This past Sunday, the Southern Baptist Convention's Sexual Abuse Task Force released the report of Guidepost Solutions, which performed an independent investigation on issues related to sexual abuse and how the SBC's Executive Committee members and staff have responded to sexual abuse issues. Since the report's release, there have been many news reports; however, because secular media generally does not understand what the SBC is or how it is governed, it often misunderstands and thus misreports events related to the SBC. Add to this a general distrusts of secular media because of their hostile bias toward Christians many have struggled to understand the actual impact and ramifications of Guidestone's report. The report is 288 pages and includes two appendices that are 73 and 106 pages, respectively. Because of its size and complexity, many are relying on secondary sources to inform them about the report's findings and conclusions.

I have read the report, and I intend to give my initial thoughts on it in this post. I am sure that as additional time provides an opportunity to further appreciate the gravity of what is revealed and more thoughtfully understand how Southern Baptists should respond to it, there will be more to say.

This year is a little unusual in that for the first time in 75 years the annual meeting was canceled last year due to COVID-19. As such, elections were not held and some of the issues that had been developing since the 2019 meeting have remained unaddressed. So, there is much that has been waiting to be dealt with since the summer of 2019. We will be electing new leadership, approving some ministry assignment changes, and dealing with other hot-topic issues. Going into the annual meeting, no one can know all that will happen or how things will turn out. Even in the last few days passions have been stirred over leaked letters by a former entity president. There is no doubt that as Southern Baptists gather next week in Nashville we will have much to debate, talk about, and work through. Here are five things that I think will be major issues for us to consider.