NASHVILLE (BP) – As the inaugural Southern Baptist czar for sexual abuse prevention and response, Jeff Dalrymple is fulfilling a calling and a mission, packing years of leadership in the arena that has taught him how to win the battle.
The Executive Committee’s Director of Abuse Prevention and Response, with Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee President and CEO Jeff Iorg, shared his plans for the post at a press conference Feb. 18 following the EC meeting in Nashville.
“One of the significant initiatives that we’re working on is bringing in the state conventions. The issues of sexual abuse, both prevention and response, are best addressed at the state level,” Dalrymple said. “Each state, 50 states and five U.S. territories, have specific laws on abuse prevention and response. And so working with our state conventions is really, really important.”
Focused on helping 47,000 Southern Baptist churches prevent abuse and respond to complaints, the leaders announced their plans hours after sharing date from the SBC’s sexual abuse hotline showing that abuse has not frequently been reported within Southern Baptist churches since the hotline was established in May 2022.
“Any sexual abuse in any Southern Baptist context is evil and has to be stopped,” Iorg clarified. “The fact that it’s not being reported as often as some people may have assumed doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have to be addressed. I am committed to what we’re doing to address the issue.”
The new office will serve as a catalyst, Dalrymple said, “mobilizing Southern Baptists who are already doing really good work in this area.”
The Sex Abuse Prevention and Response Department will expand resources for churches to access in sexual abuse and prevention, enhancing the Essentials curriculum developed by the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force and continuing to make it available free to all churches. Other resources will be developed leveraging the EC website, entity partners and state convention partners, the leaders said.
April is the target month for several initiatives Dalrymple and Iorg are undertaking to optimize the department’s effectiveness, including holding the first meeting with an advisory committee on sexual abuse prevention and response strategies Iorg has committed to appoint, and holding the first meeting with a network of state convention abuse prevention response leaders Iorg is formalizing from state convention representatives already in place.
Dalrymple will include Lifeway Christian Resources and the International Mission Board in the meetings, holding them virtually, he told Baptist Press. Dalrymple will augment his department with an assistant staff member, and told Baptist Press he is interviewing a serious candidate.
At the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting, the department will offer for a small fee a training event, “Safeguarding the Next Generation,” Iorg said in his plenary report, and will also raise the profile of abuse prevention and response with dedicated exhibit space in the EC booth in the exhibit hall.
The Executive Committee hired Dalrymple in January to head the department created to help churches respond to and prevent sexual abuse. EC trustees created the department in September 2024 after messengers to the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting voted for the EC to find a permanent home for such work within the Convention.
”Thousands of SBC churches have already implemented prevention measures over the past five years,” Iorg said in his report during the plenary session on the opening night of the EC meeting. “Sexual abuse – no matter how few incidents are reported among 47,000 churches – is an evil we want stopped.”
The hotline has drawn 1,008 contacts since May 2022, Iorg said, with 674 of those, or 67 percent, alleging abuse, Iorg said in his Feb. 17 plenary report. Of those allegations, 458, or 68 percent, involved Southern Baptists.
Dalrymple has plans to expand the hotline beyond a reporting mechanism, he told Baptist Press.
“We are exploring multiple long-term solutions,” he said, “that deliver high-quality triage and support services for both survivors and ministry leaders that contact us.”
Seven churches have been deemed not in friendly cooperation with the Convention because of circumstance related to complaints of sexual abuse, Iorg said Monday, adding that Southern Baptist churches are by and large cooperating to prevent and address abuse allegations.
“The Executive Committee is working with state convention partners and entity partners to provide the resources, support, and training necessary to strengthen churches in this battle,” he said. “And, in those rare instances when a church refuses to respond appropriately, we will continue to declare them not in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention.”
Dalrymple confesses a heart for the abused, having served as executive director of the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention, which sets national standards to protect the vulnerable.
As a “Bible-believing, Gospel-loving Christian,” he believes every person is made in God’s image and worthy of protection, dignity and respect, which he describes as consistent values Southern Baptists share.
“I long for a day when kids can come to church and learn about Jesus free from any sexual abuse. That’s my heart. And Lord help us, that’s our mission,” he said. “It’s become a calling.”