Wills is the dean of the SWBTS School of Theology, professor of Church History and Baptist Heritage, and senior fellow of the B.H. Carroll Center for Baptist Heritage and Mission.
“I know a lot of people want to make sure that local church autonomy and other Southern Baptist distinctives about our structure and organization and mission are understood and that the solutions … fit with that [and are] crafted based upon an understanding of who we are and how we organize,” Barber said.
Barber noted there may be disagreements in regard to the appointments and the group’s future work.
“I’ve just been trying to put together a task force that would bring good recommendations that would work for all of our churches, so that we could address the very best possible way to prevent sexual abuse and respond well to it,” he said.
“We need a diverse task force that will only succeed if they pull together to face the task before them. That’s what we have in this task force. There’s a lot of diversity of opinion and size of church and … they’re going to have to pull together in order to do this. “The same is true for our convention. And so, I’m hoping that they can lead us forward in that way.”
Meet the Abuse Response Implementation Task Force. https://t.co/yIQm1Kcjip
— Bart Barber (@bartbarber) August 9, 2022
If you are/have been a victim of sexual abuse or suspect sexual abuse by a pastor, staff member or member of a Southern Baptist church or entity, please reach out for help at 202-864-5578 or SBChotline@guidepostsolutions.com. All calls are confidential.
This article originally appeared at Baptist Press.
