Zachary King, former megachurch pastor, charged with rape, sodomy of minor

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Wednesday, July 03, 2024

Zachary King, 47, former executive pastor of LexCity Church in Lexington, Kentucky, has been charged with rape and sexual abuse of a minor. | Screengrab: YouTube/Lexington City Church

Zachary King, a pastor with “significant experience serving in youth ministry” at multiple megachurches, including LexCity Church in Lexington, Kentucky, from which he recently resigned as executive pastor, has been charged with the rape and sexual abuse of a minor.

A press release from the office of Attorney General of Kentucky, Russell Coleman, said King, 47, who preached at LexCity Church as recently as three months ago, was also charged with the unlawful use of electronics to engage in sexual acts with a minor. A report from Lex18 said King was booked in the Fayette County Detention Center and charged with first- and second-degree rape, as well as first- and second-degree sodomy.

At his arraignment on Tuesday, King’s attorney asked Judge John Tackett to set his bond at $50,000 that would allow him to pay $5,000 or 10% of the bond to be released, but the judge set the pastor’s bond at $250,000.

King’s arrest citation, according to Lex18, said he confessed in an interview with Coleman’s office that he "engaged in a sexual relationship with a minor over the course of the last year and a half."

The pastor confessed that he had "sexual intercourse with the minor starting at age 15 in January 2023, continuing until April 2024." He further stated that he had "sexual intercourse in the minor's home, at his residence, and at the church where he was a former pastor."

A Fox56 report said King confessed to communicating with the teenage girl through Snapchat and WhatsApp to arrange meetups and receive explicit photos. He reportedly admitted to picking up the girl from her home and driving up the road to have sex in his car.

He reportedly resigned from LexCity Church after he was confronted by the congregation.

Coleman’s office urged anyone with further information regarding additional alleged criminal conduct by King to the Department of Criminal Investigations Hotline at 866-524-3672 or DCIForce@ky.gov.

According to his LinkedIn profile, King has significant experience serving in youth ministry, including at Craig Groeschel’s Life.Church and Metropolitan Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, where he spent more than eight years.

Talent search firm Vanderbloemen, praised connecting King with Metropolitan Baptist Church as a successful partnership in earlier comments on his time with that church.

“Since the first project that we were able to walk through with the Met, we have successfully helped the church with hires in Student Ministry, Worship, and Executive Leadership. In our first engagement with the church, we were able to help them connect with their Student and Teaching Pastor Zach King,” Vanderbloemen said. “Zach has served at the Met now for several years, the Student Ministry is flourishing, the church overall has grown to over 4,000, and plans are being drawn up for the new campus of the Metropolitan Baptist Church.”

Neither Life.Church nor Metropolitan Baptist Church immediately responded to a request for comment from The Christian Post on Wednesday.

King, who has been married for approximately 24 years, revealed in February 2022 during a podcast called "Off the Record" hosted by LexCity Church Lead Pastor Brian Classen how difficult marriage was for him at times when he felt his needs weren’t being met.

“At times, where I'm frustrated and my needs are not being met and [I'm] annoyed by things I shouldn't be annoyed by is when my wife and I are disconnected and we haven't talked about it and we just kind of let it sit,” he said.

“We become really good co-parents and roommates in those seasons where it's like, we just got to get the kids to the next place and get through the next day, almost like surviving until you can go to bed.

“So things that would never really bother me, normally you are treating the symptoms but you are not treating the root of the problem, and I just have to sit there and pray and ask the Lord to reveal the root — typically it's me — my frustration is actually something I'm not doing, so it is really not you it's me in this scenario.”