Our Church Legal-Health Seminar series is an opportunity for pastors and ministry leaders to educate themselves in a face-to-face setting, allowing them to stay up to date on church legal affairs.
When you attend a seminar in your area, you’ll meet David Gibbs III in person as he talks to dozens of people just like you about key issues facing churches. You can ask questions and receive direct, practical help for your ministry, whether you need specific information about a pressing legal matter or just an organizational “checkup.”
These all-day sessions go into considerable depth on a number of topics relevant for every ministry looking to minimize liability. All attendees receive a comprehensive manual that is an excellent reference tool long after the final session has ended.
A rundown of the topics covered at a Church Legal-Health Seminar includes:
Church Position on Biblical Marriage and Sexuality — the must-have policies/provisions for your ministry in light of America’s ongoing sexual immorality crisis. We address the importance of your statement of faith, an authority-of-statement-of-faith provision, code of conduct, facility-use policy, ministerial job requirements, camping ministry policies, and more.
Tax Exemption — maintaining one of your ministry’s most important financial benefits. This topic involves discussion of tax-exempt criteria, recognition of tax-exempt status, formal organizational details, nondiscrimination policy, and what a church may and may not do as far as influencing legislation or participating in political campaigns.
Critical Ministry Documents — essentials for minimizing your ministry’s liability. This topic includes ministry bylaws, meeting minutes, employment agreements, conflict resolution agreements/procedures, permission slips/liability release forms, and counseling policies/agreements.
Child Safety Policies and Procedures — how to protect the most vulnerable ones in your ministry. We cover the vital issues of screening, training, and supervising workers along with the development of a child protection policy and procedures for reporting child abuse/neglect and responding appropriately to allegations.
Church Emergency Response Preparedness — a guide to protecting the people in your ministry before, during, and after an emergency. Examine how to identify potential emergency situations, develop emergency response plans, and deal with incidents such as security breach and/or armed threat, fire/smoke/hazard/bomb threat, severe weather event, or accident/injury/health crisis.
Plagiarism and Copyright in Ministry — the proper use of the original works of others. This topic involves copyright protection/violations, the religious services exemption, copyright licenses, the fair-use doctrine, printed material guidelines, music guidelines, preaching guidelines, and multimedia/website/software guidelines.
Financial Integrity — essential checks and balances in managing ministry finances. We talk about monitoring mechanisms and how to handle cash receipts/offerings and purchases/payments/disbursements as well as record keeping, reconciliation practices, and developing a financial procedures manual.
Protecting Ministry Assets — safeguarding the ministry’s property and private data. This includes such topics as insurance, handling private and personal data, and dealing with a data breach.
