Child and Vulnerable Adult Safety

Children matter to God. Vulnerable adults matter to God. The Saint Paul Area Synod, our collective of congregations and ministry sites, matter to God. This synod chooses to move through the world in a way that takes seriously the value of each person as a beloved child of God. (See our Welcome Statement)

It is our shared responsibility to take Jesus’s life-giving connection to children and the vulnerable among us seriously and to call others into life-giving actions, behaviors, words and accountability practices. We continue to take the posture of student and steward. We will be students of human growth and development, of consistent safety and accountability practices, and partners in justice when it is demanded on behalf of a vulnerable person.

We will be stewards of congregational relationships, of trust borne out of Christian community, and of policies and procedures that are for the sake of the neighbor. We answer this call from the 2025 Synod Assembly as students and stewards so that every congregation in this synod will have a working, functional and consistent policy and procedure for child and vulnerable adult safety.

At the 2025 Saint Paul Area Synod Assembly, a resolution was adopted urging all synod congregations and mission starts to implement and maintain child safety and vulnerable adult safety policies and procedures. The resolution included these action steps:

1. 1. A task force of SPAS be formed to urge all SPAS congregations and mission starts to implement policies and procedures, which include state and local background checks of all those who work with children and vulnerable adults, to safeguard them from abuse. These shall be reviewed and updated every three years.
   2. Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, the Saint Paul Area Synod requires all rostered leaders to undergo triennial training to safeguard children and vulnerable adults, providing procedures and resources to implement this policy.
   3. The Saint Paul Area Synod facilitates this training, making it available to congregations; and that congregations are urged to require participation and renewal of this training every three years by all who work with children and vulnerable adults, maintaining records and procedures to do so.

Many congregations may already have such policies and for others this may feel like a challenge to create. We pray the resources found here will be a gift as you undertake the process of creating and implementing a policy that fits your context and ministry.

Questions? Contact Deacon Krista Lind in the synod office at krista.lind@spas-elca.org or 651-224-4313.