Hiring a Consultant, A Handbook on Sexual Abuse, & Tulsa Shooting

As part of an increasing effort to address sexual abuse concerns and allegations in Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches, the convention has announced it will hire a consultant for sexual abuse and survivor care.

The consultant will advise SBTC staff in matters pertaining to sexual abuse, assist in the development of abuse prevention and survivor care resources and action plans, and speak directly with inquiring church leaders to give counsel when sexual abuse is reported in their congregations.

“We are still in the process of refining the role and seeking the right person,” said SBTC Associate Executive Director Tony Wolfe.

Wolfe added that the SBTC is hoping to use a trained and licensed professional in the area of counseling and trauma care to assist in listening well and speaking sensitively with survivors of abuse when opportunities arise.

The Kentucky Baptist Convention is preparing a handbook designed to help churches prevent sexual abuse and respond correctly if cases do occur.

Guidepost Solutions, which issued the recent report on sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention, is preparing the handbook for the KBC.

“We just want something that a pastor, church leader, church members can have access to – to know how we prevent sexual abuse from happening in our church,” said KBC Executive Director-Treasurer Todd Gray.

KBC Task Force Chair Linda Cooper said the resource will help churches become more equipped to prevent and respond to sexual abuse.

“I have every confidence that it will be very helpful. They’ll have something to draw from, to know what to do, who to call,” Cooper said.

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Deron Spoo, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Tulsa, was visiting church members at St. Francis Hospital June 1 when police and emergency workers began lockdown procedures. It was only after he made it to his car and turned on the radio that he learned a gunman had killed four people in a hospital building before taking his own life.

Tulsa police reported June 2 that the shooter left a note saying his ultimate target was an orthopedic doctor whose office is in a medical building connected to the hospital. In the end, he killed two doctors and two other people, according to police.

Spoo, who lives only about a mile from the hospital, used the sound of the helicopters flying by his home on Wednesday night as a reminder to prayer for peace.
“We are living in such a violent and angry age,” Spoo said, “I think it is fitting for followers of Jesus to just pray for peace.”

You can find the full story at our website, Baptist Press.com.