Sample Email #1
Dear [church Leadership]
April is Sexual Abuse Awareness Month. As you may know from news reports and social media, God’s Church is in crisis. In just the last 2 years, media stories have revealed that hundreds of pastors, church leaders and volunteers have abused thousands of children and adults in every denomination for decades. This has left me wanting to be sure my church is safe for me and my family. Church should be safe, right?
Abuse in church happens in a number of ways: sexual harassment or assault by a pastor against a staff member or parishioner, sexual harassment or assault by church staff or volunteer against a child, and domestic violence to name a few.
Richard Hammar, of Church Law & Tax, said in this article that abuse claims were the top reason churches went to court in 2017.
Here are some interesting statistics from Bob Smietana for Christianity Today.
Sally Schwer Canning and Tammy Schultz, in this Christianity Today article, say,
I love my church! I love my pastors, leadership and staff! I love my brothers and sisters in my church. I love the youth and children in my church. I want all of us to be safe. I want my community to see that we as Christians love one another. I don’t want to hear more stories of abuse and abuse cover-ups in churches. It’s time for us all, leaders and congregations to say “enough!”
For your consideration, here are some online resources available to help churches who want to address abuse and be safe:
Please consider taking the month of April to focus on abuse in God’s Church. Please commit to begin or continue to be a part of the solution and healing. I understand there is much work to be done and I am offering to help any way I can.
Sincerely,
April is Sexual Abuse Awareness Month. As you may know from news reports and social media, God’s Church is in crisis. In just the last 2 years, media stories have revealed that hundreds of pastors, church leaders and volunteers have abused thousands of children and adults in every denomination for decades. This has left me wanting to be sure my church is safe for me and my family. Church should be safe, right?
Abuse in church happens in a number of ways: sexual harassment or assault by a pastor against a staff member or parishioner, sexual harassment or assault by church staff or volunteer against a child, and domestic violence to name a few.
Richard Hammar, of Church Law & Tax, said in this article that abuse claims were the top reason churches went to court in 2017.
Here are some interesting statistics from Bob Smietana for Christianity Today.
- One in 8 Protestant senior pastors say a church staff member has sexually harassed a member of the congregation at some point in the church’s history.
- One in 6 pastors say a staff member has been harassed in a church setting.
- Two-thirds of pastors say domestic or sexual violence occurs in the lives of people in their congregation.
- More pastors say they are addressing these issues from the pulpit. Still, half say they lack training in how to address sexual abuse and domestic violence.
- Eighty percent of pastors say their church has a policy for sexual harassment allegations against staff (primarily in regard to child safety). Nineteen percent say they don’t have a policy. Two percent don’t know.
Sally Schwer Canning and Tammy Schultz, in this Christianity Today article, say,
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report sexual violence involving physical contact at the astounding frequencies of one in three women and one in six men (2018).
- Child sexual abuse is underreported, but estimated at one in five girls and one in 20 boys (The National Center for Victims of Crime, 2012).
- Over 7,000 claims of sexual abuse by church staff, congregation members, volunteers, or the clergy were made to just three insurance companies over a 20-year period (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2007).
- A study of over 300 alleged child sexual abuse cases in protestant Christian congregations found the overwhelming majority took place on church grounds, or at the offender’s home, and is most frequently carried out by Caucasian, male clergy or youth pastors (Denney, Kerley, & Gross, 2018)
I love my church! I love my pastors, leadership and staff! I love my brothers and sisters in my church. I love the youth and children in my church. I want all of us to be safe. I want my community to see that we as Christians love one another. I don’t want to hear more stories of abuse and abuse cover-ups in churches. It’s time for us all, leaders and congregations to say “enough!”
For your consideration, here are some online resources available to help churches who want to address abuse and be safe:
- GRACE
- FaithTrust Institute
- Jimmy Hinton Online Consulting Also, subscribe and listen to every single podcast at from Jimmy & Clara Hinton
- NotInOurChurch – an online library with many resources addressing abuse in churches. Resources for awareness of predators in the church, sample policies & procedures, healing for victims, and understanding how to care for survivors attending our church. It's up to everyone from leadership to the people in the pews to make church less attractive for predators and to take care of abuse survivors. Take a look at this list of what makes a church safe for some ideas.
