The Safe Church PLEDGE
Church scandals and moral failures have become an all-too-common occurrence today. The sad result has been deep pain and a severe loss of trust in Christian leaders and institutions. If you want to see the line of scandals end and to be a part of restoring trust in the Church, then the Safe Church Pledge is for you!
The Safe Church Pledge is a practical pledge that churches and non-profit ministries can make to create safe environments and avoid the most common transparency, accountability, and protection issues found in public ministry scandals.
By making the pledge, churches show their commitment to creating safe environments for the public and their parishioners. Pledged organizations also show their commitment to being held accountable to these standards by congregants and SAI. All of which increase public trust and proactively address common issues found in ministry scandals.
Organizations that make the pledge also receive training and practical resources from SAI for 18 months after making the pledge. We know that implementing these steps takes time and intentionality, and we want to walk the process with you and provide the support your church needs to successfully create safe environments and increase accountability, transparency, and public trust.
When a church or ministry takes the safe church pledge, everyone wins. The church builds trust with their parishioners and is included on SAI’s list of pledged churches for people looking for safe churches in your area. Parishioners feel more confident in their church leadership and know where to go if they have questions or concerns. People looking for safe churches in their community have a list of churches they can confidently visit. And because churches that make the pledge are significantly less likely to face public scandal, public trust in the Church increases.
Best of all, making the pledge helps your church and its leaders operate above reproach and live out the biblical standard set for us in 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:6-7.
While the Safe Church pledge doesn't mean a ministry can't face scandal or cause spiritual abuse, it is a practical set of commitments designed to make abuse hard to hide and to limit its impact and occurrence as much as possible.
The 3 Categories:
The Safe Church Pledge comprises 16 commitments across three specific areas that safe churches prioritize: Transparency, Accountability, and Protective measures for parishioners and staff.
SAFE CHURCHES ARE:
1) Transparent
2) Accountable
3) Protective
The Safe Church Commitments
Transparent
1) Financial Transparency
Minimum Requirement:
Detailed disclosure of finances to SAI (not public,) including the full budget for the current year and actual income and expenses from the previous year that includes any compensation to board members and the salary and other income for any employees making $100k or more.
Best Practice: Public financial disclosure that is at least as detailed as a 990 form.
- Salary (and other income like housing allowances) of current board members.
- Including top five employees with salaries over $100k.
2) Conflict of Interest Policy and Disclosures for Board Members and Key Employees
Minimum Requirement: A conflict-of-interest policy is in place and officially adopted by the governing body. It is also submitted to SAI for review and available to congregation members upon request.
Best Practice: A conflict-of-interest policy is in place and officially adopted by the governing body. It is also submitted to SAI for review and made publicly available, including public disclosures of any conflicts of interest by governing body members and/or key staff members.
3) NDAs and Non-Competes
Minimum Requirement: A commitment to not use silencing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs,) non-competes for ministers, or any other silencing agreements.
Not all non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are harmful. This commitment focuses only on NDAs that function as silencing tools, which may contribute to spiritually abusive environments by suppressing truth, restricting accountability, or discouraging transparency.
Definition of Silencing NDAs
We define a silencing NDA as any formal or informal agreement used by a church or ministry to restrict a person’s ability to speak freely about their experience. This includes, but is not limited to:
· Severance agreements containing non-disparagement or broad confidentiality provisions that go beyond protecting private member information.
· Employment, volunteer, or contractor agreements that include non-disparagement, non-compete, or silence provisions.
· Employee handbooks or HR policies with disciplinary measures tied to public criticism.
· Agreements that prohibit media contact, social media posting, or internal discussion of church leadership or operations.
· Any document that functions as an NDA, regardless of its label (such as “confidentiality agreement,” “covenant,” or “separation agreement.) The presence of a non-disparagement or broad confidentiality clause constitutes an NDA, regardless of the document in which it appears.
