Six Guidelines for Embedding Safety into the Church Culture

If you pastor a church of any size, you must manage the organization, which involves a combination of technical and cultural issues. Technical matters—such as facilities management, curriculum selection, and program coordination—require specific expertise, but can often be handled by a single leader or a committee. Cultural issues, on the other hand, are pervasive to the organization and cannot be solved by technical expertise. Instead, these issues involve general acceptance by everyone.

There’s a reason certain things become embedded in a church’s culture: most people find them acceptable. Having people sign a covenant is a good step toward establishing common values, but the action itself is merely technical. To bring about true change, those values must be internalized. Likewise, holding volunteers accountable to safety policies and procedures is necessary, but if people don’t take ownership of the process, you may not achieve the culture you desire.

Indeed, changing the behavior