Stephen and Janet Timmis

Introduction

Stephen “Steve” Timmis is a British church leader who founded The Crowded House, an influential evangelical church in Sheffield, England, and later served as chief executive of Acts 29, a global church-planting network. He was removed from both roles in 2020 after roughly fifteen former colleagues described a culture of intimidation and bullying under his leadership. On October 29, 2026, South Yorkshire Police announced that Timmis, 68, and his wife Janet Timmis, 61, had each been charged with eight counts of rape against one victim in offenses alleged to have taken place while he led the church in 2008. Both were released on bail and are scheduled to appear before Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on December 1 .

Background Information

Timmis founded The Crowded House in 2000 and built it around a model of intensive shared church life summed up in his phrase “ordinary life with gospel intentionality,” with small groups known as gospel communities. Missionaries, interns and students traveled to Sheffield to study the model, and Acts 29 — the church-planting organization co-founded by American pastor Mark Driscoll — located its global headquarters alongside the church while Timmis led it. Timmis took over the network’s top job after Driscoll was removed from leadership amid accusations of abusive leadership; Acts 29 today counts some 650 churches across 50 countries. After his 2020 exits, the church Timmis founded rebranded as Redeemer Church Sharrow Vale, and Timmis later became involved with another Sheffield congregation, Eastside Community Church .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged; presumption of innocence. The Timmises face untested criminal charges and are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty; they were not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.

The criminal charges were announced by South Yorkshire Police on October 29, 2026: each spouse is charged with eight counts of rape against one victim, with the alleged offenses taking place between May and September 2008, while Stephen Timmis was a church leader at The Crowded House. Police did not say whether the alleged victim was part of the church, and said their investigation indicated former church members would likely have information relevant to the case, appealing for anyone with information to come forward .

The charges arrived more than six years after the collapse of Timmis’s church career. In February 2020, a Christianity Today investigation reported that about fifteen people who worked under Timmis at The Crowded House and Acts 29 described a pattern of intimidation and bullying; several said he expected a “24/7” commitment to the church and responded aggressively to pushback. Timmis resigned from Acts 29 a few days after the report, and shortly afterward resigned from The Crowded House as well. His departure triggered a wider examination of the network he led — staff members told the publication they had been fired and asked to sign non-disclosure agreements after warning leadership about a “culture of fear” under Driscoll’s replacement — and of how evangelicals distinguish challenging teaching from a toxic culture of control .

Redeemer Church Sharrow Vale commissioned an independent third-party inquiry into its former leadership. The review, conducted by the safeguarding charity thirtyone:eight, found no allegations of criminal or illegal conduct had been made but concluded that Timmis’s leadership and the church’s wider culture left many members feeling pressured to conform, with too little accountability. The church appointed safeguarding leaders as a result, and Timmis declined to take part in the review .

Public Reaction and Consequences

Timmis’s removal from Acts 29 and The Crowded House in 2020 ended his run at the top of a network he had helped shape, and the 2026 charges have landed on a figure who had already been pushed out of every role the abuse controversy touched. Redeemer Church Sharrow Vale said in a statement about his arrest, “We are shocked and saddened by this news,” adding that the church was “cooperating fully with South Yorkshire Police” and urging anyone with relevant information to contact investigators. The case has also stirred argument within evangelical circles: an American pastor whose congregation partnered with a later Sheffield church Timmis joined defended the partnership and has questioned the police investigation .

Current Status

Stephen and Janet Timmis have each been charged with eight counts of rape and released on bail; their initial hearing at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court is scheduled for December 1, 2026. Neither has publicly responded to the charges, and police have continued to appeal for former church members with information to come forward. The offenses alleged are non-recent — dating to 2008 — and no trial date has been set .

Impact on Their Career/Life

Timmis had already lost the two leadership positions that defined his public ministry — Acts 29’s chief executive role and the church he founded — after the 2020 spiritual-abuse reporting, and the churches he built moved on without him: The Crowded House rebranded, commissioned an inquiry and installed safeguarding leadership. The rape charges now convert a career ended by institutional removal into a criminal case, and they have re-opened the scrutiny of how the network tolerated his leadership culture in the first place. For the evangelical world that once studied his church-planting model, the case stands as both a personal downfall and a cautionary chapter in the recent history of church accountability .

Sources

• “Former Acts 29 CEO Charged with Rape in the UK” — Christianity Today source