As insurance agents specializing in insuring houses of worship — and being passionate, personally, about risk management — preventing child sexual abuse has been top of mind for us for more than 25 years. Unlike many other types of exposures facing religious organizations, it seems we are continually in the midst of a sexual abuse crisis.
Then and now, the No. 1 recommendation to churches for protecting children and youth is the implementation of a child protection policy.
Agents/Church Specialists
Moyer & DesCombes Insurance Agency
In fact, most insurance carriers will not offer sexual misconduct liability insurance coverage without a child protection policy in place. The church should always be above reproach and desire to safeguard the faithful entrusted to their care. To this end, protecting the most vulnerable — our children — must be the
top priority.
Churches seem to understand the need for a child protection policy, including the fundamentals of the policy: background checks, the two-worker rule, a waiting rule, and a response plan. As important as having the policy is, however, the most important thing is to follow the policy. We have heard it said over and over that the only thing worse than not having a policy is having a policy that you can’t or don’t follow.
Building a better policy
The best policy is comprehensive but also aligns with how the church does ministry. A few points to consider:
When we hear the term “sexual abuse,” most people still default to an adult-to-child incident in their minds. However, we have seen a growing number of youth-to-youth, youth-to-child, and child-to-child incidents. This speaks to the need for a comprehensive plan that includes the two-worker rule and guidelines for the classrooms, restrooms, and even dismissal.
Cases involving only youth and children can be much harder to prove and defend, which can create a long discovery and claim process.
Most insurance carriers can provide resources to help churches safeguard against sexual abuse. These can range from sample child protection policies, to background check providers, and even recommending wonderful risk management partners, such as MinistrySafe, which — in addition to offering many abuse prevention services — can provide training for your employees and volunteers who work with children.
Vetting volunteers must be consistent. One of the biggest challenges we see in churches is that they never have enough volunteers. As believers who have been actively involved in church our entire lives, we have experienced this problem firsthand: there are never enough volunteers. So, when we get someone desiring to help and assist, it’s very easy to get excited and be eager for them to jump right into the ministry. Even so, it is imperative that churches have (and follow) their child protection policy, which means properly vetting anyone who will be serving with their children and youth.
As eager as we are for volunteers, the safety of the children entrusted to us must trump any relief those volunteers would provide to the ministry. If a volunteer is not willing to be patient through the vetting process, that should be a red flag for the church.
“As eager as we are for volunteers, the safety of the children entrusted to us must trump any relief those volunteers would provide to the ministry. If a volunteer is not willing to be patient through the vetting process, that should be a red flag for the church.”
No church wants to be “that church where…”
Through risk management, our desire is to help prevent our churches from this outcome; after all, no church wants that title. The best method for preventing it is having the proper policies and procedures in place to help sexual abuse from happening in the first place.
If the unthinkable happens and a tragic event still occurs, the damage to the ministry is typically less when a church can demonstrate that it did all it could to not only be diligent about prevention but also respond appropriately.
A word of caution regarding policies and procedures: they should be reviewed by qualified legal counsel to ensure they are in compliance with your local jurisdiction. And again, your church must also follow them consistently; otherwise, they can actually be used against you.
Just to be clear, this is not an excuse not to have policies and procedures in place. If an incident occurs, that can also be viewed as failure to do what was reasonable and prudent.
We’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating…
Our agency has a front row seat to witness God’s hand in many ministries. Unfortunately, we are also front-and-center when churches face trials due to sinful actions or tragic events.
In every case, a church that has carefully considered procedures that it follows consistently — and is ready to respond appropriately — will endure the hardship with less negative impact.
Of more importance, it greatly reduces the risk of harm coming to those entrusted in your care.
Becky Moyer and her husband, B.J. Moyer, founded Moyer & DesCombes Insurance Agency more than 30 years ago, specializing in insuring churches and other religious organizations. She is a pastor’s daughter and serves on the finance team in her local church.
Denise DesCombes began in insurance with a large brokerage firm. In 2000, she joined Moyer & DesCombes, specializing in commercial business. She serves as a church insurance specialist and also works with commercial non-profit insurance. DesCombes is involved in a local church and serves in various ministry roles.
