9:30 – 10:30 — Critical Ministry Documents & Child Safety and Protection
10:30 – noon — Developing a Church Safety Team & What to Look for Sunday Morning
12:00-12:15 — Break
12:15-1:30 — Understanding Your Church Policies & Procedures
1:30-2:00 — Active Shooter Response Plan & Emergency Response Plan
2:00-2:30 — Question and Answer Session
The following topics are included in the schedule above:
Critical Ministry Documents: A church can dramatically reduce its liability by managing one key concept: expectations. Communicating the requirements for affiliating with the ministry as well as what attendees, members, employees, and volunteers should expect will reduce the possibility of angry ministry participants—and will subsequently reduce the likelihood of legal action against the ministry. In this session, the critical ministry documents that help establish expectations will be covered, including ministry bylaws, counseling policies, employment agreements, conflict resolution policies, meeting minutes, and permission slips/liability release waivers.
Child Safety and Protection: Reports of child abuse are rising to epidemic proportions. Sexual abuse, in particular, is running rampant in our world and, unfortunately, may also be found in our churches, Christian schools, and homeschool groups. In this session, we will discuss specific policies and safeguards your ministry can implement in order not to just minimize the risk of children being molested or mistreated but also to defend against false allegations of such behavior.
Emergency Response Plans: Being a pastor and running a church is not a Sunday-only operation. Regardless of the ministry’s size, many issues must be considered in order to operate a safe and secure ministry, particularly in the event of severe weather, a security breach or act of violence, a building hazard, or a medical emergency. This session will provide guidelines and recommendations when developing your ministry’s emergency response plans for each of these potential scenarios.
