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Ministry Insider: Facility Use Policies That Reflect & Protect Your Mission | ADF Church and Ministry Alliance | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Ministry Insider: Facility Use Policies That Reflect & Protect Your Mission
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Core Theme
This content is a webinar discussing facility use policies for churches and ministries, emphasizing the importance of aligning these policies with their core mission while managing associated risks. It introduces a framework of four levels of facility use restriction, from most to least restrictive, and provides guidance on developing effective policies.
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Greetings, Church and Ministry Alliance
members. My name is Marcus Harris,
member engagement director for ADF's
Church and Ministry Alliance team. And
on behalf of our team, we want to thank
you and welcome you uh for joining us
for this exclusive membersonly live
stream on facility use policies that
reflect and protect your mission. Now,
before we jump into the content today,
let's begin with a word of prayer. So,
Father, we thank you today for uh all
the ministries that are represented here
uh the members of the church and
ministry alliance. And God, we just ask
that uh as we discuss this topic today
that you would just provide these
ministries with clarity uh and uh just
confidence to continue to live out their
missions to um touch the members of
their of their respective ministries,
but also to reach out to the community
as well. And so, Father, we just pray uh
for just your wisdom. Uh and God, we
thank you uh most importantly for your
son, Jesus, and for giving us salvation
uh that we may have eternal life. So,
God, thank you for this day. In Jesus
name we pray. Amen.
Now, members, as you probably are well
aware, uh facility use is a big deal. uh
and is actually one of the most frequent
questions we receive here at the church
and ministry alliance. It can be a
powerful tool uh for your mission or can
also potentially be a resource of
confusion and conflict and even present
some legal challenges. Now today we will
walk through the main approaches
ministries are taking when it comes to
facility use. We'll also talk about the
tradeoffs at each step and also provide
you with practical safeguards to help
you craft policies that protect your
mission. Now, to accompany our live
stream today, we have a a recent uh uh
brand new resource, I should say, on the
facility use guide uh that we created.
And we're going to link uh that uh we're
going to provide a link to that facility
use guide in the chat. You can also
access this guide and a sample facility
use policy on our membersonly site. If
you need help accessing the membersonly
site, we want to encourage you to please
email us at churchalliance adfleal.org.
Once again, that email address is churchalliance
churchalliance adfleal.orgg.
Now to introduce our esteemed guest
today and two wonderful attorneys uh who
serve our church and ministry alliance
team. Uh let me introduce to you Valerie
Londano and Patrick Piccolo. Uh Valerie
serves as senior counsel here for the
church and ministry alliance team and
she also serves as deputy director for
CMA. In addition, Patrick Patrick uh
Piccolo, he serves as legal counsel and
he also serves in the same role as
deputy director of the church and
ministry alliance team. Patabal, thank
thanks for joining me today.
>> Thanks Marcus. Happy
>> absolutely. So let's jump in. We got a
lot of talk talk about when it comes to
facility use policies. Uh and you know
there's there's different approaches
that churches and ministries take when
it comes to facility use. So Val, I'm
going to present the first question to
you. Uh what are some of the different
perspectives on facility use you've
heard from members? Uh you know in the
guide you talk about you know these four
different levels of restriction for
facility use. So we'll love for you to
unpack those different levels for us.
>> Yeah absolutely. You know I I know I can
say this speaking on behalf of Pat
because we have long conversations about
facility use. We are so excited to
present this new guide for our members
um because we've just learned from
experience over the last set of years
talking with hundreds of members.
Facility use as you mentioned Marcus is
a frequently asked question that comes
our way and we engage weekly with
members one-on-one on these issues.
There are a lot of unique aspects to it.
But one thing that we're excited about,
one element of the guide that we put
together very thoughtfully and very
prayerfully and intentionally, we hope
will help you, whether you're a church
or a ministry, to do the deep work of
discernment about how God's best calling
you to use your unique facility. So, we
have a slide that illustrates um one
section of the guide that that spells
out these four different levels that
Marcus Marcus mentioned. You'll see it
looks like an upside down pyramid. So,
I'm just going to walk quickly through
the levels, but take a note of that
arrow over there to the right, that
arrow pointing upwards. This is designed
in a way just to help you understand in
context that as you travel up the
levels, and you may or may not, it
depends completely on the discernment of
your unique um church or ministry. We'll
talk about that in a minute. Um, but as
you journey up those levels, starting at
level one, which we would view to be the
most restrictive approach to facility
use strategy, note that the risk
increases. And by risk, we mean legal
risk, also some practical risk of just
bumping up against different issues,
whether it's h having to do with a rest
restroom usage issue, which we'll get in
we'll get into later in the webinar. Um,
we put we say this not to scare you off
from getting to level four. If you feel
that God's calling you to use your
facilities in a way that's the most open
um, open doors come one come all is what
we've labeled that level four as you see
at the top. By all means, we're here to
support you and encourage you to take
those steps of obedience to what you
feel like God's calling you to do with
your unique facility. But this chart,
this graph, and then the concept of the
levels is really designed to help you
have a framework and have us help us
have a framework to talk with members
about what type of facility use strategy
and philosophy that you want to use for
your unique property. So starting at the
bottom, that level one, this would this
were calling members only. So, I realize
that concept um translates most um
directly to a church audience where you
have typically a defined category of
members. You're either a member of the
church or just an attendee. Um that's
another conversation you could get into
more in depth, but assuming that you're
the type of church or ministry that has
members, that level one is going to make
a lot of sense. That's going to look
like a traditional church that only
wants to open use of its building for
its members. So, for example, you're
going to have your Sunday worship
services. Of course, there's an element
of come one, come all to that, right up
at level four where um the doors are
open to anybody that wants to attend.
