| November 27, 2007 |
Vol 8, Issue 37 |
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 Get Ready to Lead!
"It's simple. We're just changing the world."
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Are Kids Safe At Church?
| Greetings!...
Over the past several years dozens of stories of clergy sexual abuse have come to light. The damage to the church, and more importantly to the name of Christ, has been incalculable.
One would think that with so much at stake churches would carefully screen adults who work with children. Yet a new study by the Barna Research Group shows that 23% of churches have "little or no protective screening processes." This translates into 70,000 congregations. I wonder how many other youth-serving organizations are similarly careless?
Fortunately there are simple steps you can take to ensure that children are protected. Parents should insist on this, and youth-serving organizations such as clubs, co-ops and schools should make it a top priority if they haven't already.
That's what we'll cover in this issue--how to keep kids safe, and parents reassured, in an increasingly corrupt culture. | |
| Three Steps You Need to Take Immediately to Protect Kids |
 Parents need to be sure that their children are being treated honorably. If you work with children, add these to your "must act now" list. Show this article to all those you know who offer religious and educational programming and encourage them to take seriously what they read:
1. Develop a legally defensible application process for those working with children. Juries consider it a reasonable expectation that an youth-serving organization will screen those working with children. Failing to so opens the organization to the charge of negligence, with all applicable criminal and civil penalties.
About ten years ago, in a desire to better safeguard students, we revamped our entire application process at the Summit at Bryan College. We added some very specific questions to our application. For instance, we asked, "Have you ever experienced sexual abuse?" Our attorney told us that we neede to ask this question to men, because the sad fact is that a very high percentage of men who were sexually abused as children end up become abusers.
We also asked hard questions about pornography, drugs and alcohol use, and conducted background checks on applicants. Once our application was complete we reviewed it with an attorney.
2. Brief your staff regularly about the importance of protecting children. Safeguards such as those in the article below should be a regular part of training for those working with children. Review each safeguard aloud and ask staff members to sign a copy of the list to indicate that they understand what they have heard.
Here are some of the steps we took at the Summit at Bryan College to protect the safety of our Summit students:
- We instituted a policy that staff members may not date students (though they were nearly the same age). We explained about power issues, co-dependency and distorted ideas of attraction that affect young people in today's sexually-amped-up culture.
- We established a standing committee that would convene immediately upon accusations of sexual misconduct, to review those allegations and suggest a course of action.
- We gave specific direction on how to be "above reproach." For example, we discouraged staff members from being alone in a room with someone of the opposite sex.
- We reviewed the definition of honor (from Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller) "Treating others as special, doing more than what is expected, and having a good attitude."
3. Establish a training program such as the one offered by Christian Mentors. CM is one of many organizations that offers a thorough application process, background checks and training. Those who successfully complete the screening are given a letter to this effect (to show to parents of potential proteges) and are covered by the organization's liability insurance.
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Insist on These Safeguards For Those Who Work With Kids
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 Passing the Baton International embraces and teaches the following safeguards to help those who work with young people live "above reproach" and gain the trust both of potential proteges and their authority figures:
1. If your protege is a juvenile, always gain permission from the parent before beginning the mentoring relationship. Explain your specific goals, how you will be spending time together, and the safeguards you are using to protect their child.
2. Men should mentor males, and women should mentor females. If cross-gender mentoring is unavoidable, take great pains to avoid the appearance of compromise. For example, a man meeting with a girl should ask an older respected woman to join the conversation.
3. Avoid compromising situations by meeting in public places such as restaurants or parks. If you meet in an office leave the door open and make sure that others are in the building.
4. Never drive with a juvenile protege. A car is not a public place. In addition, driving a protege puts you in the position of being liable if there is an accident.
5. Exercise good moral character. Do not drink, smoke, swear or discuss questionable topics during your time with your protege.
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 From Jeff Myers: Make it a Great Week!
What a week! On Monday I spoke to a group of 8,000 teachers in California on the theme of Passing the Baton, encouraging them to disciple their students as Jesus discipled his followers.
Sean Bevier has been in Singapore and then Surabaya, Indonesia to conduct a student leadership conference and explore the possibilities of working with Indonesians in our Passing the Baton project. This would be a significant breakthrough--Indonesia is the world's third-largest democracy, yet Christians are under attack and in desperate need of training and encouragement to pass the baton of godly faithfulness to the next generation.
Inventory clearance sale coming next week! It is our custom to conduct an inventory clearance sale at the beginning of each December. The day before the sale (Monday, Dec. 3) I'll send an e-mail notice to let you know exactly when the sale will begin. It's always pretty hectic--many items are sold out within just a few hours, so be looking for the notification e-mail on Monday and the sale e-mail on Tuesday.
Make it a great week!
--Jeff
Jeff Myers, Ph.D., President
Passing the Baton International, Inc.
Click here to e-mail me. Or here to visit our website. |
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