One congregation’s journey to becoming a safer place for children

“We needed to tell more stories,” reflects pastor Jim Stutzman Amstutz as he thinks back on his church’s process of child safety planning. “We found that being able to share our experiences was helpful with our group discernment process.”

In the summer of 2007, the leadership of Akron (Pa.) Mennonite Church decided it was time to draft a new child safety policy. By that October, they were ready to begin the congregational process of putting it into place. Like most churches, they knew that between leadership initiative and congregational implementation lay a path that might present some serious challenges—ones that might eventually keep their child safety plan from being adopted. What if people won’t go along with this? the leadership wondered. Will we get enough volunteers for our children’s ministries? What about trust?

Akron’s leadership eventually decided it was worth the effort to move thoughtfully through this process, bringing a variety of voices into the conversation and listening carefully to members’ ideas and concerns. In doing so, they demonstrated three steps essential to successfully creating and implementing a child safety plan in a congregation: raising awareness, making a plan and putting it into practice.

Raising awareness

The first question that needs to be answered for any congregation being asked to implement a child safety policy is, Why? There are many reasons: The insurance company requires it, other congregations or organizations are doing it, the area conference recommends it, even, “It’s just the right thing to do.” All these may be true—and even compelling or inspirational to some—but in order for a child safety plan to be successful, it needs real buy-in from as much of the congregation as possible.

Several of Akron’s church leaders had attended trainings offered at Menno­nite Central Committee and at the 2007 Menno­nite Church USA Convention in San José, Calif., and knew of some stories of abuse in churches. They were convinced that an improved child safety plan was needed in their congregation. Determining how to bring the rest of the congregation on board was the main hurdle they had to overcome.

Akron’s leadership realized they needed to raise awareness of the scope of the problem of child abuse and empower members to do something about it. There are many ways to accomplish this goal, but Akron’s experience points to something basic about creating safe spaces to discuss difficult topics. “We needed outside voices to raise awareness to a high enough level for us to have a helpful dialogue,” says Stutzman Amstutz. “Having experts come share with us was key.”

Akron Mennonite used two trainings for raising awareness within their congregation. First the church invited One Childhood Consulting (www.onechildhoodconsulting.com) to present Stewards of Children, a 2.5-hour curriculum that teaches responsible adults to minimize the incidence and impact of child sexual abuse (see www.darknesstolight.org for more information and a listing of facilitators throughout the United States). About 40 people attended the training, which included a DVD presentation, participant workbooks and group discussion, and was offered on two separate occasions. “I liked how personable the presenter was. I felt comfortable to think and respond and process the reality of sexual abuse,” an attendee said. “Stewards of Children was helpful to analyze specifics of our own church policy and brainstorm ways to improve.”

The second training, on reporting child abuse and neglect to the authorities, was offered in collaboration with Pilgrims Mennonite Church (also located in Akron) and Diamond Street Early Childhood Center (which operates out of the Akron Church building). A staff person from Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance (www.pa-fsa.org) taught more than 20 people about Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services Law, including how to report child abuse, protections for those who report and liability for failing to report. This training added to the congregation’s understanding of the systems available to help when child abuse is observed by an adult or disclosed by a victim, and it helped them discuss these issues with confidence.

For most people, making change is hard, even when it is desirable. Organized child safety planning in a congregation asks people to adopt new patterns of behavior in small ways, such as filling out paperwork before volunteering to serve with children, and larger ones, such as taking personal responsibility for reporting child abuse. Taking time to raise awareness about the prevalence and dynamics of child abuse, as well as what to do about it, helps people in a congregation internalize the reasons for making these changes.

Making a plan

At the same time that they were giving the congregation the opportunity to become educated about some of the issues that make a child safety plan necessary in a church, Akron’s child safety leadership team was busy at work drafting the actual policy they wanted to put into place. The team included a cross-section of the congregation with a variety of perspectives and skills: parents, a social worker, the Christian education minister, the church administrator and a lawyer were active participants. Drawing from both published materials and plans from neighboring churches, the team debated details and language choices during a series of meetings over several months in order to carefully prepare a plan for presentation to the congregation.

As they moved toward the process of congregational discernment, the team knew there were some aspects of the plan that may be objectionable to some members. They anticipated that requiring background checks might be difficult for some and that requiring two adults in every classroom might be problematic for others. Despite the fact that they might face some pushback, though, Akron’s leadership was committed to making sure the congregation’s concerns and ideas would be heard, as this was a central part of any significant church decision.

When they came together, however, the congregational meeting took a positive tone, as many people were able to discuss the need for prevention strategies in a helpful way. “The storytelling on the video and the facilitated conversation in the Stewards of Children training was helpful,” says Stutzman Amstutz. “It invited people to positive conversation about a difficult topic and opened the way for later conversations during the congregational discernment process. People could point to the experiences of people on the video—or their own experiences—to help us stay focused on why having a child safety plan is important.” After some honest conversation that included participants’ concerns and hopes for their congregation, the policy was adopted, and the work of putting it into practice could begin.

Putting it into practice

It had taken an entire year from the time the leadership first decided to create a child safety plan until it was formally adopted by the congregation. After that, it took several more months before background checks and applications for all volunteers working with children and youth were completed. By the fall of 2009, the policy was fully in place, and now everyone at Akron Mennonite is learning to practice children’s and youth ministry from a new perspective, one that has awareness of the ways children can be harmed in our homes and churches and that prioritizes making the congregation as safe as it can be for young people. “Looking back, I’m so thankful we did all the foundational work before implementing the policy,” says Stutzman Amstutz. “We collectively keep each other on track with policy guidelines whenever an event surfaces that isn’t part of the routine children or youth program. Overall, it’s created a positive spirit and ongoing learning environment about safety and prevention.”

Hearing the call to action

By beginning with making space to bring challenging stories into the awareness of its people, the leadership of Akron Mennonite was able to guide their congregation through the potentially difficult process of adopting a child safety plan. Stories of child abuse are stories of hurt and pain that are entirely preventable: calls to action that make the case for integrating strategies for prevention and response into the culture of congregations. By paying attention to the importance of these stories in the lives of the people they serve, more and more churches like Akron Mennonite are making the way for their storylines to have a new twist, one in which refuge, healing and hope have a bigger role for young people and the adults they become.