Insurance Updates for Enhanced Safety
Our Mission Statement tells us that, as followers of Jesus, we live “in Christ’s love.” Recently, we have had to consider what it means to live as people of Christ’s love, considering changes in insurance coverage and our commitment to the safety of people that share in our ministry.
As Doug Fell conveyed in his Q1 Financial update, in late November 2024, we received notice from our existing insurance carrier, Church Mutual, that they would no longer insure WPC when our policies expired on Jan 29, 2025.
The insurance markets are very tight right now, and the age of our building, coupled with the many activities we have involving minors (i.e. the preschool, infant/toddler care, Sunday school, children’s activities and youth activities), makes insuring us a challenge. We also operate a church van, which adds to our risk profile. In the end, we succeeded in securing insurance coverage with Selective Insurance, with coverages, limits and deductibles essentially equal to what we had with Church Mutual.
However, Selective conveyed that our Vehicle Safety Policy (VSP) and Mistreatment and Abuse Prevention Policy (MAPP) were deficient and needed to be brought up to their standards by April 30th. That has been accomplished, but the implementation of these policies will be quite rigorous, especially for certain volunteers. We will share more information on this topic in the weeks ahead, but for now, let me say, all changes that are asked of us have a common purpose: to protect the safety of everyone who participates in any WPC-sponsored event.
God loves us all, and we all love our children. In our love for them, we must be willing to do what is needed or required to keep them safe. In this instance, certain volunteers and staff will be required to do more compliance work, both initially and along the way, for each church-sponsored activity. At times, this love-grounded purpose could get lost in any emotions that kick in over certain compliance requirements, especially for those personally affected. Therefore, I ask us to keep in mind the words “in Christ’s love” and “safety” as we journey with these changes together.
We intend to publish a summary of the VSP and MAPP requirements on our website as well as the full VSP and MAPP documents. If you have questions about either of these policies in the upcoming months, please feel free to contact me or Doug Fell.
With peace and grace,
Pastor Matt
The insurance markets are very tight right now, and the age of our building, coupled with the many activities we have involving minors (i.e. the preschool, infant/toddler care, Sunday school, children’s activities and youth activities), makes insuring us a challenge. We also operate a church van, which adds to our risk profile. In the end, we succeeded in securing insurance coverage with Selective Insurance, with coverages, limits and deductibles essentially equal to what we had with Church Mutual.
However, Selective conveyed that our Vehicle Safety Policy (VSP) and Mistreatment and Abuse Prevention Policy (MAPP) were deficient and needed to be brought up to their standards by April 30th. That has been accomplished, but the implementation of these policies will be quite rigorous, especially for certain volunteers. We will share more information on this topic in the weeks ahead, but for now, let me say, all changes that are asked of us have a common purpose: to protect the safety of everyone who participates in any WPC-sponsored event.
God loves us all, and we all love our children. In our love for them, we must be willing to do what is needed or required to keep them safe. In this instance, certain volunteers and staff will be required to do more compliance work, both initially and along the way, for each church-sponsored activity. At times, this love-grounded purpose could get lost in any emotions that kick in over certain compliance requirements, especially for those personally affected. Therefore, I ask us to keep in mind the words “in Christ’s love” and “safety” as we journey with these changes together.
We intend to publish a summary of the VSP and MAPP requirements on our website as well as the full VSP and MAPP documents. If you have questions about either of these policies in the upcoming months, please feel free to contact me or Doug Fell.
With peace and grace,
Pastor Matt