We are shocked and saddened by this news,” Redeemer said in a statement about Timmis’s arrest, according to The Roys Report. “We are cooperating fully with South Yorkshire Police and urge anyone with information which could be relevant to their investigation to contact them.”
In CT’s 2020 report, several people said Timmis expected a “24/7” commitment to the church. In the face of pushback, Timmis reportedly responded aggressively and accused one member of acting as “a law unto himself,” according to Australian church planter Steve McAlpine, who had moved to England to learn from The Crowded House model.
Some months ago, McAlpine revisited the moment when he spoke out about Timmis.
“All of the power was with the abusive ecosystem that protected the leader until I named him publicly. And the minute I did publicly, it started an avalanche that he could no longer hold back, deny or shut down,” McAlpine said in a March 18 Facebook post.
McAlpine wasn’t the only one who traveled to The Crowded House in Sheffield to study Timmis’s church-planting methodology. Missionaries, interns, and university students all visited to observe The Crowded House’s small groups, called “gospel communities.” Acts 29’s global headquarters were located alongside The Crowded House when Timmis led the church-planting agency.
Today, Acts 29 boasts a network of 650 churches across 50 different countries. Texas megachurch pastor Matt Chandler, who took a leave of absence from his church in 2022 over an inappropriate online relationship with a woman, serves as executive director of its board. At the time, Chandler said the online communication was not romantic or sexual, but he said he “fell short.”
Timmis’s leadership at the church-planting network began after the removal of Driscoll—who at the time led the influential Seattle megachurch Mars Hills Church—from leadership amid accusations of abusive leadership.
Soon after Timmis’s appointment, staff members sought to alert Acts 29 leadership to a “culture of fear” under Driscoll’s replacement. In response, the staff members told CT in 2020 they were fired and asked to sign non-disclosure agreements.
Following Timmis’s departure from Acts 29 and The Crowded House, Timmis became involved with another church in Sheffield called Eastside Community Church, according to a UK register of charities and a US pastor whose Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches congregation partners with the UK church.
That American pastor, Brian Brown, has defended his church’s partnership with Timmis in a 2025 post on X, and questioned the police investigation of Timmis in a more recent post, but did not respond to a request for comment.
Timmis and his wife are scheduled for an initial hearing December 1.
Related
Acts 29 CEO Removed Amid ‘Accusations of Abusive Leadership’