It is an unfortunate fact in our society that children are abused sexually, emotionally and physically. Church volunteers often have contact with these children in Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, or children’s ministry events through community outreach programs where children are brought into the church.

Having an opportunity to stop child abuse can have a huge positive impact on a child who endures it repeatedly, but only when a church ministry team has had the proper training to recognize the warning signs for child abuse.

Church Security Alliance co-founder Glen Evans states, “A comprehensive child safety training program for church employees and volunteers is becoming as necessary as church background checks. Churches can no longer afford to ignore this most elementary, and easily implemented security step. Recent news reports highlight the fact we cannot ignore this issue any longer.”

A church child safety training program should incorporate several elements. First, the program should be comprehensive and complete. The church volunteer should be able to define child abuse, recognize behaviors that identify potential abusers, and know how to report suspected abuse to authorities.

Second, a church safety program should be able to document that training has occurred and the person attending the training has an understanding of the material presented.

Evans states, “Protect My Ministry has the best solution we have seen. It allows everybody within a ministry to watch several short videos, take a quiz, and documents a ministry’s efforts to train their staff effectively.”

ProtectMyMinistry.com has recently integrated a training program into its church security and risk managment solution, Ministry Mobilizer. Many churches have good intentions for training their ministry team, but high turn over, busy schedules, and lack of time make this type of training easy to miss or squeeze out.

Protect My Ministry provides a program where a children’s church or nursery volunteer can log on to the site, watch 7 videos within 55 minutes, and take a quiz from any computer with an internet connection. The program is very affordable and also assists a church or ministry with background checks and child ministry organization.

The best part of Protect My Ministry’s child safety program is that it is a solution for any sized church. Many churches lack the resources, expertise and money to hold a yearly training. Protect My Ministry provides an easy solution for this problem, and delivers a quality program your church can be proud to offer.

Child Safety Training For Churches

A father was arrested for molesting his two daughters and two pastors were also arrested on suspicion of failing to report the accusations to authorities, according to Phoenix Police

The father was booked with one count of sexual abuse, two counts of child molestation, and eleven counts of sexual conduct with a minor on July 9, according to Phoenix police spokesman James Holmes. The police are not releasing the father’s name to protect the identities of the victims.

His then 16-year-old daughter told a neighbor that she had been molested by her father for several years. The neighbor then confronted the father and he apparently admitted his involvement. The father also confessed that he knew what he was doing was wrong.

After this confrontation the Phoenix police were brought in and the girl was with the neighbor when she talked to officers, according to Holmes. The girl told officers of at least one instance of sexual intercourse and many instances of sexual contact over almost 5 years; she also informed police of the molestation of her older sister who moved out when she turned 18.

According to police, the father confessed to sexually abusing both victims after questioning and was arrested immediately.

The older daughter, now 19, told her two pastors about the alleged abuse in 2008 but they did not report the accusations to police, according to Holmes. Under Arizona law, and nearly every state has similar laws, the pastors had the duty to report to Child Protective Services and/or law enforcement.

Instead, the pastors met with the older daughter and the father. At that meeting, according to the police, the father confessed to sneaking into his daughter’s room to touch her. The pastors suggested the girl forgive her father, because he was repentant, Holmes added.

The pastors were arrested on one count each of failure to report sexual abuse.

For information on child safety training and screening your volunteers click here.

On Tuesday morning Terry Jensen, 55, of Edmonds was charged with first-degree child molestation and two counts of attempted voyeurism. This is not the first time Jensen has faced such charges.

According to court papers filed this morning, in 2006 an 8-year-old girl reported that Jensen fondled her three times during Sunday school. At that time Jensen allegedly apologized to the girl, her mother, and the church’s leadership team according to Snohomish County deputy prosecutor, Adam Cornell. The report stated that Jensen “got down on one knee” and asked the girl for another chance.

Jensen was confronted again with allegations of sexual impropriety with parishioners this past January. Prosecutors allege that Jensen used a small camera to take pictures up the skirts of women and girls at church and on business trips. Jensen allegedly told Westgate Chapel officials he used the church’s camera to take pictures underneath the skirts of some of the teenage puppet workers behind the stage, Cornell wrote.

Edmonds police have seized two of Jensen’s computers but were unable to find any images related to the allegations against him. Jensen allegedly destroyed a third computer and threw it in the garbage. Investigators have been unable to locate that computer according to Cornell.

For more information on screening volunteers at your church click here.

People volunteer at churches for as many reasons as there are individual personalities. Hopefully most of the people will be selfless and have a heart that genuinely wants to serve. Others may feel a sense of obligation because they have a child or youth involved in that area of ministry. And with churches in desperate need of volunteers, some may even feel pressured into serving.

