Predators
Predators come from all walks of life and want to prey on your church …
Is Your Church Eligible for a Security Enhancement Grant from FEMA?
Eligible churches and other nonprofits can apply for the annual FEMA Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP). If awarded, the church can receive up to $150,000 per site for target hardening against potential terrorist or [...]
The Necessity of a Child Safety Team
One of my favorite pastimes after a long day of work is to sit and watch sports. During each sports season, you’ll find me enjoying my favorite Atlanta-based teams as they work together to [...]
Change in Texas Abuse Reporting Laws—Anonymous Reporting No Longer Permitted
Effective September 1, 2023 Texas child abuse and neglect reporting authorities will no longer accept an anonymous report. Existing Texas Law Every state in the United States has mandatory reporting requirements related to child [...]
Data Erasure vs. Risk Management
The Clash of Privacy and Protection of Vulnerable Populations Protecting Personal Information Everyone has a story about personal information fraudulently obtained by a security breach, Phishing email scam, or sold by a vendor gathering [...]
Report Abuse: A Biblical Counseling Perspective
O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of [...]
Password Management and LastPass
I’ve been asked a lot of questions about password managers, especially due to the LastPass hack that started in 2022 and was fully disclosed in 2023. Before getting too far into this, let me [...]
California Law on Sexual Abuse May Impact Other States
Your state could be impacted by the new California sexual abuse prevention legislation. Assembly Bill Number 2669 modifies the requirements of AB506. What did AB506 require? Which AB506 requirements are modified by AB2669, and how? What potential error [...]
SBC Churches and Child Sexual Abuse: Reasons for Encouragement and Optimism
Many Baptist leaders and congregation members were discouraged after the release of the Guidepost Solutions Report on May 25th, investigating actions of the SBC Executive Committee related to sexual abuse. The Report focused on [...]
Facilities Use Fire Drill: Sexual Abuse Risk and Third-Party Use of Facilities
Boy Scouts Settlement Fund Exceeds $2.6 Billion Not every organization has chartered or hosted a Boy Scout Troop, but every organization with physical facilities must learn the lessons stemming from this massive child sexual [...]
New California Sexual Abuse Prevention Legislation—Requirements for ‘Youth Service Organizations’
Attorneys Greg Love and Kimberlee Norris, of MinistrySafe, address issues in a new California law. Elements of this law may be soon in your state. To whom does the new law apply? What action [...]
Wolves Feasting on Lambs
Pastors and church leaders are biblically aware that predators will prey on their church. One of the biblical roles for the pastor is to be a shepherd and guard the lambs. What pastors generally [...]
Defending Your Church from Cybersecurity Threats
Data security breaches are constantly in the news, but the threat of phishing scams and ransomware attacks aren’t limited to large companies. In fact, ministries are increasingly under attack by savvy cyber criminals. That’s [...]
Three Strategies that Protect from Ransomware
Ransomware is a serious threat that costs a lot of unbudgeted dollars to fix. Effective protection is available! Here’s what I recommend. Ransomware is not like most malware threats that slip into systems under the [...]
Sexual Harassment in the Church
Hey Fletch … I would like to bring our staff through some type of sexual harassment training and share our sexual harassment policy. Are you aware of any videos, articles or resources that you [...]
Virtual Instruction–Navigating Online Resources and Child Safety
Greg Love and Kimberlee Norris of MinistrySafe have created a five page document on Virtual Instruction–Navigating Online Resources and Child Safety. This is both an analysis and a collection of best practices. The document is [...]
When to Use Outside Experts
Churches used to be able to handle a crisis or major event on their own. The current scenario is complicated by publicity on social media, a tangle of laws and regulations and the prevalence [...]
When Embezzlement is Discovered
The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability has a downloadable PDF detailing what to do when fraud is discovered.1 When a church discovers embezzlement within the ministry, the following issues should be considered with the assistance [...]
WheatFields’ Report Card on Risk Management
In Fletch’s book, Predators—The Case of the Church Embezzler, uses a fictional case study of WheatFields Good News Church. Executive Pastor Dan Black created a report card to evaluate how the church is doing [...]
Red Flags of Embezzlement
This material is from The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. With its mission of Enhancing Trust, ECFA now certifies nearly 2,300 Christ-centered churches and ministries based on its high standards in financial management, governance [...]
Areas of Risk Management
We have brought together material from Mike Batts and from Brother Mutual to see the scope of risk management. Mike Batts is the managing partner of Batts Morrison Wales & Lee. He has more [...]
9 Essentials of Avoiding Fraud
Fraud is just about losing money, right? Fraud does have negative financial implications for churches, but the impact goes far beyond money. Fraud and misuse of church resources can create sensational news—and not good [...]
WheatFields’ Report Card on Volunteer Screening
In Fletch’s book, Predators—The Case of the Church Embezzler, uses a fictional case study of WheatFields Good News Church. Executive Pastor Dan Black created a report card to evaluate how the church is doing [...]
Utilize the Experience of Your Insurance Agent
Charlie Cutler is the Managing Partner of ChurchWest Insurance Services and works with over 3,000 churches. He offers these thoughts from the perspective of an insurance agent. As ChurchWest says, “A good agent will [...]
US Screening Trends 2019
Not all background checks are created equal, while Protect My Ministry educates and emphasizes proper ordering, 40% or 4 out of every 10 churches are knowingly ordering a lesser search than they should. This [...]