How Safe Is Your Church?

What's your responsibility to your peoplefor their safety? Do you have ex-offenders who attend your church? Don't they matter to God? Many of them have experienced life transformation by the work and wonder of the Holy Spirit and their cooperative steps in community, study, and surrender. But, transformed or not - when an offender has harmed a child, sexually transgressed another person ... what then?

Does your church have a security team? Are they trained and competent? Is that enough? What's the awkward but appropriate mix of grace and boundaries? How do you decide who should have background checks and who doesn't? How do you treat people who matter to God? What's your responsibility to the individual seeking new life ... or seeking new prey? What's your responsibility to the people who could be harmed?

Bob D'Ambrosio at Church Solutions says:

Imagine your worst-case scenario. You discover one of your youth ministry volunteers hid a history of sexual abuse and you never knew about it until it was too late. You didn't think it could ever happen, at least not at your church. According to GuideOne Insurance, in a typical year one in 100 churches will experience an allegation of sexual misconduct.

The days of thinking that nothing like this could happen at your church are long gone. Churches weren't asking these questions just a few years ago. But recent attention to clergy sexual misconduct has forced the church to not only ask the questions but also to act with diligence to protect the people it serves. Paul warned the Ephesians to have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them (Ephesians 5: 11). Background checks have become the new screening tool of the church to expose the darkness.

A survey conducted by Church Law and Tax Report found that church volunteers commit 50 percent of all incidents of sexual abuse in churches; paid staff commit 30 percent; and other children commit 20 percent. Many risk-consultant professionals agree that the church is now the pedophiles last refuge because screening doesn't exist in many churches. In a recent Barna study, only 57 percent of the pastors who were polled said their church conducts background and reference checks on those who work with children and youth. Failing to screen out a potential predator may not only bring harm to those in your care but also cause damage to your reputation in the community, in addition to the financial strain of a potential lawsuit. (The average jury award for negligent hiring is more than $8 million.)

The courts describe an organization's screening responsibility as "due diligence," meaning you did everything expected in the screening process to demonstrate you weren't negligent in placing someone in a position where he or she could harm another person. This would apply to those who work with vulnerable groups, such as children, youth, and the elderly and disabled.
So, how do you implement the process of background checking? Here are steps to get started:

- Create a written policy.
- Determine whom to check.
- Include screening requirement in ministry descriptions.
- Start at the top.
- Consider your budget.
- Work your plan.
- Keep Records.

You'll never have a 100 percent guarantee that conducting background checks will prevent all bad things from happening at your church, but it will help to reduce the risk. Make safety a priority in your church as Paul warned the Ephesians and reap the benefit of a secure and caring community.

[from Mark Waltz ...because People Matter by Mark Waltz]

What you doing to a safe environment at your church?