Ten Non-Negotiable Rules for Child Safety in Churches
“Child security is one of the most important discipleship issues in the church. We must create robust security measures in our churches, making our campuses internally safe for children, so they can grow to spiritual maturity and become equipped to confront the dangers of evil in the world.” - Sam Rainer
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...is that while one can see in basically real time, for free, whether someone has been added to Megan's List, convictions stay on one's record for seven years or more, so it's probably not necessary to do background checks every year. It is probably an incremental improvement over every 3-5 years or so, but I don't see it as a huge thing.
And for reference, probably the biggest benefit of background checks is that it tells a prospective pervert that the people there have half a clue about what to watch out for. Someone on Megan's List will probably never risk it, and someone who ought to be will ask himself "don't I want an easier target?". Same basic thing with having a basic child protection policy that limits isolated access to children and the like.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
While most of these are common sense, some are more appropriate for larger churches than smaller ones. Sign in/sign out procedures for example-in small churches it amounts to just busywork and doesn’t really add anything to security.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
You can probably bend on the matching computer generated tags, but I can see a case for making sure the checkin documents exactly who is allowed to pick the kid up. Say you've got a mom estranged from the father, etc.. You don't want to get that kind of thing wrong.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
According to sources I read.
Everyone knows the drill.
No need to complicate checkin/checkout
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Don, just because a church is small doesn't mean that you can skip basic safety procedures. To draw a picture, can you trust every nursery volunteer to know that for Billy's safety, you need to release him only to his mother? Sign-in procedures also allow you to take notes like "lactose intolerant", "use only XXX diapers", and the like.
My church's take really no more than about 30 seconds, and it prevents all kinds of things. Hopefully it will lead to higher demand on our nurseries and childrens' programs.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
During the recent Covid unpleasantness, some churches added all kinds of unnecessary rules that tied them up in knots. Useless "safety" procedures.
I just don't buy it on this point. We live in an over-regulated society and this one goes beyond the pale in a small church, in my opinion.
For us, we don't feed the critters in the nursery. We do have a coffee break, but kids are under their parents' supervision for that.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
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