Abuse Awareness Sunday
Abuse Awareness Sunday is always the 4th Sunday of September (September 22, 2013). Our topic for this year is the incorporation of returning citizens (ex-offenders) into the life of the church. Start planning now, and don’t forget – we are looking for resources related to this topic!
Also, a webinar proposal on the same topic will soon be available and will need your vote if it’s going to happen. Check The Network soon and vote for “Today’s Lepers in Your Church.” The Network will choose the webinar topics that get the most votes. .
Circle of Grace
Now is the time to think and prepare for next year. Safe Church Ministry still has a few free copies of Circle of Grace available. When those are gone we are planning to subsidize the program and offer it at 50% cost to congregations, which we expect to be $25. This curriculum is one of the most effective tools we have for abuse prevention. Please consider promoting Circle of Grace in your church.
Fall Classis
Please plan ahead to have a Safe Church presence at all classis meetings! Now is the time to get on the agenda for fall meetings in September and October. Let us know how we can help. If you don’t know what to present at a classis meeting, ask and we can help you with ideas. To find out when your classis meets, go to Classis Meeting Dates.
Tips for Making Classis Presentations:
- Hand out the Safe Church fact sheet (attached) and briefly highlight what it says
- Adapt and use one of the power point presentations in the new Safe Church training notebook. (These are available on our website under resources for Safe Church Teams)
- Engage classis members by having them get in small groups to discuss a Safe Church “situation” (Scenarios are on our website under resources for abuse awareness Sunday)
- Use a questionnaire to help classis members see the need for Safe Church and discover things that they need to be considering that perhaps they did not know
- Bring in a guest speaker (for example: (a Safe Church Ministry staff person or representative, a local insurance rep, a therapist, or a child advocate)