Safe Church January 2020 Webinar Recap

On January 29, we kicked off our first Safe Church Webinar of 2020. Webinars are a great way for all of us doing Safe Church ministry to connect. We are stronger when we all work together to share our resources and our vision for a safer church community.

Our first webinar focused on sharing the five guiding goals for Safe Church: Policy, Education, Response, Awareness, and Commitment. 

All classis Safe Church Coordinators (and Stated Clerks of Classis) have received feedback from our 2019 Yearbook survey. This survey is a great way to reflect on the impact we are making as a Safe Church team! 

This survey asked asked 5 questions in order to measure progress:

1. Has your church implemented a written policy for abuse prevention?

2. Does your church include Circle of Grace or another abuse prevention?

3. Does your church require training for pastors, elders and deacons regarding the use and potential abuse of power associated? 

4. Does your church have protocols in place for responding to church leader misconduct?

5. Does your church have a team or committee that regularly meets regarding abuse prevention?

The Yearbook survey gives us a way to measure how each classis is progressing  in relationship to the five guiding goals. Each classis Safe Church Coordinator or Team may choose to use these metrics in ways that fit their context.

One idea, shared in the webinar, was that survey data could be projected at a classis meeting (either during roll call or during the Safe Church report). This helps open up communications between congregations and classis Safe Church Teams. This article offers additional ideas for reporting to classis. 

During the discussion section of our webinar, we received questions related to training. One Network article with some great ideas is Safe Church Teams: Resources for Training. Watch for a follow up Network article on training scenarios coming soon!

We want to take every opportunity to remind you of our annual Safe Church Conference for Safe Church Coordinators. It will be October 22 to 24 in Grand Rapids, MI at the Drury Inn! The theme for our conference will be: Connect, Collaborate, and Coordinate to End Abuse. This year the conference will primarily be for Safe Church Coordinators of classes and key Safe Church leaders of the 49 Christian Reformed Church classes. 

It was exciting to see so many participate in our first webinar of the series. Plan to join us for our next webinar, which will be on March 25 from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST. More details to come!