Volunteer Screening

It's common sense to periodically take a look at your retirement accounts, investments, savings, etc.  You need to protect them, watch out for them and not let them slip away!  The same is true for the kids in your Children's Ministry in your church.  What a valuable investment you are given to care for week after week.  Are you watching out for them and protecting them?

Volunteer screening is vital in protecting the children in your ministry.  Many churches are happy when adults volunteer to help with Children's Ministries.  They are glad to have the help.  It is wonderful when people volunteer their time to help with teaching classes and music, puppets and so on.  But do you really know the person that is helping out in your Children's Church?

You should ensure that you have a volunteer screening process in place that includes a criminal background check.  You need to know for sure that a wolf has not infiltrated your ministry.  Children are so vulnerable to predators.  They are so trusting and honest.  You must check out anyone that wants to work with your kids.  Some say that we need to trust people and that God will protect the children.  I say that God gives you the tools to ensure that your children are protected.

A criminal background check can, just by being discussed with potential volunteers, screen people out.  If there is something in a persons background that they don't want you to know, they will not agree to the criminal history being run.  That should be a RED FLAG right off the bat!  If a potential volunteer agrees to the check and discusses any issues that may arise, then you can feel better about that person and their true intentions.

If you are not currently screening your volunteers, I would encourage you to begin to do so immediately.  There are a number of resources our there to use.  You can find some of them on my website at www.trinityriskmanagement.com.

Kidnapping at Church!

People often ask me why we have security at church?  Why do we have such stringent rules in Children's Church?  I tell them that we are protecting our children from risks such as kidnapping.  Again I hear, that won't happen here.  My response to that comment is that a large majority of kidnappings are perpetrated by parents and family members.  The most common example would be you have a couple that is going through a nasty divorce.  Mom has custody of little Johnny and Dad wants to see him.  Dad knows that Mom takes little Johnny to church on Sunday mornings.  While Mom is in the Worship service Dad shows up at Children's Church.  Little Johnny sees Dad and runs to him.  The Children's Workers see that Little Johnny knows his Dad and allows him to leave with his Dad.  When Mom comes to pick Little Johnny up after service everyone realizes that Dad has kidnapped Little Johnny and has probably crossed state lines by now.

This scenario can happen too easily in most churches today because we are too lax in our security procedures when it comes to our children.  We think that nothing like this will happen.  We know all of our parents so a kidnapping scenario can not happen here.  Do you really know what is going on in all of the lives of the families in your church.  I spoke with a friend recently who told me of a situation in his church similar to the one that I described earlier.  The family is going through an ugly break up and no one knew.  They only knew that Mom is coming to church with the children alone right now.  She did not inform anyone of the situation, so no one really knows.  This can happen in your church.

That's why you must have some type of check in check out process that requires proof to pick up a child from Children's Church.  There must be a verification process that matches a parent badge or sticker to the child's badge or sticker.  When the parent comes to pick up Little Johnny, the parent must present the parent badge and it must match the child's badge.  There should also be a list of people who are authorized to pick up the child in an emergency.

This simple process can prevent a bad situation that can lead to liability for the church.  Think about it.  If you do not currently have a process in place, please start some type of simple program today.  You can find resources that will help you with this and many other risk and liability issues on my website www.trinityriskmanagement.com.