Sexual abuse prevention measures improving but ‘threat is still there’
Craig Carlisle and Melissa Bowen have been central figures for Alabama Baptists in the effort to help guide churches in sexual abuse prevention measures. During the Tuesday (Nov. 12) afternoon session of the Alabama Baptist State Convention annual meeting in Daphne, Carlisle and Bowen shared updates from the past two years of work in the […]
MinistrySafe attorney says Church can’t be ‘accidentally excellent’ in preventing child sexual abuse
Attorney Kimberlee Norris said there is no single legal issue affecting the church today more than child sexual abuse. “We have 750,000 registered sex offenders in our country according to 2023 figures, and one in four females and one in six males has experienced abuse before the age of 18,” she said. “Two-thirds of those […]
Your SBOM Provides MinistrySafe Training
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, your Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) began to provide training and procedures to help churches provide a safe environment for children. SBOM Training Facts Your church can also benefit from this training provided by MinistrySafe with attorneys Greg Love and Kimberlee Norris who have devoted their […]
Facilities Usage Policy
Legal opinions differ as to the necessity of a church policy for the utilization of facilities. However, a proactive way to protect your church against future changes in the law is to adopt a facilities usage policy. If one is to be adopted, the following statement could be considered: “The use of church facilities shall […]
Immigration Statement
The leadership of the State Board of Missions is carefully monitoring the status of the federal government potentially using the Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery as a temporary housing site for illegal immigrants coming into the United States through our southern border. As of this posting, such a decision to use the Maxwell facility […]
Policy Suggestion – Marriage/Weddings
This information is designed to help autonomous Baptist churches think through vital issues and formulate their own internal policies. This resource, like virtually all past and present resources from the State Board of Missions, is not binding on local congregations, which are entirely self-governing. Permission to use this is not required. Download – A Potential […]
Task Force on Sexual Misconduct in Churches
Every Alabama Baptist church is autonomous and each decides for itself how to conduct business. However, some customs and practices do prevail. These are suggestions for your consideration.Suggestions reflect Alabama law. You should contact your legal counsel when creating policies. The Task Force Produced a Report in the Form of Resources to Protect Your Church […]
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday
Our story is not totally unique in that we wanted to be parents, but after six years of marriage, we had not been blessed with children. Then, as now, we truly couldn’t understand why anyone would choose to end the life of a child when all we wanted was to have one ourselves. My wife […]