Podcast Episode #436
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Legal expert and lawyer Josh Bryant joins us to discuss the five most important legal issues facing churches today.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- Church security is way more detailed than who should carry a gun.
- You’re way more likely to have other types of security issues at your church than you are to have an active shooter.
- When a church’s bylaws are not followed or they are a mess, there is potential for major legal issues for a church.
- Churches need to make sure they have the right type of insurance coverage and the right amount of insurance coverage.
The five legal issues we cover on this episode are:
- Church Security Issues
- Bylaws in Disarray
- Property and Zoning Issues
- Insurance Disputes
- Child Protection and Mandated Reporting
About Josh Bryant
Josh Bryant is the Managing Attorney at Church General Counsel. He seeks to help churches bolster church growth and ministry needs with legal compliance and best risk management practices. After earning his Juris Doctorate from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, Arkansas he spent five years as a litigation attorney. Only a month into his legal career, God saw fit to call he and his wife into ministry. They spent the next five years preparing for that before he became the Pastor of Adult Discipleship at First Baptist Church in Rogers Arkansas. He did that for around five years but also spent a significant amount of time helping his and other churches with the legalities of operating a church. He now does that full time, helping churches and pastors around the country grow their ministries with the law.
Episode Sponsors
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Feedback
If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Becoming a Welcoming Church.
In my home state, New York, by merely forming and designating members of a “security team” churches may be in violation of the law, merely by that. Each state has its own policies and a church MUST check that out before taking any step toward establishing a team.
You are absolutely correct. At a basic level, I’m constantly telling churches to hire an off duty law enforcement officer or private security company to handle violent incident risks. This is also why I usually advise calling it a church safety team or emergency prevention and response team. There is so much more than just carrying a gun (which each state does differently). Are there hazards, debris, or slick surfaces that need to be dealt with? How do we respond to a fire? Severe weather? Medical emergency? Do we have enough AEDs? All of these things need to be considered and planned for, and having a volunteer team of first responders and others with proper training is usually a good idea.
Thank you for the great information. We have established a church safety team for our campuses and some of the teams are armed. We also utilize volunteer medics and nurses for medical emergencies. The team member who carries a weapon either as an off duty LEO or NM State CCW carrier have to qualify with their firearm yearly. The basic defensive tactics refresher is also mandatory along with CPR and First Aid training. We have recently established proper insurance coverages through Brotherhood Mutual and extesinve written policies and procedures for safety directives. This took years in the making but we improve as God directs.
We base our ministry on the Book of Nehemiah and Chronicles. God bless and thank you for all that you do
Hi sir ur suggestion tribal area church pastor attack non Christan people to help me legal advisors