SEXUAL ABUSE PREVENTION IN THE CHURCH
25 years in review
By Georgia McKnight
The risk of child sexual abuse in the Church is real ... and not new .
Media in its various forms has bristled with horrifying headlines for three decades ; few have provided any positive coverage . Since 2000 , steady messaging from insurance professionals , lawmakers and subject matter experts has revealed a lack in the Church ’ s understanding of child sexual abuse risk : how the risk might manifest , appropriate prevention , and reasonable response to an allegation .
In the past two decades , child sexual abuse allegations have remained the No . 1 reason churches have ended up in the courtroom or embroiled in civil litigation . It ’ s no surprise that every major denomination has encountered a high-profile sexual abuse crisis — some are currently ongoing .
What has changed in the last 25 years ? Is there any good news ?
Since 2000 , how has the Church responded ? Are churches getting better or more proactive about prevention ?
Gregory Love and Kimberlee Norris , founders and directors of MinistrySafe , are sexual abuse attorneys with more than 60 years combined experience in child sexual abuse risk . Love and Norris have provided child sexual abuse resources to ministries and child-serving organizations for decades , on the front line in developing standards of care , initiating change in culture and developing best practices . From their perspective as industry leaders , Love and Norris speak to the significant developments since 2000 , and the Church ’ s response .
CRISES DRIVE CHANGE Beginning in the late 1990s , various crises have driven the cultural response to child sexual abuse — the Catholic Church litigation ( 1997 ), Penn State University crisis ( 2011 ), USA Gymnastics litigation ( 2015 ), and Boy Scouts of America litigation ( 2023 ). The landscape changed , improving the likelihood that the local church might become aware of child sexual abuse risk inherent in ministry programming , perhaps for the first time . Prior to the media-blitzed crises above , the general public ( and most church congregations ) remained largely ignorant about the prevalence or impact of child sexual abuse . As a result , misconceptions ruled , churches had few preventative protocols in place , and church leaders responded poorly to allegations that came to light . As awareness heightened , the availability and accessibility of training and other resources grew .
Training resources “ In general , we can ’ t reduce a risk we don ’ t understand ,” says Love , “ and sexual abuse is a risk that most ministry leaders don ’ t understand . Sexual abuse risk is knowable , but it ’ s not intuitive , which means : churches will never accidentally get this right .” Love says individual churches — where efforts related to safety are generally deployed — must receive training about offender characteristics and peer-to-peer sexual abuse . Before 2000 , excellent training — indeed any training — was not easily available to ministry leaders ; what did exist was not tailored to ministry programs . In 2025 , a wide variety of training providers and resources provide instruction delivered live or online , tailored to program types and denominational nomenclature and polity , and provided in many languages . For example , MinistrySafe offers a library of Trainings in English and Spanish and closed captioned in 11 other languages currently used on five continents . ( See sidebar : AVAILABLE TRAININGS )
16 CHURCH EXECUTIVE | JANUARY 2025