Safe church training launched at Lakeside

In a first for the Australian Union Conference (AUC) and the North New South Wales (NNSW) Conference, Lakeside Seventh-day Adventist Church in Bonnells Bay was the inaugural church to take part in the newly-released Adventist version of the Safe Church Training program.

More than 25 people attended the Friday night meeting, with numbers growing to more than 40 people for the Sabbath afternoon training. The training program is based around the Safe Church Training Manual, which draws on material from the National Council of Churches in Australia’s Safe Churches Project. It covers a variety of safety procedures — from child protection to incident reporting, and duty of care to occupational health and safety — that aim to enable holistic and safe church ministry. Training is based on lectures and group discussions. It is underpinned by the concept of God’s care for the vulnerable — and the challenge of ministry and church life being to recognise when people are vulnerable, and providing care and support for them. The safety focus has grown from an emphasis on child safety to encompass general church safety, including occupational health and safety, planning for programs, and physical, spiritual and emotional safety.

There are around 40 Christian denominations and church groups who are part of the project around Australia. The manual is based on an inter-denominational template, which was created by churches and Christian organisations around Australia who are part of a “Safe Church Training Agreement.” Pastor Peter Cousins, Director of Family Ministries for the conference, and Pastor Daron Pratt, Director of Children’s Ministries, are the two trained presenters of the program in this conference. Pastor Cousins and Pastor Pratt both ran the Friday night program, which Pastor Pratt described as a “pioneering night.” Pastor Pratt ran the Sabbath afternoon session of the training, which concluded with a question-and-answer session. Pastor Pratt thanked attendees for being the “guinea pigs” for the program, and Pastor Clive Nash, minister at Lakeside Church, thanked him for his “marathon effort”

in presenting the course. Pastor Nash adds, “It was a pleasure having Pastors Cousins and Pratt at our church at Lakeside to run this training. Earlier in the year, elder Nerolie Gate inspired me and the other elders to do more about safe church awareness. Now we have made a good start. We have hosted the first Australian Seventh-day Adventist training session with the new manual, and I am sure that other churches will soon follow. Five hours on one weekend sounded heavy in prospect, but the presentations were very informative and professionally done. Pastor Daron Pratt’s idea of regular refreshment breaks helped too.”

Bob Dale, General Secretary of the NNSW Conference, was instrumental in the creation of a training manual for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The importance of an Adventist-specific manual was highlighted to him when he attended a course sponsored by the Anglican Church, and he realised how essential the program was for church leaders and members who are responsible for children and organising programs and events. He notes that each denomination has its own manual based on the original source material and says, “I commenced a process of having a manual developed specifically for the Adventist Church, loosely based on the standard training manual used by other denominations. The AUC’s Safe Place Services have coordinated it, and the NNSW Conference recognises the contribution Safe Places Services have made to the development of this manual.”

Safe Church Training will be rolled out around the conference over the next few years. “During the next two to three years, all church members who are in church leadership positions will be obliged to participate in the course,” Bob says. “This material brings the Adventist Church up to the level of other churches who have already developed their own manuals and implemented its contents through the training of their own members.” The Safe Churches Training Manual was previously officially launched at Big Camp in the Big Tent on Tuesday, 4 October. The Reverend Peter Barnett, who oversaw the partnership to create the manual, took part in the launch and ran training for a number of sessions in the Family Ministries Tent, which showcased the program. Reverend Barnett spent a day working with the NNSW Conference to seek information on how to make the source material of the manual more specifically Adventist, and used the Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual and input from the NNSW Conference to create an Adventist-specific product.

Pastor Cousins became involved in the training because of his involvement with Family Ministries and being a member of the NNSW Conference’s Safe Places Committee. “I like that the emphasis is not simply about child safety,” he says. “It has a more general approach that looks at safety in churches as a whole. Jesus’ approach was to care for people, and I believe this training fits in well with the notion of a loving, caring church — I believe this is the heart of what church is about. We don’t want to scare churches with the roll-out of this program, as it’s not an impossible ask. We have three years to implement the contents of the manual, which is quite do-able."

Pastor Pratt agrees that churches shouldn’t find the roll-out of the program intimidating, as they can go at their own pace over three years to achieve the recommendations. “I look forward to seeing the positive changes it will bring to our conference and churches as we work together to make NNSW an even safer and more welcoming conference. Change does bring challenges, which can be confronting, but these changes are necessary.” He adds, “It was really very exciting to be involved in the first program. It was pretty well received, and I look forward to seeing it roll out around the conference.

Safe churches means churches are free to minister to all people, especially the vulnerable in society, which is really following the example of Christ. Protections are put in place for those in leadership, those who attend church and children.” Dallas O’Connor from Safe Place Services says, “We thank the North New South Wales Conference administration and leadership for their enthusiasm and willingness to commit time and resources into working with Safe Places to develop the Adventist version of the national template.” 
More information is available from www.safeplaceservices.org.au