Agreements that require individuals to frame their departure in theological or spiritualized language that misrepresents their actual experience
We also include agreements with coercive or imbalanced terms, such as:
Non-mutual clauses that favor the organization while silencing the individual
Lifetime or indefinite restrictions, including those that apply to spouses or children
Requirements to tell a false or misleading story about one’s departure
Clauses that prohibit disclosing the existence of the NDA itself
Vague or punitive penalty clauses that create fear or confusion
We may also include patterns of informal or unwritten pressure to remain silent when supported by corroborated evidence or multiple sources.
NOTE: Exceptions are made for documents that are solely intended to protect the private information of parishioners, such as HIPAA-compliant counseling confidentiality forms, or documents safeguarding sensitive financial or membership records.
Best Practice: All of the above AND releasing all previous NDAs and non-competes.
4) Disclosure of Affiliations and Partnerships
Minimum Requirement: Public disclosure is made available.
Best Practice: Public Disclosure includes any payments or donations made to partners.
5) Nepotism Protection Policy
Minimum Requirement: A policy outlining how familial relationships among staff and leadership will be handled, including but not limited to:
1) if family members can be hired on staff;
2) how nepotism and its appearance will be protected against in the event of staff hires;
3) how to keep family members from reporting to one another or falling under the authority of a family member in their job;
4) and how the church hiring process will protect against familial appointments and ensure family hires are the most qualified candidate in scenarios where they are hired.
The policy should be made available to SAI for review and to the congregation.
Best Practice: All of the above plus a public disclosure of the nepotism protection policy on the church’s website.
Accountable
6) Governance Structure
Minimum Requirement: The governance and accountability structure for the church is made available to congregants and sent to SAI for review.
Best Practice: The governance and accountability structure for the church is made publicly available, including a public list of all staff members.
7) Governing Body
Minimum Requirement: A complete list of all officers, directors, trustees, and members of the church’s governing body is made available and easily accessible to SAI for review and to congregants.
Best Practice: A complete list of all officers, directors, trustees, and members of the church’s governing body is made publicly available and easily accessible.
8) Independent Governance
Minimum Requirement: At least 2/3 of voting board members are independent (i.e., not an employee, no significant compensation, and no family ties) and local (live in the same city as the church OR within 100 miles of the location.)
Best Practice: 90% of voting board members are independent and local, and at least 25% of voting members do not attend the church regularly.
9) Bylaws
Minimum Requirement: The governing bylaws for the church are updated and made available to congregants and SAI for review.
Best Practice: The governing bylaws for the church are updated and made publicly available and easily accessible.
10) Leave Policy
Minimum Requirement: A policy for paid and/or unpaid leave is adopted for leaders facing allegations of immorality, abusive leadership, or criminal misconduct and is in place and available to the congregation and SAI.
Best Practice: All the above and the policy is made publicly available on the church’s website.
Protective
11) Trauma-Informed Staff
Minimum Requirement: All pastoral staff have completed trauma-informed training in the past three years.
Best Practice: All staff (pastoral and non-pastoral,) volunteers, and board members complete trauma-informed training annually.
12) Whistleblower and Reporting Policy
Minimum Requirement: A holistic reporting policy is in place for the private reporting of sin and abuse concerns that protects the reporter from retaliation. The policy should be made available and easily accessible to congregants and SAI.
Best Practice: All the above and the policy is made publicly available on the church’s website.
13) Independent Investigation Policy
Minimum Requirement: A policy is in place for triggering independent investigations that includes when independent investigations should occur and the process for choosing an independent investigator. The policy should be made available and easily accessible to congregants and SAI.
Best Practice: All the above and the policy is made publicly available on the church’s website.
14) Staff Care
Minimum Requirement: A standard severance policy is in place for terminated employees (including for cause reasons to withhold severance, i.e., criminal activity, immoral or unsafe activity, etc) OR unemployment insurance is paid by the church.
Best Practice: A severance policy is in place for terminated employees that grows based on tenure on staff, and vacation/PTO is paid out upon an employee’s departure.
