Crossroads Church founder Brian Tome steps down as senior pastor month after returning from suspension

A month after returning to teaching following a suspension over using a horse whip on a man who visited his church office more than a decade ago, Brian Tome, the founding and senior pastor of Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, says he is transitioning out of his role.

During his Sunday sermon, Tome announced that he is "going to take a different job at Crossroads."

"I am going to become the founding senior pastor," he said. "My old job as the top, head honcho at Crossroads thats making calls and pushed the church forward is going to go to Kyle Ranson. He is going to go from being our lead pastor to senior pastor. He is going to have my old title. He has all of my old authority and responsibility. He is going to take my seat on the board." 

Tome said he is not leaving the congregation, but will be freed up to pursue camp ministries, his podcast and speaking engagements. The new arrangement between Tome and the church is a five-year, annually renewable contract, he said. 

"You are not getting rid of me," he said. "I am going to be around. I came to realize that my job as senior pastor, as I've known it, was my Egypt. It was the thing I knew; it was the thing I understood. It was the thing that I was good at. ... But the thing about our Egypts is, we have to get out of our Egypt if we want to get to the promise land." 

Tome initially broke the news of his role transition in a Sept. 30 email cited by The Cincinnati Enquirer.

“I greatly missed being around you all. I missed exercising my gifts in leadership and teaching,” Tome wrote. “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.”

Tome’s decision to step down ends about three decades of leadership at the multicampus church, which has about 35,000 members in nine locations.

Tome was suspended in March after he was accused of whipping and rubbing a man’s crotch with a riding crop during an encounter in his office in 2015.

Crossroads co-founder Brian Wells said church leaders first learned of the incident in 2024, when a male church member told a staff member about it. The man said he noticed a riding crop in Tome’s office, which Tome had received as a gift, and asked him what it was.

According to the man’s account, Tome picked up the crop, said, “Oh, yeah? You like that?” and then whipped and rubbed the man’s crotch with it. When Tome learned of the allegation, he “immediately and very appropriately” recused himself from any investigation, according to Wells. He also told the staff member to contact the church’s board.

Church leaders said they suspended Tome after independently substantiating the allegation.

“While Brian’s actions may have been intended in humor, they were inappropriate and not above reproach,” the Crossroads Church Spiritual Board said in a statement about the investigation, which included “corroboration from a third-party witness who was not previously known.”

“We’re thankful for the community member who came forward and shared his experience and participated in the third-party investigation. We’re praying for and offering support for everyone who has been impacted,” the statement added.

Two days before announcing that he is stepping down, Tome urged his more than half a million Facebook followers to sign up for Man Camp — a primitive annual weekend camping event scheduled for Oct. 9–11.

“MAN CAMP started the way a lot of great things do — around a campfire. Founder Brian Tome and some buddies were on a camping trip together and started wondering: What if more guys could experience this? And MAN CAMP was born,” the event website states.

“What started in 2015 with 500 men has grown into something far bigger than anyone imagined. Since then, tens of thousands of men have come to MAN CAMP looking for something more. They return home with a stronger faith, a clearer sense of purpose, and friendships that last long after the weekend ends.”