Dear Workers, Elders and Friends,
Good evening. The attachments are the CSA Information, Child Safe Policy, and Workers’ Code of Conduct documents (The CSA Information document was first sent out almost a month ago).
These three documents are the three that we have been developing with the help of professionals, friends and workers over the last seven weeks. As the names indicate, these three documents are dependent upon each other, with the first being educational, the second outlining policies for CSA matters, and the third presenting outlines for proper conduct (actually for both workers and friends). Please encourage everyone to make time to understand each document– there is a lot of material presented, and it is important for the safety of our children. We appreciate everyone’s effort and time to be advised and aware, to do your part in protecting the children and vulnerable among us.
Elders, please forward this email with attached documents to all responsible people in your meeting. Also, anyone may feel free to forward this email with attachments to any other responsible person that would like to have it.
For any that would like them, here are three links to these documents online, with the latest versions if/when there are updates:
CSA Information: https://tinyurl.com/CSAinformation
Child Safe Policy: https://tinyurl.com/ChildSafePolicy
Workers Code of Conduct: https://tinyurl.com/WorkersCodeOfConduct
Thank you to the many that have helped with this process. And thanks for all your prayers.
With gratitude and care, Rob
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Some workers and friends have not obeyed God’s code of conduct regarding children spoken so clearly thoughout the Bible. Why would they obey a code of conduct written by man? The Workers’ Code of Conduct (for CA, AZ, HI, NV) contains requirements such as not viewing “pornography depicting children” and not exposing your “private parts” to children. Thinking or even discussing this type of behavior is repulsive and disdainful to most people. Jesus taught in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John how precious the children are and that they not to be harmed in any way. Since workers preach on The Gospels the majority of the time in gospel meetings, they should certainly know this.
Max, I’m surprised at your questioning of this information. Just because something seems common sense doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be listed, as it always is on any contractual agreement, terms of service, employee regulations, etc. It’s simply a legal step to cover all bases in case of allegations, which is long overdue in our present day and expectations.
This is not for the godly but the ungodly among us. How can we be so arrogant to think that there would never be ungodly people who are very good at appearing godly amongst godly people? Time and time again in the scriptures, there is evidence of the tares among the wheat. The Lord is the one who takes care of the tares, not the godly. This is being done to make it very clear to ungodly people that they cannot hope to get away with things any more. This has to stop, and the overseers are doing the best they can right now to send a very clear message to anyone who would be a grevious wolf among the sheep. Acts 20:29. This is nothing new that there are grevious wolves among the sheep, and yes some of them have been overseers, workers, elders, friends, relatives. But it will no longer be tolerated! Isn’t that how things should be? We move forward and improve.
Amen. And well said, The real truth. Laws have always had to be created so that the godly could have a bit more freedom in an ungodly environment. That doesn’t mean that’s what God wants of us. Paul said the entire levitical law could be summed up in this, that “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”. And yet he also went on to give a serious amount of advice about how that looked. They told Jesus that Moses had allowed for divorce in the law, and Jesus said, God allowed it for the hardness of their hearts. It was a protection for the woman, actually, since in that day men had all the power. But what God really wants is that he can write his laws on our hearts. There has always been a remnant. Our way of worship is a magnet for those that would abuse the system. That doesn’t mean the way is wrong, even if only a remnant is right. But when the remnant needed more protection… God stepped in time and time again and what a wonderful faith we can have in Him as a result. Because the iniquity will be abounding [in the church], the love of many will wax cold, but he that endures to the end, the same will be saved. I think if people read those verses in Mat 24 surrounding this quote, it’s quite clear that Jesus is addressing church issues. So if it’s the end times now, I feel an urgent need to maintain my love in spite of issues. No that doesn’t mean I take the part of the abuser in any way, be it CSA/SA, emotional, financial, etc. But they are not going to affect my integrity and make me have a bitter heart. That’s just letting them abuse me further. Addressing and dealing with such problems, though, that is a part of love because love doesn’t enable. Love understands things happen and love is willing to meet out the proper discipline so that the abuser doesn’t get him/herself into worse condemnation. A proper perspective changes so many things, and helps us to address things that must be addressed in a way that we don’t lose our own soul in the process.
@The real truth – I’m sorry to pop your bubble, but ALL in the ministry (if they chose to ever remove predators to begin with) plan to allow them all to come back. Because, the Overseers over THEM have demanded such. Until WE the people DEMAND these evil kings to step down, this will become the ‘Religion of the Pedophile and Rapist’. There’s absolutely not one piece of scripture (unless you find something you can twist and take it of context) to support having Overseers in the first place. I asked Richard DenHerder, and his pathetic response was “well, we think there is”, but he could provide NO scripture. Because there is none.
The best course of action: the ministry be dismantled, and the Elders come together and decide what should and shouldn’t be. The Elders in Jesus day and time were the law enforcers of the church, and we can see in the scripture where the ministry went and got Elders and they - together, went to address a problem. Because, those in the ministry could point out a problem, but had NO authority to DO anything about it. That’s not in their job description. They were sent to FEED, and heal those who were blind and sick. That’s it. They were to bring the Spirit of Peace into our homes (including the land/homes of those who had/have convention grounds – because that is private property), and raping and molesting our children are not part of their job description either. So, allow them to go get married, and stop this insane ‘celibate ministry’, they can have jobs to support their homes (as John and Peter would have).
Agreed!
