BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The founding pastor of The Church at Brook Hills has been suspended from his evangelistic ministry and resigned as chaplain of Samford University's football team after he admitted having an extramarital affair.
Evangelist Rick Ousley, 55, had his speaking engagements canceled by the board of directors of Quixotic Ministries, which he founded after retiring from The Church at Brook Hills, and his Web site was shut down.
Ousley admitted in a written statement Thursday that he had an affair in the fall of 2005.
"I committed a moral and spiritual indiscretion with a woman not my wife," he said. "That woman has decided to make this public."
The Birmingham News reported Friday that Donna Jones, 43, of Katy, Texas, said she began a sexual relationship with Ousley when she was 18 after he and his first wife divorced and that it continued after he married his current wife.
She said she met him twice in recent years on his trips with Samford's football team and that her last trysts with Ousley were Dec. 10-17 when he preached two consecutive Sundays at Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, the News reported.
David Wilson, president of Quixotic's board of directors, said Ousley and his wife have been married more than 20 years and she remains supportive of him.
The board's suspension of Ousley will be reevaluated later, his attorney, Gordon Pate, said.
"The board said let's cancel any outside speaking for the next three months and we'll reevaluate it at that time," Pate said. "It's something that the board and Rick agreed needed to be done."
Pate said Ousley will no longer be chaplain of the football team at Samford.
"He is voluntarily stepping down from that position," Pate said.
Ousley, a widely known evangelist who has given the invocation at NASCAR races, built The Church at Brook Hills from 30 members to some 4,000. He retired in 2005 amid health problems, including two brain surgeries, one an emergency operation for an aneurysm.
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