{"id":1305,"date":"2014-02-10T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trainchurchleaders.com\/practicum\/?p=1305"},"modified":"2025-05-24T14:56:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T18:56:33","slug":"safety-love-protects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trainchurchleaders.com\/practicum\/safety-love-protects.htm","title":{"rendered":"Safety Because Love Always Protects"},"content":{"rendered":"
If you have not read the section of the site on Church Purpose, please do so now in order for this practicum to be most helpful to you. Click below:<\/em>
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Church Leadership Basics: God’s Purpose for the Church<\/a><\/strong><\/center><\/div>\n

Church Safety Because it’s Your God-given Responsibility<\/span><\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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)<\/p>\n

Be shepherds of God\u2019s flock that is under your care, watching over them \u2014 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)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Church Safety Because it Fulfills a Higher Purpose as Love Always Protects<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Click on image to enlarge in Pinterest & repin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notice how 1 Peter 5:2 addresses motivations — “not because you must, but because you are willing.”<\/em>\u00a0There’s a higher purpose involved in providing safety in the church that goes beyond mere fulfillment of a responsibility — LOVE<\/strong>. As we love God and others, we must think safety for “love always protects”<\/em><\/strong> (1 Cor. 13:7).<\/p>\n

Not only are we protecting people who attend and serve in our churches to keep them from harm,<\/p>\n

but we are also guarding the glory of God’s Name in our midst.<\/p>\n

The Steering the Church Toward God’s Purposes Leadership Guide<\/strong><\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

For More on These Topics:<\/p>\n