Everyone wants to assume church is a safe place. Many literally call their worship space the “Sanctuary.” But abuse can and does happen in churches across all denominations, sizes, and theological backgrounds.
That does not mean we are helpless. Each of us is made in the image of God. That includes your neighbors, family, friends, and you! It is our duty to treat and protect everyone as if we were doing it for Jesus himself.
Here are 4 ways we can start fighting back to prevent abuse in church communities and beyond.
1. Church Policy
We all just want to trust everyone in our church, but abusers know this and take advantage of it. It’s an uncomfortable thought, but anyone could be an abuser. Many, many abusers have been pastors, church leaders, and volunteers. That’s why it’s important to evaluate what the church policies are in regards to abuse prevention.
Policy is not a magic prevention potion, but things like background checks, interior windows, training, and accountability systems can go a long way in sifting out the bad apples. Use our policy checklist to help you get started asking questions. Finding out what the church’s policies are is usually as easy as asking someone in leadership. If it’s difficult to get answers, that may be cause for concern.
2. Culture of Safety
Good church policy isn’t enough. It matters how that policy is used and what kind of culture a church community creates. Does everyone follow the policies or are exceptions made? Are healthy relationships being built? If something did go wrong would a victim feel like they could come forward without fear of shame or not being listened to?
The good news is, we have control of the culture we create!
Click here for a series of questions to help you evaluate how your church is doing and what you can do about it.
3. Equip Children and Each Other
Even with good policy and a safety conscious culture one of the strongest ways to prevent abuse is to equip our children and ourselves with tools to help keep us safe.
Abusers are keen to fill in gaps in knowledge in ways that confuse and disorient victims. Knowing boundaries, knowing how our bodies work, good communication, and a healthy sense of self worth among other things are a huge help in preventing someone being taken advantage of. Click here for a larger list of things to help equip your kids.
4. Bring Awareness
Many people don’t realize abuse in church could be a problem. For some it never will be, but we can all help protect each other by raising awareness.
It’s understandable to not want to talk about it. It’s not a pretty thing. Many have actively covered up or tried to minimize abuses that have happened in churches thinking they were protecting the good their church or churches were doing. But this is the opposite of what people want and what God calls us to. Each of us are made in the image of God, and Christ said, what we do to the least of these we do to him. So this becomes just another aspect of sharing our love of Christ with others.