ChurchSafety

This download is designed to bring awareness of the dangers that come with worship production and to offer practical advice to reduce the risk of such accidents occurring. Taking safety precautions seriously is vital to the well-being of your building and congregation. Here are a few simple tips that will help you maintain a safe production arts ministry.

• Use fire-retardant material. Lights create great effects. However, when someone using the church sanctuary wants to combine decorative fabric with lights to set a mood, like at a wedding or stage production, they're creating a big safety concern. Make sure all of the fabric on stage comes with a certificate from the manufacturer that says it is either chemically or inherently fire-retardant.
  
  
• Get expert advice. Take advantage of industry professionals to train your staff on how to properly install and hang speakers, theatre lights, and other heavy decorative features of the sanctuary.
  
  
• Maintain quarterly inspections. A walk-through inspection of the entire church, and especially the stage or worship area, should be conducted regularly, preferably at least quarterly. The inspection should focus on three areas: ignition sources, fuel sources, and responding to a fire.
  
  

• Assign appropriate tasks. Because volunteers come in all ages, be sure the tasks you assign are appropriate for their age and physical abilities. Just as seniors should not be climbing ladders to hang signs from the ceiling, minors should not be allowed to handle chainsaws or other heavy equipment.
  
  
• Appoint a safety supervisor. Unfortunately, many project workdays are not well planned or supervised. Be sure to appoint a safety supervisor—someone who will assign and oversee all jobs that are delegated to volunteers.
  
  
• Check a volunteer's medical coverage. Volunteers aren't covered under workers' compensation statutes. So if a volunteer were injured while working for your church, medical coverage would be available only under your church's general liability "premises medical payments" policy, which consists of $500 in primary coverage. The balance is available on an excess basis (typically $5,000). It applies after the volunteer's medical insurer has made payment. Because your premises medical payments insurance is limited, you should ask potential volunteers about the medical coverage they carry.
  
  

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