CHURCH BOARD GUIDE TO A CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE PREVENTION POLICY


to your church leaders. Find one person to serve as the leader. What if your church has no one who deeply cares about this issue? You must still proceed out of moral and legal necessity. Organize several people to serve as a task force. Guidance can come from this book and other available resources to reduce sexual molestation in the church.


Obtain the support of key church leaders Your task force should make a presentation to your governing board. At this point, the goal is not to present a detailed prevention plan, but only to gain support for the concept. Focusing on details now will lead to problems. Attention should be given to the following points:


• Child sexual abuse can happen in your church • One incident can devastate a child, a family, and the church • The legal liabilities can be enormous • Church leaders may be held liable • A prevention program can reduce risk through relatively simple procedures


Step 5: Be Prepared to Respond to the Following Concerns


“The risk of this happening in our church is small.” Response. The Los Angeles Times has called this the worst problem facing the church in centuries. Focus on the legal and moral obligations of the church. Are those leaders raising this concern willing to assume the legal risks if an incident should occur? If an incident occurs, issues of negligent selection and negligent supervision will focus directly upon the actions and guidance of the church leaders.


“Screening will turn people off from serving.” Response. Community standards are changing. All organizations that work with children are implementing screening procedures. Workers understand that screening is required in many different settings, and


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