Written by Phil Monroe Wednesday, 23 January 2013 00:00

Last summer Biblical Seminary offered a 2 day intensive course/seminar on the topic of abuse in Christian settings. We examined legal, biblical, and counseling perspectives on this difficult topic. Now, you can have access to the plenary presentations made by myself and Boz Tchividjian (a former child abuse prosecutor and now director of GRACE and professor of law at Liberty University Law School).

Click here to purchase the DVDs from Vision Video.

The four plenaries (over 5 hours of teaching) cover:

• Theological and legal reasons to be proactive to abuse allegations
• Common offender strategies (and how to prevent them)
• Ministry and counseling responses to abuse victims and offenders
• Strategies for abuse prevention and response policies so as to minimize risk

In previous posts on this topic, I have pointed out that the best policies fail if the congregation and her leaders do not have regular opportunities to discuss these topics. We cannot assume that we will stay alert over time. If I may be shamelessly self-promotional, I think these videos will provide an excellent conversation starter for small group leaders, elders, deacons or even Sunday School classes.

For previous blogs here on the topic of abuse in the church, see:

• Two reasons every church needs an abuse response plan
• The top five abuse prevention policies for the church
• Seven questions about your church's abuse policy

Phil Monroe is Professor of Counseling & Psychologyand Director of the Masters of Arts in Counseling Program at Biblical. He also directs Biblical’s new trauma recovery project. You can find his personal blog at www.wisecounsel.wordpress.com.