Last year I was attending a big church in Grapevine
Texas. One thing you never want to do
when attending this church is lose your receipt. They take your children's safety very
seriously and they don’t mind making you wait to get that point across. The good news is that once you move past the
initial shock that they are not going to just “trust me” and that they don’t
care that I am a member and a volunteer and a very special person in general…
is that you feel very secure with leaving your kids in their care. Of course this usually takes about an hour or
so to get from your head to your heart.
It helps that you were able to make it to your favorite restaurant before
the lunch rush after all.
The take away from this blog is that churches of every size
need security for their children. Unless
you don’t expect any first time visitors then you need to know this stuff. It is important to understand that this is a standard
process and it needs to apply to everyone from the Sr. Pastor to the first time
guest. If you don’t consistently enforce
this policy, your volunteers will be put in the untenable position of having to
determine who is allowed to bypass the security measures the church has in
place to protect children. This protects
your volunteers by placing them under the authority of the Children’s Ministry.
When a person shows up to pick up a child the process is
very clear. If you have the receipt and
you know the child’s name you get to pick them up. The
process is not:
- You dropped them off and I recognize you so it
is OK this time
- You are on staff so it is OK this time
- You are the Sr. Pastor so it is OK this time
- You look nice and you know the child’s name so
it is OK this time
- The child is screaming Mommy… Mommy… so it is OK
this time
- You are my next door neighbor and I know these
are your kids so it is OK this time
- You are my husband and our kids are driving me
crazy so I don’t care if you lost the receipt take these kids NOW (this one is
OK for the safety of the kids and the Dad)
So now you have an adult standing at your door demanding
that you give them their child back. All
volunteers should be trained to say “I am not authorized to release children to
parents without a receipt. I can find my
supervisor/director/pastor and they will be able to help you out. I do
recognize you and I am sure this is your child but we have security processes
in place to protect your children and I am sure you understand the importance
we place on child safety.”
If your church has radios then a call should be made for the
supervisor to come to the door and guide the parent through the next part of
the process. If you have a clearly identified
information desk, they can be sent there.
Once at the information desk or nearest assisted check in
station here are the steps to follow:
- Ask the parent for a picture ID (insert comment about how good
their picture looks and try not to sound sarcastic)
- Log into Fellowship One and verify that the name
on the ID is an authorized person to pick up those children. This can be done on the household screen. See
Figure 1
- If the parents are still in the same household
and there is a custody issue, please unselect both parents. That way whoever
has the receipt brought the child. See Figure 1
- If they are not authorized, call the authorized
parents and take all necessary measures to verify that the child can be
released to this person
- Threatening to keep the kids and put them to
work at the church folding bulletins never works so don’t bother
- If the parent has no picture ID available, log
into Fellowship One and search for them by name
- If the name of the person matches up with one of
the parents authorized to pick up the child
- Ask the parent for their children’s name
- Ask the parent the last activity they attended
- Ask the parent the child’s DOB
- Ask the parent to verify their address, email
address, phone number, cell phone number, etc
- If it is the husband ask him for his wife’s DOB
and their anniversary date. I do this
just to get them in trouble
- If the name of the person does not match up to
the name of the parent authorized to pick up the child use the system to call
the other parent’s cell phone. Use all
means necessary to verify that this person is authorized to pick up the child.
Once the authorization process has been completed have the
parent fill out a first time visitor card or similar form. Write the parents DL number on the form and
have an authorized person at the church sign the form. It is best to have a specific form for this
process that is very similar to the first time family card. It should have space on the card to write
down all of the children’s names that have been checked in that day. The parent then uses the signed card as their
authorization form to pick up all of their children.
As the teachers verify the names of the children written on
the card against the nametags on the children they will initial the names of
the children to verify that they checked the data. Teachers should be trained to pick up the
form if all of the children listed on the form have been picked up. This documentation is critical in case there
is some sort of litigation that arises from the church giving the child to an
unauthorized person.
For your viewing convenience I have written all of this up and had it formalized by the proper authorities. You can download a less funny and more serious version by clicking the picture of the light bulbs below. Hopefully the lit bulb represents you at this point.
Matthew McMaster
Delivery Manager and Bulb Tester