As a volunteer or even a paid part-time worker, getting young people (teens) to work at church can be a great way to involve them in ministry. But there are some precautions that you need to be aware of and that you should define in your guidelines.
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Is There A Minimum Age Before A Teen Can Assist In Ministry? While maturity and experience can vary by age, establishing a minimum age requirement helps to ensure consistency for those assisting with children at church or church related activities. If you are employing a minor, the Fair Labor Standards Act generally applies to churches and based on FLSA restrictions, the youngest age that a child could be considered for employment by a ministry would likely be age 14 so this is an ideal basis to use that as your minimum suggested age.
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Can An Older Teen Supervise A Class At Church? Teens under the age of 18 should never be left in charge of other minors. Best practices require teen workers to work alongside at least one screened adult supervisor. The adult should not be a parent or relative. It is always extremely important that at least one adult be present if minors are used as volunteer workers in a program or activity involving minors. Ideally, two trained, unrelated adults who have cleared the church’s background check and application process are preferred so that if one of the adults must be absent temporarily, the other will be there.
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Can My Teenager, As An Experienced “Babysitter” Watch Over Other Kids At Our Home Group? The same rules that apply to the care of minors at your church should extend to all church-related activities, including church Home Groups. Never put your teen or someone else’s teen, in a supervisory position alone with other minors. Also, having more than one teen helping does not alter anything, you would still have a minor(s) supervising other children.
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Best Practices Tips!
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Teens generally act as “helpers”, assisting with children, cleaning toys, and assisting leaders rather than taking primary responsibilities. Diapering or check-in should not be delegated to a teen worker.
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Understand that while you can technically run a background check on a minor (with parental consent), it’s rarely effective because juvenile records are sealed.
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Use a comprehensive worker application similar to one you use for an adult worker.
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Require teens to attend volunteer orientation to learn about safety policies and emergency procedures.
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As should already be your policy, ensure doors have windows and that rooms are visible.
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Set clear guidelines, such as restricting cell phone usage, arriving on time, and never removing a child from the room or to a secluded area.
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As an additional safeguard, obtain two to three reference letters that may have an opinion about the applicant’s suitability for working with minors.
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You might even consider contacting local charities that work with youth such as the YMCA, Boy/Girl Scouts, etc. and ask them what screening they use for teen workers and make a written record of such contact. If you base your screening policy on these community organizations, you will greatly reduce your risk of liability.
