THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WACO, Texas -- A pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his church Sunday morning after grabbing a microphone while partially submerged, a church employee said.

The Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, was standing in water up to his shoulder in a baptismal at University Baptist Church when he was electrocuted, said Jamie Dudley, a church business administrator and wife of another pastor there.

Doctors in the congregation performed chest compressions, she said. Lake was taken by ambulance to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, where nursing supervisor Pat Mahl said he was pronounced dead.

The woman Lake was baptizing was not injured, Dudley said.

Pastors at University Baptist Church routinely use a microphone during baptisms, Dudley said.

"He was grabbing the microphone so everyone could hear," Dudley said. "It's the only way you can be loud enough."

About 800 people attended the morning service, which was larger than normal because it was homecoming weekend at nearby Baylor University, Dudley said.

Lake, who had a wife and three children, had been at the church for nine years, the last seven as pastor, Dudley said.

Family of Electrocuted Pastor Sues Builder
The Associated Press
Friday, May 5, 2006; 3:15 PM

WACO, Texas -- The family of a pastor who was electrocuted during a baptism ceremony is suing the contractor that installed the baptistry's heater.

The wrongful death suit seeks unspecified damages from MP Electric in the Oct. 30 death of the Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, pastor of University Baptist Church. No one else was injured, but about 800 people were in the church when he was electrocuted.

An attorney for the company declined to comment on the lawsuit.

"MP Electric is saddened by the death of Pastor Kyle Lake and the tragic loss experienced by his family and church members," lawyer Jim Grau said.

The suit, filed this week by widow Jennifer Lake and the pastor's parents, David and Shirley Lake, alleges that the two baptistry heaters overheated before Lake's death, exposing electrical components to water passing through the heater pipes.

When the baptistry was filled with water and the heaters turned on, the water was electrified, creating "an invisible but fatal hazard for anyone entering in the baptistry," the suit alleges.

On the morning Lake died, the church was packed and his wife was seated on the front row as he prepared to baptize a woman.

As he stepped into the water, Lake reached for a microphone, then cried for help and fell back into the water, the suit says. A witness pulled the microphone cable from the floor plug, but the father of three died later that morning at a hospital.