Born Again Daily · Free Six-Week Church Training
WEEK 3 OF 6 · FACILITATOR'S SHEET
Learn why safeguarding depends on actual policies, reporting, qualified oversight and appropriate consent.
Learning goal: Participants can recognize boundaries that require action and describe a safe reporting pathway without conducting their own investigations.
This meeting is an educational introduction, not a replacement for mandated reporter training, background checks or a church-approved safeguarding policy. Before facilitating, identify the applicable local laws and official child-protection reporting routes with your organization's safeguarding lead. Do not ask members to describe identifiable cases or name alleged perpetrators in the group. If a real disclosure occurs, follow emergency and legal procedures rather than turning it into a teaching opportunity.
| Time | Activity | What the facilitator does |
|---|---|---|
| 0–10 minutes | Set the safeguarding ground rules | Explain privacy and legal-reporting limits, no private contact with minors, supervision expectations, and the need for trained safeguarding personnel. Ask why a religious title cannot exempt someone from scrutiny. |
| 10–25 minutes | Read the texts in context | Read the three passages and distinguish their moral implications from the specific procedures modern law requires. Discuss how theological principles and professional safeguarding complement rather than replace each other. |
| 25–40 minutes | Analyze a fictional disclosure | Use the Academy's case of a minor reporting inappropriate adult messages. Ask what is known, what is not, and why untrained probing or confronting a suspected person can harm the child or an investigation. |
| 40–55 minutes | Build a site safety checklist | Outline supervision, screening, consent, communication, transport, confidential records, escalation, independent complaints and nonretaliation. Assign formal policy approval to people actually authorized to do so. |
| 55–65 minutes | Identify readiness gaps | Ask which measures are present locally and which need work. The outcome is a list for qualified safeguarding review, not a claim that a one-hour lesson makes volunteers ready to work with children. |
Build a fictional children's event safety plan and submit it to a qualified safeguarding lead for verification against local requirements. Explain why the sheet itself cannot authorize an event.
Never delay required reporting while debating theology. The particular laws and protective steps depend on the jurisdiction and immediate circumstances. Child safety takes precedence over organizational reputation.