It could never happen here?

My children must have been about six and ten. The six year-old happily gave up her room for two of them, the other had the spare room.

'They' were three young workers from a well-known Christian organisation who had come to hold a mission in our town along with our church young people. We had a great week - even though they ate us out of house and home!

Later I was telling a non-Christian friend about their visit, touching briefly on how one had been a drug addict and another had been brought up in the atmosphere of big-city gangland. 'Weren't you frightened to have them in the house?' she asked. 'Oh no', I replied blithely, 'they've become Christians and have completely changed'. Which was true and we never had any reason to doubt it.

Our God is great. He can transform the worst of offenders and he builds his kingdom out of forgiven sinners. So surely children are at their safest within a church setting?

Sadly this is not the case. As David Pearson, who with his wife, Pauline, heads up the Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service, said when I interviewed him for EN. 'Actually, churches are the most dangerous places for a child to be. Where else would young children be helped and cared for within the same four walls as convicted paedophiles and child-abusers?'

Those who have worked with such people have learned that though the grace of God can and does transform, nevertheless we are all prey to different temptations and for those whose temptations are in this area the proximity of young children can cause an individual to fall and to sin again.

70% in church

Also, and regrettably, many of these people see 'church' as an answer to loneliness and isolation, and a means to manipulate their way into contact with young children. In a recent survey, convicted offenders after release were asked where they spent their free time: 70% said in church! This is a statistic which can be used to give glory to God - but it should give all of us pause for thought. The Bible is never naive about the effects and consequences of sin, not only on those who engage in it but also on their victims. We should not be naive either.

Sexual abuse, however, is far from being the only issue that needs to be considered when working with older children. It is not even the most widespread. What would your church do in these situations?

What would you do?

After the normal rowdy Friday night youth meeting, one of your youngsters confides in you that she has been abused by 'Mummy's boyfriend' - 'but you won't tell anyone, will you?'

One of your popular and energetic leaders always takes a car-load of youngsters up to the field for games in the summer. It's not far - but one of the mums discovers he has been squashing six or seven children in the back, without sufficient seat-belts. She is horrified.

One of your church members confides that she does not think a youth leader's behaviour with the teenage girls is very appropriate.

One of your youngsters trips and cuts his head badly on the edge of the table-tennis table. The first-aid box is nowhere to be found, a trip to the hospital for some stitches seems to be called for, and you can't seem to find the emergency contact phone number.

These are far from being unlikely situations and each throws into sharp relief the necessity for each church and its youth workers to design and implement a comprehensive child protection policy. If your reaction to such a statement is, 'But where on earth would we start?' then this is where the PCCA can and will be of great help to you. It can also be of great help to you if you have already got yourselves into a mess over one of these issues.

What is the PCCA?

It was founded in 1977 as the Pentecostal Child Care Association, running a children's home in Bristol. In 1983 David Pearson joined as secretary. He had a background in Local Authority Social Services and had a vision for a work that would benefit children not just in the Bristol area but right across the country. He soon found that many churches started to contact him for help and advice in tricky situations often caused by misunderstandings between themselves and Social Services.

In very definite ways God provided a building from which they could operate, money to refurbish it and staff to work in it, and in 1991 the name was changed to PCCA Christian Child Care, with the aim of helping all churches right across the body of Christ.

I interviewed David and asked him a number of questions about their work.

EN: Why are some churches still reluctant to draw up Child Protection policies?

DP: It's often a result of a 'It will never happen here, we're Christians' or 'We're Christians, the Bible says we should sort things out between ourselves' mentality. I would say that the passage in Matthew 18 ('If your brother sins against you... tell it to the church') refers to civil wrongs. Child abuse is a criminal offence which the State abhors and punishes. The church cannot make up its own rules on this, but must be on the same side as the State in declaring that child abuse is wrong and should not be tolerated. Also, if we do not bring in the proper authorities we may well run the risk of being sued for negligence later - and insurance companies will not be very sympathetic.

EN: So, if a church sees the need for developing its own policy, what help do you offer in drawing one up?

DP: We issue a handbook called 'Guidance for Churches'. This information regarding all aspects of child protection is updated three times a year and has a model policy at the back which can be adapted to individual church needs. It is also available on CD. When the church has assembled a rough outline of its policy it can be sent to the PCCA to be checked before going into print.

EN: We tend to think of child protection as dealing with sexual abuse, but this is not the only area that needs thinking about, is it?

DP: The policy should address practical issues such as first aid, having properly qualified instructors when young people are at camp and proper procedures for transporting youngsters, as well as how to proceed if matters of sexual abuse should arise. We also advise churches to keep a log book of youth meetings and record who was present on each evening and any incidents that may have occurred. It is essential that matters of abuse are taken seriously and dealt with properly, as this minimises the damage to the child. We deal with many phone calls from adults who are angry with God because their problem was swept under the carpet by the church.

EN: Tell me about the helpline service you offer.

DP: This is for anybody. It is mostly church leaders who ring us, but we also deal with calls from children, parents, the perpetrators themselves, who may have been accused unjustly, or may be looking for help with their problem.

EN: Do you offer counselling to these people?

DP: We offer a service to the British Isles and beyond. Some of our work is over the internet, relating to missionaries who are working abroad. A lot of our work is over the phone. Obviously the amount of counselling we can offer will vary with a person's geographical location, but we can refer people on, either to a church, to a Christian counsellor, or to their GP, who can set up counselling for them. We have 12 people manning our phones and they are all Christians and professionally expert child protection workers.

EN: Can you say something about your training programmes?

DP: Our basic programme is a seminar called 'Facing the Unthinkable', which we run at 70 centres across Britain every year. These begin with an invitation to us from a local church and we agree to come on the basis that the seminar is open to everyone. It is a four-hour programme with video material as well as lectures and discussion. We also have a video programme which can be presented by an untrained person with the help of accompanying notes. This can be purchased by a church and run continually to train new workers. The video does not date, and accompanying notes are updated three times a year.

EN: You are not only concerned with matters of child abuse, are you? Tell me about your other projects.

DP: We have a project in the Midlands called Chamberlain House, which provides daily and respite care within a family setting for severely handicapped children who would otherwise have to be cared for in hospital. We also provide care and support for adoptive and foster families.

Safety first

Although our church has a protection policy which I am partially responsible for implementing, after a two-hour conversation with David Pearson I was enlightened over many matters I had not considered before. I was particularly challenged by his encouragement to consider the way we teach children the Bible, and how we can actually include in our teaching strategies for helping children develop self-protection skills and ways to make it easier for them to tell things to adults. For example, how do we teach them to obey their parents in such a way as not to entrap them? What if a grown-up, a parent or step-parent tells a child to do something he's not sure about? Can we teach him to check it out with another adult, and encourage him to make a list of safe grown-ups to ask?

We live in a fallen and frightening world - which must seem doubly frightening to an abused and vulnerable child. It seems very sad that children may not be safe even in church. But David Pearson was positive about the work of the PCCA. Criminals are being converted in prison, praise God. If the church is doing its job properly, they will be found in many congregations. We, as responsible Christian adults, must not put temptation in their way and we must protect children in our care. The PCCA is doing a great job in helping churches put the love and compassion of Christ and the saving power of the gospel into practice in all aspects of their work and ministry. Pray God that you will never be in the sort of mess that needs their expertise. Thank God they are there.

Further information available from PCCA at PO Box 133, Swanley, Kent BR8 7UQ, telephone 0845 120 45 50. Email: info@ccpas.co.uk. Website: www.ccpas.co.uk.