Do Churches Need a Complaints Policy? (with Paul Harrison)

Having a clear complaints policy helps people in churches to listen to each other well and deal with problems that come along.

In this episode of In:Dependence, Phil Topham (FIEC Executive Director) and Adrian Reynolds (FIEC Head of National Ministries) are joined by Paul Harrison (Christian Safeguarding Services) to talk about dealing with complaints in church and the new Complaints Policy template FIEC has commissioned.

00:00 - Introduction
01:55 - Why do churches need a complaints policy?
04:34 - Isn't Matthew 18 enough?
07:34 - The FIEC church Complaints Policy template
13:40 - Avoiding a cover-up
16:12 - Why is FIEC providing a policy template for Independent churches?
17:50 - How can churches introduce a complaint policy without it being a tick-box exercise?
26:40 - How should the policy be made public and transparent?
31:31 - How do you access and use the complaints policy template?

You can watch a video of this episode and find more resources for church leaders on the FIEC website.

Resources mentioned in this episode

• Christian Safeguarding Services (thecss.co.uk)
• Matthew 18 (biblegateway.com)
• 1 Timothy 5 (biblegateway.com)
• The Complaints Policy template (fiec.org.uk)

About In:Dependence: In:Dependence is FIEC’s official podcast, where you’ll hear teaching and resources for church leaders from the FIEC Ministry Team and guests from FIEC churches and partners. You can access video podcasts by subscribing to the FIEC YouTube channel.

About FIEC: We are a fellowship of Independent churches with members of the family across England, Scotland and Wales. Our mission is to see those Independent churches working together with a big vision: to reach Britain for Christ. Being part of FIEC links you to a growing number of Independent evangelical churches and there are now more than 50,000 people who are part of churches affiliated to FIEC.

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