Hello beloved child of God, I hope you’re fine by God’s grace. As for me I’m fine thanks to Him.
Last week we talked about how to protect your kids from sexual abuse in the church and I believe that many people who are part of their church staff could have felt offended about how much people don’t trust them.
Nevertheless, people who serve God aren’t perfect, as such we have the right and duty to play our part in protecting our kids.
Perhaps you read last week’s blog post and you felt like “Yeah I’m a pastor and I would like to help parents feel safe about their kids being with church staff”
You’re at the right place, because that’s what we’ll be taking about today.
How to protect your church from sexual abusers.
1. Prayer
1 Peter 5:8-9 NIV
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
The devil attacks all sorts of people, he is way older than you and has more experience when it comes to infiltrating a church with a sexual abuser. If you count on your own strength and your own wisdom to protect your church from sexual abusers, you are bound to fail, but if you put your trust in God for that you’re bound to succeed.
The very first thing to do in order to protect your church from sexual abusers is to pray. Take it all in God’s hands everyday. Not by your power nor by your might but by His Spirit.
Zechariah 4:6 NIV
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.
Pray before recruiting anyone, ask God to give you discernment. Pray that God should protect your people.
Also, regularly pray for the deliverance of the people. You know, sexual abusers are also victims of the devil. They need to be delivered, so start praying for their deliverance too because the reason they’re doing that is because they’re under the influence of the devil.
2. Set The Atmosphere
1 Kings 8:10-11 NIV
When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord . And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.
Exodus 3:5 NIV
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
I don’t know how to do this yet but this is something I would love to learn.
I watched a video a few months ago on the Youtube channel “Sid Roth It’s Supernatural” and there was something which was said about a town in which witches and wizards used to enter Churches in order to destroy God’s works. In this video, there was a church in particular ( I think Bethel church, I don’t remember) in which wizards/witches were not allowed to enter. Not because they weren’t invited but because they just couldn’t come in. The atmosphere was set such that no enemy of God could enter.
They would just stand at the door but they wouldn’t be able to come in because the presence of The Lord was so great in the church.
The only witches/wizards who could enter were those for whom God decided “this person is going to repent today and leave from darkness to light”.
If I remember well in that video there was even a witch who testified about the fact that she wasn’t able to enter at all because of the presence of The Lord.
When you set a certain atmosphere in your church, you stop the evil one from coming in any how. People who are possessed with spirits of sexual immorality and sexual abuse will either not be able to enter your church or they will enter just to receive deliverance and/or salvation immediately.
Setting the atmosphere is crucial.
3. Screening
1 Timothy 3:1-13 NIV
Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons. In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything. A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well. Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.
Perform background checks and screen your volunteers. Don’t just accept anyone because you want many people to come and volunteer in your church.
Always take every new recruitment to God in prayer. Even before the recruitment ask God to send the right people and to help you discern.
Know who you allow to be in position of authority.
By the way screening never stops. Keep being informed and asking questions. Make it in such a way that you don’t put your trust in your staff. Keep observing and praying because someone could have entered your team while being safe for your people and suddenly become the instrument of the devil to practice sexual abuse in your church. Hence, keep observing.
4. Educate Your Church Members
2 Timothy 2:22 NIV
Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Educate your church members in order to protect them from sexual abusers. Tell them what is allowed and what is not allowed. Give them a code of conduct and make sure at your level that everyone knows the code and works on applying it.
It’s not because the choir is singing for God that it becomes acceptable for a female choir member to stay alone in the church late at night with the choir president or with the pastor to “rehearse” tomorrow’s songs. Sexual abuse can happen even in church, so have guidelines which protect not only the staff but also the people.
Even the hours which you choose for church activities are important. If possible make sure that people can serve as couples and as families. If the hours at which they serve in church coincide it is even better because they can check on each other from time to time. This will protect them from potential abusers and this can even protect from affairs between staff members.
5. Keep Things Open
Let parents know that they have the right to visit their kids’ activities whenever they feel like doing it.
If your staff knows that parents will come and check anywhere anytime, they’ll be more careful and less prompt to do anything stupid.
Also keep your mind open to new possibilities. Taking down someone from a position of authority may be necessary if you notice that this person constitutes a danger for the people in your church. Don’t leave them there just because you don’t want to offend them. Be ready to tell them to step down.
Also, make sure that you are accountable and that all staff members are accountable. Everyone should be accountable to at least someone else. When you feel like you’re not accountable, you may do anything you want to the people you’re supposed to lead, but when you know you are accountable it adjusts your behavior.
6. Report Every Case To The Police
James 4:17 NIV
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Ephesians 5:11 NIV
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
Since we are the Church, we tend to want to apply grace and forgiveness all the time. This will make the church staff biased in such a way that if a case of sexual abuse is reported to them, they may not make sure that the sexual abuser steps down from his position of authority. They may even try to hide the case and say it was confessed and forgiven.
The problem with this, is that the person concerned will keep abusing other people if nothing is done.
That’s why in order to protect your church from sexual abusers you have to make it clear to the church that every case should be reported to the police first. In such a way that even if you’re the pastor and you’re the one who committed the offense, your church will report you to the police. That’s how it should be. In fact you should report yourself to the police.
Even if you’re the pastor, and your best friend on staff, the choir director is the abuser, you report it to the police first before informing the church.
The police will then take necessary measures to protect your church members from the abuser, even if the abuser is you.
Conclusion
I am not a pastor and I don’t know what type of weight you have on your shoulders as leader and pastor of a church, but I firmly believe that by putting your trust in God and by applying simple Biblical principles you build a shield around your church to protect it from sexual abusers. No one wants their church to become famous for cases of sexual abuse, so we should all pray and work hard to protect our churches from evil.
Prayer
Father Lord God Almighty King of Glory, I thank You for putting me in a position of authority/leadership in Your church. Give me discernment as I am selecting church staff, protect the people of this church from sexual abusers and help us Lord to take effective measures so that our church will be protected from sexual abusers. Give us boldness so that instead of hiding we will report cases for the protection of the church, and help us always pray for the deliverance of people who are under demonic oppression and/or possession in Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
It’s Now Your Turn
As a leader, have you ever heard of a case of sexual abuse in your church? How did you deal with it? Please let us know in the comments section
Can you think of any other measures to protect your kids from sexual abuse in the church? Please let us know in the comments section.
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