NASHVILLE (RNS— For years, Southern Baptist leaders told members of affiliated churches setting up a database to track abusive pastors was impossible. Now, that impossible task is one step closer to being a reality.

Charleston pastor Marshall Blalock, chair of a Southern Baptist task force charged with implementing abuse reforms, announced Feb. 20 the task force had recommended hiring Guidepost Solutions, an international consulting firm, to set up the database.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s credentials committee, which works in partnership with the task force, concurred with the recommendation.

The announcement was made during a regular meeting of the SBC’s Nashville-based Executive Committee. Once a contract with Guidepost is finalized, the president of the Executive Committee will be tasked with signing it.

Known as the Ministry Check website, the database will include the names of pastors, denominational workers, ministry employees and volunteers who have been credibly accused of abuse.

According to the task force, being credibly accused means those who confessed, those who have been convicted of abuse or those who have had a civil judgment against them for abuse. It also would include those who have been investigated by a “qualified, independent, third-party investigative firm.”

Blalock said the committee looked at 18 different firms before choosing Guidepost, which previously worked on a major abuse investigation for the SBC. The report from that investigation led the SBC’s 2022 annual meeting to approve a series of reforms—including the Ministry Check website.

Cannot let barriers ‘stop needed reforms’

Before announcing the selection of Guidepost, Blalock made an impassioned plea about the necessity of abuse reform, saying action and not words were needed. He also condemned those who covered up abuse in order to avoid public controversy.

“Handling things quietly has often been the practice, but it only perpetuates the abuse, leaving victim after victim silently suffering,” he said. “Churches are often well-intentioned. Even some of the worst mistakes our churches have made have been well-meaning actions that did more harm than good.”

Making reforms like the Ministry Check database a reality will be costly and complicated, said Blalock. But it is necessary.

“We can’t let threats of lawsuits stop needed reforms,” he said. “We can’t let the potential costs stop needed reforms. We can’t let uninformed opinions, even well-meaning but uninformed opinions, stop reforms. We can’t let speculation and misinformation stop reform.”

Hiring Guidepost to run the Ministry Check website could reignite a smoldering conflict over the denomination’s future. In recent years, leaders of a group known as the Conservative Baptist Network, along with some of their allies, have claimed the SBC has become too liberal and strayed from its biblical roots.

Among those allies is Florida pastor and failed SBC presidential candidate Tom Ascol, who has been critical of Guidepost in the past because the consulting firm supports LGBTQ rights. Last year, several state Baptist conventions cut ties with the consulting firm after a Guidepost staffer posted a pro-LGBTQ message during Pride Month. Ascol also believes local churches, not the denomination, should deal with issues of abuse.

Ascol called Blalock’s announcement “madness” on social media and asked pastors to call the  Executive Committee to protest.

“Otherwise,” he said on Twitter, “prepare to explain to the members of your church that their offerings will be going to a ‘proud ally’ of those committed to the sexual perversion of our society.

Mike Stone, a Georgia pastor and former CBN-backed candidate who narrowly lost the 2021 SBC presidential election, also was critical of the announcement.

Task force considered Guidepost best-qualified firm

Blalock said Guidepost’s pro-LGBTQ tweet from 2022 was “disappointing.” But he said Guidepost was still the best-qualified firm to run the Ministry Check website. He also said the database will be overseen by a new division of Guidepost that works specifically with faith-based groups.

He said the head of the faith-based division, senior managing director Samantha Kilpatrick, has a master’s degree from an SBC seminary and is a member of an SBC church.

“She is godly, capable and trustworthy,” he said. “I could not be more grateful that she is willing and available to come alongside us in this process.”

Kilpatrick was named head of the Guidepost faith-based division in November.

“With Samantha’s extensive legal background and involvement in her own community faith-based organizations, she is well-positioned to lead our Faith-Based Organizations practice,” Julie Myers Wood, CEO of Guidepost Solutions, said in a statement at the time.

“Guidepost Solutions is committed to working with faith-based communities and frameworks to conduct independent investigations and enhance compliance.”

After Blalock’s report, the Executive Committee heard from SBC President Bart Barber as well as Executive Committee interim President Willie McLaurin. A search committee looking for a new Executive Committee president had hoped to bring a recommendation to the meeting but announced it was not able to do that.

The meeting concluded with prayers for the victims of recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, as well as for former United States President Jimmy Carter. A longtime Baptist Sunday school teacher, Carter went into hospice care recently.

“We want to pray for President Carter and his family as he has been placed on hospice and as he is taking his last breath,” said Executive Committee Chairman Jared Wellman in his closing prayer. “Lord, we pray for him not to be in any pain. We pray for his family as they stand beside him.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Todd Benkert, an Indiana pastor who helped press for reforms in the Southern Baptist Convention’s sexual abuse policies, has stepped down from a task force he was appointed to last year to implement those reforms.

