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Mennonite Church USA’s Safe Church ministry is strengthening its commitment to ensuring safe spaces for all members by offering background checks (mennoniteusa.org/background-checks) for church employees and volunteers through an agreement with Safe Hiring Solutions.
“Background checks are important and necessary to protect our faith communities, especially children, youth and vulnerable adults,” said Nancy Kauffmann, interim director of Church Safety at MC USA. “They allow the church community to move forward with more confidence, confirming that their employees and volunteers do not have any previous sexual or criminal convictions,” she explained.
The new comprehensive background check package from MC USA’s Safe Church ministry offers three key benefits for congregations: thoroughness, a trusted screening provider and a layer of confidentiality for the employee/volunteer.
MC USA’s Safe Church screening package includes checks at the county, state and federal level, specifically:
- Social Security number verification
- National Sex Offender Registry
- National Criminal Database
- Arrest Alert Pre-Search
- County Criminal Search (looking back seven years)
- Federal Criminal Courts (regional database searches)
“Not all services or packages provide the same level of protection,” Kauffmann said, explaining that less expensive options may only cover federal or state searches. “We strongly recommend that all background checks include county-level searches for maximum protection,” she added.
Kauffmann said MC USA evaluated several other leading screening firms before selecting Safe Hiring Solutions. “We were impressed with Safe Hiring Solutions’ in-depth screening process and extensive experience providing background checks to more than 5,000 churches, schools and volunteer organizations across the U.S.,” she said.
If a Safe Church background check reveals something problematic, MC USA staff notifies the congregation of any red flags and, upon request, will share the full report with the candidate. This also provides more confidentiality for the applicant than if the church contracts with a vendor directly.
The cost for a Safe Church background check ranges from $28-$74 per inquiry. Everence offers a Safe Church Grant that can help eligible churches cover or defray these expenses.
According to Kauffmann, implementation of background checks aligns with MC USA’s ongoing commitment to promoting a culture of transparency, accountability and inclusivity within its congregations. All credentialed leaders in MC USA undergo background checks as part of its Ministerial Leadership Inquiry process.
For more information about Mennonite Church USA’s Safe Church ministry and its background check services, visit mennoniteusa.org/background-checks.
Safe Hiring Solutions’ leadership team has decades of experience in law enforcement, criminal records, security and technology and are routinely invited to testify or advise policymakers on best practices in background screening. The company is based in Danville, Indiana.
Mennonite Church USA is an Anabaptist Christian denomination, founded in 2002 by the merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church. Members of this historic peace church seek to follow Jesus by rejecting violence and resisting injustice. MC USA’s Renewed Commitments state the following shared commitments among its diverse body of believers: to follow Jesus, witness to God’s peace and experience the transformation of the Holy Spirit. Mennoniteusa.org
Written by Camille Dager.
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