Is church really 'safe'?

I was recently looking at the variety among Christian denominations in respect of the Child Safe Standards, recently brought into legislation in NSW.

There seems to be a remarkable lack of both imagination and insight in the name of the various approaches. They seem to be themed around the double bind of 'safe church/ministry'.

A double bind typically creates an internally contradictory message: a sort of gas-lighting. Thus, 'Safe Church' sends the message that church is not safe. Just like Roz Ward and her Marxist colleagues sought to make out that schools would not be safe without her insidious indoctrination of children in destructive immorality.

Unfortunately we live in the shadow of Gillard's vindictively mounted Royal Commission which failed to discover the obvious: child abuse arose because the law was either indifferently enforced, or, in Victoria, ignored while abusers were sheltered by police. Fundamentally it was a problem due to Government failure.

But, as Saul Alinsky would remind: never let a good crisis go to waste (for the Marxist cause).

Church is safe, it's the vehicle of ultimate safety in this corrupt and fallen world. Not that we shouldn't bring good and godly order to ministry and be as sharp as eagles in protecting the vulnerable. After all, we've all read Jeremiah 17:9. But the Child Safe Standards are a good idea; at last the Authorities do their job.

Surely we can come up with a term for this that reflects a Christian ethos though, rather than ape the Marxist scare tactic. 'Ministry Care', 'Good Order', to reflect Paul in 1 Cor 14:40, even simple 'Ministry Standards', seems fine to me. They don't carry the can for Gillard's project and avoid the paradoxical insult of 'Safe Ministry', like we've agreed to reform our wicked ways.

 

I currently work within a denomination that provides training in line with the Child Safe Standards, its called 'Creating Safe Spaces'; a double bind, as thought the spaces we use for ministry would otherwise be unsafe. Safe Ministry is used by another denomination.

 

Here are some alternative names for such training. Free to use!

 

Ministry Prep(aration)

 

Good Order Work/Ministry

 

Baseline (or Ministry Baseline)

 

Performing Ministry/Ministry Performance (Skills)

 

Ministry Place-making

Ministry Conduct

Ministry Skills and Awareness

Ministry Participant (Awareness/Skills) (Certificate)