Benkert’s role on the committee became controversial due to a public dispute involving a Florida megachurch that restored SBC President Johnny Hunt to active ministry after he had been credibly accused of sexual assault.

Hunt was one of a number of SBC leaders named in a 2022 report from the investigative firm Guidepost Solutions hired by the denomination in 2021 to resolve long-running conflicts over sexual abuse. The report found those leaders had chronically mistreated survivors of abuse and spent decades trying to deny responsibility for abuse at individual SBC churches.

The report led delegates at the 2022 SBC’s annual meeting to set up a series of reforms designed to prevent abuse and care for abuse survivors and directed that SBC leaders appoint the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force.

In preparing its report, Guidepost investigated allegations that Hunt, a retired Georgia megachurch pastor, had assaulted another pastor’s wife in 2010, then spent years covering up his actions.

Hunt first denied the allegations and later claimed the incident had been consensual. After taking several months away from preaching, Hunt returned to the pulpit Jan. 18 at Hiland Park Baptist Church in Panama City, Fla., where his friend Steven L. Kyle is pastor.

During his January sermon, Hunt claimed “false allegations” had ruined his life.

Kyle and a group of other pastors announced late last fall Hunt had been through a restoration process and was cleared to return to ministry. That decision was denounced by a number of Baptist leaders, including current SBC President Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville.

After Hunt’s January sermon, Benkert, pastor of Oak Creek Community Church in Mishawaka, Ind., filed a complaint against Hiland Park and another church where Hunt had been invited to speak and told a reporter from The Tennessean newspaper that he had done so.

The denomination’s credentials committee, which determines whether churches are in good standing, is weighing whether to recommend expelling those churches for not taking the issue of abuse seriously.

In response, leaders at Hiland Park wrote to the credentials committee this week claiming there was no proof Hunt had been abusive and objecting to Benkert’s actions, accusing him of acting as both an activist and a task force member. Hiland Park’s leaders said they will meet with a lawyer to discuss “all of our legal recourses.”

‘An advocate rather than a task force member’

Benkert said he has been honored to serve on the task force and that he hoped to support their work in the future.

“However, in order to maintain my ability to speak and act according to my conscience on these issues without representing the task force, it is clear I can best support survivors and advance reform in my role as an advocate rather than a task force member,” he said in a statement.

Relatively unknown until he took a key role in the SBC abuse reform movement two years ago, Benkert was one of several pastors who called for an investigation into the SBC’s treatment of abuse survivors at the denomination’s 2021 annual meeting in Nashville. SBC leaders initially moved to refer the matter to a committee, which would have effectively derailed any independent investigation.

But Benkert went to a floor microphone at the convention to challenge that decision, sending the matter to a vote by delegates at the meeting, known as messengers, that overruled the leaders. They eventually approved an independent investigation.

In announcing Benkert had resigned, the task force’s chairman, South Carolina pastor Marshall Blalock, said: “Todd has a clear concern for survivors and a passion to see needed changes implemented concerning abuse. We are grateful for Todd’s work and ongoing advocacy in support of abuse reform in the Southern Baptist Convention.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—For decades, some leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention labeled survivors of sexual abuse as troublemakers and enemies of the church, while claiming there was little the convention could do to address abuse in local congregations.

Then, in the summer of 2021, Southern Baptists had had enough.

Angered over a groundbreaking newspaper investigation of abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention and over concerns that SBC leaders continued to mistreat survivors despite promising to do better, Southern Baptists overruled their leaders.

They called for an in-depth investigation into their actions and, after receiving the report of that investigation in 2022, passed a series of reforms aimed to help prevent abuse and to care for survivors.

Reforms included building a Ministry Check database to track abusive pastors, providing care for survivors, training churches on how to prevent abuse and resourcing a committee charged with expelling congregations that knowingly mishandle abuse allegations.

Long road ahead to rebuild trust

Putting those reforms into practice will be difficult and will take decades of rebuilding trust, something abuse survivors have long known.

“I have understood from the beginning that this is a long game,” said Jules Woodson, an abuse survivor who has spoken to the SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, charged with implementing reforms in the convention.

That task force has come under fire recently for a lack of transparency over a temporary hotline, set up to collect reports of abuse, and for the slow pace of implementing reforms.

That’s raised questions of whether a volunteer committee—made up mostly of pastors, often from larger churches—has the capability to get the job done.

Extend the timeline

In early February, the task force, which is due to make recommendations to the SBC’s annual meeting in June, released an update saying it likely will need more time.

“Given the scope of its assignment, we do anticipate and have begun discussions about the need to extend the ARITFs work beyond the 2023 annual meeting in New Orleans,” the task force said in a statement posted on its website. “We are acutely aware of the depth of process we must undergo and vigilantly follow-through.”

South Carolina pastor Marshall Blalock, who chairs the task force, told Religion News Service in an interview that he’s increasingly aware of the complexity of addressing sexual abuse and that it is a long-term project.

