Drafting a Crisis Response Team

Put this task force in place today, before the crisis comes.

Dennis Kasper

Crises are inevitable, but too often, church leaders are unprepared to respond effectively. Having a crisis response team in place goes a long way toward ensuring you’re prepared to handle any emergencies. Here’s how to form your team:

1. Choose your players. Members need to be mature, well-respected, and able to drop everything to dedicate themselves to the process in times of crisis.

Your team should include:

a pastor
a member of the board
several excellent communicators
a prayer leader who can direct an intercessory prayer team.

2. Assign key positions (one person per position, and only one position per person):

a chairperson (not the senior pastor)
a communications spokesperson who is made accessible to the entire congregation for questions and concerns
liaisons to each involved person or party.

3. Give the team authority, and allow them to act quickly:

to coordinate legal response
to communicate to the church, the general public, and media
to design a plan for further investigation
to set up counseling for those in need.

This article originally appeared in Leadership Journal.

To learn more about crisis communication, purchase the downloadable resource Communicating in a Crisis, available on ChurchLawAndTaxStore.com.

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