Knowing the potential benefits of risk reduction is equally as important as knowing what risks you are taking. By knowing the benefits of eliminating or minimizing your risks, you have a goal to reach for that will not only give you peace of mind, but will keep you driven in managing your ministry to the best of your ability.

Now that you are aware of the risks you may be submitting your ministry to, let’s review the many benefits of addressing these risks.

• Provide protection and support for your most important and valuable asset—people. 
   

• Safeguarding the reputation of your church and ministry and ultimately God’s reputation. When an incident occurs at a church, the community will struggle to see beyond the negative. Preserve the reputation that has been worked so hard to achieve.

• Prevent the loss of membership or potential members. With the loss of members is a loss of their tithes and offerings.
   

• Preserve the potential loss of a child’s trust in God. In the case of child sexual abuse, the long-term affects on a child can be the loss of trust in people and often a loss of trust in God.
   

• Keep your ministry on the positive side of the news. Any type of negative incident or even an accident can draw the attention of the media which can make it very difficult to recruit members or volunteers due to the publicity.

• Decrease the possibility of litigations and lawsuits that take valuable time away from important ministry work.
   

• Preserve ministry dollars for the actual ministry and not for costly attorney fees.
   

• Maintain the confidence of your members in your ability to manage. An incident can cause members to lose confidence in the church and could in turn then believe their children are at risk. It can take years to repair the damage and some churches never recover. In some cases the damage causes church splits that never regain the momentum in ministry they once had.
   

• Take fewer risks and you may potentially reduce insurance costs. Fewer risks equal fewer incidents and then lead to fewer insurance claims.  
   

• Gain the security of having additional protection through increased Sexual Molestation insurance coverage. It doesn’t mean you believe anyone in your ministry is likely to commit the crime. This is simply a means to protect your ministry from the travesty of a crime that can commit incredible damage to both people and the ministry.
   

• Gain confidence in knowing you have conducted due-diligence in reducing risk to your ministry.

You know the risks and you know the benefits. Now find the answers to the questions you have...