It could happen to you. A volunteer youth worker drove several teenagers home from an evening Bible study. The last person he dropped off was a fifteen-year-old girl who had had a crush on him for several months. As they drove the last few miles to her home, they began to flirt with each other. He pulled over to the curb a block from her home and kissed her. When she responded favorably, he began to caress her. She panicked, jumped out of the car and ran home. The next morning, her parents called the pastor and angrily accused the church of allowing their daughter to be sexually abused.

If this situation occurred in your church and resulted in a lawsuit, and the girl’s attorney placed you on the witness stand, how would you answer the following questions?

“What steps has your church taken to screen its youth workers?”

“What steps has your church taken to supervise youth workers while they are with children?”

“What steps has your church taken to train its workers to understand the nature of sexual abuse and to identify incidents of abuse?”

“What steps has your church taken to develop a clear and effective process for reporting abuse?”

If you could not describe to the court a consistent course of action that your church has implemented to address these issues and continues to follow, the jury will probably see you as a naïve shepherd who has done nothing to protect the children in your church. And then they will probably award the girl and her parents a large financial settlement to offset the harm done to her by your youth worker.

Your church can protect its children and avoid these nightmare situations by implementing the training and prevention strategy described in the Child Protection Materials provided in the Supplemental Materials binder contained in the The Leadership Opportunity resource.  Another excellent resource is the Reducing the Risk of Child Sexual Abuse kit that is available through www.ChurchLawToday.com.

Sample Youth Worker Screening Policy

Purpose: Recognizing God's tender love and concern for children (see Luke 18:16), we believe it is our responsibility to do all that is reasonably possible to protect the children of this church from being physically or sexually abused while they are under our care. It also is our responsibility to guard our youth workers from being falsely suspected or accused of wrongful behavior toward a youth. To reduce the risk of these problems, we have adopted the following guidelines for screening and supervising all of our youth workers.

1. A "youth worker" is any individual who regularly supervises or has custody of minors in our church, such as a nursery attendant, Sunday School teacher, or youth group leader or assistant.
2. All applicants for youth work shall complete the following screening process (unless the Elder Board grants a special waiver):
   • Member/Six month rule: In order to serve as a volunteer youth worker, applicants must be a member of the church and have been in regular attendance for at least six months.
   • Application form: Applicants must complete an "Application for Youth Work" form. (If an applicant prefers, he or she may answer any or all of the questions on these forms through a private interview rather than in writing.) 
   • Personal references: Applicants must also obtain satisfactory references from at least three people who are not relatives or employers. References may complete a "Reference for Youth Worker" form in writing, or they may be interviewed by an elder in person or by telephone.
   • Public notice: Through an announcement in the church bulletin other members of the church will be informed of applicants' desire to work with youth, and they will be invited to let the elder responsible for screening know if they have any concerns about any applicant's qualifications for this ministry.
3. A background investigation shall be conducted on all applicants for paid staff positions, and, at the discretion of the elder in charge of screening, may be conducted for any other applicant. This investigation may include: (1) contacting churches or other organizations where the applicant has served; (2) contacting employers for whom the applicant worked within the past five years; and (3) requesting a criminal record check in this state and, if feasible, in states where the applicant has lived during the past five years.
4. All information acquired during the screening process will be treated as confidential and will not be disclosed to others outside the Elder Board unless the elder in charge of screening or the Elder Board deems that limited disclosure is necessary to protect a child from possible harm.
5. Applicants also need to talk with the leader of the particular youth ministry in which they wish to be involved to discuss the applicant's gifts and qualifications, and to decide how the applicant might serve in that ministry.
6. Final approval to work with youth shall be made by the elder responsible for overseeing the screening process. Approval to work in a particular youth ministry shall be made by the leader of that ministry.