What Liability Does Your Church Face If Someone Is Hurt, Injured or Killed On Church Property?
Should you consider beginning a church security ministry or updating the procedures you now have in place? Has your church reached the level of due diligence required by the local court system? What your church doesn’t know or chooses to ignore can cause serious liability for your church. The law defines due diligence as an effort made by an ordinary prudent or reasonable party to avoid harm to another party.
Failure to make this effort may be considered negligence. Download a risk assessment form today.
Risk Assessment Issues:
Does your church take a high profile view on controversial issues such as abortion?
Are you located in an area with religious issues?
Does the pastoral staff console hurting marriages and families?
Are you in a high crime area?
Does your church offer fellowship activities that end after dark?
Do you have large cash offerings?
Do you have families with child custody issues?
Most churches can answer yes to all the above issues. If your church meets these criteria, it may be time to establish a security team to manage the risks.
Where Is Your Church Vulnerable?
The size of the church facilities, membership makeup, and location are points to consider while doing the risk assessment.
Larger churches are at higher risk for drawing mentally unstable people than a smaller church site, and often times it is difficult to pinpoint a new risk walking through the door.
Close to freeway access? This could increase your chances to be targeted for vandalism, theft or robbery.
Children’s programming and youth group activities present many security and risk challenges.
Download this form to do you own risk assessment.