Blalock served on a previous abuse task force from 2021 to 2022. That task force had a more straightforward task—choosing a firm to investigate SBC leaders and then delivering a report, along with recommendations for reform, to the annual meeting. That previous task force’s work ended in June 2022 after a report from Guidepost Solutions was delivered to the convention.

 “Last year, we had one main objective,” he said. “We had to be careful in how we did it, but it was pretty forthright.”

At the annual meeting, a set of reforms was approved by an overwhelming majority. Then a new task force was set up, with Blalock staying on to provide some continuity.

Set up Ministry Check website

The biggest task—and the one getting perhaps the most attention—is setting up a Ministry Check website, a database to track pastors who were convicted or credibly accused of abuse.

“On the surface, it sounds pretty simple,” said Blalock.

As the task force has dug in, things have become more complicated. The task force needed to find a firm to build the site that had a trauma-informed approach to working with the stories of survivors and needed to make sure only credible accusations and convictions were added to the database.

The task force also needed cybersecurity expertise to make sure any data on the site is safe from hacking and no private information about survivors could be made public.

Also, members knew the task had to be completed in a timely manner to show change was being made in the convention.

For years, SBC leaders had said creating such a database was not feasible, Blalock said.

“We’ve learned it’s not impossible,” he said.

Need time and money

Blalock said the task force also realized the reforms will require hiring staff to help with caring for survivors and with helping the SBC’s credentials committee, which receives reports on churches that have mishandled abuse. Already, he said, an overwhelming number of cases of abuse have been reported to that committee.

The other challenge for the task force is dealing with the human tendency to try to get back to normal once the urgency lets up. Combating that requires reminding church leaders and people in the pews of the importance of preventing abuse and of caring for survivors.

Both will require time and money, Blalock said. That can be a challenge in the SBC, where every church is autonomous, decisions are made on a local level and all the funding is voluntary.

Most churches donate to Southern Baptist ministries through the Cooperative Program, whose primary focuses are missionary work and training pastors. There’s been resistance to spending money for overheard or oversight of the denomination’s work, with churches preferring that money go to missions and evangelism rather than oversight.

“It’s not going to be cheap,” said Blalock, referring to paying for reforms. “But our approach all along has been to do the right thing. We believe that last year, Southern Baptists got the information (about abuse) and took a vote to do the right things. And we are doing what they asked us to do.”

Hiring the right staff

Kathleen McChesney, a former FBI detective who set up the Office of Child Protection for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said a volunteer committee like the SBC task force can do some of the work of implementing abuse reforms. But hiring the right staff is important too.

“You always need somebody in charge,” she said. “Because you are talking about not only helping people to heal but preventing future abuse. There’s a tremendous amount of work.”

One of the keys to any reforms for addressing abuse is getting the cooperation and compliance of churches. In the Catholic Church, McChesney said, this was done on a diocese level and there were consequences for noncompliance.

For Southern Baptists, almost all of the cooperation with the reforms will be voluntary. Because of that, task force members have been meeting with state and local Baptist leaders to try to get their buy-in. That will be a long-term process, said Blalock.

Making reforms stick

The challenge facing Southern Baptists in making reforms stick became clear recently when former SBC President Johnny Hunt, who was credibly accused last year of a past sexual assault—which he covered up for years—made a recent defiant return to the pulpit at Hiland Park Baptist Church in Panama City, Fla., after a group of pastors declared him restored to ministry.

Hiland Park and another church that invited Hunt to speak have been reported to the SBC’s credentials committee. That committee will decide whether or not those churches are in “friendly cooperation” with the denomination.

In response, Hiland Park issued a letter that defended Hunt, saying there was no proof he had been abusive and criticizing Guidepost Solutions, saying the consulting firm had unbiblical values and used a “guilty until proven innocent” approach to allegations against pastors.

Church leaders also warned they were discussing their “legal recourses.”

Investigators from Guidepost had determined that allegations Hunt—a former SBC president and longtime megachurch pastor—had sexually assaulted another pastor’s wife in 2010 were credible, according to the group’s report to the SBC. Hunt denied the allegations at first and then later claimed the encounter was consensual.

Difficult and stressful for survivors

For abuse survivors, watching the reform process unfold has been difficult and stressful.

Tiffany Thigpen, a longtime advocate, said she and other survivors were shut out and ignored by SBC leaders for years. That began to change last year at the SBC annual meeting when the reforms were passed and delegates at the meeting, known as messengers, passed a resolution apologizing for mistreating survivors.

Now survivors are in wait-and-see mode, she said. There’s some hope of change but building trust will take time and transparency.

She and other survivors were angered in recent months that the task force had not been proactively providing updates about its progress or about a temporary hotline set up to take reports of abuse.

With no transparency about that hotline, she said, survivors were mistrustful and angry.

“I was really clear about the damage that caused for all of us,” said Thigpen, who also spoke to the task force. She said she and other survivors have had to become experts in navigating SBC politics and polity, which can be complicated and slow-moving.