Please consider taking the month of April to focus on abuse in God’s Church. Please commit to begin or continue to be a part of the solution and healing. I understand there is much work to be done and I am offering to help any way I can.
Sincerely,
Sample Email #2
Dear [Church Leadership]
April is Sexual Abuse Awareness Month. I would like to bring a website to your attention. Notinourchurch.com is a virtual library of resources, articles and organizations that address abuse in churches. Topics include clergy abuse, domestic abuse, child abuse, helping survivors, sample policies & procedures, and ideas from victims, advocates and experts on how to make churches unattractive to predators.
With all of the disclosure of abuse in churches in news stories and on social media over the last several years, I want to be sure my church is safe. All churches should want to be safe. I believe it's all of our responsibility to make church unattractive to predators and to care for survivors of abuse. You'll see from the resources and articles on Notinourchurch, there are both predators and survivors in church.
For the month of April, Notinourchurch is posting a link a day to help us all become more aware of the problem and ideas for safe churches. Will you please follow this link to read an article a day regarding addressing abuse in the church? Of course, there are over 300 other links to help church leadership and congregations in areas of awareness, prevention and healing.
Thank you!
April is Sexual Abuse Awareness Month. I would like to bring a website to your attention. Notinourchurch.com is a virtual library of resources, articles and organizations that address abuse in churches. Topics include clergy abuse, domestic abuse, child abuse, helping survivors, sample policies & procedures, and ideas from victims, advocates and experts on how to make churches unattractive to predators.
With all of the disclosure of abuse in churches in news stories and on social media over the last several years, I want to be sure my church is safe. All churches should want to be safe. I believe it's all of our responsibility to make church unattractive to predators and to care for survivors of abuse. You'll see from the resources and articles on Notinourchurch, there are both predators and survivors in church.
For the month of April, Notinourchurch is posting a link a day to help us all become more aware of the problem and ideas for safe churches. Will you please follow this link to read an article a day regarding addressing abuse in the church? Of course, there are over 300 other links to help church leadership and congregations in areas of awareness, prevention and healing.
Thank you!
Sample Email #3
Dear [Church Leadership]
April is Sexual Abuse Awareness Month. As you may know from news reports and social media, God’s Church is in crisis. In just the last 2 years, media stories have revealed that hundreds of pastors, church leaders and volunteers have abused thousands of children and adults in every denomination for decades. This has left me wanting to be sure my church is safe for me and my family. Church should be safe, right?
In his book, On Guard, Deepak Reju list six reasons why predators target churches
1) Christians are naive about sexual predators. Anna Salter says, “If children can be silenced and the average person is easy to fool, many offenders report that religious people are even easier to fool than most people.” Reju says, “Christian are, generally speaking, trusting folks.
2) Christians are ignorant of the problem. Christians are not only naïve, but also ignorant—ignorant of the problem of abuse and the extent of the problem within faith communities. Many Christians consider it unlikely or impossible that abuse could happen within their church, so they fail to take adequate measures, they ignore warnings and they disregard reports.
3) Churches offer sexual predators access to children. Because churches are always looking for help with children’s ministry and often are facing shortages of volunteers, sexual offenders know that churches are desperate.
4) Many Christians abuse authority. Sometimes authority is put in the hands of evil individuals who then abuse that authority by taking advantage of others. Christians are rightly taught to submit to authority, but not always warned that there are situations in which authority can and must be defied. “Child abusers will use positions of spiritual authority to gain access to children and abuse them."
5) Churches can be manipulated by sexual predators. Church offers religious roles or language that abusers can manipulate to accomplish their ugly purposes. Child abusers often use church-based roles in order to provide rationale and cover for their abuse.
6) Churches offer "cheap" grace. Sometimes abusers are caught, but even then they may get away with their crimes. Abusers count on receiving cheap grace—grace that comes far too freely and with far too little cost. “Abusers are not dumb. They know that if they cry, offer words of contrition and promise never to do it again, they are very likely not to have to face significant consequences.Pastors and churches are very forgiving.
