Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Jackson, Tennessee, USA · 2026

United States: Jackson, Tennessee youth pastor sentenced for sexual relationship with a 17-year-old congregant

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Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

youth pastor at Fellowship Bible Church, Jackson, Tennessee

Organization

Fellowship Bible Church, Jackson, Tennessee

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

A youth pastor's standing and access within his own congregation were the channel through which a sustained sexual relationship with a 17-year-old member was formed and continued across multiple counties.

Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

Date in cited record · conviction and sentence

Madison County and Henderson County, Tennessee — circuit courts. Ryan McElrath, 40, youth pastor at Fellowship Bible Church from 2021 until his June 2024 arrest, was sentenced by Judge Kyle Atkins to 12 years on the Madison County indictment and 12 years on the Henderson County indictment, served consecutively for an effective 24-year sentence at 100%. He separately faced federal charges of coercion and enticement of a minor for using text messaging to communicate with the victim.

Documented coercion mechanisms

a youth pastor's ongoing access to and trust with a teenage congregant, exploited through sustained text communication and travel across three counties to continue the relationship

Cited record

Sources

press press report The Roys Report.: Sentence structure, counties, judge.
press press report Talk-N West TN.: Church affiliation and dates of employment.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://roysreport.com/former-tn-youth-pastor-mcelrath-gets-24-year-prison-sentence-sex-crimes-against-minor/ Corpus classification: press; evidentiary role: press-report. SHA-256 dcf27e3aadd3c311e12d29744f08c915804fcbd3a524dccd019b7cdf24a13670
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://talknwesttn.com/former-jackson-youth-pastor-sentenced-24-years/ Corpus classification: press; evidentiary role: press-report. SHA-256 b9b60a3fbabad16cd9048eb501ac759cf68b87e3f66bd0431842d32ed228891d
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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