Nearly two months after an explosive report called for the resignation of senior officials at Greater Grace World Outreach, the evangelical church’s elders issued a response that offered no concrete plans for a leadership change.

The church is “actively looking to the future and the transition that must inevitably take place,” they wrote in a “roadmap and vision” posted Thursday to the church website.

“In some cases, a successor is apparent, and concrete steps are already being taken to pass the baton,” the elders wrote. “In other cases, the next generation of leadership is not obvious at this point.”

Greater Grace leaders were responding to a 172-page report issued in late December by Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, or GRACE, an independent evangelical organization that they had hired to investigate allegations of sexual abuse in the church.

Church leaders commissioned the investigation in 2024 following the publication of a Baltimore Banner series that followed The Millstones, a group of former church members who documented dozens of allegations of sexual abuse by pastors and other prominent church figures.

Both the Banner series and the GRACE report highlighted numerous instances in which church leaders failed to take appropriate action when informed of allegations of child sexual abuse. Instead, leaders advised victims and their families to forgive abusers and move on.

The GRACE report decried the church’s “deeply ingrained authoritarian culture,” and recommended that head Pastor Thomas Schaller, Director of Missions Steven Scibelli, Youth Pastor John Love and Youth Ministry Director Pete Westera be removed from “positions of authority and influence.”

“It is GRACE’s firm conclusion that lasting, meaningful change at an institutional level cannot be achieved under the current leadership,” the investigators wrote.

Church leaders did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Sari Heidenreich, a member of The Millstones, called the lack of leadership change among senior pastors “yet another example of their continued refusal to take full responsibility for the ways they have failed victim-survivors of sexual abuse who came to them for help.”

“If Greater Grace is serious about reform, they must drastically and structurally improve their institutional transparency,” Heidenreich wrote in a message.

Greater Grace elders suggested in their statement that they were working toward finding a new head pastor to replace Schaller, who has led the church since 2005.

“By far, the most challenging role to fill is that of the Senior Pastor, given the vital role this position plays in the life of our local congregation and our ministry,” they wrote, inviting congregation members to join them in “prayerful consideration of future leadership.”

The elders did not provide any timeline for replacing Schaller, who had been a top deputy of Greater Grace’s founding pastor, Carl Stevens.

The roadmap included plans to create a “response team” to handle allegations of sexual abuse. It will be a “standing group to triage trauma victims” and composed of men and women, the elders wrote.

“The Response Team is not intended to replace independent investigations, outside counsel, and outside support when needed, but rather to ensure a fully-established plan of action with trained people, to begin processes for protection, response, and care,” they wrote.

In addition, pastors and other church leaders will be required to complete training in caring for victims of trauma, according to the roadmap.

The plan also cited a policy the church unveiled last year to protect young people from abuse, and said leaders were working to implement training in the policy for church members who work with children and teens.

Church leaders said they had been working on policies to handle “individuals who exhibit disruptive behavior or pose a serious danger.”

“If appropriate, GGWO will publicly identify individuals deemed to present a serious danger,” they wrote.

Alissa Byrne Scibelli, a former Greater Grace member and the daughter-in-law of a senior pastor, said she felt that the church’s efforts to reform did not go far enough.

“It’s time for consequences,” said Scibelli, who called the church so broken it should shut down permanently. “This church has repeatedly hurt people and failed people.”