But now we're talking about Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday through Saturday. Um
are your doors opening again and for
what purpose? And so, level one would be
kind of reserved for those churches that
decide to only open their doors during
the week to their members. Maybe they're
hosting Bible studies or small groups or
a children's service on a Wednesday
night. That's a common thing we all know
about. Um in a school context or in
another type of ministry context, a
pregnancy center or a rescue mission, of
course, that level one is not going to
be as relevant, but I just wanted to
note um that's what that means.
Journeying up to level two, um this is
what we're describing as mission aligned
only. Um, this would be in indicative of
a church, for example, that feels that
they do want to open their doors on that
Tuesday through Saturday space outside
of their Sunday worship services um to
some outside groups and some outside
users, but they don't want to go so far
as to level four, come one, come all.
Um, but they're they're using a good bit
of discretion at this level two to
missional aligned only groups. So, let
me walk out a quick example. Let's say
you're a church of a particular
denomination, a Baptist church. We have
a lot of Southern Baptist members, of
course. Um, then maybe you would decide
that for your property, it's open to
your church, your members, level one.
So, we're building on that, but also any
local SBC churches that are also within
the same denomination. That might be a
decision that you prayerfully discern
works for your church at level two. Um,
probably the most common I'm guessing
for those on this call is going to be
hanging out up here at level three,
which we've called any non-contradictory
users. Um, let me walk out a few
examples of that. Um, again, looking at
a church facility because it's kind of
an easy concrete thing to get our arms
around. Let's say you have a church
building. You're of course open to all
on Sundays for your typical worship
services. You have some membersonly
event throughout the week. Um, but also
you want to open up to some local
groups. Let's say you have a local
knitting group of an elderly community
and they just need a classroom to sit in
on Thursday night to do their knitting.
Um, and you might decide that that's a
use that you want to open your doors to.
Um, more frequently recently, we've seen
churches following the trend of opening
their doors to host homeschool co-op
groups. where maybe you have a
collection of parents not only with not
only members level one but also some
outside community members coming in to
join that homeschool co-op um and their
mission aligned you feel at level two
but also they're not contradictoring
they're not they're not contradicting
anything about your beliefs or your
values. Um couple other examples just to
keep walking that out. Let's say you
have a local antihuman trafficking group
and it's junior high girls from the
middle school down the street and they
want to use a classroom during the week
on your facility and you decide that
that's an acceptable non-contradictory
use. Um that's a few examples there. And
then we've talked about level four
finally a little bit. We call that the
come one come all level. Walking a
couple examples out under that level.
Um, you might have a church that's
decided that they want to engage their
community in special additional ways.
For example, being an official polling
location during the elections. And at
that time during that season, they're
opening their doors quite widely to
anybody in the community. Come one, come
all, cast your vote. Um, and they want
to be of service in that way to their
local community. Some other examples
might be um a relevant one for this
month in October, a trunk or treat type
of a program at a church and you've
opened that up on a Saturday perhaps to
the entire community, the whole county.
Come one, come all. Um and then there
could be other community events. Maybe
you've got a large gy gymnasium. There's
a um church where I live that host a
youth basketball league for kids,
including mine. We don't attend that
church, but we go there on Saturdays for
the basketball games. So those are some
examples to lay out the levels and then
we'll go more in depth from here.
>> Yeah. And Val, I know that you would uh
highly encourage like prayerful
discernment for each church and ministry
on how they decide to, you know, which
level they would would enter into. So uh
could you maybe describe for us uh how
you would encourage churches and
ministries to decide what level uh they
they want to be at, what or want to
enter in on.
>> Absolutely. Yeah. First things first, we
do, you hit the nail on the head,
Marcus, we encourage prayerful
discernment because after all, you're a
church or a ministry or that that's what
distinguishes you from the business down
the street or a public school down the
street. So, first and foremost, you'll
see some language in our guide and
introductory pages. We talk about the
absolute importance of, you know,
whatever your leadership governing body
looks like, whether there's a board or
maybe a pastor or a president or a CEO.
Um, taking some time to do that deep
work of prayerful discernment,
evaluating the facilities you have. Um,
every property is unique. And I've
talked with some churches that have a
building that has a big kitchen that
could be really suitable to host, for
example, a soup kitchen. That would get
you up to that level four. and you might
feel really called as a local church to
reach the homeless population in your
community and to do that service. And
so, um, but that it all depends on the
design of your facility. Um, the type of
offerings you have within your unique
property. Um, and then really start
there with the prayerful prayerful
discernment. And the reason we emphasize
that so much, Marcus, is because we were
noticing, um, sometimes members were
coming to us and they the first thing
they want to know is what's the bottom
line? What's the legal risk? And we want
to really make sure that while legal
risk is of course important and Pat and
I as attorneys were here to talk about
that every day all day, we'll help you
flush out the legal risk. We never want
to scare a church or ministry away from
what God's calling them to do and how
God wants them to reach their community.
So really this chart um is designed not
to be one of you can see the even the
color scheme. not a green and a red
analysis of oh no more legal risk don't
do it. Um we want to start at the
starting point. How how how are you
discerning God's calling you to use your
property in a unique way and then let's
evaluate the legal risk from there and
decide whether that risk is an appetite
you're willing um to take and move
forward. Pat, would you add anything on
to that?
I I completely agree and I don't have
have too much additional to say on top
of that. Um but I think that's that's
the threshold question is really what do
you believe about property ownership?
