We Mentor Our Teachers

We try to mentor all new teachers, so that they see a teaching model before they start teaching themselves. This gives us a chance to observe their teaching before they teach to see if they are suited to teach. And, it allows them to try out teaching before committing to a class. As new teachers watch more experienced teachers, they can become familiarized with the curriculum and with effective teaching skills. This brings both greater continuity to the classroom and greater success among new teachers, which in turn helps our children learn.

At least once a year, we model-teach in each classroom. We walk the teachers through lesson preparation before class, then have them watch us teach the lesson. Afterwards, we talk about what went well and what could have gone better. This give-and-take of loving criticism fosters an atmosphere of humility and teachability as well as helps us become better teachers. As teachers (and perhaps even more importantly as fellow believers in community together), we think it is important to model soliciting, giving and receiving this kind of healthy criticism. How will we grow if we are not willing to ask others to help us see not only areas in which we do well, but also those in which we need to grow?

We try to observe teachers for their encouragement at least once a year, seeking to give helpful feedback that will make for a teaching and learning.

We try to carefully choose materials that will help our volunteer teachers understand what to teach and how best to teach it. We also give our teachers tips on how to manage children’s behavior in ways that help everyone learn and foster respect for the teacher and for the other students.

We form teams of teachers that partner together/switch off teaching a particular class of children. A typical team of Sunday School teachers commits to one year of teaching. But because they are part of a team of four teachers, with only two teaching any week, they are really teaching twenty-six Sundays rather than all fifty-two Sundays of the year. This allows for teachers to teach a full year without getting burned out and provides built-in substitutes. In our other classroom settings, we have 2 to 6 teachers teaching at a time (depending on class sizes and ages of children). This also

allows less experienced teachers to partner and learn from more experienced teachers, making hands-on teacher training a regular part of the classroom experience. It also creates the opportunity for teaching responsibilities within the classroom to rotate from week to week.

Once a year, we hold training sessions for particular groups of teachers, such as preschool teachers, or elementary school teachers. They also help other teachers prepare and often team teach with them these months. The encouragement, advice and model-teaching of these coordinators often makes the difference in everyone’s experience in the classroom. And, often makes the difference in whether a new teacher signs up for other teaching opportunity! Coordinators like these are simply invaluable!

Each Sunday, a designated person faithfully checks in with our Sunday School teachers. They are on hand to find any needed supplies, extra volunteers or other help a teacher might need. He keeps an eye out for issues that would be important for the rest of the Children’s Ministry team to know about, usually communicating these through a weekly e-mail. This person volunteers for three years. This long term commitment allows the deacon to gain quite a bit of institutional knowledge as well as becomes a familiar, reliable face to teachers and parents.

Out of spiritual care for the teachers, the elders have set limits on how much any one member can spend teaching the children.

Childcare teachers: Volunteer 1 Sunday a Month

Sunday School teachers: Volunteer 1 Year at a time on a team of 4 to allow for Substitutes

Bridge Kid Teachers: Volunteer for 2 nonconsecutive* months a year (Sunday Service)

*Non-consecutive months so that no volunteer will miss a worship service for more than a month.

Because we have only one Sunday morning service and one Sunday evening service, we are careful about how much time members spend away from regular preaching. If we have a consistent, month after month, lack of volunteers, wemay suggest that we shut down a particular program for a time. We have decided that this action is best for the spiritual welfare of the teachers, who too many times are asked to miss yet another service just to keep a program going--to their own spiritual detriment. We want to support our parents, but not at the expense of over-taxing and under- feeding of the rest of the body. We have developed an order of priority of programs, making child care for infants and toddlers during the Sunday morning service the top priority.

Nursery Worker have s (no curriculum) for children age 2 and below. They serve on a rotating schedule throughout the year which serve once every four weeks. (Since some months have 5 Sundays/Wednesdays, we are careful not to say “once a month.”) In this way, caregivers only miss one service of one type once every 4 weeks.

