15 things you can do to protect your flock and your pastor

Phillip Foster Feb. 20, 2021

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When pastors are caught in a moral failure or a sexually inappropriate relationship, it not only gives that particular church a bad name, it hurts all of us. We all lose credibility and it's happened a lot lately.

The church is one place where people think they are safe to open up, be vulnerable, get close, share deeply, and be loved. A pastor is someone people think they can trust, and the church a place where they can open up about their deepest-kept secrets, where they can go for healing, for consolation, encouragement, wisdom, to find a new life, to get close to God. When that trust is violated, it leaves scars. We need to figure out how to protect our flock.

I don't believe we should hold pastors to a higher standard or judge them more harshly. I have worked with pastors struggling with sexual sin for over 2 decades. I taught at a Christian university for 11 years, counseling and guiding young men and women either already in the ministry or those that soon would be. Even then, I saw their struggles with sexuality. I was able to work with some, but I knew there were others I didn't know about who didn't get help.

While I think there ought to be more done at that level, church leadership needs to do their own due diligence to protect their pastors and others. Here are 15 things I would recommend that could possibly prevent an incident from occurring in your church.

1. A criminal background check needs to be done on every person hired or allowed to volunteer, regardless of their role in the church.
2. Every pastor or employee hired by the church should undergo a psychological evaluation to determine vulnerabilities or weaknesses in character, personality, or social and emotional development.
3. Every pastor should be sent to counseling until that counselor has cleared the pastor of any unresolved issue or concern that would have a negative impact on their ministry.
4. Every pastor should have an accountability person assigned to them who will meet with them every Monday and ask pointed questions about their personal life, their social life, their marriage, and especially their relationship with God.
5. Pastors should be given limits on how much counseling they do unless they are trained in that area and that is part of their job description.
6. Pastors should always have someone present when they are meeting with members of the opposite gender. Ideally, no one should be working alone with another person as a staff or volunteer without another to be able to vouch for their activities.
7. Require training for all staff/volunteers on child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual abuse.
8. Make sure all staff are familiar with the laws requiring mandatory reporting.
9. Believe anyone who says they have been mistreated; listen to anyone who is feeling uncomfortable, intimidated, manipulated or coerced by a staff member or volunteer.
10. Don't agree to keep secrets.
11. Do not keep abuse allegations in-house or confidential; involve authorities immediately.
12. Pastors and their spouses should be provided a marriage retreat or conference annually.
13. Pastors should be given regular time off and mandated to take their days off.
14. Pastors should be provided sabbaticals approximately every 7 years.
15. This shouldn't have to be a rule, but be your pastor's friend. Like the rest of us, they enjoy having fun, need to deal with stress, and want to have an identity apart from their work.

I think most of these are self-explanatory, but they don't guarantee a positive outcome.

If a victim brings a charge against one of your staff or employees, immediately remove them from their position pending an external investigation. Ask them to not even be in attendance until then. Make your church a safe place for victims to recover away from their abusers. Go the extra mile and earmark funds to support victims with needed resources.

These may seem harsh and unnecessary, but this is clearly a time it is better to be safe than sorry.

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Phillip A. Foster, Ph.D., as a psychologist and Director of AuthenticQuest.org, provides spiritual direction, counseling, training and consulting, to those in ministry or other roles of leadership in the church. He is the author of Here's My Heart, Lord; Parent With an Attitude, and Not Good Enough. Learn More »

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