Reporting the Truth.
Restoring the Church.

By Daniel Silliman

Kevin Binette, has led worship at at least six Atlanta-area churches since writing a statement in the early 2000s confessing to molesting children. (Screen grab)

Kevin Binette confessed in writing in the early 2000s.

He said that when he was a teenager in the 1970s, he sexually molested a young boy. And when he was in college in the 1980s, he molested two fellow students while they slept. Then as a new father in the early 1990s, he said, he molested two of his four children. And chaperoning church youth groups trips in the late ’90s, he molested several more sleeping boys.

“I still battle an attraction for young men,” Binette wrote in the statement he gave his wife between 2002 and 2005 when he was in his early 40s. “I am so ashamed of the fact that I still have these unhealthy desires, and I don’t want anyone to know about them.”

He kept his temptations secret from the charismatic church where he led worship.

He continued, for more than two decades, to move through charismatic communities across Atlanta’s northern suburbs and exurbs without his confession ever becoming public.Lifegate Church International in Snellville, Georgia, where Kevin Binette preached in July 2026. (Photo courtesy of lifegateinternational.com)

Binette has volunteered in at least six congregations since he wrote his confession.

He led worship at Metropolitan Church of God, in Duluth, and Cornerstone Fellowship, an Assemblies of God church in Dacula. Then he moved to the International House of Prayer – Atlanta; 12Stone Church, a Lawrenceville-based multisite megachurch; The Vine Church, in Braselton; and The Way Church of Hartwell.

In July 2026, he led worship at one service at Lifegate Church International in Snellville and preached a sermon at another. He and his second wife, Cindy, were introduced as people who move from church to church to “bring revival.”

“They’re needed all over the place,” the pastor said. “Get ready — get ready.”

Lifegate leadership appeared unaware of any problems in Binette’s past, beyond the general testimony he shared about God’s grace and spiritual transformation.

None of the Atlanta-area churches seem to have known why Binette, a talented worship leader who made good money as an IT manager at Turner Broadcasting System, kept jumping from congregation to congregation.Kevin Binette, has served as a worship leader at multiple churches across metro Atlanta. (Photo courtesy of Facebook)

But victims and church leaders who are convinced that Binette is a predator told Roys Report (RR)they have spent years trying to keep up with him, playing an apparently endless game of whack-a-mole.

They said they have alerted senior pastor after senior pastor that the charming new volunteer is dangerous.

But Binette always seems to hop to a new church and a new stage. He confesses vaguely, talking about past experiences of “sexual brokenness” and “identity issues” he has put behind him by God’s grace.

Area churches welcome Binette and thank him for being there, ignorant that he has confessed to lifelong predatory desires.

“Kevin has learned who is susceptible to his manipulation,” Binette’s son Michael, one of the victims named in the 2000s statement, told RR. “He goes to a church. Then he goes to another church. He utilizes the whole Jesus thing and people can’t see who Kevin really is or turn a blind eye, because it’s so heinous.”

At least three more teenagers have privately identified themselves as victims since Binette wrote his statement.

His youngest daughter, Lindsey Lugo, who was not named as a victim, thinks there could be many more. She said her father has proven himself a serial predator. At any church he attends, she believes someone is in danger.

“He’s always looking for a way to have access to young boys,” Lugo told RR. “He moves around, a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing type of thing, because he has to, in order to gain access to whoever he’s preying on.”

Binette, now 63, told RR in an email Tuesday that “there is more to the story” and “additional context.” He did not provide any further information before deadline.

He also said that people who have spent time with him recently have a different perspective about who he is.

Accused of grooming victims and church communities

Dustin Pennington, a former Assemblies of God minister who resigned over his handling of allegations against Binette, said Binette used to be a close friend. His perspective has changed.

Binette joined Pennington’s church in Dacula, 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, around 2006 and immediately impressed the pastor with his honesty. Binette talked about the need to be vulnerable and “walk in the light,” Pennington said. He confessed almost immediately to struggling with same-sex attraction and appeared eager for discipleship and accountability.Dustin Pennington preaches at Gate City Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia, on Feb 18, 2026 prior to his resignation over his handling of past sexual abuse allegations. (Screen grab)

Binette was also talented, charming, funny, financially successful and ready to volunteer wherever needed. At Cornerstone, Binette started leading worship and helping out with the youth.

Binette grooms his victims, Pennington told RR, and charms their religious communities. Pennington does not believe anyone should accept Binette’s account of repentance until the worship leader turns himself over to police.

“How do you repent apart from confession of what you’ve done?” Pennington said. “You walk into a police station, and you own what you’ve done.”

When confronted in the past, Binette has denied the accusations, telling Pennington and other ministers that family members were trying to “stir up drama” with “wild stories.”

Some of the family members, including Binette’s son and his ex-wife, Rebecca, have struggled with addictions that made it easy for people to discount anything they said. Another was dismissed for being angry.

Binette, in contrast, seemed reasonable, honorable, responsible and upstanding. When his marriage dissolved in 2005, two of his children chose to live with him. He was widely praised by his church at the time as a good, devoted dad.

“He came out of that like the champion,” one family member said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the impact publicity would have on his business. “Kevin is like the most charismatic person you’ve ever met. Successful. Lots of money. Good looking. Gifted at everything he does. No one questioned him.”

If people got a little closer to Binette, family members say, he would tell them about his struggles with same-sex attraction and “identity issues.” He could always point to his active involvement in discipleship programs and Christian accountability groups.

That was true, according to family members, but Binette’s seeming honesty masked a deeper secret.Gate City Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia, formerly International House of Prayer–Atlanta, removed Kevin Binette from its worship team after learning of the allegations. (Photo courtesy of Google Maps)

Another family member who also asked not to be named because of potential financial repercussions, said he tried and failed for years to get anyone to take the allegations seriously. People thought he, not Binette, was the problem.

