Westserve

Safe ministry and child friendly churches

Update: Ben has also blogged about this issue from the perspective of someone seeing the damage done by abuse of children.

At my church, we are working away at making our church a child safe and friendly place.
That sounds simple, but believe me, it’s not.
We are not just talking about safety from sexual abuse – although that is top of the list – but also safe in terms of the physical environment.
So many churches (ours included) have worked on the basis of ‘near enough is good enough’ for decades when it comes to the physical environment in our buildings and grounds.
But that is another story for another post.

Protecting children from sexual and physical abuse is the big one, and yet my frustration knows no bounds when some of the people who are digging their heels in when it comes to making the essential changes necessary, are our own members!

Perhaps reading this article reporting on the issue might help.