What do you believe is good, wise,
prudent stewardship of your ministry's
property in light of what God asks of
you and who God called you to be? And
different ministries are going to land
in different places and that's okay.
This isn't to say, "Oh, that ministry is
right or this ministry is wrong."
Because we're all called to work
together to build the kingdom of God.
Um, and we're trying to use all of our
resources, everything available to us to
do that. But we want to be deliberate
and make deliberate theological
decisions rooted in our mission about
how we're going to how we're going to
open our facilities, how we're going to
do X, Y, or Z. That's always a threshold
question. But to your point, Val,
downstream from that, there's always
going to be practical considerations.
And I would fully appreciate that
leaders of a ministry are going to say,
"Well, a really important part of my
discernment of wise stewardship is going
to be understanding the risk.
Understanding the risk that I'm taking
on, that the ministry is taking on when
I make a decision." And I think that's
absolutely true. We just don't want to
excise theological discernment from the
kind of panoramic view of considerations
that a ministry is going to take into
account. But definitely there's going to
be down you know there's going to be a
variety of considerations as Val pointed
out as the arrow um in the chart shows
the more open you are the more risk you
take on. That's how it is in basically
every c almost every category. the more
open you are are the more risk you take
on from a legal and a practical
standpoint. Um which isn't to say it's
wrong. It's just a reality to take
account of. Um as you kind of walk
through this prayerful process.
>> Now Pat you mentioned you know there
there are more risk the more that you
open but can we even get more practical
more specific? What are some of those
risk and actual benefits of each level?
>> Yeah absolutely. So I'm I think if
you're talking about categories of risk,
we can probably break them out into a
few few different groupings. One that we
consistently work with and are
navigating um in our world of religious
liberty is non-discrimination laws. And
the type of non-discrimination law
that's typically going to be applicable
when you're talking about facility use
maybe the most common type of
non-discrimination law is called a
public accommodations statute or
ordinance. Um, so that's one one level
of risk. Um, another category of risk
might have to do with tax liability. Um,
what are the tax implications? You have
a property tax exemption. Um, if you're
charging fees and you're generating
revenue from the use of your of your
facilities, then you have to wonder or
take into account whether there's any
sort of um income tax implication. Um,
and then you have what I would
categorize as just general risk
management. And this is in going to
include things like child protection
policies. Are you having youth events?
Are outside groups hosting youth youth
events? Um do you have a playground? Do
you have any high-risk activities that
are available on your property? Um and
and some of those questions are going to
implic implicate your insurance policy
and coverage questions as well. Um but I
would kind of run run through the list
that way. You've got your
non-discrimination laws, typically
public accommodations. You've got tax
implications, and then you have this big
broad category that we might call
general risk management. All of those
things you're going to want to think
through and gather up based on your
unique circumstances.
And then you want to mesh it with um
your theological discernment of of how
God is calling you to engage the
community and build his kingdom.
>> Got it. Now, let's let's provide maybe
for the for those in attendance and
watching maybe some concrete uh
scenarios. I know that in the in the new
facility use guide, it does offer some
hypothetical scenarios. I think
specifically on page 11. Uh can you talk
about some of those and and yeah, just
give some concrete scenarios on on how
this will how this would kind of work in
each in for different ministries?
Yeah, I'm happy to happy to talk about a
couple of those first and then um Val
can come in behind and pick up the
pieces and correct me when I go wrong.
Um so what I love about these
hypothetical scenarios, I think there's
three as you pointed out Marks on page
11 is answering these questions, it's
not about they're not trick questions
and they're not a trap. It's not like oh
you know you got that hypothetical
wrong. Uh they're genuine prompts for
discernment. uh answering these
questions is going to help elucidate for
you which level um in that upside down
pyramid uh you actually fall into. Um
sometimes in the abstract it's hard to
say, oh I think I'm at level two, maybe
I'm at level three. Um I should note the
levels are on a spectrum. It's not like
you could there's you could
theoretically be in the joints in
between two of them. Um they're just
kind of a general picture of categories
you might fit into. Um, but these
hypotheticals are prompts to help you
discern with a bit more clarity where
you actually fall because sometimes it's
hard in a vacuum to really know. So one
of the examples that actually comes up
with some level of frequency um from
members is imagine you have a scouting
organization, a local scouting troop
that wants to use your facility and uh
the scouting troop seems great. Uh but
they're attached to a national
organization that you know holds beliefs
contrary to yours and possibly even
promotes beliefs contrary to yours. um
are you going to host them or not? This
question comes up a lot and the answer is
is
what do you want to do? What do you
think is the right answer? How would you
want to respond to that? Sometimes you
can have a a ministry say we really
think we're a level three. Any
non-contradictory users, as long as they
can, you know, agree that they're not
going to contradict our beliefs when
they're using our facility, we're good
to go. Then they come to that
hypothetical um and they say, "Oh,
actually associating with that
organization feels problematic for us
because in one way or another, we feel
that's going to negatively impact or
undermine our public testimony to the
community. Doesn't have to be a scouting
organization. Some of the other examples
um other hypotheticals provide, you
know, different different scenarios
where a similar question could come up.
