Until this month, Andrew Buzzell was a role model to fellow members of Green Mountain Baptist Church in Rutland Town. They’d elected the 34-year-old married man as a church elder and pitched in financially to the statewide nonprofit he directed, Child Evangelism Fellowship of Vermont, that organized Christian programs and camps for kids.
Then church pastor Stephen Burch got called to meet with Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. Burch listened as investigators explained that they’d just arrested Buzzell on a charge of distributing images of child sexual abuse. Their evidence showed that over the last two years, Buzzell had shared and received the material in online chatrooms, according to court documents. In an online conversation with an undercover agent, Buzzell also discussed the prospect of meeting a 9-year-old girl for sex, prosecutors allege in court documents.
The pastor struggled to make sense of it. Buzzell had been part of the church for a dozen years and often spent time with Burch’s children. He thought he knew the man.
“It now makes me question everything,” Burch said.
The criminal allegations against Buzzell describe online activity, but the nature of the conduct — and Buzzell’s close work with youth — raises concern about whether any local children were exploited. Green Mountain Baptist Church decided to confront that possibility directly. The church has a responsibility to acknowledge its elder’s conduct, Burch said — and to encourage any potential victims to come forward.
The church’s response has differed notably from Child Evangelism Fellowship, a national network, which is saying almost nothing publicly about Buzzell’s work for the nonprofit or any actions it’s taking.
“I've seen this kind of stuff happen in churches, and a lot of times it's covered up,” Burch said. “I want us to be transparent.”
Burch and another elder left the meeting with the FBI on a Friday night and convened an emergency church meeting the following day. Burch said he conveyed to church members the limited details that investigators had shared with him. Members, in turn, unanimously voted to strip Buzzell of his elder role and his membership with the church.
More disturbing information came to light on Aug. 10, when the U.S. attorney publicly announced the charge against Buzzell. The criminal complaint alleged that when agents arrested Buzzell at his West Rutland home, he had admitted to discussing with the undercover agent his desire to sexually exploit a second child who he had babysat “through his church.”
Green Mountain Baptist Church posted a statement on its website and pinned it to the top of its Facebook page. The statement called for “complete justice” and urged anyone who may have been affected to contact the FBI.
Neither Buzzell nor his federal public defender responded to requests for comment. A federal judge last week released him on house arrest ahead of an arraignment scheduled for Aug. 31.
In addition to his role at the Rutland church, Buzzell was the sole paid employee of the Vermont chapter of Child Evangelism Fellowship.
The nonprofit seeks to “evangelize boys and girls” through community programs and overnight camps. Buzzell earned $43,500 in 2025 as the Vermont chapter’s state director, accounting for the majority of the $55,000 in donations the chapter received that year, according to public tax filings.
Through a public relations agency, the national organization responded to an inquiry from Vermont Public with a brief statement that said Child Evangelism Fellowship has a “strict Child Protection Policy” and is “committed to upholding the highest standards of morality and personal conduct.”
“Due to any future legal proceedings, no further information can be provided at this time,” the unsigned statement read.
Child Evangelism Fellowship did not respond to further questions.
References to Buzzell have been removed from the Vermont chapter’s website, and its Facebook page was taken down.
Its most recent online newsletter — which Vermont Public reviewed before it was removed — included photos of Buzzell alongside children at an overnight summer camp for kids hosted in Maine by the fellowship chapter in that state. He is also featured as a frequent volunteer at events hosted by the Massachusetts chapter, according to Facebook posts.
The Massachusetts chapter did not respond to a request for comment. Ryan Decker, the state director in Maine, sent Vermont Public the same statement that was provided by the national organization.
It’s unclear whether any of the Child Evangelism Fellowship chapters are notifying families of children who attended events where Buzzell worked or volunteered. Vermont Public could not locate any public statements on their social media channels, and the national group did not respond to that question.
The Vermont chapter of Child Evangelism Fellowship works with many local churches to run its programs. Buzzell traveled to congregations to promote the organization’s work and to train educators. One still-visible post to the chapter’s Instagram account shows Buzzell delivering a Bible lesson to a group of children around a kitchen table in 2018.
Buzzell recently hosted a training for Vermont church leaders at Trinity Baptist Church in Williston, senior pastor Rob McIlwaine said. For many years, McIlwaine’s church ran a Child Evangelism Fellowship-sponsored afterschool program at Williston Central School, though Buzzell himself did not work with children there, McIlwaine said. The program was administered most recently by two female church members, he said.
Members of Buzzell’s home church in Rutland participated in Child Evangelism Fellowship events, Burch said. The congregation also chipped in a small amount of money to support the chapter, he said.
“It’s like someone’s ripped my heart out the last couple of days,” Burch said. “I absolutely am sickened by this whole thing.”
