Date: 15 November 2022
Safeguarding is at the heart of God and therefore at the heart of the Gospel. We are all made in the image of God and so every person has God’s stamp on them – He sees each unique individual as precious, loved, his treasure. Scripture is littered with passages where God commends his people to care especially for those who are widows, orphans, and strangers. As God’s people we are to ensure the safety of those who are vulnerable, in distress and most disadvantaged.
Since caring for vulnerable people is at the heart of our Scriptures, it is a disgrace that not only has the church often failed to adequately care but has also allowed abuse and neglect to take place on our watch. Jesus himself gave the sternest of warnings to those who fail to care for those who are vulnerable. It would be better for us to have a large millstone hung around our necks and to be drowned in the depths of the sea than to cause those little ones Jesus cares for to stumble (Matthew 18:6).
The church, you, and I, must do everything it can to heed this warning and to remove stumbling blocks for children and other vulnerable people experiencing Christian compassion. We must engage purposefully and wholeheartedly with theology and safeguarding, ensuring they underpin all our ministry to all people and the creation of the safer places that they expect and deserve.
Safeguarding is something that all of us need to take seriously, we all have a responsibility to children and the vulnerable. This is not simply about ensuring that we have all the right policies and practices in place, as vital as that is, but it is about us as leaders leaning into our responsibility to actively find ways of shaping a culture of safeguarding and creating safe places in our communities.
I long that we would move from a mindset that feels that safeguarding is in some way imposed on us from above to shaping a culture where safeguarding is naturally in the heart of all that we are and do.
Safeguarding is essential because it is at the heart of God, it is for all of us to embrace and is about creating a culture of safety for all.
Proverbs 31:8 says: ‘Speak out on behalf of the voiceless, and for the rights of all who are vulnerable’.