Jimmy Hinton, pastor and son of a pastor pedophile, says, "We will not put abusers on the defensive by having stronger policies. They are always on the offensive. They adapt to our policies and training. We need to stop playing defense and take a more proactive approach to detecting predators who are already among us. They do not stop offending when we develop stronger policies. They only become smarter and more skilled at hiding the abuse."
Boz Tchividjian, church abuse advocate, executive director of GRACE and grandson of Billy Graham, says, "One of the great challenges in confronting and addressing abuses within our churches is that abuse is not something that can be resolved exclusively through “policy” change. It requires a cultural transformation that can occur only when we see and understand these grave issues through the lens of Jesus."
I want to be sure our church is safe for our families. For your consideration, here are some online resources available to help churches who want to address abuse and be safe:
Please consider taking the month of April to focus on abuse in God’s Church. Please commit to be a part of the solution and healing. I understand there is much work to be done and I am offering to help any way I can.
Sincerely,
April is Sexual Abuse Awareness Month. As you may know from news reports and social media, God’s Church is in crisis. In just the last 2 years, media stories have revealed that hundreds of pastors, church leaders and volunteers have abused thousands of children and adults in every denomination for decades. This has left me wanting to be sure my church is safe for me and my family. Church should be safe, right?
In his book, On Guard, Deepak Reju list six reasons why predators target churches
1) Christians are naive about sexual predators. Anna Salter says, “If children can be silenced and the average person is easy to fool, many offenders report that religious people are even easier to fool than most people.” Reju says, “Christian are, generally speaking, trusting folks.
2) Christians are ignorant of the problem. Christians are not only naïve, but also ignorant—ignorant of the problem of abuse and the extent of the problem within faith communities. Many Christians consider it unlikely or impossible that abuse could happen within their church, so they fail to take adequate measures, they ignore warnings and they disregard reports.
3) Churches offer sexual predators access to children. Because churches are always looking for help with children’s ministry and often are facing shortages of volunteers, sexual offenders know that churches are desperate.
4) Many Christians abuse authority. Sometimes authority is put in the hands of evil individuals who then abuse that authority by taking advantage of others. Christians are rightly taught to submit to authority, but not always warned that there are situations in which authority can and must be defied. “Child abusers will use positions of spiritual authority to gain access to children and abuse them."
5) Churches can be manipulated by sexual predators. Church offers religious roles or language that abusers can manipulate to accomplish their ugly purposes. Child abusers often use church-based roles in order to provide rationale and cover for their abuse.
6) Churches offer "cheap" grace. Sometimes abusers are caught, but even then they may get away with their crimes. Abusers count on receiving cheap grace—grace that comes far too freely and with far too little cost. “Abusers are not dumb. They know that if they cry, offer words of contrition and promise never to do it again, they are very likely not to have to face significant consequences.Pastors and churches are very forgiving.
Jimmy Hinton, pastor and son of a pastor pedophile, says, "We will not put abusers on the defensive by having stronger policies. They are always on the offensive. They adapt to our policies and training. We need to stop playing defense and take a more proactive approach to detecting predators who are already among us. They do not stop offending when we develop stronger policies. They only become smarter and more skilled at hiding the abuse."
Boz Tchividjian, church abuse advocate, executive director of GRACE and grandson of Billy Graham, says, "One of the great challenges in confronting and addressing abuses within our churches is that abuse is not something that can be resolved exclusively through “policy” change. It requires a cultural transformation that can occur only when we see and understand these grave issues through the lens of Jesus."
I want to be sure our church is safe for our families. For your consideration, here are some online resources available to help churches who want to address abuse and be safe:
- GRACE
- FaithTrust Institute
- Jimmy Hinton Online Consulting Also, subscribe and listen to every single podcast at from Jimmy & Clara Hinton
- NotInOurChurch – an online library with many resources addressing abuse in churches. Resources for awareness of predators in the church, sample policies & procedures, healing for victims, and understanding how to care for survivors attending our church. It's up to everyone from leadership to the people in the pews to make church less attractive for predators and to take care of abuse survivors. Take a look at this list of what makes a church safe for some ideas.
Please consider taking the month of April to focus on abuse in God’s Church. Please commit to be a part of the solution and healing. I understand there is much work to be done and I am offering to help any way I can.
Sincerely,