LAKELAND — At the 1999 Annual Conference event, the Florida Conference is being dared to share Jesus. On April 10, approximately 40 people from across the conference attended the first Disciple Training Day and learned how to do just that.

Participants in the half-day training, sponsored by the Conference Council on Ministries’ Discipleship Ministry office at First United Methodist Church here, could attend two of eight classes offered. Taught by conference ministers, the classes covered beginning or improving ministries targeted at various age groups, as well as beginning and funding after-school programs and reaching new groups in the community.

Every 15 seconds in America, a child is abused, according to Ann Williams, director of the Child Development Center at First United Methodist Church, Pompano Beach. Williams, who has been trained on the denomination’s General Board of Discipleship’s “Safe Sanctuaries” program, presented several case studies of child abuse within church settings and information on how child abuse in churches can be prevented.

She said local churches can evaluate themselves to identify areas of weakness in their child abuse policy and should consider a number of factors. Does the church:

• Screen employees and volunteers who have significant contact with children or youth?
  
• Train workers and volunteers on the nature of child abuse and how it can be prevented?
  
• Have a clear policy for reporting and responding to suspected incidents of child abuse that conform with state law?
  
• Educate parents and children about recognizing and reducing the risk of child abuse?

Williams also identified several steps churches can take to minimize the risk of child abuse in church schools, preschools, Sunday school and youth groups.

• Institute a two-adult rule, ensuring there are always two adults with every group of children. This can also protect the church when someone is falsely accused of abusing a child.
  
• Run a background check on anyone who will be working with children.
  
• Educate church workers about child abuse and its prevention.
  
• Require a minimum length of membership before someone is allowed to work with children.
  
• Make sure there is visibility into every children’s classroom.
  
• Have someone randomly monitor classrooms and children’s activity areas.
  
• Make sure child abuse policies are updated and that someone in the church is responsible for maintaining and enforcing the policies.

With the 1999 Annual Conference Event’s focus on sharing Jesus, the class taught by Hutchinson provided practical information on reaching younger people in the community. Along with information about the differences among generations today, Hutchinson showed class participants how to lead and facilitate a workshop on the creation of a vision for ministry to new groups.

She says churches should first answer the following questions before they put their proposed ministry into action:

• Where do we want to be one year from now?
  
• What are the main pillars we want in this ministry?
  
• What is impossible to do now that would fundamentally change this ministry for the better if it were possible?
  
• What changes need to happen for the “impossible” to be a reality?
  
• How are we going to get there? Set goals for one, three, six and 12 months in the future.

Churches should also be prepared to present the Gospel in new ways, Hutchinson says. She suggests church members role play interaction with outside groups and offered the following scenarios of situations they may encounter:

• The group you are working with is deaf and you don’t know sign language. You need to share the Gospel without words.
  
• The group you are working with doesn’t understand anything about love. You cannot use “love” in any of your explanations.
  
• The group you are working with doesn’t understand anything about sin or consequences. You cannot talk about Jesus dying for our sin or taking our place.
  
• The group you are working with grew up in a very traditional and liturgical church and won’t be receptive to anything that sounds like what they heard as children.