A committee created as part of reforms within the Southern Baptist Convention to prevent sexual abuse among clergy today unveiled a curriculum to give churches guidance before the convention’s annual meeting in Indianapolis.

“Essentials: Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response” is the creation of the convention’s SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force. It lays out a course of training, screening, reporting and care for victims.

The convention’s messengers voted to adopt the SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force’s recommendations, which brings its two-year mandate to an end.

However, “Ministry Check,” a database planned to list the names of ministers who are known sexual offenders, was not ready by today’s announcement.

ARITF chair Josh Wester said the committee had hoped to have a database of about 100 names ready, but “insurance hurdles” kept that from happening. Wester said this was “undoubtably the most difficult part of our work as a task force.”

“We (voted for the website) as Southern Baptists because we recognize a website like this is a valuable tool in our hands to keep dangerous people away from vulnerable people in our churches,” he said.

The task force and its work came in response to a 2019 report by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News that about 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers faced allegations of sexual misconduct over a 20-year period. A consultant’s report said past leaders on the convention’s Executive Committee intimidated and mistreated survivors who sought help.

Wester said “Ministry Check” would not make all churches safe, but would make them safer.

“We must remain resolved and keep working on this task,” he said.

After the 2019 report, the denomination subsequently commissioned a report from a consulting firm, Guidepost Solutions. It concluded that leaders of the convention’s Executive Committee intimidated and mistreated survivors who sought help. The committee handles day-to-day business of the convention.

Jeff Iorg, the new president of the Executive Committee, told its members in a meeting Monday that the committee is facing a “financial crisis” because it indemnified Guidepost Solutions from any legal repercussions from the study. The convention is paying for the legal defense against two defamation lawsuits filed by two men named in the report.

“We have spent more than $2 million so far on that indemnification, and there is no end in sight,” Iorg said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.