Bethlehem Community Church in its effort to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ to the world has adopted a resolution aimed at reducing the risk of child and youth abuse in our church.
Our purpose for establishing this “Child-Youth Protection Plan” is to demonstrate our absolute and unwavering commitment to the physical safety and spiritual growth of all our children and youth.
We believe that the protection of our children and youth is of utmost importance as a church because we are representatives of Jesus Christ and therefore follow His example and Word as depicted in the Bible.
In the Gospel According to Matthew, Our Lord Jesus Christ declared in very vivid terms His imperative to protect these precious little ones:
The teachings of Jesus call us to offer both hospitality and protection to our children and youth. Therefore Bethlehem Community Church seeks to protect these precious ones from physical, verbal, doctrinal, and sexual abuse.
God requires His church to create communities of faith founded on the infallible teachings of Scripture and thus calls us to make our church a safe place protecting children, youth, and other vulnerable persons from abuse of all kinds.
Commitment
Therefore, as a Bible centered assembly of believers, Bethlehem Community Church pledges to conduct the gospel ministry in ways that assure safety and security for all our children, youth, as well as all of the workers with children and youth. We commit to follow reasonable safety measures in the selection and recruitment of workers. We also commit to implement prudent operational procedures in all ministries and events. We will educate all of our workers with children and youth regarding the use of all appropriate policies and methods. We will also have a clearly defined procedure for reporting a suspected incident of abuse that conforms to the requirements of state law.
