JOURNEY TO A SAFER MINISTRY:
Moving from awareness to protection
Church leaders care deeply about protecting children and vulnerable populations. But care alone does not prevent abuse.
One of the most common and dangerous assumptions in ministry environments is that abuse risk is obvious. It is not. The risk of child sexual abuse is knowable, but it is not intuitive.
Before prevention is possible, ministry leaders must prioritize gaining an understanding of this risk. Notwithstanding all of the media coverage of sexual abuse crises, many ministry leaders have done very little in terms of change. Why?
“ Most leaders assume they would recognize risk if it were present,” says Gregory Love, co-founder of MinistrySafe.“ The broken logic is this:‘ Pastor: because I do not see any issues and we have not had any issues in the past... we must not have any issues.’ This thought process must be put aside.” After more than two decades working with sexual abuse cases, Love says he has observed a consistent pattern: ministries with committed, capable leadership still experience incidents of abuse. In these incidents, the problem was not the quality of the people in leadership— but a misunderstanding of how abuse occurs.“ These are not careless churches and ministries,” Love explains.“ They care deeply about the children and vulnerable populations in their care. But without a clear understanding of the grooming process, and how abusers create opportunities for trusted time alone, it is easy to miss critical gaps and warning signs.” Many ministries enjoy a false sense of security as a result of common safety measures, including background checks, on-site security, and child check-in stations, Love adds. Without an understanding of an abuser’ s grooming process, he cautions, these elements will not( and cannot) prevent an abuser from gaining access, selecting a child, creating opportunity for isolation and keeping the child silent— the grooming process.“ Understanding the problem is the first step,” Love explains.“ It allows ministry leaders to evaluate present systems for effectiveness, and make necessary changes tailored to the problem.”
EVALUATION AND IMPLEMENTATION How is‘ understanding the problem’ the first step? How is the problem of sexual abuse misunderstood such that ministries are at risk? As Love explains, without specific instruction, ministry leaders operate on a‘ default setting’ related to sexual abuse prevention: that the risk is characterized by an abuser who is lurking in the hallways or looking for an opportunity to abduct a child( the abduction offender). To thwart this risk, churches and ministries install video cameras, employ security elements in parking lots and in common areas, rely on child check-in systems, and install locking mechanisms on perimeter doors.“ The abduction offender, however, accounts for less than 10 % of the national sexual abuse crisis,” he points out.“ More importantly, the evergrowing number of headlines related to child sexual abuse in the Church does not involve the abduction offender.” Instead, Love asserts, the primary risk of child sexual abuse in churches, camps, schools, youth sport programs and day cares is posed by the preferential offender, who has no visual profile and is not deterred by safety system elements designed for the‘ snatch and grab’ offender.
16 CHURCH EXECUTIVE | MARCH / APRIL 2026