It’s no secret that Southern Baptists have been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. I would love for us to be in the news for our great work of Disaster Relief, other mercy ministries, or the work of our children’s homes. But these have been overshadowed, and rightly so, by the darkness of some of our institutions. It would be wrong for us to not labor to shine the light into every dark corner.
The gospel calls us to walk into the light. We believe that Jesus is strong enough to conquer and cover our every weakness. This includes ways in which we’ve blown it as a gathering of like-minded churches. We want to walk in the light for the sake of Christ and for the sake of every image-bearer. We want to labor to be the hands and feet of Jesus who provide healing to survivors. In any place where we’ve done harm we want to repent. And we want to always pursue growth in these areas. It is to this end that we offer this motion at the Missouri Baptist Convention.
I’ve formed a group with a few other like-minded pastors throughout the state of Missouri. We’ve been working on this motion and will be, Lord willing, bringing it to the floor during our Missouri Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. It’s not perfect. It’s not saying all the things we want to say. It’s a beginning step (though there is already great work being done by our MBCH). But we do believe this will be something which our state leaders can get behind and lead Missouri Baptist churches in being healthier in this area. This is the motion—it could still see a couple minor tweaks before brought to the floor but this will be the gist:
I move that the newly elected President of the Missouri Baptist Convention appoint a task force to examine the issue of sexual abuse for the purpose of developing and recommending a plan to the Missouri Baptist Convention to facilitate the ministries of MBC churches and the MBC entities. The task force shall examine the Convention’s history relating to sexual abuse prevention and caring for sexual abuse survivors and whether there are any patterns of intimidation of victims or advocates or resistance to sexual abuse reform initiatives.
Furthermore, this task force should recommend avenues for education and better understanding of this issue for the Convention and develop a plan with concrete action steps for more faithful ministry regarding sexual abuse prevention and survivor care in the Convention going forward.
This task force shall be comprised of nine individuals who are active members of MBC churches, including but not limited to at least one individual from each of the following categories: Sexual Abuse Survivor–if willing to serve, MBC Executive Director, MBC Executive Board Member, Metropolitan Area Pastor, Rural Area Pastor, and a Female Layperson.
This task force must provide an initial report to the messengers gathered for the 2022 MBC Annual Meeting with a view to a final report to the messengers gathered for the 2023 MBC Annual Meeting.
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If you are a Missouri Baptist we would appreciate your vote on this important motion.
