The Bickford Brief Special Edition: What SBC Leaders Should Say and Do After Pawleys Island

What We Need To Know
The Pawleys Island Community Church scandal is now both a local crisis and a denominational test. The legal process will determine the facts and responsibility in this case. Leaders should not speculate beyond what has been reported or alleged.

But Southern Baptist leaders do not need to wait for every legal question to be resolved before speaking clearly about what churches owe children, parents, survivors, and their communities.
The key issue is not whether every SBC church is unsafe. They are not. The key issue is not whether the national SBC controls local churches. It does not. The key issue is whether Southern Baptist leaders at every level will use their influence to build a common culture of protection.

This moment calls for more than institutional distancing. It calls for national, state, associational, and local leaders to say the same basic truth: one case of abuse is one too many, and careless disregard for legal, moral, and common-sense protections must stop.

What SBC Leaders Can And Should Say
National SBC leaders should speak with moral clarity. They should say that abuse prevention is not a distraction from the Great Commission; it is part of faithful witness. They should affirm due process while refusing minimization. They should say plainly that no ministry leader has the right to conceal known risks from parents, ignore reporting duties, or place institutional reputation above child safety.

State convention leaders should speak pastorally and practically. They can remind churches that autonomy carries responsibility. Local churches make their own decisions, but they should never make those decisions in isolation, secrecy, or negligence. State leaders can urge immediate policy reviews, training, and cooperation with law enforcement whenever abuse is suspected.

Associational leaders should speak locally and relationally. They often know pastors, churches, and ministry patterns more closely than national or state leaders. They can say, “We are here to help you prepare before a crisis.” They can also say, “If an allegation arises, do not handle this alone, do not investigate it internally first, and do not delay reporting.”

Local church leaders should speak directly to their own congregations. Pastors, elders, deacons, school boards, and ministry directors should tell parents and volunteers what safeguards are in place, how concerns can be reported, and how the church will respond if a concern involves a leader. Silence creates anxiety. Clarity builds trust.
The message at every level should be firm but careful: not every allegation is automatically true, not every church is guilty, and not every leader has failed. But every allegation deserves seriousness, every child deserves protection, every survivor deserves compassion, and every accused person deserves due process.

What SBC Leaders Can And Should Do
National leaders can set expectations without controlling churches. They can promote a baseline culture of protection across SBC life: written child-safety policies, screening, training, supervision, mandatory reporting, survivor care, and cooperation with civil authorities. They can keep prevention visible from the platform, in entity communications, at annual meetings, in seminary training, and through ongoing resources such as abuse prevention initiatives.
National leaders can also correct the narrative. When influential voices imply there is no abuse crisis because a particular investigation ended without charges, national leaders should say that legal outcomes matter, but they do not exhaust the church’s moral responsibility. Absence of institutional prosecution is not the same as absence of harm, failure, or needed reform.

State conventions can provide practical infrastructure. They can offer policy templates, vetted training options, consultation, crisis-response guidance, recommended reporting procedures, and lists of qualified counselors and legal resources. They can encourage every cooperating church to conduct an annual child-safety review.
Associations can make this work personal and repeatable. They can host training for pastors, staff, elders, deacons, children’s workers, youth leaders, and school administrators. They can help churches rehearse the first twenty-four hours after an allegation: who reports, who contacts legal counsel, who communicates with parents, who cooperates with law enforcement, and who cares for affected families.

Local churches can implement the safeguards. That means written applications, reference checks, background checks, sex-offender registry checks, prior church or ministry history, waiting periods for new volunteers, two-adult supervision, classroom visibility, check-in/check-out procedures, mandatory reporting training, clear documentation, and annual retraining.

Local churches should also remove private exceptions. No longtime member, generous donor, pastor’s friend, staff spouse, beloved volunteer, or “repentant” offender should be exempt from child-safety rules. Grace does not require access. Forgiveness does not remove consequences. Dignity does not override protection.

Where the Greatest Opportunity Exists
The greatest opportunity is for SBC leaders to stop treating abuse prevention as a specialized issue and start treating it as normal church health. 

• A healthy church protects children.
• A healthy church tells the truth.
• A healthy church reports suspected abuse.
• A healthy church cooperates with authorities.
• A healthy church cares for survivors.
• A healthy church does not hide behind polity, reputation, or good intentions.

This is also an opportunity to strengthen trust in cooperation. Southern Baptist polity does not allow national control of local churches, but cooperation can still shape expectations. National leaders can speak. State leaders can equip. Associations can train. Local churches can act.

The path forward is not denial, exaggeration, or institutional self-defense. It is humble, coordinated leadership at every level.

The Pawleys Island case should call Southern Baptists to a better posture: careful with facts, compassionate toward victims, fair toward the accused, serious about law enforcement, honest about failures, and relentless in protecting the vulnerable.

Sources: The Roys Report, The Christian Post, The Baptist Courier/SCBaptist statement, WPDE/WCIV, and child-protection guidance for ministry environments. Child-safety policies should be reviewed with qualified legal counsel in each state.