15) Counseling for Senior Pastors
Minimum Requirement: Licensed counseling is made available to senior pastors on at least a quarterly basis and is paid for by the church.
Best Practice: Licensed counseling is made available monthly for senior pastors and is paid for by the church. Short-term counseling is made available to other staff upon request and on an as-needed basis.
16) Child, Teen, and Adult Protection Policies
Minimum Requirement: Individual and specific protection policies are in place to protect children from abuse, teens from abuse, and adults from adult-clergy sexual abuse. Policies are made available to congregants and SAI for review, and they are reviewed annually.
Best Practice: Individual and specific protection policies are in place to protect children from abuse, teens from abuse, and adults from both spiritual abuse and adult-clergy sexual abuse. Policies are made available publicly, and they are reviewed annually.
To Sign the Pledge:
A church will make two practical commitments to sign the Safe Church Pledge.
The first is to sign the pledge and join the list of churches committing to the 16 Safe Church practices.
The second is a time commitment of 18 months. Every church that signs the pledge will have 18 months to put all 16 of the Safe Church practices in place.
Pledged Churches Will Receive:
All churches that sign the Safe Church Pledge will gain access to purchase training resources (optional) to help them implement the 16 Safe Church practices and provide additional support and training for staff and volunteers.
Each church will be included at no cost on one of three lists on the SAI website to help people in your community find churches that have committed to safe and protective practices. If you are doing the work to create a safe environment, then we want to help people find your church!
Initially, all churches will be placed on the “Pledged” list. Churches on this list will show they have committed to carrying out the Safe Church Pledge and will have 18 months to complete the process and a review by SAI.
Once a church completes the process, it will be placed on either the silver or gold safe church list. Churches on the silver list will be churches that meet the base requirements for the 16 Safe Church practices. Churches on the gold list will be those who have gone above and beyond to meet the best practice requirements for the 16 Safe Church practices.
All three lists will be publicly displayed for people in your community to see. When someone is searching for a church to visit in their area, we will recommend churches on the Safe Church Pledge lists.
Giving A Voice to the Church Body:
Perhaps the most powerful thing the Safe Church Pledge does is it places accountability in the hands of the public Church body. Once a church is on the Safe Church list, anyone can hold them accountable and check the 16 commitments.
This gives the global church body a voice back to help us all walk in transparency, accountability, and protection. As they exercise that voice, the global Church will continue to build back trust with our individual communities around the world.
Frequently Asked Questions
SAI reviews items and documents for compliance, to offer feedback where necessary, and as an accountability measure for churches that are not ready to publicly disclose those items. Essentially, we help the churches to ensure all bases of the pledge are covered and then ensure parishioners and the public that they have met the minimum accountability standards of the pledge.
All documents sent to us from pledged churches will be sent through encrypted file requests and stored in encrypted cloud storage.
If a church cannot commit to a single practice for any reason, please contact us via the contact page. Our goal is always to help as many churches as possible to sign the pledge and commit to safety. If there is a unique circumstance or denominational rule that keeps you from committing to a practice, we want to hear it and will amend your commitment (with disclosure of why) if at all possible to help you overcome the issue and stay in keeping with the spirit of the safe church practice in question. We cannot guarantee an amendment for your church, and we will always disclose any change made and the reason for it, but we want to work with your church in any way possible. Such cases will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis upon church request.
Non-profits in the United States are legally required to complete 990 forms that disclose their top earners and employees making more than $100,000. This is for donor transparency and trust. The only non-profits that are exempt from this are those considered churches. However, the question should always be asked: should the church be more or less transparent than secular organizations?
We believe that part of being above reproach is being more transparent than the world. By disclosing this information, churches inform donors about where their money goes and foster trust among donors, potential donors, and the public. And because many non-profit CEOs and top staff make over this threshhold, donors often will not have an issue with it as along as the list isn't long and the salaries are not lavish.