Hall Monitors patrol the child care areas and public spaces in the church to ensure the physical safety of the children. Hall Monitors may be called upon to help with child evacuation and emergency response to unauthorized persons in childcare areas.

Sunday School Teachers(before the morning service)–these teachers are on a team of 4 per class; they rotate among themselves so that 2-3 of them are teaching on any given Sunday. They commit for an entire year* but within that year they are rotating among themselves. The consistency comes in the fact that in one year the kids will get to know 4 people and see them consistently throughout the year. The goal is for each person to serve 26 Sundays per year.

Bridge Kid Teachers (during the morning service)–these teachers are also on teams; they commit to 2 non-consecutive months in a year. This has less consistency for the kids (they will see/interact with lots more people throughout a year in these classes) but it reduces the amount of time these teachers miss the morning service. These teachers are also freed up to attend adult Sunday school. The only classes we have during the AM service are for pre-K (3-5 years old) and grade school (K-4th grade).

For years, Jimmy G was seen as great guy and a leading member at his local community church—he was the go-to volunteer for all the ministries others avoided. On most Sunday mornings, you would see him serving alongside his wife in children’s ministry. But then something happened. Jimmy was suddenly arrested for multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault—some of them involving a minor. “Surely, Jimmy was framed,” thought everyone who knew him.

But then reports started showing up in local newspapers. This was not the first time Jimmy had been charged with such crimes. This had happened in another state years before, and his mode of operation was the same. It didn’t take long for new visitors to stop coming to this church—and as reports kept appearing on the front pages of local newspapers, even the faithful started peeling away from the congregation. The church’s reputation will take decades to recover in that close-knit small town.

I wish this account was fictional, but it isn’t. These events took place at a church in a neighboring community when I was a police oIicer. And although I’ve changed his name, the facts of his case, which I was privy to, are as stated. Sadly, this situation is repeated far too often in Christian churches today. During my time in law enforcement, I learned all too well how people with predatory proclivities can camouflage their activities behind church walls. And now, as the executive director of a large PCA church, I am personally aware of pastors’ immense responsibility to protect their flocks from harm.

Our churches are supposed to be sanctuaries of grace and peace, but the last few years have witnessed an explosion of abuse reports showing this calling routinely violated. This issue extends far beyond the Catholic church and has impacted many well-known evangelical denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

Sadly, no Christian community is immune to the shadows lurking within the human heart, whether these take the form of abuse or its cover-ups. And now that the devastating prevalence of such abuse and its outcomes are more apparent than ever before, we should be ever more vigilant to ensure the safety of every member in our congregations.

That’s why I’ve always considered mandatory background checks for all pastors, church oIicers, staI, and volunteers to be one simple step that congregations can and should take to nurture an environment that is inhospitable to abusive predators who would prey on the trust of our members.

My primary concern is that many well-intentioned leaders may be naïve about how common it is for people in their congregations to carry dark secrets which threaten the

For years, Jimmy G was seen as great guy and a leading member at his local community church—he was the go-to volunteer for all the ministries others avoided. On most Sunday mornings, you would see him serving alongside his wife in children’s ministry. But then something happened. Jimmy was suddenly arrested for multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault—some of them involving a minor. “Surely, Jimmy was framed,” thought everyone who knew him.

But then reports started showing up in local newspapers. This was not the first time Jimmy had been charged with such crimes. This had happened in another state years before, and his mode of operation was the same. It didn’t take long for new visitors to stop coming to this church—and as reports kept appearing on the front pages of local newspapers, even the faithful started peeling away from the congregation. The church’s reputation will take decades to recover in that close-knit small town.

I wish this account was fictional, but it isn’t. These events took place at a church in a neighboring community when I was a police oIicer. And although I’ve changed his name, the facts of his case, which I was privy to, are as stated. Sadly, this situation is repeated far too often in Christian churches today. During my time in law enforcement, I learned all too well how people with predatory proclivities can camouflage their activities behind church walls. And now, as the executive director of a large PCA church, I am personally aware of pastors’ immense responsibility to protect their flocks from harm.

