Part 5: Better Safe than Sued.

Years ago I used to have my youth staff read the book Better Safe than Sued I should probably restart that practice as I now have a much larger staff. This issue is what I consider one of my bigger peeves in ministry. We've all heard stories about Youth Pastors doing incredibly stupid things with students. I've personally heard/seen students riding on the tops of cars, being drug behind boats, jumping over fire and even having pumpkins thrown down a hill at them Thanks Don

Over the years I have done a ton of fun stuff with students but I've also pretty much always taken the high road when it comes to safety. The Executive Pastor at Bel Air Pres always said about me that he never once questioned if I would make a safe decision with students because I'd proven time and time again that I would always make the right choice when it came to safety.

This doesn't mean we didn't have a ton of fun. We rafted, rock climbed, snowboarded, caved/spelunked and a ton of other great stuff but we always did these activities with the right boundaries and safety measures in place.

I hate to use the age card but I'll use it here. It's usually people who are younger that do a lot of not smart things in youth ministry. My goal with my current youth staff is to help them always make the right decisions. Because.....who wants to get sued?

Part 1. Parents can either be your best friends or worst enemies.
Part 2. You won't like every kid and every kid won't like you.
Part 3. Perceived vs. Real Needs.
Part 4. Learn to Say you are sorry.

Comments

[Don]

I don't know that I would've been creative enough to come up with "Bowling for Bryan" on my own... but after Jason & Bryan had already braved the waters, I figured it was my duty. But I still feel good about what we did, being safe with the KIDS - while I was willing to step out and do some risky stuff myself, I always had the highest regard for kids safety - like the time I flipped out on a few JH boys for messing with their seat belts. I don't think they ever saw me lose it like I did when I turned around to see them criss-crossing their seat belts in the van.

My favourite line to use: "I just don't want to have to explain to your parents how your head got separated from your body." That usually ended most discussions.

[Don]

Just to be clear - the kids threw pumpkins down the hill at me - they stood behind a wrought iron fence and were never allowed down the hill - much to their disappointment.