Every church should endeavor to provide a safe environment for every family and child to attend. A part of this safety preparedness is knowing the laws regarding child abuse reporting. These laws vary from state to state. Here are a few items we recently covered with our church staff:
1. How Massachusetts Defines Abuse, Neglect, Physical Injury & Emotional Injury – Under the Department of Children and Families regulations (110 CMR, section 2.00):
Every good pastor and church will find themselves frequently visiting people in the hospital. At my church, we visit people who are in the hospital or shut-in every single day. Every church sets up their visitation ministry a bit differently. I explain how we set church’s visitation ministry here: How to Organize a Church Visitation Ministry. But, what do those individual visits look like? I recently gave our staff some best practices:
In a church of any size, there are always people to be cared for. One way churches often show their love and concern for the church family is through the sending of flowers. Churches can easily have hundreds of people to send flowers to throughout a year, spending thousands of dollars, so it is important to have a policy on when to send them.
Recently, I sat down with our church staff and reviewed our church’s policy on sending flowers. Here is what we covered: