Safety in Kid’s Ministry

In my experience, safety in kid’s ministry is more important for parents when initially evaluating a children’s ministry program than any other component.   If we want to earn the opportunity to invest in the spiritual foundation of the next generation; safety in our kid’s ministry environments has to be our top priority.

It can be easy for a team or a leader to become comfortable and just roll through the motions.  Same team each week, the same large group of kids and families who are regular attenders and a familiarity with what needs to happen to make Sunday a win. 

Comfort and familiarity can be the breeding ground for leaders to rationalize safety procedures as conditional or optional. 

There is one Sunday in particular that I recall from my time leading a Children’s Ministry team at a portable church location.  We had a mom that was a semi-new, regular attender, come on each week with her toddler.  Mom was going through a divorce and dad had been court ordered to not be within a certain number of feet of mom and the toddler.  Dad waited until after the service had started, then walked into the church, located the kid’s area and went to pick his child up.  The team would not dismiss his child to him. He did not have the security tag required to pick up his child, per our procedure. 

After the whole ordeal ended, the teacher told me the child was calling out for ‘dad’ so she KNEW the child was his.  Dad was VERY agitated.  She felt incredibly uncomfortable.  She ‘could have’ so easily rationalized the security tag was not necessary ‘just this once’ and released the child to the father. 

It is critical for our volunteers to have complete ‘buy-in’ to our safety policies.  They need to KNOW THE WHY.

Police were called.  Dad fled the scene.  The child was safe, and a valuable lesson was learned.  We cannot sacrifice safety to appease anyone.  If this volunteer had not held firm to the security policy in place and had released the child, this story could have had a very different ending. 

Safety in kid’s ministry includes protecting a child’s physical safety as well as their mental and emotional safety.  Because each of these is such an important topic, this article will just focus on physical safety in kid’s ministry. 

Physical Safety in Kid’s Ministry includes protection from:

• germs and sickness (hello flu and virus season and LICE)
• adults or children who intend harm
• dangerous environmental factors – unsafe equipment or furniture

Guests are not initially looking for best teaching practices or the great wall art or parent resource center when they decide whether or not to stay.  They are looking at your safety measures.  It is vital for the Ministry Director or whomever is leading your Kids Ministry team to set the bar high and keep it high. 

5 Things to Consider if you oversee Kids Ministry Programming:

There is value in having a paid staff member be the individual to train and oversee the on-boarding process for new volunteers on the kid’s ministry team.  You can be assured that everyone on the team hears the same protocols and expectations.  It will communicate significance and demonstrate the priority you place on safety in kid’s ministry, when a leader makes the time to lead this training. 

In my seasons of leader kids’ ministry teams, I have always placed value on building time into my calendar so I could lead our safety trainings and spend some time building relationships with new volunteers.  

1. Training:

There was a period of time, where I would ‘skim’ over the ‘evacuation’ section of our handbook during these trainings.  I asked everyone to read the handbook in full, after the training so they would be aware of anything I skipped.  I actually said, ‘I will cover the most important parts!’ 

This was all fine and good…until a fire alarm went off during Sunday services and we had to evacuate our entire campus. 

Half of the team evacuated to the middle (albeit outside) area of the school where we held services.  We then had to march our preschoolers, who were initially calm and peaceful back through the building with the alarm blaring.  As you can image…they were not calm and peaceful once we finally arrived in the correct evacuation place.

If you care about the response of your team in any given situation, then you need to cover it in your security training. 

Use stories to explain WHY your policies are important.  It will make it stick with your volunteers and give them stamina to persevere even when it feels easy and familiar and comfortable to become comfortable with the procedures.

2. WANT too does not equal GET too.

Just because someone WANTS to serve in Kids Ministry should not mean that they GET to – it is APPROPRIATE and NECESSARY for the safety of kids, to be picky.  Pray before every conversation.  Use DISCERNMENT. 

Refrain from plugging in people that no one has ever met.   If someone can come their first Sunday, complete a ‘join the team’ form, indicate they want to serve with kids and by week two they are on the team  – you are NOT making safety a priority. 

You are making your priority to simply fill volunteer holes. 

And you are sacrificing the safety of children and your other volunteers in the process.

Jim Wideman has written a great article you can read HERE to educate yourself on the risk of child predators entering kids’ ministry environments.  Please make time to educate yourself.

3. Set the bar and KEEP IT HIGH

The main responsibility of kid’s ministry leaders is to protect children and protect the liability of the church and volunteers.  The Spiritual impact we get to have happens as a direct result of safety in our kid’s ministry environments happening FIRST.