“This is like pulling teeth,” she said.

At times, Thigpen and Woodson said they and other survivors wonder if pushing for reforms is worth the cost. There is a toll to constantly being in the spotlight and retelling their stories. No one wants to be defined by the worst days of their life, said Woodson.

But the alternative is to risk that the SBC or other church groups will move past their abuse crisis and try to get back to business as usual.

“You cannot let your guard down,” Woodson said. “We are talking about people’s lives that will be forever impacted by this. The minute you let your guard down and the minute you think you have this problem solved, we are not safe.”

NEW ORLEANS (BP)—Fred Luter, former SBC president and pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, announced Feb. 14 he plans to nominate fellow New Orleans pastor Jay Adkins for first vice president at the 2023 SBC annual meeting in June.

Adkins is pastor of First Baptist Church of Westwego on the west bank of the city.

Luter and Adkins have served alongside one another in the city more than two decades. Adkins has led First Baptist Westwego since 2002.

“As a faithful small-church pastor, [Jay] is representative of the vast majority of churches that make up the Southern Baptist Convention,” Luter said in an email to Baptist Press.

Luter also called Adkins a “committed advocate” of local association work, noting he has served New Orleans Baptist Association as moderator, as a member of the administrative team, and as a member of the associational council of pastors.

Adkins has experience on the state and national levels of the convention and currently serves as the chair of the local encouragement team for the 2023 annual meeting in New Orleans. He previously served on both the tellers committee and the committee on nominations.

According to Annual Church Profile information and church records, First Baptist Westwego reported seven baptisms in 2022 and averaged 85 in weekly worship. The church collected $125,970 in total undesignated receipts, with $10,822.59 (8.59 percent) given to Cooperative Program causes.

Adkins is a graduate of Leavell College and has both a Master of Divinity degree and Master of Theology degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Michelle, have two sons.

LAKE CHARLES, La. (BP)—Louisiana Pastor Steven James announced Feb. 13 his intent to nominate Farmersville pastor Bart Barber for reelection as Southern Baptist Convention president at the 2023 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans this June.

Barber was elected to the position for the first time at last summer’s gathering in Anaheim, Calif.

James and Barber know one another well due to their time together on the board of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“During our time together, I watched first-hand his genuine understanding of his role in that capacity,” James, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Lake Charles, La., wrote in an email to Baptist Press.

“I found him to be biblical in his approach to the responsibilities that were assigned to him, prayerful in the matters that were presented to him and forthright with the subjects that concerned him.”

Referring to Barber’s multiple media interviews including the one with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, James said Barber has been a “true statesman in his evaluation of the condition of our convention.”

“When asked some very pointed questions, he never compromised the word of God or downplayed the problems that are confronting us as a convention or a nation. At the same time, he expressed a very positive outlook about the future of the SBC,” James said.

“Having listened to Bart preach, I know that he is conservative in his beliefs. Coupled with that, he is consistent in his walk with the Lord. In addition to everything else over the past year, he has diligently and devotedly served us well as our president.”

In addition to chairing the committee on resolutions at the 2022 annual meeting, Barber served on the committee in 2021, preached at the SBC Pastors’ Conference in 2017, and served as first vice president of the SBC from 2013 to 2014.

He served on the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention executive board from 2008 to 2014 (including serving as chairman and vice chairman), served as a trustee for Southwestern Seminary from 2009 to 2019, and served on the SBC committee on committees in 2008. He also previously taught as an adjunct professor at Southwestern Seminary from 2006 to 2009.

According to Annual Church Profile information, First Baptist Farmersville reported 14 baptisms in 2022 and averaged 320 in weekly worship. The church collected $1,014,990 total undesignated receipts, with $108,276 (10.67 percent) given through the Cooperative Program. The church also gave $64,713 to the 2022 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and a total of $191,952 to Great Commission causes.

Barber is a graduate of Baylor University and earned both a Master of Divinity degree and Ph.D. from Southwestern. He and his wife, Tracy, have two teenage children.

He is the only announced candidate at this time.

MEMPHIS (BP)—Brown Missionary Baptist Church’s $1,000 weekly anonymous gift to Memphis-area nonprofits has morphed into a partnership to train such groups for maximum impact and engender church-community cooperation.

It began in November 2020 with the church anonymously giving $1,000 to every nonprofit honored as a Community Changer in an outreach the church negotiated with local CBS affiliate WREG.

Brown Baptist gave more than $100,000 in the outreach before revealing its identity as the donor in November 2022, WREG reported. The church is continuing to give $1,000 to each group WREG recognizes in the weekly feature, Orr said.

“We didn’t want it to be about Brown, but just all of these other great organizations in the community,” Senior Pastor Bartholomew Orr said. “Sometimes if we’re not careful, it becomes about the organization rather than about the greater good.”