Our churches are supposed to be sanctuaries of grace and peace, but the last few years have witnessed an explosion of abuse reports showing this calling routinely violated. This issue extends far beyond the Catholic church and has impacted many well-known evangelical denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

Sadly, no Christian community is immune to the shadows lurking within the human heart, whether these take the form of abuse or its cover-ups. And now that the devastating prevalence of such abuse and its outcomes are more apparent than ever before, we should be ever more vigilant to ensure the safety of every member in our congregations.

That’s why I’ve always considered mandatory background checks for all pastors, church oIicers, staI, and volunteers to be one simple step that congregations can and should take to nurture an environment that is inhospitable to abusive predators who would prey on the trust of our members.

My primary concern is that many well-intentioned leaders may be naïve about how common it is for people in their congregations to carry dark secrets which threaten the safety of their church members. My time in law enforcement taught me that abusive individuals, irrespective of their church involvement, often conceal their true selves behind a veneer of respectability and personal piety. In fact, those with nefarious intentions can be even more gifted at weaving false narratives and personas than others.

In her book Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex O5enders, Anna Salter quotes a convicted child molester as saying, “I considered church people easy to fool ... they have a trust that comes from being Christians. ... They tend to be better folks all around. And they seem to want to believe in the good that exists in all people.”

And as Kimi Harris wrote in a previous piece for CT, “The predators that are statistically likely to be in the pews, volunteering, and even behind the pulpit aren’t just grooming their victims, they are grooming their community to view them as trustworthy and even as spiritual leaders.”

This realization underscores the necessity of informed trust, which must be complemented by proactive measures to safeguard our communities. Yes, we should trust our members; but we should also take steps to validate that trust, especially in those who lead and serve. Naïve trust is also incongruent with the witness of Scripture. Given our theological commitments to the doctrine of total depravity, the power of indwelling sin, and our penchant for self-deception, Christians ought to know better than anyone.

As Cornelius Plantinga Jr. wrote, “The story of the fall tells us that sin corrupts... Like some devastating twister, corruption both explodes and implodes creation, pushing it back toward the ‘formless void’ from which it came.” This pervasive corruption distorts our highest ideals and masks our darkest impulses. Knowing this means we take seriously the possibility that dreadful acts will arise in the most improbable of places and from the least likely persons. In Matthew 7:15, Jesus himself warns about duplicitous individuals in our midst who come to us “in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” (Matt. 7:15).

We cannot ignore the well-documented fact that violence often erupts at the hands of those closest to a victim. Studies show that 93 percent of juvenile victims of sexual abuse oIenses know their perpetrator. And while those in rural areas may wrongly imagine the folks in their familiar circles are implicitly trustworthy, those in large urban centers should know firsthand the uncomfortable truth that proximity doesn’t always equal community.

Other critics point out that background checks have limitations and fail to catch those who have managed to avoid legal consequences for previous misdeeds. Given the relentless demands of church ministry, implementing a background check policy can feel daunting, especially when so many wrongdoers seem to slip through the cracks. Why stir up controversy for something that might oIer minimal results?

While we can acknowledge that every system has its flaws, dismissing background checks on these grounds is unwise, especially given the statistics. According to RAINN, more than half of all alleged rapists have had at least one prior criminal conviction before they were arrested for rape. Background checks represent a single but vital step in a multilayered defense strategy, serving as a tangible expression of our commitment to protect the church that Christ entrusted to our care.

An especially disappointing argument I’ve heard centers on apprehension that requiring background checks invites undue “government oversight” into private aIairs. But the true risk of governmental intervention arises not from taking such precautionary measures but from failing to catch perpetrators—which can lead to preventable tragedies that would rightfully attract both public and legal engagement.

