California,
permit the usage of the state system for screening pastors and staff
at a church. TAP
was designed to fulfill and supersede the requirements of each state
to make each church and school able to deter frivolous and even
predatory law suits
TAP is the necessary tool to combat civil litigation by maintaining
ethical standards above and beyond the requirements of ‘Due
diligence’. ‘Due diligence is defined as simply the
effort made by an ordinary, prudent, or reasonable party and/or
organization to avoid harm to others. Failure to make this effort
is considered negligence. Criminal and Civil Defenses require the
illustration that the party and/or organization took every reasonable
precaution to prevent harm to an alleged injured party.
We know that some among us have had problems with the law, both
criminally and civilly, before being saved. We are not so much interested
in prior criminal or negligent activity, however, ‘Due Diligence’
and proper ‘Accountability’ requires the efficient,
recent reporting of ongoing problems that may affect pastoral and
ministerial responsibilities with the potential for civil litigation.
The purpose of this project is to identify, prevent and hold accountable
ourselves and our leadership. Accordingly, we aim to:
- Confidentially
identify potential problems
with regard to a pastor’s/minister’s past and, more
importantly, recent criminal or civil history, and/or verification
that a pastor/minister is accountable to any criminal or civil
problems.
- Prevent
the hiring or continued employment of someone that has
had a serious undisclosed criminal or civil problem.
- Hold
pastors/ministers accountable
to deal with ongoing problems with the assurance our pastors/ministers
will know that criminal and/or civil information will be revealed
in a timely manner.
The Accountability
Project will be implemented by Background Check International, a
branch of National Christian Information Center, Inc., a non-profit
501 C-3 ministry located here in the Logos Building. We will be
conducting voluntary Criminal, Civil and Federal background checks
as well as monitoring the appropriate state sex offender files.
This is important information to have available should any related
problem arise at any time in the future.
The implementation of this project will be conducted in an organized
chain of ‘Accountability’:
-
Regional Pastors will voluntarily submit to a background check
with reports sent directly to CCOF. CCOF will retain the finished
reports.
-
Senior Pastors of Calvary Chapels and Affiliate Ministries will
voluntarily submit to background checks with reports sent to their
respective Regional Pastor. The CCOF will retain the finished
reports.
- Senior
Pastors will submit background checks on their existing staff.
Existing Staff includes, but is not limited to; all new and current
Pastors, Associate Pastors, Assistant Pastors, Facilities and
Office Managers, Elders, Counselors, Ministers, and Missionaries.
The senior pastors and CCOF will retain the finished reports.
In
addition, the program will automatically review and update on an
annual basis. ‘Accountability’ dictates, that if a problem
does arise, the person will admit the incident to their proper authority
in a timely manner knowing the information will eventually be revealed
to the appropriate authority.
In designing TAP we have sought input from a number of pastors,
principles, law enforcement and civil attorneys. One question that
we were frequently asked is, “We already do what the state
requires, why do we need this program?” Our response is that
using the example of California where employees and applicants are
‘Live Scanned’ and the resulting check is about as good
as available in any state it is nevertheless deficient in several
ways. It checks no civil records at all, which is where civil lawsuits
and restraining orders are found and for criminal records it does
not cover arrests or resultant trials where a defendant was not
fingerprinted. And in many cases it does not give a disposition
of the criminal trial. Virtually everyone, including law enforcement
professionals, were not aware of these limitations in the program.
Whenever possible we can use existing (recent) records as mentioned
above to reduce duplication and cost.
In Conclusion, as privileged representatives of our Lord, we are
guided in His service as “the prudent considering well his
steps.” (Proverbs 14:15) May God richly Bless Us.
To view Sample Reports or to order, please go to: The Accountability Project Order Page
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