At the church that received $12.5 million in undesignated giving in 2022, the identity of the Community Changers donor was unknown even to Brown’s membership, Orr said.

“Our own members didn’t know that we were the ones behind it, as part of our overall outreach that we were doing,” Orr said.

But he revealed the church’s identity to the congregation to show members their “giving has been impactful over the last couple of years in this (COVID-19) pandemic, and (to tell members) we couldn’t have done what we’ve done without you.

“And then reveal it so that we can go to the next level as well.”

Partnering to train nonprofits

The next level is to work with Mission Increase, a national group headquartered in Portland, Ore., offering free training to help nonprofits operate effectively and to help churches and other nonprofits and parachurches work together to meet broader goals.

“We’re working now to actually bring Mission Increase to the area,” Orr said in January. “We’re doing this now so that all of the nonprofits in our area can benefit from a company that focuses in on how do you make nonprofits more evangelistic, as well as more equipped in building their donor base, and so forth.”

Scott Harris, a Brentwood (Tenn.) Baptist Church member and Mission Increase’s vice president of church and global engagement, is working with Orr to establish a Mission Increase chapter in west Tennessee.

Mission Increase will station a coach in Memphis, Harris said, to train nonprofits in subjects including board governance, strategic planning and fundraising.

Instead of charging the nonprofits for the service, Mission Increase covers its costs through local funders including individuals, churches and foundations. Healthy community nonprofits are a benefit to gospel outreach, Harris said.

“Faith-based nonprofits are a wonderful platform for God’s people to use their gifts in service to their community,” Harris said. “Whatever problem the nonprofit is trying to solve, they provide access—a connecting point—between God’s people and lost people who are in need.”

Mission Increase has 23 chapters in the United States serving 3,500 nonprofits, Harris said, including a Mission Increase chapter Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood helped organize in middle Tennessee seven years ago. Four of the six churches supporting the work in middle Tennessee are Southern Baptist, he said.

“We are now a faith-based biblical learning community of 247 faith-based nonprofits in middle Tennessee that gather regularly for teaching, equipping and coaching, all at no cost,” he said.

Harris, former missions pastor at Brentwood Baptist, met Orr through joint mission work between Brentwood and Brown Baptist, a suburban Memphis church in Southaven, Miss.

Orr sees Mission Increase and Brown Baptist’s support of nonprofits as important to the holistic community outreach the church promotes.

“Memphis is going through so many different challenges,” Orr said. “And yet, we can be on the forefront to not only see successful change, but kind of set the example for the rest of the country on how things ought to happen.

“We’re praying and hoping that God will use all of this, ultimately, to bring about a spiritual revival and awakening in Memphis and throughout our country. Just looking holistically at the pieces, they all fit.”

Mutually beneficial

Harris sees the work as beneficial not only to nonprofits, but also to the local church, providing healthy parachurch ministries for church members to work within.

“There is the beauty when they work together and they value each other,” Harris said. “It can grow a local church.”

Orr encourages others to support church-community group engagement as a win-win.

“As we continue this great endeavor with Channel 3, I pray that we take it to a whole next level and that is cooperation and collaboration,” Orr said in revealing the church as the donor on WREG.

“We need more churches. We need more organizations coming together, banding together, and solving the problem, doing something specifically in our community to make a difference.”

COLUMBIA, Md. (BP)—In a letter sent Feb. 3 to the churches of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware, President Glenn Swanson announced state Executive Director Michael Crawford resigned from his position effective immediately “due to moral failure involving marital indiscretions which disqualifies him from this position.”

Crawford had been in the role less than a year after being named to the position in March 2022. He had been with the convention for nearly a decade.

He also was named vice president of strategies and development for Send Network in fall 2022. A NAMB spokesperson confirmed to Baptist Press his contract with the entity was terminated Feb. 3.

In the letter, Swanson called “upon all Maryland and Delaware Baptists and our extended Southern Baptist family to pray for everyone involved.”

Swanson also noted that the state convention’s “officers, staff, volunteers and churches are committed to praying for [Crawford], his family and providing them with spiritual and emotional support in the coming days, weeks and months ahead.”

Swanson also announced associate executive director Tom Stolle will serve as interim and lead the staff as the administrative committee makes plans to fill the role.

The Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware includes more than 450 churches with about 76,000 members in the two-state region.

NASHVILLE (BP)—Two churches have been reported to the Southern Baptist Convention’s credentials committee on the grounds the churches are out of step with the SBC stance on sexual abuse.

The reports stem from speaking invitations extended to former SBC President Johnny Hunt. Hunt was named in a 2022 report from Guidepost Solutions on the firm’s investigation into the alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims by the SBC Executive Committee.

Hunt has admitted to “a brief, but improper, encounter” in 2010 with a woman who wasn’t his wife, but he has denied that it was abuse.

In an email shared with The Tennessean by Todd Benkert, the credentials committee acknowledged placing two churches under inquiry.

