Setting Your Church Up To Thrive

Want to know why you looking at a is family policy not with NC family Pres. John Weston thank you for joining us for family policy matters goes on, said the churches are vital to the health and well-being of both our citizens and our society. But in American culture today. Many churches and pastors found themselves under increasing levels of scrutiny and sometimes even attacks from those who often hold a different worldview church leaders need to be wise and discerning and take practical steps to protect their ministries from these growing attacks today were fortunate to be joined by a man who was helping pastors and ministry leaders do just that. David gives the third serves as Pres. and General Counsel of the national Center for life and liberty, or in CLL.

A legal ministry that seeks to protect the rights of churches and Christian organizations across our nation.

A graduate of Duke Law school. David is a well-known speaker and author, and a highly accomplished trial attorney. He is perhaps most well-known as the lead attorney in the Terry Schiavo case where he represented Terry Schiavo's parents before the US Supreme Court, in an attempt to maintain life-sustaining measures to preserve Terry's life, which was ultimately lost. Unfortunately, in 2005. Currently the end CLL is hosting protect your church legal seminars in many cities around the country, including here in North Carolina and were excited to talk to David about that today I David Gibbs welcome to family policy matters.

It's great to have you back on the show… With my honor and privilege to be with you. Your oyster leadership and talking about the church gets me excited and I'm someone who believed in the court if not in the state house or the White House. It is a mature accountant keeping our churches strong and vibrant. So now David tell us a little bit about the goal of the protecting your church seminars that you are doing and why is it important for churches to be thinking about legal liability issues, especially when pastors and other church leaders clearly would rather be focused on ministering in their communities and sharing the love and truth of Jesus Christ of the world. We don't want it this past week. We love pastors ministry leaders that they are a betting event volunteers and sacrificing work of the Lord, but it don't tend to be legal or liability type issues. First of all, you're putting your entire character that kept track of all it could be putting your work, but then number three and I think this is important as well.

You could be putting innocent people at risk, we think about children in particular of vulnerable adults or others that are in our churches, and making sure that it ministry leaders we are keeping our ministries safe.I do want to remind folks to totally risk-averse. You could say what we just can't do anything could talk yourself out of having any ministry heartbeat at the NCAA always maximum ministry. What are your pastor missed what occurred.

You keep doing what you're called to do what your vision is do what you feel like to do but smartly the less smart way to do everything it so we want maximum ministry, but we encourage folks to do that with minimal liability. So David, what you see are the most common weak points or vulnerabilities that make churches susceptible to legal challenges or other challenges of concern. Well, I think you married, you were the church to say you know what could we get sick or not a big number of million dollar lawsuit in the next couple of years it would yell at one of things that would be a bad accident in the understand that vehicle movement buses or vans or cars is always a risk of accident need to be aware that there is liability ministry. In turn, they allow to dry with vehicles that use how they maintain our manager. That's one area and then the other is children's ministry. We watched in the news whether the Catholic Church of the Baptist Church or any other ministry being hit hard with allegations of child abuse and mishandling that churches need to realize that they wrote very important.

I believe if a child is safe anywhere they should be safe. The church and so very important that churches understand the need to screen out workers need to have a written policy.

For example, to work, hoping that actual policy and then number three they need to report suspicions of child abuse. It's very important that churches understand the culture of cover-up will put you in court and port.

It puts children at risk. What kind of tools and resources are available to churches to be proactive in defending against legal challenges or circumstances as you been talking about that could lead to the potential legal challenge well tools and resources are number one. It takes time and attention. You know I think it's kinda like people like to talk about direct five times something I'm gonna be more fitted. It's an easy thing to procrastinate and soak dealing with legally other things. I think sometimes pastors have a mindset of almost if I ignore it just doesn't make, not realizing the things you ignore could end up being the greatest risk your ministry and soak encouraging them to realize the importance of it. Also tell folks know there's a lot of concern about but nothing leaving churches younger people are looking for churches that handle these areas. Well, in particular young people want to see the church that's open and transparent with they don't want no back room and ministry as to what happens with the dollars they want transparency and younger people are most concerned about the safety protect other children. They want to have clear and teachers that have been screened in situations that are well run for our churches aging out of crying out realize that sometimes taking corrective leadership and dealing with the legal and financial health of your church and also help grow your church. You also talk about physical safety and churches where you recommend churches start in regards to evaluating their own campus security. Well, excellent point where one can create that 5 to 10 minutes no ministry wants to live and we certainly don't want people to live in fear, but increasingly more violent society and so what I encourage pastors and ministry leaders with the person at the top need to start building what I call a culture of prevention that what I mean by that. I'm not asking you know people have weapons like that. That's a response, but the culture prevention is worth.

