Ex-Together Church pastor Micahn Carter to launch new church while fighting rape allegation

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Thursday, December 18, 2025

Former megachurch pastor Micahn Carter and his wife, April, have announced plans to start a new church in Indianapolis, Indiana, as he continues to pursue a defamation lawsuit against his former assistant, who alleges he raped her in a church office in 2019.

The couple announced their plans in an Instagram post on Dec. 5 and expect to launch the church in the fall of 2026. The announcement comes more than a year after the former leader of Together Church in Yakima, Washington, returned to public ministry.

Carter and his wife led Together Church for 13 years until he resigned in June 2019 due to what was described as an “inappropriate incident,” which was later alleged to be sexual assault.

According to the Yakima Herald-Republic, Carter blamed the incident on previously undiagnosed bipolar disorder, for which he later sought treatment.

He later went to the Church of the Highlands in Alabama to participate in a “ministerial restoration” program in July 2020. During his time there, the woman sent a letter to Church of the Highlands Pastor Chris Hodges, accusing Carter of raping her. She also published her allegations in a post on Medium titled “Moving Forward.” Carter resigned from Church of the Highlands due to the allegations.

In the post, the woman alleged that Carter “raped me in my office while most of our staff, teams and my family stood just outside the door” on April 29, 2019.

“This nonconsensual and horribly traumatic event left me unable to function,” the young woman who described herself as a single mother wrote. “I remember feeling so disoriented and like my skin was crawling.”

She said she was too afraid to report the alleged rape to police or church officials or even go to a hospital.

Carter has maintained that the alleged rape was a consensual sexual encounter and sued the woman in Alabama for at least $500,000 in damages, but the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice because the alleged assault happened in Washington, reports the Yakima Herald-Republic. 

When Carter mounted the lawsuit in Washington, the woman sought to have the case dismissed, but Yakima County Superior Court Judge Kevin Naugh denied that request in February 2024. The case has not yet been settled, but Carter continues to preach at churches around the country.

During a recent sermon at Revere Church in Placentia, California, Carter framed the rape allegations as “infidelity.”

“In 2019, I made the biggest mistake of my life. Through infidelity, I was unfaithful to my wife. I lost an amazing church that I built, amazing group of people that I got to pastor. I lost the city I was born and raised in. We lost the house we were building. I lost my reputation. I lost trust. I lost longtime friends,” he said.

“For the past seven years, all I've been doing is trying to make sure that my roots were secure in God and that I could build the trust of my wife, who is still with me,” he continued.

Carter, 46, says he has been haunted by his past and a multitude of voices.

“It's the voices. It's the voices of others and the voices in your own head that try to remind us that what we've done … and disqualify us from anything good. And I still hear those voices. Some of those voices are in this room. Some of those voices are online. Some of those voices are in my head,” he said.

“And what I've realized is for some people, your repentance will never be enough. The new way of living, the life you're trying to build will never be enough. Your desire to please God and get it right will never be enough. But one thing I'm certain of is your yesterday, your past is not the deciding factor of your tomorrow or your legacy.”