The churches are Hiland Park Baptist Church in Panama City, Fla., and New Season Church in Hiram, Ga., according to The Tennessean.

Hunt preached at Hiland Park Jan. 15, and is scheduled to preach March 17 and 18 at a men’s conference at New Season Church. Hunt and his wife, Janet, are members of Hiland Park, according to a statement made by Hiland Park Senior Pastor Steven Kyle in a Jan. 15 church service.

Benkert is lead pastor of Oak Creek Community Church in Mishawaka, Ind., and a member of the SBC abuse reform implementation task force. Benkert also spoke at a trauma-informed ministry training event at the 2022 SBC annual meeting in Anaheim.

“The SBC messengers made clear statements about how we expect churches to respond to abuse,” Benkert told The Tennessean.

Messengers voted in 2019 to amend the SBC constitution to state specifically that mishandling sexual abuse is grounds for a church to be deemed “not in friendly cooperation” with the convention.

In 2021, messengers adopted a resolution stating: “Any person who has committed sexual abuse is permanently disqualified from holding the office of pastor … [W]e recommend that all of our affiliated churches apply this standard to all positions of church leadership.”

In a video released in November 2022, Mark Hoover, of NewSpring Church in Wichita, Kan., Mike Whitson, of First Baptist in Indian Trail, N.C., Steven Kyle of Hiland Park Baptist Church in Panama City, Fla., and Benny Tate of Rock Springs Church in Milner, Ga., announced the restoration of Johnny Hunt to public ministry.

Rock Springs identifies itself as Congregational Methodist, while NewSpring, First Baptist and Hiland Park all are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

SBC President Bart Barber objected to the “restoration,” saying: “I would permanently ‘defrock’ Johnny Hunt if I had the authority to do so.”

Marshall Blalock, chair of the abuse reform implementation task force, affirmed Barber’s sentiments.

“I fully support your (Barber’s) statement. This kind of ‘restoration’ works against abuse prevention efforts and harms those who have suffered abuse,” Blalock said.

Hunt was also scheduled to preach at a Great Commission Weekend later this month hosted by Fellowship Church in Immokalee, Fla., but later was disinvited.

According to the SBC’s website, the credentials committee “will not release comments or updates regarding submissions through the media or by other means unless or until a recommendation is submitted to the Executive Committee for withdrawal of fellowship from a church.”

La Red Nacional Bautista Hispana (RNBH) se reunió el 5 de enero donde unánimemente nombraron al Dr. Bruno Molina como su Director Ejecutivo. El Dr. Molina, quien tiene un Ph.D. del Seminario Teológico Bautista Southwestern y es profesor adjunto en dos seminarios de la SBC y coordinador de evangelismo entre creencias e idiomas para la Convención de los Bautistas del Sur de Texas (SBTC), estará trabajando bajo la dirección de la Junta Directiva de la RNBH, la cual fue reciénteme incorporada. Molina también ha sido plantador de iglesias, capellán con Market Place Chaplains, sirvió en las fuerzas armadas de los Estados Unidos y fue Gerente de Recursos humanos para varias compañías. Ha estado casado con Clara por 37 años y tienen 2 hijos y 3 nietos.

La Junta Directiva tiene como propósito asesorar, gobernar, supervisar la política y la dirección y ayudar con el liderazgo y la promoción general de la RNHB para apoyar la misión y las necesidades de esta. Cada miembro servirá por tres años que podrán ser renovados hasta un máximo de tres mandatos consecutivos, pendiente de aprobación.

En la junta de la RNBH, el 18 de enero, Eloy Rodríguez fue nombrado presidente de la RNBH reemplazando al Dr. Molina. Rodríguez es el pastor de la Iglesia Hispana Idlewild, en Tampa, Florida. Antes de llegar a Idlewild, él sirvió como pastor por más de 20 años. Rodríguez es actualmente el capellán oficial para los miembros hispanos del equipo de pelota, ligas menores, de los Yankees de Nueva York. Sirvió como vicepresidente para la RNBH, ha sido plantador de iglesias y cofundador del ministerio hispano para los encarcelados en Orlando, Florida. También es conferencista y tiene una Maestría en Divinidades del seminario Luther Rice. Rodríguez ha estado casado con Sol por 31 años y Dios los bendijo con seis hijos e hijas.

En la próxima junta, la RNBH planea nombrar un vicepresidente. El Dr. Ricardo Rivera, quien sirve como Estratega Hispano en New México, ha sido nominado para servir como secretario y Jesse Rincones, Director Ejecutivo de la Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas y pastor en la iglesia Alianza en Lubbock, continua como tesorero. La RNBH ya está incorporada y lista para recibir donaciones monetarias para llevar a cabo el ministerio que tienen por delante, el cual incluye su reunión anual durante la junta anual de la SBC la cual tomará lugar este año en New Orleans. La RNBH seguirá trabajando en colaboración con Luis López, vicepresidente asociado de relaciones hispanas para la SBC y todas las otras entidades de la misma.

Four years after the lawsuit was filed, a court date finally is set for the civil case involving former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson’s handling of a sexual abuse complaint.

U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan set the trial date for April 3 at the U.S. Courthouse in Plano, with a final pretrial conference scheduled March 31.

Jane Roe v. Leighton Paige Patterson et al initially was filed March 12, 2019. However, it faced repeated delays and failed motions to dismiss the case.

A former seminary student brought the suit against both Patterson and the seminary that removed him from the presidency in May 2018—in part over his perceived disrespect toward women. The lawsuit alleges negligence, violation of privacy and liability.

In dismissing Patterson, trustees focused on similar accusations he mishandled sexual abuse claims at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina when he was president there.

A former seminary student and student-employee at Southwestern Seminary—identified by the pseudonym “Jane Roe” in the lawsuit—alleged she was raped at gunpoint on more than one occasion by another student-employee who had a violent past and extensive criminal history.

The female student alleged she was stalked, violently assaulted and sexually abused by the male student, who was employed by the seminary as a plumber and had access to her on-campus residence.

She asserted the student who assaulted her met personally with Patterson to assure him his past conduct—including sexual molestation when he was a minor—would not preclude his service as a Baptist minister. Patterson allegedly encouraged him to “fish” the pool of unmarried female students for a prospective wife.

The male student eventually was expelled—not for the assault, but for violating the seminary policy regarding the possession of firearms on campus.

The suit states that prior to an October 2015 meeting she arranged with Patterson, John Nichols, chief of campus security, asked if the seminary president wanted him to attend that meeting. According to the suit, Patterson replied in an email, “I have to break her down and I may need no official types there, but let me see.”

The suit stated the female student was afraid to pursue charges against the male student who raped her “because he had been armed and threatened Roe and her family with violence.”

While neither Patterson nor the seminary denied sexual assaults occurred, they disputed allegations in the lawsuit regarding the student’s interactions with Patterson and other seminary officials.

In his court response, Patterson stated he “was not a cause, the cause, the sole cause, a proximate cause, the sole proximate cause, or a contributing cause of any injuries or damages claimed by Roe.”

Tennessee Baptist disaster relief volunteers responded to a request from the state to provide support for first responders preparing for anticipated protests in Memphis in the aftermath of the beating and death of Tyre Nichols.

While disaster relief teams are no strangers to helping people affected by natural disasters, this was the first time for Tennessee Baptist volunteers to activate for potential civil unrest, said Wes Jones, Tennessee’s disaster relief specialist.

“It’s new for us, but it’s been done by other teams in different states,” Jones said prior to the Jan. 27 release of the videos showing Memphis police officers assaulting Nichols during a traffic stop.

“This is actually pre-planning for a possible disaster. Hopefully, nothing bad breaks out when the tapes come out, but they have to be pre-staged and ready to go. You can’t come in two days later. They want to be in the right place at the right time. So, we want to be there to help them and support them as we can.”

Nichols, a 29-year-old Memphis resident, was beaten by five Memphis police officers on Jan. 7 and died from his injuries a few days later. The officers have been charged with second-degree murder.

Once it was determined the video footage would be released publicly, local officials called in extra first responders to be prepared for the reaction. Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, called for protests but pleaded with the public to keep them peaceful.

So far, the protests taking place in Memphis and other major cities across the United States have been peaceful, and no reported rioting has taken place.

‘A unique opportunity’

Disaster relief volunteers from Tennessee provided shower and laundry facilities in Memphis for the extra personnel brought in from other cities, while a Mississippi disaster relief team assisted by preparing and serving meals.

“This is a unique opportunity, that we’re serving the (first responders), because they don’t have the means to set up meals for themselves,” said Robert Barnett, a volunteer with the Mississippi team. “They’re here to protect the city. So, we’re providing the meals for them because the state has asked us to do so.

“To me, it’s no different. We’re just doing the job that we’re called to do—whether it’s civil unrest, whether it’s a natural disaster, whatever. That’s what we do. We’re not really concerned with the difference between the two.”

About 15 Mississippi Baptist volunteers were preparing three meals a day at a nearby Memphis-area location, loading the food into insulated containers, transporting it to the first responders, then cleaning up, returning to the kitchen and beginning the process again for the next meal.

‘It’s my heart to serve people’

Debbie Snyder, one of the Mississippi volunteers, was on her first disaster relief assignment. Snyder loves to cook and has her own catering business.

“It’s my heart to serve people. This is just what I do,” she said. “And I serve people with food.”

Snyder said her desire was that people would come to know Jesus as their Savior through the ministry of Disaster Relief volunteers.

“I hope their bellies are full, and I hope their hearts get full,” she said.

While the Mississippi volunteers travel back and forth from their kitchen to where the first responders are being housed, Tennessee volunteers remained onsite to oversee the shower and laundry facilities they transported in.

They also provided chaplains for emotional and spiritual support.