Um, and then you're thinking it's
actually that we don't want to associate
or open our facilities to organizations
whose purposes and mission or something
central to their purpose and mission
directly contradicts our beliefs such
that associating with them is going to
undermine our mission. Well, that's
helpful. That's really helpful
discernment. And when you're working
through those types of scenarios, it can
help guide the articulation of your
policy. what the what the actual
boundaries are um around the use of your
facility. So that's I mean that's one
example. Another one I think in there is
uh imagine that a a Buddhist group or
some other religious tradition wants to
use your facility for um something
innocent enough like a birthday party um
or uh you know a a gathering of some
sort. Um is this is this a problem for
you or not? because they hold beliefs
and does that analysis change if they're
going to be promoting those beliefs in
some capacity. Working through those
questions is going to help you identify
where the pressure point is for your
ministry, where you really feel like if
this happened, we believe we'd be
failing our stewardship responsibility
by not utilizing the uh resources
entrusted to us by God's generosity for
his kingdom. This is where that line is.
And once you've identified it, you can
begin to craft your policy artfully and
tactfully around that discern. I know
Val, would you add to that?
>> Well, I think I think you covered it
really well. Yeah, those hypotheticals
on page 11, those are ones that come to
us not infrequently as you mentioned.
And I think the point to underscore
there, Pat, is that there's no right or
wrong answer. This really is an issue of
discernment and there are some
implications of legal risk that attend
each one. But we really we always want
to emphasize the first things first is
the you know spiritual discernment
process you want to do. You let us know
after you prayerfully consider what do
you want to do and we'll help walk you
through the legal risk and some
potential strategies to mitigate the
risk should you decide to move forward.
>> Great. Now Pat, you've already mentioned
uh uh different risk and the scenarios
were great. So you mentioned public
accommodations, tax implications, sh
safety, insurance. Um Val um as you know
when it comes to public accommodations,
one is one of the biggest concerns
churches and ministries have uh you know
the concern of being asked to host a
group or event that directly contradicts
that belief. So, how would you advise
churches and ministries to think about
the risk of public accommodations?
>> Yeah, absolutely. If you track any of
our litigation up to the Supreme Court,
you'll notice that there's a theme
there. The public accommodations laws
have sprung up to become problematic um
for Christians and Christian
organizations in various states. I think
the point to emphasize with public
accommodations is first, what is it?
It's a type of law or regulation that um
is going to put additional layers of
obligations and legal burdens on places
that meet that definition of being a
place of public accommodation. So, let's
educate a little bit about where you can
expect these types of laws to pop up. Um
starting at the federal level, remember
we've got a dual a dual system going on.
So, you got to look at the federal level
and the state level. The good news is
there's not too much to report at the
federal level that's of concern when it
comes to being um categorized as a
public accommodation at that point.
There are a couple of nuanced areas that
you want to look at more carefully.
Especially, I would add if you're doing
overnight housing accommodations, rescue
mission, maybe even a camp um type of
thing. There could be certain housing
related laws that are implicated. So,
not quite the same as a public
accommodation, but very similar concept.
So please talk to us if that's of a
concern for you in your context. But
typically if you're a church, your
school, you're listening, not too much
to worry about at the federal level. So
now let's zero into your state. You
know, where are you located? At the
state level, um you could see some
states impose a sweeping public
accommodation um legal framework on the
entire state. More commonly though, and
what's often overlooked is going to be
these regulations and ordinances that
crop up at the hyper local level. So
getting really granular down to your
city commission, county commission or
city council, however, you know, if
you're in a township, however it's
organized locally, um if you're talking
with one of us about a live facility use
issue, it's more often than not going to
be playing itself out in that very
localized context within your county or
city um jurisdiction. So, it's very
important. I think that's it's a good
point to keep in mind that um you know
you might think you're in a state that's
relatively friendly on a state level
towards churches and ministries. Um but
it's always important to examine at the
very local level to be aware of who are
the local leaders in your community. Um
and what type of appetite might they
have at this current election cycle that
we're in? um to sort of go after
churches or ministries and try to sweep
them up into a maybe broad
interpretation and application of a
public accommodations law. Um how can
that be problematic? For example, um
there's a couple of categories of legal
protection that can be folded into
public accommodations laws. For example,
sexual orientation and gender identity.
um if you are in a locality where that
is implicated and if your building your
facility could meet the definition of a
place of public accommodation, you want
to be very aware of that. Um some public
accommodations laws, they all look a
little different. So, we've got to get
in there and evaluate the context
individually every time we're looking at
one of these issues. Um sometimes there
are exemptions that are built in to the
actual law. For example, maybe for a
church, there might be an outright
exemption and then that's great.
Sometimes there's no clear exemption and
you're just working with the definition
itself and trying to determine how is
that definition applied in your locality
and could you meet the definition. If
you're a church doing typical missional
things that a church would do, our
position would be that typically a
church should not be triggering a public
accommodations type of law or
regulation. But like I said, we do have
to look at it closely. If you're a
ministry or let's say you're a rescue
mission, you're very open to the public.
You're you're serving a function in the
case of rescue missions that essentially
um replaces or duplicates arguably a
government function um to house and
clothe and shelter the needy in the
community. Um that you can definitely
get tangled up. The risk increases to
get um folded into these public
accommodations laws. So awareness is the
key. Um Pat, anything you would add on
the public accommodations front?
>> No, I think that's it. It's just be be
attentive to where you are. I often uh
use example of Joseph when he comes out
of Egypt with Jesus and Mary. Um and
he's like, "Oh, Archelaus is in power
here. I'm going to like he's just he's
attentive to the dynamics in the
community and the precise context that
he's in." And when we're shephering our
own, you know, ministry families and
communities, we just want to be
attentive. Um, and as as you pointed
out, Val, these statutes,
they can follow a similar pattern. Um,
but the way in which they're interpreted
or likely to be interpreted or the
precise language that's used can
certainly shift depending upon your
location. And sometimes a ministry can
think, oh, I'm in this area that feels
very comfortable and safe to be a
Christian ministry. Um, but your
locality might have some laws that
you're not aware of or some ordinances.
