In regard to child protection in SBC churches and entities, whatever solutions are proposed or adopted in the various levels of Southern Baptist life if they prove ineffective in local churches the effort will have minimal value. Our convention has 50,000 or so individual churches that voluntarily cooperate on associational, state, and national levels. The country crossroads church needs to protect children just like the multi-campus megachurch franchise operation.
In my church we have used MinistrySafe child protection system for about a year now. It is not a perfect system but works well for us. There are various levels of training offered all of which can be completed online. I prefer the regular, ongoing training of the type offered by MinistrySafe rather than the periodic hiring of experts to come into the church and have a mass training meeting. As volunteers are added, they can be required to complete training immediately, since it is available online.
I wrote about implementing the system in my church last year:
Implementing MinistrySafe in my church
While I believe this to be the child protection most popular with SBC entities, state conventions, and churches, there are other options. Contributors who have experience with these may mention them in a comment below. My state offers several free child protection seminars around the state for pastors and church workers.
___________
I am aware that MinistrySafe is not recommended by some. That’s fine and such can be debated elsewhere. I know of no good reason not to use this and know many reasons that it is good for any size church. Arguably, this is the child protection resource that has done the most in the SBC to educate pastors, churches, and workers about child abuse. I think it is a good choice and have no criticism of the program, save for the training videos could be made more interesting. My relationship with MinistrySafe is that I have attended one of their conferences in our state. I’ve never met either of the lawyers who are the principals in this organization. I’m not paid. My church uses the resources like any other church and are paying the usual charges for it.
The demand of churches for protection training services has grown greatly and one would expect it to grow in the future. There is a considerable market for these services which are for fee (our church of 300 or so may end up with $500 or so initial annual cost). Let each pastor and church choose what they think best for them.
But choose something. You can’t do nothing.
I’ve taken two video seminars on child safety, MinistrySafe and Every Child Safe. The latter was required of us during our missionary service. The MinistrySafe videos are excellent. I’ve recommended them to our church here in Texas. As William says, the main thing is to use something. I realize we have lots of small churches in the SBC. This is an area where associations and state conventions can provide help.
Ministry Safe sounds like a great possibility. But I would also advocate training g evenrs that will cast the net further than ministty workers. The Stewards of Children training is one I am personally familiar with. Child sexual abuse is a huge social problem. Really, every adult should be more aware of its signs and what to do in order to intervene in their extended families, their neighborhoods, their schools and other children/youth serving groups. It would be so great if the SBC could be as knowing for its concern and prevention of child sexual abuse as our Disaster Relief… Read more »
We have controlled wings of our church for our children with restricted access and a security team. We have no less than two adults in every children’s classroom, windows on the doors, background checks for all workers, and CPPs (Child Protection Policies) that everyone must abide by. First and foremost, it protects the children, but it also protects the workers and the church. We also have similar policies for our special needs ministry. My wife is the ministry coordinator for our local Child Evangelism Fellowship Good News Clubs. I don’t know all the policies they have, but they do background… Read more »
I heard one pastor lead out in changing church culture to expect all child-caring volunteers to be trained. He announced it enthusiastically, was one of the first to take the training, then spent much time telling the church how much he learned (not ominously, but positively), how great it was that each volunteer had the same opportunity to learn, and how eager the church was to share this training widely. The congregation also longed for more young families, so he messaged that young families join churches with good CPP’s & training – which is also what you want for your… Read more »
Why not reach out to your local Child Protective Services office for help? These folk know law, policy, procedures, etc., and they want to help you get it right. There’s a pretty good chance that one or more church members are employed there. And their help won’t cost you anything.
The SBC website has lots of resources available. Just click on Resources on the home page. I’m sure the state conventions do, also. One of the resources listed on the SBC website is a sample church policy and procedures statement, provided by the Alabama Baptist Convention.