“Kevin is just someone you want to believe,” he told RR. “Everyone looks up to him. He’s the type of guy where you want to be around him. It’s like we had no chance against that.”

The family member said he could not convince anyone to take a second look at the allegations until they saw the letter, which Binette originally wrote for a Christian accountability group.

Lugo, Binette’s daughter, said that for years she thought Binette was in a long-term addiction recovery program. When she discovered he was spending time alone with a nephew in 2017, she took the confession letter her mother had given her and shared it with the Assemblies of God minister, Dustin Pennington.

Pennington read it, he told RR, and was convinced Binette should not be trusted in church leadership. He was able to convince others.

Allegations relayed discreetly, dealt with privately

For nearly a decade now, the allegations have been relayed discreetly from minister to minister. Each church, learning of the early 2000s confession, appears to have dealt with Binette privately.

Billy Humphrey, senior pastor at International House of Prayer – Atlanta, now called Gate City, removed Binette from a worship team immediately after learning of the allegations, according to people who were there. But he also kept details of the allegations quiet.Billy Humphrey, a Gate City Church director and former senior pastor of IHOP Atlanta (Photo courtesy of billyhumphrey.com)

“Billy just popped out of his office and said, ‘Kevin’s not going to be here; if you see him, call police,’” former worship director Joy Bullard told RR. “I asked what happened and he said, ‘That’s not information you need to know.’It was hush-hush. No follow-up.”

Bullard did not learn any more details about the allegations for several years. As far as she knows, there was no internal investigation to see if Binette had ever acted inappropriately at the church.

At least two teenage boys worked closely with Binette at the International House of Prayer. Sometimes they played music with him in the middle of the night, continuing the round-the-clock worship that was central to the church’s mission.

One of those boys told RR that no one ever asked him anything about his interactions with the confessed child molester. No one checked to see if he had been groomed.

Nothing happened, beyond a few weird moments, he told RR. He does not know if others had the same experience.

Humphrey did not respond to an email from RR. In a statement in April, the church said that “the individual had no access to children or teens.” Gate City also said leaders were“engaging trusted outside advisors to review our processes, to recommend improvements, and to ensure best practices are followed.”

Since 2017, the information about the allegation has passed between ministers informally. Jeff Lyle, chief operating officer of the KINEO Ministry Training Center, in Dawsonville, told RR that he heard the accusations over lunch earlier this year, from a minister he knew and trusted. Binette was studying at KINEO at the time, while also leading worship at The Way Church of Hartwell.

Lyle said he responded by calling Binette on the phone and telling him what he heard. Binette denied the allegations. Lyle expelled him from the school anyway.

“The course of action was swift and decisive,” Lyle told RR in an email. “Everything I knew came from second-hand accounts, which would legally be hearsay, but I … personally believe the allegations are valid.”

Lyle said he also passed the information on to the Hartwell church, contacting the senior pastor directly.

Binette’s picture disappeared from the church’s website a short time later. There was no public statement. The Way Church did not respond to an email from RR.

No police reports

None of the churches where Binette worked ever contacted law enforcement, according to information RR received from city and county police departments.

Clergy are legally mandated to report information about child sexual abuse in Georgia, but it is unclear what counts as “information.” Lyle, for one, did not feel he had enough details to file a report. By the time the allegations came to him, everything was second or third-hand. He believed another minister had contacted police, he told RR.

One family member contacted Gwinnett County police in 2026. The investigation — which lacked an identified victim, other than Michael Binette, who does not remember being molested in his sleep — has not led to criminal charges.

Other charismatic pastors who had first-hand information told RR that the victims they were trying to help were adamantly opposed to coming forward. Several teenagers, reportedly molested in the 2010s, feared public shame and re-traumatization. They said they just wanted to get on with their lives.

“I didn’t know exactly what to do,” Pennington, the Assemblies of God pastor, told RR, “not having a victim, per se, to come out and say anything. Your hands feel very tied.”

Pennington ultimately decided to text Kevin Binette and tell him he had read the confession. He wrote, as he recalls, “I know what you did. I read the letter.” Then he went and talked to three or four other ministers. Some of those ministers talked to other ministers as well, relaying the warning by word of mouth. 

‘My main issue is facing the truth’

Binette kept finding new places to volunteer anyway.

At the Lifegate in Snellville, in July, Binette briefly explained that he had left his previous congregation, 80 miles away in Hartwell, after “that season kind of came to an end.”

Then he transitioned seamlessly into his testimony, telling the charismatic church that he had “struggled for a number of years” with “sexual brokenness” and other issues, until he fully encountered the love of God.

“I am a product of the gospel,” Binette said. “By his grace, I have prospered in my soul.”

Lifegate did not respond to an email from RR requesting comment. Binette has not preached since the end of July and the YouTube video of his sermon is no longer publicly available.

Binette presented himself, in his message, as a changed man, without mentioning the specifics included in the early 2000s confession. Back then, he wrote that “the desires have never gone away,” and “I feel like my main issue is facing the truth about all this.”

Concerned family members do not believe anything has changed. After more than 20 years, they wonder where all of this will end.

“Kevin has just left such wreckage everywhere he’s gone,” Lugo, Binette’s daughter, told RR.“And he’s continuing to destroy people’s lives. I wish someone had been able to handle this. … But he keeps being able to be who he is without any consequences.”

Daniel Silliman is senior reporter/editor at The Roys Report. He began his two decades in journalism covering crime in Atlanta and has since led major investigations into abuse and misconduct in Christian contexts. Daniel and his wife live in Johnson City, Tennessee

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