And it's it's helpful to be aware that
there's federal, state, and municipal
law, all of which apply to you. Um, and
and you should just be cognizant of what
those dynamics are. Um, but it's uh it's
idiosyncratic. It's hard to speak about
broadly. Um, other than that, you know,
the general, you just got to look what
it says and look at your circumstances.
>> Great. Now Val, let's let's address some
of the tax implications. I know a lot of
churches and ministries worry about
their 501c3 tax status. Uh and so could
you maybe uh explain how could a wider
use of their facilities risk property
tax or e or either their income tax status?
status?
>> Yeah, absolutely. So, we won't get too
deep in the weeds here on that, but I
think the broad concept to be aware of,
and I like the word attentive that Pat
used, I'll borrow I'll borrow on that.
Um, to be attentive to the reality that
when you start using your property in
certain ways, and specifically the easy
test to ask yourself is, are you
charging a fee for anything at your
property? Let's say you're running a
local the trunk or treat example I
mentioned recently. If you're charging a
fee for admission, $5 ticket entry, you
know, look at that. And let's say you're
running a church that has a coffee shop
in the front and you're charging for
lattes and cappuccinos before the
service. Um, or maybe a little bookstore
and you're, you know, you might just be
charging wholesale. But regardless,
there's a variety of contexts where you
might be charging a fee. Let's say
you're hosting a wedding and you've got
a reasonable fee that you charge for the
use of the facility and to chip in for
maintenance cost and all those things.
Um, those are all scenarios that do
trigger a variety of tax implications.
And we just want to encourage you to
make sure that you're working closely
with a qualified CPA, an accountant,
somebody on the financial side who's
helping to manage your tax exposure to
make sure that you're filing the right
forms, that you've got a good strategy
in place, then and you're aware of
what's tripping the trigger for what.
So, the um, yubit is a common phrase,
unrelated business income tax. um is
that it's not that you can't do it, but
there's a way you should have a good
strategy in place for how to manage it
and how to how to manage the compliance
elements of that. That's one element of
tax implication. Another main element
would be looking at your state or even
local property tax exemption um
framework uh where you want to know and
be secure in your awareness about
whether you qualify for an exemption and
on what grounds and is the purported use
of your facility um potentially
compromising your ability to access that
benefit. So, I won't get too much more
in the weeds there than that, but we do
um help members frequently, you know,
look into those issues at a high level
and then encourage you to consult with a
tax professional as needed.
>> Great. Uh Pat, a huge issue. You've
already talked about it. Uh it it comes
up when it comes to child safety. It's a
big concern for churches and ministries.
So, what are some of the considerations
uh uh church and ministry leaders should
take when it comes to child safety?
Yeah. So, I want to answer that. I just
had a thought to piggyback what Val was
just saying.
>> Please do. Go ahead.
>> Jump in on that real quick. Uh I And I
think with all of those risks, it's not
like there's public accommodations, tax
implications. There's no silver bullet
to these things. Particularly in some of
the tax frameworks, you're talking about
digging into the nuances of either the
tax code or your local statutory tax
exemption. And there can be a lot of
nuance there. However, as a very general
concept to help mitigate all of those
risks to some extent um that threshold
discernment we talked about of hey
anchor your decision about how your
facility is used in a theological
discernment and how this is
substantially related to your religious
mission and your religious purpose. how
it's designed and based on a discernment
to affectuate your religious mission.
That threshold discernment well
articulated in your documents and your
policies is only going to help in each
of those contexts. Uh again, not a
silver bullet, doesn't eliminate risk,
but it's only going to help. And so
while we emphasize at the beginning,
hey, this theological discernment is
good because we don't want to forget
about it in the mix of all the
considerations a ministry is taking into
account with stewardship, property
stewardship. Um, it also has a benefit.
It also has a a downstream impact with
helping to mitigate uh some of these
risks. So no silver bullet, but it does
help to anchor yourself there um with
with all those risks. Then you have
child safety. And I, as mentioned
earlier, I would cabin this under
general risk management where child
protection is a particularly important
aspect of that risk management which
deserves special attention. Um, and when
you're talking about child protection
um, policies that in regard to facility
use, I'd say there's maybe two initial
levels of questions. First, do you host
youth events internal to your ministry?
So, for a lot of churches and
ministries, the answer is going to be
yes. Particularly churches, you might
have a youth group, Sunday school, other
children's ministries. Um, and so
identifying, okay, we are going to have
internal youth events at our property.
Then you're going to want your own
internal child protection policies. And
you're going to want to think about how
do we document which children were at
what events? Um what kind of ratios do
we need? Are there certain parts of our
facility that are going to be off limits
to youth events because they're not
conducive to openness and clear sight
lines. Um you want to you want to train
everybody on um mandatory reporting
obligations and maybe you're going to
have even higher reporting obligations
than what's statutoily required. Um,
these are all considerations you're
going to want to have internal to your
ministry. The second level would then
be, okay, are we going to allow outside
groups to have youth events on our
property? Are we going to let that
organization host a youth event on our
facilities? And if so, what expectations
are you going to impose? Um, are you
going to push down your old your own
child protection policies? Um or perhaps
uh perhaps it's even more prudent to
require them to have their own and maybe
meet some minimum um standards such as
hey, you can't be in these parts of the
property. You can't have overnight
events. Um you have to make sure you're
minimum maintaining this ratio of child
to adult. you know, there's different
ways that you can kind of either push
down or require outside youth events to
comply with some minimum standards and
maybe have some of their own as well.
