Ethnic Leaders Respond To Report, Bryant Wright’s Book, & Disaster Relief

African American, Asian and Hispanic Southern Baptist leaders have responded to the Guidepost Solutions report of the Southern Baptist Convention’s handling of sexual abuse complaints spanning two decades.

Frank Williams, president of the National African American Fellowship of the SBC (NAAF) shared with Baptist Press a letter written on behalf of NAAF executive officers, its executive board and the approximately 4,000 African American Southern Baptist churches it serves.

Williams expressed gratitude to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting messengers, the Sexual Abuse Task Force, SBC Executive Committee CEO Willie McLaurin, Executive Committee Chairman Rolland Slade and EC trustees for their work “during this unprecedented time of reckoning within the SBC.”

Williams described the report as a “clarion call” for churches to enact policies and practices to protect against and respond to allegations of abuse. Specifically, he encouraged African American pastors to pray for survivors, Southern Baptist churches and the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting; to actively engage in Southern Baptist life at all levels, and to promote “the value of collaborative fellowship, shared ownership, and cooperative stewardship that brings out the best in SBC Life.”

In the summer of 2012, Bryant Wright sensed God was telling him to prepare for his next season of ministry. Wright, the founding pastor of Atlanta’s Johnson Ferry Baptist, had just completed 30 years of ministry leading the church and was preparing for his fourth decade at Johnson Ferry.

His new book, “Succession: Preparing Your Ministry for the Next Leader,” shares not only the personal lessons Wright learned, but practical advice for churches and church leaders as they plan leadership transitions. “Succession” released this June.

Wright’s book tells the story of how he and the leadership team at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church walked through an intentional, leadership succession process and provides suggestions for churches and church leaders nearing the next phase of ministry leadership.

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Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is often not only first in response but the last to leave. In a piece on Baptist Press, Coy Webb writes, “They were there when Hurricane Ida ravaged Louisiana, when unprecedented tornados struck from Mayfield to Bowling Green, Ky., when the Ukraine crisis displaced almost a third of that nation’s population and last week when an elementary school shooting ripped the heart of a small community in South Texas.

In times of crises, SBDR volunteers minister to the least of these and live out the command of 1 John to share the love of Christ in word and deed.”