Some volunteers want to feel like a part of the community of believers. Newcomers to a city or town often want to meet people and make friends. A good way to do so is to volunteer in their new church. Those who live alone might be fighting a sense of loneliness or miss the days when they had children at home and in the children’s ministry. Volunteering is a good way to accomplish both goals.

Volunteer coordinators or ministry directors can help volunteers feel valued and like they are a part of the team by introducing them to staff or fellow volunteers who are like-minded. A volunteer looking for connection that is subsequently ignored and asked to serve alone will not stick around for long!

Retired professionals often volunteer to pass wisdom on to the next generation. Valuing and treating them with honor will ensure that they flourish in whatever capacity they serve.

Discovering your volunteers’ motivations will help you know them better, manage them better, and get more out of them! And motivating your volunteers can help you better meet their expectations, making their experience better—and their willingness to continue more likely.

For more information on screening your volunteers visit Protect My Ministry

Take the example of Stephen Greeley, a 40-year-old volunteer at a church in St. Petersburg, FL that was recently arrested for molesting and raping a boy under the age of 12. Greeley befriended the boy and his parents over the course of a year and babysat the victim on at least two occasions in his apartment. He is charged with Sexual Battery and Lewd and Lascivious Molestation of a Child under the age of 12.
While none of these charges occurred on church property or during church-sponsored events, this is an example of the limitations of having procedures in place solely on church property.

Volunteers working with minors often have extended amounts of time with the children they supervise out from under the watchful eyes of the church. It is critical that churches take every precaution to screen those responsible for the safety and well-being of their children.

For more information on how to protect your ministry and the children in your church please click here.

So this is something that churches are recognizing their need for and often times, they go through very expensive procedures in order to try to instill a sense of security within their church, but often times that they ignore some very simple steps to markedly increase their church security.

The easiest place to begin to increase your security is with a church background check. The reason for this is because they’re affordable. Often time, people think that a background would be really expensive, but the truth is that they can often be done for under ten dollars and what this can do for you for each person that you want to have checked is to make it very quick.

You see churches need to recognize that many threats maybe internal. This is from people who are already in the community and maybe committing crimes against not only the church, but the people within the church and church background checks are quick to do and find immediate problems. What this means is that, people who have committed crimes before can be detected with a simple church background check.

In this series, we will look at some common sense areas to begin using background checks to your church. Children’s church security—well, this is an area that most churches recognize as being very important to parents. Parents have high expectations for children’s security today. Daycare services provide background checks for teachers and parents also recognize that there is threat against children with the many new stories regarding the Catholic Church scandal and other high profile news stories where children have been abused in church settings.

Children’s church staff and volunteers can easily be screened using a service like protect my ministry. It’s no secret that child predators make attempts to work with children and what better place for them to attempt to move into a church. The reason for this is because many church people are very trusting and very forgiving. Often times, when a child predator is detected, a church doesn’t always report this to the police, so the person is freed to move on to the next church so that they can begin abusing children there.

Although this is something that is definitely changing with the church community and the Catholic Church scandal has brought this particular problem to light because it has caused a huge liability for the Catholic Church and many Protestant denominations are recognizing that this is something that happens there to. So children’s church staff and volunteers should be screened. This has the highest potential for damage to not only your ministry and your church’s reputation, but more importantly, it is something that has a potential to do severe damage to the hearts of a child, to the emotional liability and the emotional health of children. So this is something that most churches want to definitely protect themselves from and the easiest, simplest step to begin with is to screen your church’s staff and volunteers and those people who have access to children.

Secondly, those who are driving children in church vans and that is including not only the little kids, but also the teenage ministry and the college ministry, you want to make sure that those people have a background check done on their driving records. This reduces the risk of children and teens by making sure that drivers of church vehicles have good driving records and it manages risk and reduces the church liability by doing the work before a problem begins.

Church financial security—the financial ministry volunteers should be screened and have complete background checks done on them. This is for those people who are counting the offering on Sundays and Wednesdays. It’s for those who are on the financial oversight board or the church financial officer—anyone who has access to the checkbook, to the bank accounts or to the ATM or credit cards within the church. They should have a background check done on them beforehand to make sure that there is no potential problem or previous problems. Also, the janitorial staff—this is something I think that a lot of churches overlook when they’re doing background checks and screening their staff and volunteers.

If you think about it, janitorial staff usually have keys to every area of the church, they have access to sensitive areas of the church and they have access to the physical property of the church and this is the physical property like instruments and audio-visual and media technology, but also the property of those who are going to the church, whether it be purses left out in the vestibule area or property left in common areas within the church.

As mentioned, janitorial staff usually has keys to all the offices in the church and they have access to church after hours. Recently, just on June 22, 2010, a female church employee was attacked by a church handyman. Someone who was hired on a part time basis has a criminal history that could’ve easily been found with a background check and this particular female employee at the church or female member was sexually attacked by this particular handyman and this is something that could’ve been avoided with something as simple as a background check. That could’ve alerted the pastor as well as the oversight board that there is a potential problem with this person and they could’ve been detected and not hired or fired if done afterward.

