Yesterday I had the pleasure of serving on a panel at the Harding University Bible Lectureship discussing sexual abuse in Churches of Christ led by Bobby Ross Jr. of the Christian Chronicle. Christine Fox Parker and Chellie Ison joined were on the panel with me. We discussed abuse, its prevalence, how it has been handled, and recommended ways of handling abusers within a congregation. From this discussion there were four things that stand out as highlights from the conversation.

Abuse is far more prevalent than anyone cares to admit.

Churches should prepare for when this will happen and have contacts to refer survivors to when abuse is reported.

Those who abuse are deceptive and manipulative not only to their victim but to all in their victim’s world.

Alternative worship opportunities should be put in place to serve the spiritual needs of offenders in an environment that does not have children.

The audiences were fantastic and had excellent questions in the question and answer session.  Audio is available on the audio page found under “Events”.