At the end of the day, this public disclosure allows accountability and promotes transparency. For the majority of churches and pastors, this will not be an issue because so few ministers and church staff earn beyond this threshold. It will, however, dispel the false and often believed notions that pastors make lavish money or are just in it for the money.
By publicly disclosing financial information equal to or beyond a 990 form, churches remove a common club from the hands of concerned individuals. This practice also helps to keep salaries and housing allowances from becoming too lavish in rare cases and shows your public commitment to handling donor finances well.
Your disclosure would simply read that no board members or employees meet that criteria. Very similar to how a 990 form would be completed. Only employees making above that amount would need to be listed.
Familial relationships on staff could be a conflict of interest, but that is just one of many potential conflicts. The nepotism protection policy outlines how the church will handle familial relationships and what steps they will take proactively to keep them from becoming a conflict of interest. The conflict of interest policy doesn't keep conflicts from arising as much as it defines how to disclose them and how to respond when they inevitably arise. So they overlap a little but are overall two very different policies that accomplish different goals.
A conflict of interest exists when a member of the nonprofit board or key staff member has a personal interest that may influence them when making decisions. We refer to it in regard to non-profit laws. So essentially, any relationship, business interest, etc, that could cause a board member or staff member to act in a way that is not in the best interest of the organization and its members would qualify as a conflict of interest. The policy would define that in the specific scope of the church and identify how conflicts of interest would be disclosed.
Yes, there are certain valid use cases for non-disclosure agreements in ministries, but they are very limited and should be handled with great care. The best use for NDAs within a ministry environment is a specific agreement to keep the private information of parishioners confidential (i.e. addresses, contact information, giving information, counseling conversations, etc.) Other use cases, such as protecting proprietary information, could also be valid, although churches rarely have information that should be proprietary.
With any NDA, here are things to keep in mind when considering if they could or should be used. Good NDAs are always specific, limited, and time-bound.
Any NDA used by a ministry should be as specific as possible about what information is protected and why. Broad non-disclosures and non-disparagement clauses are unhelpful, often hurtful, and often unenforceable. For instance, a good NDA might specifically protect parishioners from the disclosure of contact information from users of the church database. A bad and unspecific NDA might prohibit sharing "any information not generally known to the public" or "any information that could embarrass the church."
Good NDAs should also be time bound and as short as possible for the situation. No NDA should be lifelong or beyond a person's life.
And finally, good NDAs are limited. If your ministry needs to use an NDA, limit them. Don't throw a bunch of things into one agreement. What is the minimum confidentiality and scope a person needs to agree to. Limit the agreement to that.
Also, we recommend that NDAs only be used to protect parishioners and never to protect the organization or its repuation. Perhaps the biggest question to ask even with valid NDAs si this: Is this NDA worth the damage it could cause when people find out about it. Often, the answer is no.
So, while SAI and the Safe Church Pledge does allow for some specific, limited, and time bound NDAs in certain situations, we recommend only using them when absolutely necessary and publicly disclosing the type of NDA used and why the church has decided to use it.
95% of the time, an NDA is not worth the potential damage it could cause.
A training and resource fee is paid by churches taking the pledge to cover the training and resources to help them put the 16 Safe Church Practices into place. We know these are difficult things to institute at times and that churches will have questions, so SAI works to provide webinars, live Q&A sessions, virtual training, online courses, and downloadable documents and templates to help you implement the Safe Church Practices successfully. The resource and training fee is a one-time fee that covers all of these resources as well as one-on-one consultations with SAI and accountability reviews.
This fee not only covers training and resources during the 18 months a church is implementing the Safe Church Practices, but it also makes all future training and resources available to Safe Church Pledged churches. It is a one-time fee so that SAI is not beholden to pledged churches and so that it does not create a conflict of interest with SAI holding pledged churches accountable to these practices. All revenue from these fees go directly to training resources for churches and helping spiritual abuse victims heal and re-engage with safe churches.
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