Having pastored two churches in the past where serious cases of child sexual abuse occurred — both prior to my tenure — I have become a stickler for the adoption and implementation of policies that serve to protect children from predatory parishioners and clergy. In the earliest months of my tenure at Parkview Baptist Church in Arlington, TX, I led our congregation to implement a “Policy For The Prevention Of All Forms Of Abuse, Including But Not Limited To Sexual Abuse and Child Abuse.”
A team of church members drafted the policy with my direction, and the church voted to unanimously approve the policy. Every person who works with children in our church has undergone a thorough background check, and our ministry staff is scrupulous to check sex offender databases regularly to familiarize ourselves with sex offenders who live in our immediate area.
Should you wish to read our policy, you can find it here.
I hope this helps others address the growing crisis of child abuse.
The Baptist Blogger 
What provision would you make for situations, parallel to Durham/Duke, whereby a pastor is falsely maligned by allegations whispered? As Wade B said elsewhere, “How do you unring that bell?”
Some in the SBC leadership have found it useful to “nuke ’em,” casting false aspirstions on those they oppose politically, using this, the dreaded A-word (abuse).
What would be an appropriate response to an unproven, or unprovable, allegation?
Brother Ben,
I have read the policy. As a matter of fact I commented on it at Dorcas’ blog. It is a good policy and one I suspect my Personnel Committee will see. Thanks for the background work.
Blessings,
Tim