Oklahoma church commended for response to long-ago allegations

An Oklahoma Southern Baptist church is being commended for how it is responding to long-ago sexual abuse allegations made against a former minister.

First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow has recently launched a third-party investigation into accusations that a former college and singles minister sexually abused a then-teenage participant of the house of worship's high school student ministry. Current church leaders said the allegations led previous church leadership to fire the minister in 2006. Current church leaders said they learned of the accusations from a social media post made by the alleged victim in 2021.

The church, with average weekly attendance of 1,000, is one of the larger Southern Baptist houses of worship in the state. Church leaders said they have hired Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, known as GRACE, to conduct an independent, third-party investigation regarding accusations made against the former minister. In their January announcement to the congregation, church leaders said they also have hired legal counsel who has worked with other churches that have faced similar matters.

A leader with Oklahoma Baptists, the Oklahoma affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention, commented on the recent developments unfolding at the eastern Oklahoma church.

More: As Southern Baptists grapple with long ago abuse, an Oklahoma church takes steps

"We are saddened to learn of the behavior that occurred, and we grieve with the abuse survivor," Brian Hobbs, Oklahoma Baptists' communications director, said in a statement. "The church’s support for the survivor and the transparency being demonstrated by the church’s leadership in this difficult situation is commendable. We are praying for everyone impacted by this, and we will continue to proactively provide resources for churches in the area of preventing abuse and caring for abuse survivors."

Another Oklahoma Southern Baptist leader, the Rev. Mike Keahbone, also commended the church's leadership, particularly Senior Pastor Matt Brooks, for the way the church has responded to the allegations stemming from years past. Keahbone is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention's Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force tasked with implementing abuse reform measures.

Keahbone said First Baptist-Broken Arrow's multi-pronged approach to the situation is an indication that the Southern Baptist Convention is making some strides as it continues to wrestle with a sex abuse crisis that erupted after the 2019 publication of "Abuse of Faith," a newspaper investigative series by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News.

"He's (Brooks) a model, that church is a model, for how any church in a similar situation can handle that situation," Keahbone said. "As someone who is at the forefront of trying to help us get better as Southern Baptists in this arena, I'm looking at what he did, how he handled it. And one, I want to show off as a model, and two, I want us to learn, so that we can help provide resources that help churches handle it as well as they did."

Focus on motivation, timing

In a statement posted on the church's website titled "Addressing Our Past," current church leaders said they reached out in 2021 to the woman who made the social media post and met with her to discuss the allegations.

The Rev. Steve Smith, the church's executive pastor, said the church filed a police report after meeting with the woman. According to a Broken Arrow Police report, current church leaders contacted police and filed a report in September 2021 regarding the accusations made in the social media post. They said they were ultimately told by police "there was no action which they could take." A Broken Arrow Police spokesman recently told The Oklahoman that there is currently no active case against the accused former minister.

Smith reiterated that the current church leadership's decision to pursue a third-party investigation was not motivated by any action or inaction by local police or former church leadership. In their statement to the congregation they said, "We recognize behavior does not have to meet a criminal standard for it to be defined as abusive," and Smith said that philosophy hasn't changed now that the accusations and the church's response to them has been publicized in a previous story in The Oklahoman and other news outlets.

"Whether a police report was filed in 2006 has not been a driving motivation behind our response," Smith said. "While the question of police reports or other legal factors may be part of the investigation’s findings, our motivation has been what we said in our statement, 'that God will bring truth to light, mightily restore and heal the broken-hearted, and bring to restoration and repentance those in need of our Savior’s never-ending grace.'"

Smith said the woman reached out to the church again in fall 2023 to ask that they take specific actions. Those actions, outlined in the church's recent statement, included reporting the accused minister to the Southern Baptist Convention, analyzing and accounting for the church's current policies and procedures for abuse prevention and response, and providing "some tangible consideration for the suffering she has experienced."

Smith said then current church leaders decided it was time to make a statement about the launch of a third-party investigation.

He said church leaders notified the accused former minister and former church leaders about the allegations several weeks before making an announcement to the church and posting a statement on the church's website in mid-January 2024.

The accused minister told The Oklahoman in mid-February that he had contacted the church and his accuser but had not heard from either. Smith said that church leaders did reach out to the former minister and received an email from him about a month later, which they acknowledged immediately and then provided a "thorough response" to the next business day.

'Tale of two churches'

Keahbone said it's important to note that First Baptist-Broken Arrow, as a large congregation, has resources available that many smaller churches don't. He said that's why the ministry toolkit developed by the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force is an important resource. Keahbone said the toolkit also will soon include the much-anticipated Ministry Check database, which is under development.

Keahbone also compared First Baptist-Broken Arrow's response to that of Immanuel Baptist, a counterpart in Arkansas. Immanuel's lead pastor did not inform his congregation about sex abuse accusations against a former youth minister until details of the case were reported in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in December 2023. The former youth minister was initially charged with second-degree sexual assault but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor harassment in 2022. In February, he withdrew his request to have his records sealed.

As part of the controversy surrounding that case, current and past leaders of First Baptist Church of Moore in Oklahoma said Immanuel Baptist did not notify them about the allegations against the youth minister, or the subsequent investigation — which is relevant because the Moore church hired him after he left the Arkansas house of worship.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that two Immanuel church members have filed complaints with the Southern Baptist Convention's credentials committee, with one of them alleging that Immanuel's response to sexual abuse is inconsistent with Baptist principles. The Arkansas news outlet has reported that Immanuel's senior minister has announced plans to resign, effective April 7.

Keahbone noted the differences in responses.

"You have two churches that handled this vastly different," Keahbone, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lawton, said "Immanuel handled it just about as poorly as you possibly could. First Baptist-Broken Arrow handled it just about as well as you could possibly handle it. It's a tale of two churches ― one did it right, the other did not."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow is responding to abuse allegations