Everybody is working together to be looking around to be paying attention to evaluating progress on a great visitor certainly will administer people certainly we don't want to be judgmental as people walk in the door, but we also need to be evaluating safety risk to our children our congregation and building that culture, prevention, ministry, wide limits, greeters, people, and they see things they wonder about things on the registry.

They now see them on the campus part they noticed something, but that what they do with it and what I strongly recommend is have somebody smaller churches about the pastor bigger churches may have a patient head of security or safety, but where do they take that information if the churches would all build on that culture, prevention, and then know where to take that nation hope and prayer is that whatever you got moment where they would have to respond to any act of violence on your listening to me so I spent to listen to our radio show online resources have a voice of persuasion in your community website. Collecting one topic David that you cover in the seminars that may not necessarily come to immediate attention is the financial health of the church. In your opinion, how does the financial condition of the church really fit into the overall concept of protecting that ministry well at a number of levels done. First of all, stewardship is under the Lord of the Lord's money. So for example, being in that church had people coming to Bethel stolen body never just about God. It might get so big with the Lord's assets up there that are managed well, but then also the transparency. Younger people, good church members want to church but handled finances well be encouraged to give more, get consistently they have confidence churches handling funds appropriately and that means having policy that means having financial change. That means having a place where there is accountability and where embezzlement obviously could happen anywhere but the risk would become quite low because the church is taken the time church safety policies church financial policy are very individualized.

I don't want to put on a panic summary book 120 people were small for my wife and I well you can have a much smaller less capable safety plan and financial plan. Large ministry with thousands of people on the campus each week. That would be reasonably expected that it will be way more educated but taking the time to properly evaluate your ministry finances, evaluate, and evaluate children or other ministry outreach is making sure that you have a plan in place to protect your ministry in my mind that stewardship to let your church be healthy and strong sense great. Now David, what do you see as the number one impediment to churches implementing safety strategies and that the kinds of things that you talk about in protecting your church seminars in who is responsible who really should should take the responsibility for pursuing the implementation of the strategies in the church setting, number one problem is a pastor and some are good information and they go back and they run into what I call the cold. We've never done it that way. Lock and get out with God's take on going and in some say you acting irresponsibly like it's still the 1970s as an acceptable mode ministry. What I encourage folks if you have to go back and encourage and educate your people are number one. Time to change on the old days boys with boys and girls a bulletproof plan for child safety. Now would be cool change in culture that's not necessarily a good way to approach you have to look at things differently times of change and number two are my folks, nothing happening for allegation to be made. We watch whether it's a nominee or others that Justin allegation can have such a devastating impact, and so it's very important that the church not just protect against bad actors, but also operate in such a way that they can withstand any false. So overall. David, do you believe that things in our country are getting better or getting worse as it comes to the implementation and in the you know the necessity for having these types of protections and churches. I think were watching where certainly people are beginning to realize the need and I think we have it anywhere you either lost on a church camp on whether the Catholic Church acknowledging different things in the news, so I think the media raised awareness in the culture that you as a church is not proper patient would need to be more careful, but that still doesn't mean that it's not hard in that it requires diligent and like anything worth achieving you to set goals and move forward step the time so I think were watching a lot of good churches work on it and by the way, I will say this not be in any way negative toward any church that the churches that choose to bury their head and ignore these issues. Most likely are going to survive, they will die out or they will get that litigated out of existence and scope.

If the church wants to not just literally thrive. These are key issues that they need to be looking at just about out of time for our conversation this week.

But before we go. I know many of our listeners or have been interested by our conversation, and would love to get their hands on some helpful information about how they can implement the strategy in their church to protect her church, but also work our listeners go to learn more about the national Center for life and liberty, and the protecting your church legal seminars go to our website and double L.a worksheet and yell out not work for the nonprofit homeless again.

888336255 and they can reach out and I would do this job I anybody the emails or contact conventions broadcast at this conversation on air I'll send them a document checklist order church, something they could look through think about help evaluate and that made your first step for them to do kind of internal evaluation and that is a gift to them if they just reach out again to NC double L.org MCL out not work, or they can call the 888-233-6255 phone gives 1/3, I want to thank you so much for being with us on family policy matters in your very important work to preserve life and liberty across our nation and pray that the Lord will just go with you and protect you as you seek to minister to many many across our land. Thank you for listening to family policy matters to listen to a radio show online resources and information about issues important to families in North Carolina website family.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook