Church Worker Service Policies & Guidelines Released

Last year the, then, General Church Council (now Board) endorsed the following policies

Church Worker Service

• Pastor Call Process Policy
• Employee Recruitment and Selection Policy
• Volunteer Identification and Selection Policy
• Vocational Development and Training Policy
• Provision of Housing for Pastors Policy

• • Provided Housing Standards
  • Maintenance and Care of Provided Housing Standards
  • Alternative Arrangements for the Provision of Housing for Pastors Standards
  • Template LCA Housing Agreement – Guide only

These policies were not disseminated until we could provide all the resources that congregations and parishes might need to support the implementation of the policies.

These Church Worker Service policies are aimed at providing clear but flexible practices and processes to help support church workers and their calling and employing bodies.  They do not have detailed procedures but we have tried to provide guidelines to help people work towards meeting the expectations.

Please note that where policies exist within entities of the LCA that achieve the same outcomes of these Church Worker Service policies the existing policies remain in place.

The policy documents and the associated guides and resources can be accessed in the Church Worker Support Folder, in the Documents button in the LCA Portal

Our goal is to help you work towards ensuring that all church workers start well, stay well and finish well.

We are working with the District Administrators and offices to start further disseminating this information.

Unless there are other regulatory requirements associated with employment and service conditions (such as a legislated requirement in some states in Australia to have particular Working With Children Checks) these policies are best considered aspirational and something to be worked towards – not something that has to be followed to the letter right now.  We know that these policies ask more of congregations than has previously been expected.  However, we do know that clear expectations support all Church Workers and their calling/employing bodies.  We have been building a suite of resources to support calling and employing bodies and Church Workers so that no one has to start from scratch.  As always we are happy to assist all congregations and parishes particularly and other entities as possible.

Please call or email us if you have queries.