Denton Bible Church Pastor Tommy Nelson Announces Planned Retirement

The long-time pastor will retire after 40 years of leading the megachurch north of Dallas.

Tommy Nelson, a best-selling author and the long-time pastor of Denton Bible Church located north of Dallas, announced his retirement to his congregation in a recent email, according to a Fox4News report.

Nelson referred to his retirement as a time of transition, allowing the church to be preserved.

“A church like Denton Bible Church needs to always be, to always exist. A church that is fundamental, premillennial, Calvinistic, dispensational, disciple-focused, elder ruled, complementarian, and ‘non-woke’ must continue,” Nelson wrote in his retirement announcement.

Logan Nyquist will be taking Nelson’s place leading the church. He is currently the associate pastor and will increase in responsibility over time, including filling the pulpit more often.

“He has the tools needed, and he has been faithful where he has been planted,” Nelson wrote of Nyquist. “Most of all, he has been faithful to those things that Denton Bible stands for.”

Nelson did not give a specific date for his official retirement in the letter.

Nelson also said the church is “as strong as it has ever been.” The church came under scrutiny last year for how it handled allegations of sexual abuse by one of its employees.

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Nelson claimed during a sermon in May 2022 that the previous junior high youth director, Robert Shiflet, had deceived and used him. That same day, the church released a five-page report that included multiple incidents where Denton Bible Church was made aware of Shiflet’s inappropriate behavior with middle school girls and confronted Shiflet but took no further action.

“As soon as Denton Bible became aware of the federal investigation, they worked with those authorities,” the report said. In it, the board acknowledged its mistakes and apologized to victims.

“We did not protect these children from their youth pastor,” the statement says. “We did not have a victim-centered response, and cultural dynamics at Denton Bible contributed to or exacerbated these failures.”

Based on a plea agreement, Shiflet was sentenced to 33 months in prison on two counts for sexually assaulting two girls during church youth trips. In January 2023, he was released from prison early based on good behavior after serving 25 months.

He currently lives in Weatherford, Texas, and will be a supervised registered sex offender for the remainder of his life, according to the Fox News report.

Main photo: Tommy Nelson / Video screenshot