One question often asked is should a background check be done on pastors and this is actually a very good idea because not only does a pastor agreeing to have a background check done on him provide good leadership and sets an example for all the other staff and volunteers, but it can also reveal that the pastor may have been accused or charged with serious crimes.

As you can see from this simple Google search on pastors who have been charged with a crime, pastors who have been charged with a crime, we see a complete list from over the last six months of several pastors who have been charged with sexual crimes with embezzlement and this is something that a pastor commits a crime at the very least, a church can say that they did do-diligence and it provided a background check on this particular pastors before a problem reveals itself.

Who else should be screened? Well the church secretary often controls a lot of what goes on inside the church and church secretaries have access to sensitive areas of the church just like pastor or a janitor might. They have access to financial reports, money and sensitive data related to your church membership and I’d simply typed in church secretary charged and I came up with many, many instances where church secretaries have been charged with frauds, with stealing, embezzlement and this is a simple step that a church can take in order to get a church secretary screened and get the background revealed before they actually hire someone, so this is a good pre-employment hiring practice and a very simple step to take for your church.

And one thing I think that many churches might overlook is having your church security team, having their background done because these are people who are overseeing all of the security for the church facility. They have access to the money, they have access to often times, when they do a money drop at the bank, they provide sensitive services for church staff and church members and think of how embarrassing it might be to your church if you didn’t even do a background check on your church security team.

Often times, church security teams have access to many areas that you want to protect, so it’s a good idea before you put someone on to your church security team just to do a simple background check.

Now, often, people ask the question of where do I begin? I recognize that a church background check is important and I want to get started, but it seems like it’s something that might take a lot of time away or it might become a real hassle or even they might think that it might be too expensive to do and a great resource for churches is Ministry Mobilizer. It is a paperless risk management solution offered by ProtectMyMinistry.com and Protect My Ministry is now offering a 90-day free trial.

Now, what this offers you is a paperless online background check solution. It’s no hassle and it allows your church to keep track easily of all volunteers. If you’re interested in learning more about this valuable program, you can go to ProtectMyMinistry or call them at 800-319-5581.

Church Security and Church Background Checks

In this video, we explore the best areas to focus on when beginning a church security backgroundcheck program.

Church Security and Church Background Check Information

POST FALLS, ID. — A North Idaho man has been re-arrested on additional felony rape charges.

Post Falls Police say Jordan Vernon, 20, was arrested again on Tuesday for three additional felony rape of a minor charges. Detectives say they spoke to a 16-year-old girl who says she had sex with Vernon three times.

Officers say he did not meet her at Real Life Ministries, but rather through another victim. Detective Dave Beck says the victim told police her sexual encounters took place over the past summer while she was babysitting for someone else, and at her home.

Detective Beck says Vernon would get the girls’ phone numbers and connect with them by sending them text messages.

He now faces seven felony charges including sexual abuse and lewd conduct. Vernon already faces four similar charges. He is accused of meeting two teen victims, a 14-year-old girl and 17-year-old girl,  while volunteering as a youth leader at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, having sex with them, and posting pictures of a sexual encounter with one of the victims online.

Post Falls police have also talked with another potential victim, an 18-year-old Vernon met through a youth counseling group sponsored by the police. She told detectives that from 2005 to 2008, Vernon tried repeatedly to have sex with her in forceful ways. Detectives cannot say if they will pursue charges on that incident.

That 18-year-old girl also gave police a list of other girls who may have information on Vernon. That may not indicate illegal activity with underage girls, but detectives are interested if he has been forcing himself on other women.

Vernon is currently in the Kootenai County Jail on $100,000 bond. He has maintained his innocence in earlier court appearances. He declined KREM 2 News’ request for an interview and his attorney would not return our phone calls.

Vernon’s half brother, Luke Denman, also faces charges for intimidating a witness.

Screen your youth workers

LAKELAND – Polk County Sheriff’s Special Victims Detectives arrested a Lakeland man Friday and charged him with three counts of lewd molestation.

The sheriff’s office said Michael Winborn, 45, of Lakeland, inappropriately touched two girls, ages 9 and 11, underneath their clothing on at least three different occasions at his home.

Winborn is currently enrolled in ministry school and is a youth program coordinator at the Church of Christ on South Florida Avenue in Lakeland.

Winborn is a friend of the girls’ families, having met them through the church.

According to church officials, Winborn receives $100 per week to attend the church’s full-time ministry school and Bible study, and is currently the church’s Bible Study Coordinator. Church officials also told detectives that Winborn is heavily involved with youth programs at the church, organizing youth trips and events for the past several years.

Winborn was booked into the Polk County Jail and is being held without bond.

Anyone with any information is asked to call the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 863-534-6200 .

Employee/Volunteer background checks