But the point is, do you want to take on
that risk um as part of your ministry in
your mission? And if so, make sure
you're taking steps to account for this
um really important really it's an
important part of just good good
stewardship of the ministry generally
but certainly is um an important risk an
unfortunate but important risk factor um
for churches and ministries today as
well. Um, and then I would say, you
know, you have a whole collection of
other general risk management questions
um that are going to be having to do
with what kind of um activities are on
your property. Does your property have
water? Do you have like a giant pond um
that's in the back of your church? Um do
you have a massive playground with a
huge rock wall? Um, and if so, who's
allowed to use it under what
circumstances? Um, you might want to be
talking to your insurance company and
understanding understanding what's
covered. What kind of coverage do you
have? Is there anything that's excluded
from your policy coverage with regard to
third parties? Um, you're going to want
to think about what responsibilities do
I have to maintain these parts of the
property or um keep them off limits to
in some circumstances. Um and and then
there's obviously ways to mitigate some
of those risks like general waiverss and
releases. Um with a third party, you
might require them to indemnify and hold
harmless or maintain their own insurance
policy that covers their use of the
facility. Um there's different ways to
account for this. What I would encourage
you to do is to talk to your insurance
company to understand what your coverage
is and they might even have some
documents or samples that um they prefer
you to use for waiverss, releases, and
things like that. So, that's probably a
good starting point once you've really
understood, oh yeah, we have some of
these risks on our property and we
really want to account for them. Um so
all of that I would put under general
risk management, child protection
internal and external and then um other
general risk management that really
great starting point is your insurance company.
company.
>> Great. Now I know this is a lot of
information you you just received from
Val and Val and Pat. So just a quick
reminder uh we have a brand new facility
use policy guide. uh we can put the link
in the chat and also you can also a
access that new facility use guide and
uh sample sample uh documents and
statements for facility use policy on
the membersonly site. And once again, if
you're having any issues um getting into
the membersonly site, you can you can
email us at at ADF uh ADFurch allian uh
church alliance I should say at
adflegal.org. Once again, Church
Alliance at adfleal.org.
Okay, deep breath. All right, next we're
going to talk a little bit about
policies and procedures. Uh so, Val, you
mentioned the importance of grounding
your discernment about who can use your
ministry facilities in your ministry's
uh religious mission. Can you talk a bit
about how to develop a strong policy?
Yes, absolutely. And you know, if we
were doing this live at a conference,
this is probably when we'd break, do a
little seventh inning stretch break. You
know, I realize we've been kind of
getting deep through these topics, but
we are just so excited about this guide
because not only have we reashioned the
facility use guide in response to the
perceived need of our members and the
amount of questions we get on facility
use, I hope the guide will be an even
greater asset to you as you're working
through these issues within your church
or ministry. But we've also revamped our
templates. So, so if you've been with us
a while, um this is really exciting
because um I want to be clear, there's
not necessarily a right and a wrong way
to approach a facility use policy.
Having one is better than not having one
as long as you plan to follow it. That's
sometimes it's worse to have a policy
and not follow it than but that's a
different that's a whole different
conversation. If you've been with us a
while and you're familiar with our
templates which are linked there through
the membersonly site and um there's a QR
code too within the guide to reach
those. Um you might recall that in the
past we've had one document that kind of
was a one-stop shop and served a few
different purposes. Um there's some
latitude in how you design and craft a
policy, but there are so many good legal
benefits for getting your philosophy and
your framework in writing. Um, and then
there's another layer of benefits with
potentially um, organizing how you
design the policy and how you structure
it. So, I'm going to get a little bit
into the weeds there to help walk you
through. We won't walk through all the
new templates, but if you check those
out and then you have some questions
about it or if you want to do a refresh
on your facilities policy, by all means,
reach out to us. Just put it in the
intake and we'll be glad to connect you
with one of our attorneys. Um, what
we're recommending, and you'll see this
in page 19 of the new guide, um, is to
consider breaking your your policy into
three basic components. So, the first
one, um, would look like an internal
facing policy, one that's just for you,
your eyes only, so to speak, within your
church or ministry. You're not putting
that on your website. You're not putting
out there for the whole world to see.
that's to help guide you and undergard
your reasoning, some of your spiritual
philosophy and discernment for how you
feel God's called you to use your
policy. Um, and and kind of really
touches into the levels. What type of
level church do you want to be and why?
The second document um would be your
external facing policy, the one that's
out there perhaps on your website or
perhaps just as people reach out to you,
you would just email it to them or you'd
have a hard copy at the front desk,
whatever your context looks like. But
this would be um a similar but more um
outward-facing designed policy um that's
set up in a way to help the outside
world understand the parameters, the
philosophy and the process by which you
can apply to um you know have some sort
of limited use of your facility. So that
could look like it could look like two
pieces. It could look like a copy of the
policy, maybe a watered down or
streamlined version of your internal
policy, that first document. But then
also, ideally, um, you would have an
application form. So, if you're running
a type of um if you if within your
levels of your facility you're in one of
those levels that makes makes your usage
open to outside groups or outside
individuals, best practices would
dictate that you'd have some sort of
application and approval process for
that. And then I want to explain with
the application form why it can be very
helpful. Not required. So, don't hear
what I'm not saying. I'm not saying it's
required to have all three of these
pieces. Um but there's an advantage to
having a third piece and that would be
the actual agreement. Um once you've
reached the application phase of the
process and then ideally there's an
approval piece to that then finally the
third step would be to enter into an
actual agreement. And let me just
quickly um Pat, I might be jumping ahead
a little bit, but I was just thinking
about a member I've been working with
over the last few weeks that um there
was a little bit of ambiguity as to
whether the application form constituted
the agreement, but just for example,
just by the submitting the application
and it's returned back to you, does that
put you under contract? Are you
contractually bound at that point? And
there was a bit of an open question
there. So recommendation there for that
ministry going forward is hey there
could be some value to you of separating
out these two pieces to have an
application form that the outside user
fills out submits. Then ideally through
your internal policy you've already
designated you've pre-desated who's the
person or the body of people the group
of people within your organization
that's going to be receiving and doing
the discernment and making the decision
about the application. and then and only
then do you move into the formal signed
agreement which at that point has
contractual um implications. So Pat,
would you add anything to that?