Others suggest implementing background checks might deter long-standing volunteers from continuing to serve. This can be detrimental especially to smaller congregations who already struggle to attract and retain enough volunteer workers to staI their various ministries.

To be sure, introducing a new policy like this could be uncomfortable for such churches at first. Modern ministry is complex, and adding extra hoops for potential volunteers to jump through can make it more so. Perhaps the sweet grandmother who has been serving in nursery for decades will feel hurt by your request to fill out a background check. She might wonder whether this signals a lack of trust, especially after so many years. Yet this is precisely why it is important for pastors and church leaders to frame this as a universal expectation for everyone on staI—including themselves.

The vetting policy and process should be framed as a reflection of the entire congregation’s commitment to cultivating a fearless peace in the church. And this, ultimately, should lead to the recruitment of healthy volunteers who can serve the whole congregation well.

As Proverbs 22:3 reads, “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.” Navigating potential dangers requires adopting a comprehensive approach to safety. This involves not only implementing background checks but also cultivating an environment in which concerns can be voiced without any fear of reprisal and where the signs of potential harm are recognized by trained staI and volunteers—and acted upon.

For pastors, the glory of Jesus Christ and the safety of every individual entrusted to our care are held together as our chief concern. Our congregation’s most vulnerable members hold a central place in our ministry, and we are charged not only with feeding the flock (John 21) but also guarding it (Acts 20:28). Thus, we must joyfully embrace the necessary precautions that, in the end, will help us make sure the church is a safe and healthy place. This is not a sign of fear, but a demonstration of faith in action.

1. Who can serve in the children’s ministry — Only members of Ballard’s Bridge that have completed a background check and have been cleared. Members’ children grades 5th through the age of 18 may serve as well, as a student helper.

2. On parents coming to help their children ─ If a child is struggling to acclimate during Sunday morning Children’s Ministry, at first, we will ask the parent or guardian to come pick that child up for the morning. However, a parent or guardian is welcome to join their child to help them acclimate during Sunday morning Children's Ministry as soon as a background check has been completed and cleared. Parents can contact a member of the Children’s Ministry team to coordinate a background check. We are happy to make this exception when needed, but our hope is that this will only be a temporary solution to help each child transition into Children’s Ministry on their own.

3. Check-in/Check-out Procedure — For children below fourth grade, a security check- in/check-out procedure will be followed. The parent or guardian will work with the assigned check-in person to sign in the child. Stickers will be printed, one to be worn by the child and the other to be held onto by the parent or guardian until check-out time. A child will not be released to the parent or guardian until they give their sticker to the teacher.

4. When to ask a parent to pick up their child ─ Parents should only be asked to come get their child as a last resort, after the child has been consistently aggressive towards other children, or is causing a major disruption for the rest of the group. Single instances of disruptive behavior generally do not justify notifying the parents, unless a child has been injured. If repeated efforts have been made to address disruptive or harmful behavior without any results, then the parents can be contacted to (1) come help address the behavior, or (2) remove the child from the children’s ministry for that day.

5. How to navigate discipline with parents ─ Occasional outbursts are normal for any kid. We should even expect some aggression and roughness from time to time. Both parents should at least be notified of any hitting, kicking, biting, pushing, hair-pulling, etc. that takes place. However, discipline needs to be escalated IF: (1) There is a mark or bleeding of any kind, or (2) A child’s aggression is a consistent and disruptive concern over the span of one month (4 consecutive weeks).

If either of these are the case:

a. Step 1: Fill out an incident report. Incident reports are designed to document the

issue, bring both sets of parents up to speed, and protect the church legally.

b. Step 2: Notify both sets of parents in person. Share the report, let them know

about the behavior, and encourage them to take the lead in addressing it with

their child. For one-time instances, steps 1 and 2 are sufficient.

c. Step 3: If aggressive or disruptive behavior is consistent over 4 consecutive

weeks, then the team leader should ask a parent to be present the following week

(and for as long as it takes) to address the concern with their child.

d. Step 4: If the parent is unwilling to help in person, or if their presence does not

resolve the issue, then a pastor should be included in the discussion. The parent will likely be asked to keep their child in service with them until they’re confident he/she has moved beyond that phase.

