“ What a ministry believes about the risk shapes what steps the ministry takes. Without taking the first step to understand the risk, a ministry mistakenly believes the problem to be addressed without appreciating wide-open blindspots leading to safety gaps.”— Gregory Love
“ What a ministry believes about the risk shapes what steps the ministry takes. Without taking the first step to understand the risk, a ministry mistakenly believes the problem to be addressed without appreciating wide-open blindspots leading to safety gaps.”— Gregory Love
The first step on the journey to protection is to correctly identify the problem, he advises.“ Without taking this first step, ministries employ efforts that create a false sense of security,” Love says.“ Organizations believe they have addressed the issue because they have taken action. In reality, those actions are not aligned in a way that meaningfully reduces risk.“ What a ministry believes about the risk shapes what steps the ministry takes,” he adds.“ Without taking the first step to understand the risk, a ministry mistakenly believes the problem to be addressed without appreciating wide-open blindspots leading to safety gaps.” As Love explains, gaining an understanding of the preferential offender and his / her grooming process allows the ministry to evaluate existing safety system elements. The second step on the journey, he says, is to …
MAKE CHANGES WHERE NECESSARY To equip ministry leaders to evaluate present efforts and make necessary changes, MinistrySafe developed Journey to a Safer Ministry, an eight-part webinar series focused on helping church leaders understand abuse risk, develop a prevention strategy, and deploy an effective Safety System to prevent sexual abuse. The series is structured to move leaders from understanding to application.“ Each session builds on the last, equipping ministries to evaluate current practices and implement improvements,” Love says.“ More than 5,000 ministry leaders have registered for the series, with thousands participating in the first sessions. The response reflects a growing recognition that‘ what we have always done’ may not be what we need to be doing.” The opening session addresses the preferential offender and the grooming process, one of the most important and foundational concepts related to child sexual abuse. Participants learn how abusers build trust with both children and gatekeepers to create opportunities for isolation and trusted time alone. The second session focuses on implementation, outlining the elements of an effective Safety System and how those elements work together. The series is built around MinistrySafe’ s 5-Part Safety System: 1) Sexual Abuse Awareness Training 2) Skillful Screening 3) Background Checks 4) Policies and Procedures 5) Monitoring and Oversight
“ When implemented together and reinforced over time, these elements form a comprehensive system designed to reduce risk and protect children,” Love explains.
Journey to a Safer Ministry
Watch on-demand
2026 WEBINAR SCHEDULE
04.21.26
05.21.26
08.27.26
09.29.26
10.27.26 11.17.26
All webinars begin at 10:00 am CT.
Building the System: Creating an Effective Child Safety Framework
Protecting Kids from Kids: Understanding and Preventing Peer Sexual Abuse
Policies That Protect: Writing and Implementing Effective Policies & Procedures
Reporting Abuse: Understanding Reporting Requirements and Overcoming Obstacles
Screening That Protects: Identifying High-Risk Applicants Before They Serve
Creating Background Check Strategy- Part 1
Creating Background Check Strategy- Part 2
SCAN TO REGISTER
The journey begins with making sexual abuse prevention a priority and a willingness to take a closer look at existing efforts and possible safety gaps. Closing those gaps requires understanding, implementation, and ongoing oversight.
Church leaders can register for upcoming sessions or access previous recordings at MinistrySafe. com / Webinars.
EXPANDING ACCESS THROUGH PARTNERSHIP To expand access to the series, MinistrySafe has partnered with Tithely.“ At Tithely, we are committed to equipping churches with tools that support healthy, thriving ministries,” says Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Dean Sweetman.“ Partnering with MinistrySafe allows us to support church leaders as they prioritize ministry health by protecting children.”
TAKING THE NEXT STEP For Love, the objective is clear.“ Church leaders want to do this well,” he says.“ The question we hear most often is,‘ What should we be doing differently?’ This series is designed to provide clear, practical answers.”
About MinistrySafe
MinistrySafe is the national leader in child sexual abuse prevention training and resources for churches and child-serving ministries. Founded by attorneys and sexual abuse experts Gregory Love and Kimberlee Norris, MinistrySafe exists to help ministries implement effective Safety Systems that prevent child sexual abuse. The MinistrySafe 5-Part Safety System is utilized by more than 25,000 child-serving organizations nationwide.
Kimberlee Norris and Gregory Love are partners in the law firm of Love & Norris and founders of MinistrySafe. After representing victims of child sexual abuse for more than two decades, Love and Norris saw recurring, predictable patterns in predatory behavior. MinistrySafe grew out of their desire to place proactive tools into the hands of ministry professionals. For more information about the authors, see LoveNorris. com.
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