>> I I think that's exactly right. I think
in that application and the outward
facing piece, you're just kind of being
clear maybe in describing the process
for the applicant to say, hey, um this
is an application. this does not an
agreement is not reached until it's been
reviewed and approved and I kind of
outline here's the steps that still need
to happen. Um, and I think writing that
out has the benefit of you knowing, oh
yeah, I have to do these following steps
and that's the point at which I'm
approving it. And also if they know,
okay, I'm just submitting and it's not
until XYZ happens. Um, I submit my
deposit, I receive, you know, an email
confirming and then I submit my deposit
like what are the steps? Um and that
gives you some internal clarity and it
gives them some clarity about what what
is required before they can really rely
on um a sense that they they've got the
facility reserved. So I echo echo that 100%.
>> Yeah. Um, so Pat, you've already kind
you've already kind of touched on on the
kind of the outward facing uh policy uh
and its application uh and what
accompany it accompanies it. Um, now I
know there there are some rules some uh
certain rules of val as well. Uh what
are some of the rules that may be
prudent to consider as churches and
ministries are developing uh these both
internal and outward policies?
Yeah, that's a great question and I had
a conversation yesterday with a church
about that. Um, and it really can be
unique to each church or ministry and it
depends on the type of property you
have. For example, if you have
playground equipment or swimming pool on
the site, you're going to have a whole
set of detailed rules around that. Um,
but I think first and foremost, uh,
which is kind of a running theme that we
have, it's very helpful to ground your
rules in your religious beliefs to
whatever extent you can. Um and then
also the second thing and this was a
conversation I was having yesterday with
a member to not assume that your
religious beliefs um would that there
would be an automatic understanding
based on your beliefs to an outside user
or even an internal [clears throat] user
frankly a church member just because
they know what you believe. Don't don't
make the mistake of assuming that they
know the implications of those beliefs
and that they can predict what specific
rules you're expecting to be followed at
your facility. So, let me give a couple
examples. That church was looking at
should they have some prescriptive rules
around alcohol use on the facility? Um,
and drug use. I mean, that one's a
little bit more clear-cut because there
are other laws um regulating drug use,
too. But alcohol use is a big one.
Especially consider churches that host
weddings frequently and you might host a
reception on your site. Um, and that is
first and foremost a theological
consideration for your governing board
or body to carefully think through what
do you want your rules and parameters to
be there and then write those down. Um,
you might have some ideas about dress
code and what's appropriate on your
facility, especially as you started
opening up to outside users or I'm
thinking about a school context. Um,
you're open up to the football game. Are
you going to have a standard of dress um
in those evening football games that
parallels your standards for dress
during the day? maybe, you know, uniform
or otherwise.
Um, there could be specific rules about
bingo or other types of arguably
gambling related activities on a
premises. Um, use of candles. I've seen
things about no red dye, you know, um
maybe no coffee in the sanctuary.
Churches, that's a big thing. You know,
you're a coffee church or you're not a
coffee church. You know, can you bring
it in the sanctuary? Do you have carpet?
Do you have a hard floor? Um, those are
things that are just of course going to
be unique to you, but it's important to
spell them out. And for the handful of
rules that have some biblical
implications, um, and they really derive
from your beliefs, it can be helpful to
throw in some scriptural support or a
citation for those types of rules, too.
Um, specifically, for example, when it
comes to restrooms, you've got to think
through carefully in this day and age,
especially if you're in one of those
jurisdictions that we mentioned that
might have some laws that are very
protective of gender identity as a legal
category. Um, then you want to think
carefully about the structure of the
restrooms on your site. Are they
multi-stall? Do you have single single
user available? What's your signage
around that? Um, and you might have an
internal policy. Um, and you may or may
not have certain signage that lines up
with that. But it's important to start
with your internal policies, start with
the spiritual discernment, connect the
dots on those things in your documents.
We talk about that a lot to connect your
religious um views and beliefs to any
rules that are specific. For example, if
you have showers, overnight facilities,
private changing areas, multi-stall
restrooms, you might feel that your um
sincere religious beliefs dictate that
the use of those places is going to be
separated by biological sex. And then
you want to think through how do you
articulate that? Where do you spell that
out in the policies? And especially any
contracts or agreements you might have
with outside users coming in.
>> Got it. Now Pat, uh, with those rules
and everything you guys really have just
laid out over the past, uh, uh, the past
hour or so, let's get to this. And we
talk about consistency a lot in CMA for
our members. How important uh, is
consistency in applying this policy and
uh, what are some of the practical tips
to help ensure consistency in making
sure that they that churches and
ministries are applying the policy?
Well, consistency is very important. Uh,
one of the lines we like to say is
consistency is evidence of sincerity.