One of the biggest ways to do this is to ensure that a child is NEVER ALONE with only one adult.  Two non-related adults, should be with the kids, at all times. 

One of my kid’s ministry friends and I were recently discussing safety protocols.  She shared a story with me of a church who had a beloved, older male that had been serving in a pastoral role for years and years.  He was beloved and known by everyone.  One Sunday, he strolled by the kid’s environment at his church and asked to ‘borrow’ some students, that he knew well, to help with some details for that Sunday. 

The volunteer team approved the request, because they knew and trusted him.   Multiple kids were sexually abused.  On church property.

Families and kids were devastated. The church was devastated. 

There was a safety policy in place.  The team had been trained.  The leader just felt comfortable enough that they decided ‘in this situation’ they could make an exception. They let the bar slip. 

It is much easier to keep the bar high than to let it slip and try to push it back up.  KEEP THE BAR HIGH.

As a leader, be unapologetic about your safety policies and WHY they are in place. 

Have simple language for communicating them.  Check in frequently with your volunteers to make sure they understand the WHY and are equipped to follow through.    

Also, it is important to note, the second reason why this policy is critical.  It is a protection for your volunteers and your church.  Having two non-related adult volunteers (at a minimum) in each environment, helps ensure that if an accusation is every made, that an officer or judge can use the testimony of those individuals to help corroborate the events that took place.

4. Evaluate actual & PERCEIVED safety.

I have heard it said that a parent decides in TWO minutes how they feel about your kid environment.  That is about how long they will peer in during drop-off and pick-up.  You are guaranteed if they see anything that causes them concern as they glance around, that they will be exiting – with their child. 

Even if you KNOW that your environments are safe, you have to view them through the lens of a first-time parent. How safe do parents perceive your kids environments to be?

• Are volunteers’ shoes covered in the nursery, keeping germs out?
• Do you have a good ratio of adults to children in every environment?
• Is there a visible police or security presence?
• When they drop off is an adult at the door to receive their child and gather any information the parent feels is important?
• Does equipment and furniture appear to be age-appropriate and in good working condition?

Do your volunteers check the security tags of EVERY child, EVERY Sunday? 

Or do they ‘let it slide’ for families that they know well?  I encourage you to train your team to always be mindful of how a guest will perceive the safety of your environments.  If a guest is waiting to pick-up their child and they observe a child being dismissing to an adult -without the security tag-what message does that send?  For that parent, it is going to cause concern over whether or not their child could be handed over to a random person without the security tag. 

Security policies are NOT AN INCONVENIENCE – they are PROTECTION.

What do parents see in the two minutes they peek into your kids areas?

5. Communication is vital.

It is not a matter of if, but WHEN you will have a safety issue that needs to be addressed with parents. 

Between flu season, international viruses, LICE, lockdowns, evacuations, etc…there will be safety issues that you need to communicate about to the families in your ministry.  Either because something HAS happened, or because you are taking preventative measures to help PREVENT something from spreading or happening. 

Over-communication is good.  It sends a message to families that you are organized, on top of the current issues in your area or church location and that you place HIGH VALUE on the safety of their child. 

• First, remember that probably only about 30% of people read your emails.  Use all methods of communication.  Email blasts, social media posts and even printed notices to hand out or posted around your facility will help reach a larger percentage of families. 

• Second, remind parents about your safety procedures (or health policies) and let them know what was done, or what new things you are doing to keep their child safe.  For example, in the event of wide-spread illness, printing ‘wellness reminders’ for the doors of your classrooms and setting out extra hand sanitizer for EVERYONE to use before entering is a way to step up your safety game.   (Communicating in advance to parents of any additional measures you are putting in place will help them feel safe bringing their kids on Sunday.)

We earn the privilege to share the gospel with the next generation by making safety in kid’s ministry a priority. 

Explain ‘the why’ to your team as often as possible.  Use real-life examples and stories so that your leaders and team will have a picture engraved on their mind.  It will stick and you are more likely to see consistent follow through. 

One additional resource I wanted to share with you is the non-profit organization Darkness to Light.  They share that 4-5 kids die every day from child abuse.  Their website is full of amazing resources.  I am linking HERE to a specific resource that will help you identify and respond to suspected child abuse situations. 

Finally – if you haven’t already, make sure you check out this post: Focused Family Follow-Up for ideas on increasing your return guest percentage. LAST; you can download my FREE Best Practices & Safety Protocol Checklist below.  It is just meant to be a tool to help you evaluate your ministry and begin conversations on ways to increase the safety in your kid’s ministry for kids, volunteers and your church. Don’t forget to connect with me on social media and subscribe so you don’t miss any posts!