Church Safety Because it’s Your God-given Responsibility
If God has entrusted to you the oversight of a group of people in your church or ministry, then you have the responsibility to protect or guard them as a shepherd does his flock.
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! (Acts 20:28-31a)
Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them — not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. (1 Pet. 5:2-3)
Church Safety Because it Fulfills a Higher Purpose as Love Always Protects
Notice how 1 Peter 5:2 addresses motivations — “not because you must, but because you are willing.” There’s a higher purpose involved in providing safety in the church that goes beyond mere fulfillment of a responsibility — LOVE. As we love God and others, we must think safety for “love always protects” (1 Cor. 13:7).
Not only are we protecting people who attend and serve in our churches to keep them from harm,
but we are also guarding the glory of God’s Name in our midst.
The Steering the Church Toward God’s Purposes Leadership Guide includes what you find in this post and continues with a few more paragraphs about how we provide church safety because love demands it and how leaders provide an example of what it means to love in all aspects of dealing with church safety.
For More on These Topics:
All Posts about Safety Issues:
- Safety Because Love Always Protects
- Safety Coordinated by a Church Security Team
- Safety Takes Everybody Doing Their Part
- Safety Because of the Great Commission
- Church Safety: WWJD?
- Integrity Breaks in Church Safety
- Focus of Church Safety
- Perspective in Church Safety
- Dangerous Gospel?
- Scripture Useful for Church Safety?
- Biblical Principles for Dealing with Safety Issues
- Power of Grace in Church Safety
- Power of Grace for Preventing Problems
- Power of Grace for Coping
- Power of Grace Enables Godly Responses
- Safety in the Name of the Lord?
- Don’t Underestimate the Power of Prayer in Safety
- The Spirit in the Midst of Church Safety?
- Church Safety as a Ministry Using Spiritual Gifts?
- The Real Enemy of Church Safety
- God Has a Bigger Picture When Bad Things Happen
- Leaders’ Roles Dictate How They Handle Church Safety
- Qualities Leaders Need in Church Safety Efforts