'Lester Frank Sumrall would be gravely disappointed': Judge rules in family squabble

Hoosier evangelist Lester F. Sumrall, one of the pioneers of Christian television, wrote an important reminder on the front page of his Bible.

“If I die rich,” he wrote, “I die a traitor to the cause of Christ and to the Gospel.”

Evangelist Lester Sumrall in 1996.
The simple faith statement was a warning to reject trappings of the material world, even as millions of dollars from sales and gifts flowed into Sumrall's global ministry based in South Bend.

In 1996, he died true to his beliefs. Everything he had went to the ministry. But that hasn’t stopped Sumrall's grandchildren from fighting over his legacy, including control of the multimillion-dollar religious broadcasting and publishing empire and whether there should have been a personal estate distributed to the evangelist’s heirs.

Family legal battle:Cousins fight over legendary Hoosier Lester Sumrall's religious empire

Acrimonious and unseemly at times, the legal wrangling in state and federal courts started nearly 20 years ago, spurring unfounded allegations of a hidden will, fraud, trademark infringement, missing artifacts and much more — even claims that one cousin is an atheist.

Lester L. Sumrall claims to be the "rightful spiritual and legal heir" to the religious empire built by his grandfather and namesake.
Sumrall’s oldest grandchild and namesake, Lester L. Sumrall of Bristol in Elkhart County, has been leading those attacks. He claims to be the televangelist’s “rightful spiritual and legal heir” but hasn’t had a role with the family ministry since his grandfather’s death.

The primary targets of Lester L. Sumrall's allegations are four cousins who have or had ties to the Lester Sumrall Evangelistic Association, better known as LeSEA Inc., before their grandfather's death. One of those cousins, Andrew "Drew" Sumrall, now serves as chairman and CEO.

Last week, federal judge Philip P. Simon issued two summary judgment orders in favor of LeSEA from a case initially filed in 2018. That suit was brought to stop Lester L. Sumrall from infringing on unique LeSEA trademarks and resulted in a permanent injunction against him. The new rulings shut down Lester L. Sumrall’s counterclaim over intellectual property rights.

The judge's order also offered an unsolicited perspective on the drama playing out in the courts.

“From all accounts of the man and his life’s work,” Simon wrote, “no one can doubt that Dr. Lester Frank Sumrall would be gravely disappointed, if not heartsick, at the ugly family disharmony in the wake of his death.”

Drew Sumrall said in an email to IndyStar that the case never was a "family dispute."

“Lester has not been affiliated with our family or the LeSEA entities for over 25 years. Regardless we still offered to settle this matter (and others) on numerous occasions, even attempting to negotiate a settlement on the very same day Judge Simon issued his ruling," he said in the email. "Every offer we made was rejected. We have now prevailed in every single one of Lester’s meritless lawsuits, of which there have been several. I would hope this finally puts an end to 7+ years of frivolous litigation.”

But Lester L. Sumrall told IndyStar he's not finished and plans to appeal the ruling.

"My confidence in the legal system right now is not very high," he said.

A new TV model for evangelism

The roots of the Sumrall legacy reach back to 1957, when Lester F. Sumrall established LeSEA. He moved his operations to South Bend in the mid-1960s and started the Family Broadcasting Corp. in 1972 to share a mix of Christian teaching programs and other family-friendly shows.

The South Bend-based religious organizations were built on a mission to share the gospel around the world. Along the way Sumrall refined the use of television to pursue that goal while raking in donations from supporters. The new evangelism model Sumrall helped shape has been adopted by the likes of Pat Robertson, Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell, Joel Osteen and countless others.

Hoosier evangelist Lester F. Sumrall, widely regarded as the father of Christian television, and his grandson, Lester L. Sumrall, in an undated photo taken sometime before the elder Sumrall's death in 1996.
The organizations Sumrall created continue to operate a variety of ministries served by multiple cable networks and television stations, including WHMB TV40 in Indianapolis.

Revenue from the ministry helps support local church-based outreach and Global Feed the Hungry, a relief arm the organization’s website says “has delivered more than $200 million in food and supplies to hungry, hurting people in 92 nations around the world.”

Sumrall’s three sons — Stephen, Peter and Frank — all worked in the family ministry when their father was alive, but Frank and Stephen later left LeSEA. Frank, who resigned from the board of directors in 1990 but remained an associate pastor, was the first to go. Before their father's death, his brothers took on more leadership roles. When the patriarch died in 1996, Stephen was president of LeSEA and Peter headed Family Broadcasting Corp.

Since 2015, Andrew "Drew" Sumrall has headed the South Bend-based network of religious nonprofits started by his grandfather, Lester F. Sumrall.
Frank parted ways with LeSEA for good in the early 2000s. Stephen followed him out the door in 2005, leaving Peter to lead the ministry.

After Peter’s death in 2015, his son Drew took the reins.

Stephen Sumrall and Frank Sumrall have remained in ministry. Stephen founded Provident Ministries, Feeding The Nations and is the pastor of Christ Chapel Church in South Bend. Frank, who for a time served as senior pastor of Indy Christian Center Church in Noblesville, established the Frank Sumrall Global Ministries.

Grandfather's namesake vs. his cousins
Lester L. Sumrall is Frank’s son and representative.

Most of his legal claims have been made on behalf of his father, targeting Peter and his children. In addition to his role as president and CEO, Drew has served on the Family Broadcasting board of directors with his siblings Angela Grabowski and Adam Sumrall.

Pastor Dave Sumrall, from iTown Church in Fishers, prays with J. Benzal owner Ben Diallo and his wife Kameelah Shaheed-Diallo, in downtown Indianapolis, Saturday, June 6, 2020. The menswear store was affected by recent vandalism that followed protests downtown.
In 2010, Peter's son Dave Sumrall and his wife, Kate, founded iTown Church in Fishers. They continue to lead the church, which has multiple worship locations in the Indianapolis area, but he no longer has a role with LeSEA.

Despite a spate of legal challenges in state and federal court, Lester L. Sumrall has failed time and again to get a judge to side with his claims. The summary judgement last week is his latest defeat.

The legal term summary judgment, Simon explained in his order, “is the put up or shut up moment in a lawsuit where a party must show what evidence it has” that would convince a judge or jury to accept their version of events. Several factors prompted Simon to rule Lester L. Sumrall could not meet that bar, including the many years that passed before the challenges he’s mounted as his father’s legal representative.

The timeline, the judge wrote, “demonstrates a classic case of Frank sleeping on his rights for many years” — a situation that makes it nearly impossible for LeSEA to defend itself.

But does the ruling really signify the end of the long-running legal fight?

With Lester L. Sumrall preparing to appeal Simon's ruling, the judge may have added more fuel to the fire.

“Whether Stephen and Peter rooked their brother Frank out of his fair share of their dad’s estate," the judge wrote, "is perhaps open to question.”