Church leader refuses to cast stone at Luecke

It seemed inevitable that Keith Luecke's and Jeff Smith's paths would cross.

Jeff applied for the youth minister's position at Monterey Baptist Church in Stonelick Township. Keith served on the search committee.

Jeff wanted to involve more parents in the youth group. Keith, an adult sponsor, was among the most active in the church.

Jeff was scheduled to preach a trial sermon in early April. Keith had volunteered to put on a musical concert that day.

But the concert, and the two men's meeting, never happened.

On April 10, Keith Luecke, a leading figure at Monterey Baptist, left town with 14-year-old Alecia Campbell, a member of its youth group.

The two evaded authorities for 2ï months. When they were found in South Carolina, Alecia was pregnant, and Keith was charged with child stealing and corruption of a minor.

In those same 2ï months, Jeff Smith graduated from Cumberland College and accepted the position of youth minister at Monterey Baptist.

Although they never met, the two men's lives converged in unforeseeable fashion.

Keith Luecke is the man who created a mess. Jeff Smith is the man who must clean it up.

Material for powerful sermons

It was hard for them to hear the charges against a man they had liked and respected. It was painful to watch the sordid drama played out through their small church.

And it was confusing to be at the stage of defining their own moral code just as a church leader seemed to publicly abandon his own.

It was the stuff of which powerful sermons are made, the perfect opportunity for the fiery oratory for which Baptist ministers are sometimes known. Jeff Smith could calculate the wages of sin to the last cent and total up theatrically how Keith Luecke may have to pay them. But it is not what he has in mind.

Instead, he thinks of two biblical parables: The prodigal son and the woman caught in the act of adultery.

The first, because it offers unconditional forgiveness and acceptance. ''The son knew it was wrong, went and did it anyway, repented, and his father came with open arms and welcomed him back immediately,'' he says.

The second, because it chides pious on-lookers for their own shortcomings and tells the woman simply to ''go and sin no more.''

That is how Jeff Smith plans to deal with the matter.

Prayers for healing

Condemnation comes easily. Jeff Smith favors restoration.

Keith Luecke goes to trial in mid-September. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, the final splintering of a life that has been broken apart by adultery, abandonment and deception.

Meanwhile, in other lives, Jeff Smith has started gluing the pieces back together.

He met with Alecia Campbell and invited her back to the youth group. He plays golf with teen-ager Nathan Luecke while his father, Keith, awaits trial. He is rebuilding church members' trust in the youth group one act at a time, inviting parents to every function, counseling youth group members only in pairs.

And he prays for the church's healing.

''Please don't write anything that will hurt this church more. It has been through enough,'' he asks quietly.

And then he sets about writing a new chapter, a healing epilogue that seeks to find some meaning behind the pain.

Krista Ramsey's column appears in The Enquirer on Saturdays. Write her at 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati 45202 or fax at 768-8340.

Published Aug, 3, 1996.