One of them, Joseph Cleveland, addressed Savala in court while delivering a victim impact statement. Choking back tears, he said Savala exploited his search for fatherly wisdom as a teenager, calling his former mentor “a deceitful, evil” predator.
“You’re not the ‘holiest man alive,’” said Cleveland, who accused Savala of grooming and sexually abusing him for a decade beginning in 2004, when he was 15. “You’re not a ‘guru.’ You’re not even a man of God. You’re a charlatan.”
Savala, who’d made a name for himself in Pentecostal circles as a world-traveling missionary, embedded himself in Chi Alpha at Sam Houston State University, where beginning in the 1990s, pastors came to see him as a supreme spiritual authority despite his lack of formal training or credentials. As the ministry at Sam Houston grew into the largest Chi Alpha chapter in the country, his teachings — including an emphasis on unquestioned obedience to spiritual leaders — spread with it, carried by former students who went on to launch chapters across Texas and beyond.
Behind the scenes, Savala’s accusers say, he continued to abuse students, often convincing them that the sexual acts were part of God’s will.
Church leaders had a clear opportunity to intervene in 2012, when Savala was charged in Alaska with sexually abusing boys during his time as a youth minister in the 1990s. Instead, Chi Alpha leaders in Texas rallied to his defense, paying his bond and hiring a lawyer for him. After he pleaded guilty and served a short jail sentence, the pastors allowed him to resume mentoring students.
In the decade that followed, at least half a dozen people contacted Assemblies of God officials in Texas and at the denomination’s national headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, warning that Chi Alpha was exposing students to a convicted sex offender. These whistleblowers sent emails and made phone calls raising concerns. Again and again, they were dismissed or ignored, NBC News found.
‘Pastors and Prey’: NBC News investigates sex abuse in Assemblies of God churches
Some of those whistleblowers later went public, led by Ron Bloomingkemper Jr., a former Chi Alpha member who said he left the ministry in the 1990s after Savala pressured him into sexual activity. In 2023, he and others launched a website and online forum that became a clearinghouse for allegations against Savala and other Chi Alpha leaders.
The revelations triggered a cascade of consequences, including criminal charges against Savala and some of his protégés, lawsuits from accusers and the dismissal of multiple Chi Alpha leaders.
Bloomingkemper said Savala’s conviction was a step toward justice, but he still wanted to see the church structure that enabled him to be held accountable.
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” he said after the hearing. “It’s not about one man. It’s about a system that allowed one man to basically groom and manipulate and abuse people.”
The General Council of the Assemblies of God, the denomination’s U.S. governing body, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In previous statements, the General Council said Savala was never a credentialed minister and that it warned Chi Alpha leaders in 2018 to stay away from him. Five years later, after receiving “reports of sexual abuse,” the denomination said it “took appropriate actions,” including dismissing more than a half dozen ministers with ties to Savala. The denomination has repeatedly defended its child protection policies and said it grieves for all victims of abuse.
A handful of former Chi Alpha members and a minister attended the hearing Thursday. The father of another teen who says Savala sexually abused him in 2021 also delivered a victim impact statement over video feed.
Cleveland, now 37, had spent years thinking about what he would say to Savala if he ever got the chance. From the witness stand Thursday, he said he’d come to speak on behalf of “all the men and boys you hurt.”
“To this day, I still live with the effects of the pain you caused,” Cleveland said. “There are nights where I can’t sleep, I often feel paranoid and have constant headaches. Those are the fruits of your labor.”
Drawing on the same faith Savala once used to influence him, Cleveland said he was choosing to offer his former mentor something he hadn’t earned: forgiveness.
“Not because you deserve it,” Cleveland said. “If it was up to me, I wouldn’t do it. But I do know that God is better than you. God is better than the church that harbored you.”
Suzanne Gamboa reported from Waco, and Mike Hixenbaugh reported from Washington, D.C.