Butch Porch, the Tennessee team leader and a member of Woodland Baptist Church in Brownsville, Tenn., said he doesn’t recall being involved in an operation like this before.

“We were asked to help, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Porch said. “The main thing that we’re doing is providing a service to people who are actually displaced. These (first responders) came all the way from Bristol.”

While the nature of the disaster may be different, Jones said he hopes the Memphis operation helps Tennessee Baptist disaster relief build relationships with first responders.

“Because any disaster, first responders are there,” Jones said. “They work hard and long hours under sometimes very adverse conditions, and so anything we can do to support them and help them in their different tasks, that’s good with me.”

Hubert Yates, state director of disaster relief in Mississippi, said the Mississippi Baptist team responded when Tennessee disaster relief asked for their help.

“This is one of the strengths of Southern Baptist disaster relief,” Yates said. “It’s a wonderful example of the Cooperative Program, outside the flow of money. We come together to accomplish the task.”

Jones said he didn’t have an end date for the work in Memphis, but since protests were peaceful on Friday night, he didn’t expect the operation would last much longer.

Tim and Sarah Ellsworth team covered the disaster relief response in Memphis as part of a collaborative effort by Tennessee’s Baptist & Reflector, Mississippi’s Baptist Record, The Alabama Baptist and its national publication, The Baptist Paper.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (RNS)—Claiming “false allegations” had ruined his life, former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt returned to the pulpit Jan. 15, eight months after allegations that he had sexually assaulted another pastor’s wife became public.

Hunt was the guest preacher at Hiland Park Baptist Church in Panama City, Fla., where his friend Steven L. Kyle is pastor. Kyle was part of a small group of pastors who deemed Hunt fit to return to the ministry, despite the allegations against him.

Kyle introduced Hunt, who joined Hiland Park as a member in 2022, calling him “one of the greatest pulpiteers in our generation.”

“Today we are honored,” Kyle said. “Today I am thankful to have my good friend Dr. Johnny Hunt preach at Hiland Park.”

Guidepost report cites credible allegations

The former SBC leader, who was also a longtime pastor of a Georgia megachurch, was named in the Guidepost Solutions report on abuse in the SBC, which was released in May 2022. According to the report, Hunt allegedly assaulted a woman at a vacation condo in 2010.

Investigators found the allegations against him credible. Hunt denied the allegations at first, then claimed the incident was a consensual encounter.

During his sermon, Hunt said some of the allegations against him were true, but they would have been easier to survive than the “false allegations,” and he claimed he’d been pressured to quit the ministry.

Psalm 119, the biblical text he drew from, also talked about what happens when people face persecution and their enemies set up traps to snare them.

“When will you punish my persecutors?” the text says in the New International Version. “The arrogant dig pits to trap me, contrary to your law. All your commands are trustworthy; help me, for I am being persecuted without cause.”

Hunt says calling cannot be undone

Hunt also talked about the power of forgiveness and what happens when people make “bad choices.”

“And by the way, have you ever made a choice that you wish you could undo, but you can’t undo it?” he asked the congregation. “What do you do with stuff you can’t undo? You give it to Jesus.”

He also told the congregation that if God calls someone to do something, that calling can’t be undone. And God called that person, knowing the person might sin and fail, he added.

Hunt said he could retire and no longer had to preach for a living.

“Anybody can quit,” he said. “That’s why so many do. It’s easy. I mean, it hardly takes any energy whatsoever.”

During his sermon, Hunt also detailed some of his future plans for ministry, including leading a tour group to the Holy Land and traveling to Uganda to train pastors.

Hunt failed to disclose incident

The allegations against Hunt had stunned many of his friends and supporters, especially since Hunt had hidden the incident for so long. After finishing up his time as SBC president in 2010, he took an extended leave of absence, which he has said was due to physical exhaustion and depression.

But according to the Guidepost report and a video from Kyle and the other pastors who restored the former megachurch pastor, Hunt went through an extended counseling and restoration process after the incident at the condo.

Hunt hid that process from his congregation and from the SBC’s North American Mission Board, which hired him as a vice president in 2018. He resigned from that role after the Guidepost report was made public. 

Hunt’s return to ministry highlights the difficulty the nation’s largest Protestant denomination has in dealing with pastoral misconduct and abuse. While delegates to the SBC’s annual meeting have condemned abusive pastors and said they are unfit for the ministry, the denomination has no authority to discipline pastors or ban them from preaching.

Current SBC President Bart Barber has called Hunt’s return to ministry a “repugnant act.”

“I would permanently ‘defrock’ Johnny Hunt if I had the authority to do so,” Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, said in November.

Tiffany Thigpen, an abuse survivor and longtime advocate of abuse victims, told Religion News Service in November 2022 Hunt’s return to ministry was a sign that Southern Baptist culture has yet to change.

“We are always going to have this network of powerful men who can do whatever they want and think they can get away with it,” she said. “And they are right.”