When you say, "Hey, this is how we see
our property." Um, it's really important
that our property be used this way and
it's really important that these rules
be followed. When you consistently are
requiring that and you're following that
ethos um over time, then it shows it
advinces that you really do believe this
um that you really do mean this and
there really is a moral and religious
obligation that you sense which requires
you to operate in this way. practical
tips for how to achieve that is really
just having very sound processes in that
your policy lives inside of. Um, one of
the things I like to say is that bad
process squanders good documents often.
Um, you could have the greatest most
articulate facility use policy that's
ever been known to mankind. Um, but if
the person who's working the front desk
doesn't actually know how to respond to
an inquiry about using your facility,
then you could end up in a very awkward
situation which could have been avoided
by just a more stable process. So, um,
training your staff in, hey, if you ever
receive a request about using our
facility, um, just say thanks for your
inquiry. here's the application and the
policy and kind of put the onus on them
to meet the requirements that you've
taken time to really thoughtfully
articulate rather than I mean everybody
really wants to be helpful and so the
person who answers the phone really
wants to be helpful that's a beautiful
and good impulse that we want um
everybody in the body of Christ to have
uh but it's also helpful to have some
training and say hey um the most helpful
thing to do in this situation
is to be able to point them in this
direction. Um, have responses prepared
for how you decline somebody. Um, have
it be have people be really wellversed
in understanding that they can't say,
"Oh, yeah, the calendar is wide open
that day. That shouldn't be any
problem." Um, instead saying, "We have a
process. Um, we we're so excited you're
considering our our facility. um fill
out this application and then it has to
be approved by our elder board or by um
ministry leadership whoever is the
decision maker. So clear uh expectations
for the people who are responding to the
requests, clear processes for what they
do with an application and who makes
decisions, clear uh guidelines for how
the person makes the the decision maker
decides whether it's the use is
compatible with your policy. and then um
kind of prepared communications for
responding to that application. Um those
types of thinking through those types of
practical policy uh lived experiences of
the policy is really helpful in just
kind of safeguarding all the hard work
you do and drafting it and then making
sure it's consistently applied over
time. And I would say more often than
not that is um when we've had a had a
member reach out that has tended to be
kind of the the place where there was
maybe um a misstep of some sort was just
oh we we just didn't know um how to
respond to that. So thinking through
process um and having clear expectations
for all those involved is really helpful
in just safeguarding it and and
consistently applying it.
>> Yeah, absolutely. Well, Val and Pat,
thank you so much for your expertise.
Uh, I know there uh members uh may have
some additional questions and we'll give
you some information on how to get in
contact with us once again. But first of
all, members, thank you so much for
attending this webinar. Uh we are we are
so blessed to be able to serve you uh
and to make sure that you're empowered
to live out boldly uh your mission and
continue to serve people with the with
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Uh, a couple
of things. First of all, we want to
encourage you at the end of this, there
will be a survey that will appear. We
encourage you to uh take that survey. It
helps us know how we can serve you
better and provide content that is
relevant to you. In addition, as we
already mentioned, uh the link to the
facility use policy guide. I think we
could post that maybe one more time uh
before we leave. And also remember if
you have any questions about accessing
the membersonly site or uh or anything
um any of the documents or resources
that we have on the membersonly site and
you don't know how to access it, please
contact us at churchalliance adfleal.org.
adfleal.org.
Once again, that's churchalliance adfleal.org.
Um and uh Val and Pat before we go, do
you have any final thoughts before uh
before we let our members go?
>> Oh, I had one um that came to me, Pat,
while you were talking. Actually, I was
glad that you mentioned um I just want
to say a hearty amen to everything you
said about process. Um but I just wanted
to highlight something in the guide at
page 25. Um we've provided for you a
couple of ideas of language you could
consider. is that there's no magic
language, no silver bullet as Pat
mentioned before, but I just want it's
important to me for churches and
ministries to remember that you can feel
empowered by the use of your facilities
that God's given you a space whether you
own the property or maybe you're
subleting, you're leasing a space. Um
this is a sanctified place that God's
given you to carry out your unique
mission and your religious calling. And
we receive um inquiries from members um
not infrequently with um a very
understandable amount of panic or fear
about oh no I got this request and how
do I respond? First of all there's an
opportunity to get ahead of it with a
clear process. So that can eliminate
some of the emotional reaction to it.
But second of all um be empowered feel
empowered. You can say no to request if
you're uncomfortable. Ideally it'll fit
within the fra a beautiful framework
like Pat mentioned. we can help you with
some nice language and organization of
your policy. We've got our templates for
that. But at the end of the day, um if
you need to decline a request, just
remember you don't have to give a reason
necessarily. You can look at some of
that sample language I just wanted to
mention on page 25 to and I would
encourage you to consider um in your
process to have just some generic
language that's already prepared and
consistently used. That might help you
manage um the you know the variety of
requests that you can receive.
Yeah, and I would I would just echo that
and say, "We also want to work with you.
These new the new templates that are
out. Um they're they're annotated and so
there's places where it's like, hey,
this is optional or note, you might want
to consider this." And um there's some
instructions that are describing, hey,
this was written with the mindset of a
level two use based on the guide. Um but
we want to we want to go through it with
you. We want to accompany you in this
discernment process. So, please don't
hesitate to reach out. Um, work with us,
talk to us, and and we're happy to run
through more hypotheticals, think
through it, and then help you um come up
with the language that really meets your
discernment of of God's call.
>> Awesome. Well, members, thank you once
again for joining us today. God bless
you. Continue to preach the gospel with
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