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Victims Support through Church Burning Response
Seven Important Tips To Remember
1. Stay Together and Trust Each Other. Find temporary shelter and continue to worship.
2. Do as much as possible try to keep the service as it was. Do not allow the church burning to affect the order of worship any more than it has too.
3. The church family must commit to stay together, unified and guided by the goodness of God's grace and mercy, especially through tough times. Do not allow the church burning to create the kind of problems that could cause your church to split. If you allow divide and conquer to prevail, the arsonist wins.
4. Church burnings can have an overwhelming psychological impact on the pastor and the entire church family. Members should be especially watchful, for changes in the behavior patterns of children, youth, and the elderly.
5. Always make sure that you are treated with dignity, sensitivity, and respect by law enforcement during the investigation.
6. The pastor and church leaders should keep members involved throughout the entire rebuilding process.
7. Do not be afraid to ask your community for help. Approach the business community, churches, building supply companies, banks, colleges, and universities everyone has a role to play in helping the church recover.
When we go into community to visit a burned church site,
our site visits take on many forms. They can be a...
Praying Circle
Tree Training
Time for just listening
Meeting with the church elders
Community Meeting
Walk through the community
A meeting with law enforcement and the victimized church
A time for planning
for preparing
for getting ready
to rebuild
and
recover.
Above all things they are inspiring....
Victim Support
Generally, the NCBC victims assistance program provides a:
· Central location for victims to call to report incidents and to seek assistance;
· Access to trained professionals and resources to address grief and fear;
· Assistance in explaining the church burning recovery process;
· Pastoral and membership support;
· Assistance with developing fundraising strategies.
· Assistance with Rebuilding;
· Opportunity to connect with survivors in your state;
· Legal assistance and referrals;
· Workshops;
· Up-to-date access to church burning data;
· A major component of our work focuses on the impact of church arsons on families including children, youth, and the elderly.
The reasons that our site visits play a major part in victims assistance is so we can offer support to burned-church families, conduct an initial on-site assessment, offer first responder training, and provide sustain support. We have found that quick mobilization of community strengths is essential to restoring community calm, reducing tension and fear. The church burning response process also includes first-hand interviews that give us facts and figures, but also the richness of personal narratives that move and inspire.
Workshops
Rebuilding Support
Burned Church Membership
Report Your Church Burning Form
or
Email: nationlcoalition@bellsouth.net
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