We need your help to keep our children safe. In November of 2009 our Executive Team approved a plan called Safe Sanctuaries. Safe Sanctuaries is a set of policies and procedures designed to keep our children and youth safe from physical harm. It is also designed to protect volunteers and paid staff from false allegations of abuse.

While the plan covers all children and youth any time they are in the care of Cornerstone staff and volunteers, it is especially prominent on Sunday mornings. Within the context of the plan, here are several steps you can take as parents to help us keep our children safe on Sunday mornings.

• When checking your children in to our Cornerstone Kids activities (Seaside & Kidztown) please make sure your child goes directly to their classroom or assigned area once they have a name tag. When a child is wearing a name tag, our staff and volunteers recognize that he or she is in the care of a Cornerstone volunteer or staff member. Please do not check your child in and then allow them to wander around the building wearing their name tag.

• We love our volunteers and we especially love youth who are willing to start serving in the church at a young age. The Safe Sanctuaries plan requires that volunteers working with children must be a minimum age of twelve years old. If you think your youth would enjoy serving on Sunday morning with our children, please contact our staff leadership (Jill Harris and Michael McClendon) during the week and not on Sunday morning. Contacting them before Sunday morning allows Jill and Michael time to get to know your youth and place them in an appropriate area for serving once they arrive on Sunday morning.

• Here is the “Big Ask”… please volunteer on Sunday morning. Safe Sanctuaries requires that “A minimum of two non-related adults will be utilized in all programming with children, youth, and at-risk adults.” Volunteering with our children on Sunday morning is a very rewarding experience. Not only will it help us keep our children safe, it can also help you grow closer to Christ.

Safe Sanctuaries is a great plan when it is followed in the manner it is intended. The design is not to limit ministry, but to enhance our ministry efforts and to keep our children and youth safe. You can download the entire plan here and if you have any questions just send me an email.

An excerpt from our Safe Sanctuaries plan:

Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes (a) child…welcomes me.” (Matthew 18:5). Children are our present and our future, our hope, our teachers, our inspiration. They are full participants in the life of the church and in the realm of God.
Jesus also said, “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones…, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6)