Make a Plan, Establish your Church Policy:

We give some suggestions below, but your church needs a clear plan and policy for background checks. Criminal Watch Dog lists this as one of the biggest legal threats to churches today – neglecting the diligence and responsibility of knowing the people who are serving within your church. Creating a clear plan and policy gives you peace-of-mind, and also builds trust as people know your leadership team takes safety and security seriously.

• Make a list of all your Volunteer Teams, and decide which teams need background checks.
• Decide which background check each team/role should have.
• Commit budget to make sure these background checks are run initially and maintained yearly.
  • Why Maintain them yearly? Because if you ran a background check on somebody last year, but they made a turn for the worse and committed a crime, they probably aren’t going to voluntarily let you know.

NOTE: This policy should be documented in the Bylaws of your church if they are not already.

Prioritize your list:

Since there is a cost for background checks, if you do not currently have the funds to execute your entire plan, you should prioritize your list starting with the ones that are most important (Kid’s, Security, Financial, etc).

Notify People First:

Send a TEXT MESSAGE or EMAIL to all these people BEFORE you order the report, letting them know what is happening and what to expect.

Example: “Hey Team. Just a heads-up. We are updating our records for our Kids Team. Part of our policy is to have a current Background Check on file. You will be receiving an email from “Checkr” asking you for some personal info and approval to run the check. There’s no cost to you and we will maintain privacy if something surfaces in the report. This process keeps us compliant and legally sound. Thank you so much for all you do to impact Kids!”

Start:

Order your first run of Background Checks and watch for the results.  Click here to see how to run a Background Check in Faith Teams.