Ahead of Southern Baptist Convention meeting, national leader gives abuse task force updates
Churches in the Southern Baptist Convention will need ongoing aid to prevent sex abuse and effectively respond to abuse allegations, one of the denomination's leaders said during a recent visit to Oklahoma.
A new independent nonprofit is being launched to fill this need, the Rev. Josh Wester, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention's Abuse Reform Implentation Task Force, said at First Baptist Church of Lawton.
Southern Baptists from across the state and region recently flocked to the Lawton church to hear from Wester as leader of the group tasked with, among other things, developing a sex abuser database for the nation's largest Protestant denomination. The "SBC Family Meeting" hosted by the Rev. Mike Keahbone, First Baptist-Lawton's senior pastor, gave Oklahomans and others in the region opportunities to hear about some of the issues that will be discussed at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting June 11-12 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Wester told those gathered that a new independent nonprofit organization will be part of the long-term solution to challenges that arise for the denomination's churches and affiliates.
"We also hope that some portion of the solution can live inside of the SBC itself, but, what we know for sure, is that with a convention as large as the Southern Baptist Convention, where you have more than 47,000 churches, you need some professionals, you need some experts, who are available to help churches when they're facing these crises ― and every church that is trying to navigate a sexual abuse allegation is in a crisis."
Keahbone, who is a member of Wester's task force and an expected nominee for Southern Baptist Convention president, said people from his church gathered with church members from other Oklahoma cities and other states for a chance to ask Wester questions and hear him outline some of the latest developments in the task force's work. The task force was created in response to a sexual abuse crisis that erupted after the 2019 release of "Abuse of Faith," an investigative report by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, and the denomination's subsequent internal investigation.
Sex abusers database development
Wester, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, said very much still on the table is the launch of a database of credibly accused sex abusers with ties to Southern Baptist Convention churches and affiliates. The database, which will be incorporated into the denomination's Ministry Check website, has been touted as a way to help prevent sex abusers from hopping from church to church to prey on unsuspecting congregations. Wester said the database is still in the development stage and he anticipated it would be launched soon.
Launch of Abuse Response Commission
Wester told church members about the new, independent nonprofit organization that will help Southern Baptist churches and affiliate entities prevent and respond to sexual abuse. In an interview after the recent gathering in Lawton, Wester reiterated his assessment given in February when he first shared the idea of the independent nonprofit.
"Churches overwhelmingly want to get it right when it comes to sexual abuse but they need help and our convention promised help was on the way," he said. "The reality is this problem is too big for any group of volunteers."
More: Southern Baptists give task force another year to implement sex abuse reforms
Wester said the decision to create the new organization was made in consultation with Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber, the denomination's Executive Committee and members of the denomination's Great Commission Council. He said his task force has asked Barber and other Southern Baptist Convention affiliate leaders for help in securing the funds required to launch the new organization he called the Abuse Response Commission.
The minister said he expected to be able to make a report at the denomination's annual meeting in June that the newly launched commission is fully funded and supported by all of the group's national entities.
Dual approach to future
In Lawton, Wester said he and other task force members view the creation of the new independent commission as one of the actions they have been given permission to take by delegates (called messengers) to the Southern Baptist Convention's previous annual meetings.
But he said messengers will likely decide in June if they want to authorize the creation of a new entity within the denomination that will help churches with sex abuse prevention and response long-term.
"We want this response to be robust and so our hope is that we're going to end up in a place where this independent nonprofit is able to attend to certain aspects of the work and that whatever the part that lives inside of the SBC, that it will pick up the remainder of those things," Wester said.
He said the task force planned to have conversations along these lines with national leaders within the denomination to develop a plan to present to messengers this dual approach for the future.
More: Oklahoma church commended for response to long-ago allegations
Keahbone said he was pleased with the turnout for the recent gathering.
The minister, who is also a member of the denomination's Executive Committee, said the task force's presentation about their ongoing work, particularly the independent commission, has been received in an "overwhelmingly positive way" and the recent event at his church was no exception.
"And, I think as we get closer to convention, people are going to see with a lot more clarity how far along we are and how much we're going to get accomplished," Keahbone said.
"I think before we get down that road, I don't think anybody's against it. I think, they just have questions about how it's going to work and what it's going to look like. As we bring further clarity to that, I think we will get even more support."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Southern Baptist churches need ongoing aid amidst crisis, leader says
