Hey there, Central Family, Pastor Adam here. In life, there are different seasons we go through. Some seasons are happy, and some are sad. Some seasons are prosperous, and some are depressing. Some seasons are joyful, and some are lamentable.

King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

This week has been one of those sad, depressing, and lamentable seasons. You may or may not be aware of the issues surrounding sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. When the Catholic scandals came to light years ago, I was thankful that it didn’t happen in the SBC. Well, sadly, that is not the case. For the past several years at the SBC Annual Meeting, discussions on sexual abuse dominated much of the conversation, leading to the Messengers overwhelmingly voting to appoint an independent investigation into how the SBC Executive Committee has handled sexual abuse.

On Sunday, an investigation report was released. To say the information was terrible would be an understatement. I did not know to what extent high-ranking officials in the SBC went to protect the institution at the expense of harming victims. The report says, “Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’sEC’s response to these reports of abuse. They closely guarded information about abuse allegations and lawsuits, which were not shared with EC Trustees, and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC to the exclusion of other considerations,”

Avoiding liability is not the only thing the report revealed. Well-known SBC Pastor Johnnie Hunt resigned his position as Vice-President for Evangelism at the North American Mission Board after the investigation revealed credible allegations he abused the wife of a younger pastor he was mentoring.

The report is bad, and I believe it will worsen before it gets better. There is much more to say, and others are more qualified than I to say it. I will include some articles that I have found helpful.

I appreciate our KBC Executive Director-Treasurer Todd Gray’s leadership. He said, “As damning as this report is, it gives us an opportunity as a convention of churches to change the way we respond to victims of sexual abuse and address abusers.”

This is my desire as well.

I couldn’t imagine things getting worse this week after reading Sunday evening. Yet, on Tuesday afternoon, I received a text message from my brother, a teacher in San Antonio, TX, saying that a school shooting took place in their area. He said that 2 people were killed and 13 were injured, and everyone was scared. I couldn’t imagine the fear at that moment, how horrible it would be to have 2 students killed.

However, it was worse, much worse. Nineteen 4th graders and 2 teachers were murdered by an evil 18-year-old. I can’t fathom what would possess someone to commit such a horrific act. I am grateful the shooting took place about 85 miles away from my brother and his school, but I am brokenhearted for moms and dads who can’t hug their little ones tonight and tell them they love them.

I shared in my invocation yesterday at the Maysville City Commission meeting words from Psalm 34:

“The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

While I cannot grieve as a sexual abuse survivor or as a parent whose child was killed, I am brokenhearted, which has crushed my spirit this week. However, knowing that Jesus is still on the Throne and the Lord is near the brokenhearted gives us hope to carry on. There will be better days, and there may be worse days, but as the grass withers and the flowers fade, the Word of the Lord stands forever.

We will gather on Sunday to worship the Lord of all creation who loves and cares for His children. I hope you will join me.

God bless!