6. No unmonitored time with individual kids ─ All leaders must remain in view of another leader (who is not their spouse or significant other) at all times.

7. If family members serve on the same Sunday ─ They need to either 1) be accompanied by another unrelated adult volunteer or 2) serve in different classrooms. This is meant to protect both the church and the couple in the event of an abuse allegation.

8. No acts of physical affection ─ No kissing, hugging, intimate caressing, or inappropriate touching is allowed. Team members should avoid any physical touch that can be perceived as a show of personal affection between them and a specific child.

9. No gift-giving ─ Sexual predators often “groom” desired victims by giving gifts to gain the child’s approval and manipulate their trust (“Remember, I gave you that gift”). For that reason, no individual leader is allowed to give a personal gift to a child, whether during scheduled ministry or outside of the formal ministry setting, unless it is explicitly approved by their parent(s).

10. Bathroom Policy —

a. Diaper changing ─ Only women are allowed to change diapers. Statistics

consistently show that 85% of all convicted sexual abusers are men. Granted, this means that the other 15% are women, so we can’t just assume that all women are safe. However, by restricting men from child nudity during children’s ministry, we can significantly reduce the risk of abuse.

b. Bathroom assistance —

i. Toddler and Preschool — If a child needs assistance in the restroom, a

woman volunteer may accompany the child to help him or her, provided the door to the restroom is left open OR two volunteers may accompany the child to the restroom.

ii. Sunday School — Children 5 years and older must use the restroom unaccompanied. Volunteers must stand outside the bathroom while the child uses the restroom unassisted OR two volunteers may accompany the child to the restroom. If two volunteers are unable to accompany the child, a parent or security member must be contacted for assistance.

11. Mandatory reporting ─ If a team member is ever suspicious of abuse or neglect of any kind, they must report this clearly and thoroughly to their team leader. Team leaders are obligated to pass this information on to a pastor/elder. The pastor/elder is obligated to notify the Police. Our goal is to create a culture of openness and accountability in ministry. No secrets are allowed. We are all responsible for ensuring that the Police are notified if anyone is even suspicious of abuse or neglect. As soon as you either observe or hear about potentially-abusive behavior, you become responsible for ensuring that both church leadership and law enforcement are notified.

12. Cleaning and Hygiene — We will do our best to maintain a clean and healthy space for both the children and workers, and be good stewards of our building. Workers must wash or sanitize their hands when they first arrive to serve in the nursery (0-4 year olds). Workers and children must wash or sanitize hands before snack time. Workers must wash their hands after every diaper change and disinfect the changing table. At the end of the service, workers should disinfect toys and the tables.

13. Health and Illness — To protect the health of our other children and volunteers, a child or worker cannot be in the nursery if they have had a fever, vomiting or diarrhea within the past 24 hours. If a child develops any of these symptoms while in the nursery, workers must inform the child’s parent(s) and ask them to pick up the child. Additionally, if a child has a cough, a runny nose that’s not clear, been on antibiotics for less than 48 hours, eye infection or has an unexplainable rash, they should not check into the nursery that day. If a worker has any of the symptoms listed above, they should find someone to sub for them.

14. Ensuring classroom safety and security — Hall Monitors will be regularly patrolling the area to ensure the safety and security of our children. In the event of a fire, children will be escorted as a group to the large open yard behind the Family Life Center.

Parents should meet their child(ren) in the grassy area and not run to the classrooms to get them. In the event of a lockdown situation, the first door at the bottom of the stairs should be locked, lock and shut the classroom door, turn off the lights and encourage the kids to sit quietly. It’s important to make sure the kids are not in front of the wooden door. As many layers of hiddenness between the aggressor and the kids, the better. We will do our best to alert parents of the emergency and the safety precautions being taken in real time.