Thank you very much for your clarification. Since this is legal step to cover all bases in case of allegations, the church may need to organize like other religions and register with the US Federal Government. Benefits would include total transparency, history, hierarchy, assets, financial holdings, past and present CSA cases, etc. A benefit for the friends would be tax deductions for their cash donations and knowing what the money would be used for (just like all registered churches are required to do). Again, thank you.
I agree with the financial transparency but I don’t think the ones holding the bag are ready for that. It would open up a bigger can of worms than DB. Who agrees with that statement? Am I being bitter?
No – you not being bitter at all. If Dean Bruer had been required to be transparent with the funds he was using, he would not have been able to rent the Best Western hotel rooms.
As Educate points out, this is a legal step to protect the overseer(s) and in my opinion does nothing to protect our precious children.
I think people are extremely naive if they think Dean B would have been unable to sort himself out with a hotel had he been held accountable.
Dean could have very easily got 500 dollars in cash and booked a motel. He could have got a donation for 500 cash and kept 200 and declared 300.
The only way you will change it is if money can only be donated centrally which means even more control…
Control, I totally agree with you, more regulations tend to hurt the honest and give the dishonest more ways to hide. For myself when it is laid on my heart to donate to the work or others in need, or even at times the homeless on the street, I have learned my best way to do it is to give in good faith and believe people at their word. Distrust only hurts myself and gives me anxiety. But if God moves me to give, then I’m giving in obedience to Him, not to judge the receiver. They have to answer to God for what they do with what they’ve received. I in fact like the way money is taken care of, much in secrecy. It holds every single person accountable before God. If a pair of workers receive money and one is honest about it and one is not – that’s on the one, not on both. We had so many crazy regulations before, that came in from other churches. Now all of those churches have moved on and we are slower to do so. Why go backwards? Regulations are what got us into the East Coast-West Coast situation. Love sets double standards – love makes me more strict with myself so as to not hinder others but makes me more patient and merciful with others. Love always knows the right way to deal with wrong things. Love marks things wrong so that they can be made right, Love sets boundaries, and is willing for whatever is necessary for the saving of the soul. Love will be the only thing that can reunite the East and the West. I believe that with all of my soul and it’s always in my prayers.
I realize I jumped too many tracks on this one. Regulations that I was talking about that we had too many – I said other churches have moved on and we have been slower to do so. It is true that it seems that most churches have moved on from strict dress codes etc. But regarding organizational regulations to do with finances, etc, which is what I had been writing about, I cannot think that they have less regulations, especially in these days. I still prefer the way it is now for the reasons I stated above, but I know that there may come a time when things have to be more regulated for the sake of legality or too much abuse. But I hope not.
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Also some of the other comments here – I have to admit I cringe when I hear workers talk about the church in the home, ministry without a home, and other such things that we proudly do. And that we don’t have a name. I love all of these things, but it sure looks funny when you have to admit there are a lot of exceptions. I can’t say I hear these things spoken about as much as I used to though. I love our little groups and I love that there isn’t any central regulations. I just don’t know if I could bear if we end up just like any other church.
Just not sure that Love and the Spirit worked that well keeping some of the overseers, workers, and friends from CSA, so not too sure that some can be trusted with large amounts of cash. If the church had a structure, credit cards and checks could be used for donations and a receipt provided. Plus, Anonymous said the church does have a name. If this is true, then the church is legally required to provide an annual statement to the IRS that lists all donations and expenditures so that they can determine what is tax deductible. Do not think Dean’s hotel room would qualify, especially not his quests.
We wanted to will our estate to the church and asked the overseer who should be listed in the will – he directed us to a friend in the state that was in charge of a trust fund. Since we did not really know this guy except seeing him at convention, we decided to a name trusted worker instead. He then turned out to be a fraud, so we changed the beneficiaries to non-church people. If the church had a structure, we would not have had to slip around the US law and would have assurance that the funds were doing to the church.
Met to say guests, not quests. Never did too good with spelling.
Max, wow it sounds like you and I assume your wife are very generous. I’m sorry for your very disappointing experience. It really leaves a pit in your stomach and heaviness in your heart when you realize you have given money/time/assets to support a cause only to find out that it was used for purposes that did just the opposite and caused a lot of harm. We know that this is an issue in the world and we would like to think that love and the in dwelling of the Holy Spirit would overrule. But even when I wrote that in the earlier text, I know that love is a personal choice everyone has to make for themselves based on their own circumstances. But I do believe that love gives us the power to mark things wrong so that it can be remedied. Because love is concerned about the other’s salvation and doesn’t want them to fall into further condemnation. IMHO. To me this has been really important to help me to protect my own heart and have the courage to address things that I felt guilty calling out before. I know I am easily taken advantage of because when someone expects something of me, my nature is to feel like I am obligated to fulfill it, like somehow it’s my fault that I led them to believe that I would want to do it. Being a people pleaser is a recipe for disaster and requires coming up with a lot of other recipes for the sake of overcoming the guilt of not fulfilling the others’ expectations of me.
Max, we are registered as “Christian conventions” in the US. It’s how ppl can be conscientious objectors in wartime. I’m not sure how that plays out with transparency of finances, etc.
Thank you – was always told that there was no name except for maybe “Jesus”. Even heard that said from the platform on numerous occasions. No name and no founder. Thanks for the information.
Max, please email me at garner.shaned@gmail.com