Why Background Checks?
Background checks - what?! I've never had to do that! What is this world (church) coming to?! This has the musty smell of bureaucracy!
LCMS LERT, for most LERT volunteer deployments, will require a volunteer background check to be eligible for signing up - particularly for responses involving volunteers working in a person's home, working with youth, handling others' personal property, or staying overnight in a LERT housing camp.
Why?
Perhaps the thought of spending more money ("being nickel and dimed to death"), or submitting to the "intrusiveness" of having a background check, or simply being frustrated with modern society and its basic loss of communal trust and good faith - any or all of these could move one to simply put their foot down and say, "No! I won't do it."
LCMS Disaster Response is requiring volunteer background checks on most disaster Deployments for:
- Those who work with youth (also following all LERT Youth Guidelines)
- Those working in disaster victims' homes
- Those engaged in the recovery of disaster victims' personal property
- Those who are staying overnight in an LCMS LERT volunteer housing camp
We're not alone in requiring this. It may be new to us, but volunteers are required to have background checks in many organizations. FEMA, CERT, Southern Baptists, Team Rubicon, Samaritan's Purse, and other disaster programs all require background checks of all their volunteers, even for their training events and general activities. Background checks help protect you, protect your congregation, and protect the LERT program so that all of us can continue to work together safely, joyfully, and enjoy the respect of the communities we serve. Most importantly, they protect the people whom we are striving to serve.
An important thing to consider is how submitting to a background check helps those whom we serve, giving them one less thing to worry about. The people whose homes are damaged or destroyed, where weather has intruded and caused havoc, whose belongings are spilled out in public for all to see and help themselves to, these neighbors need the assurance that the people who show up at their door are there to help them and not to take advantage of them. When we can tell them that all our volunteers (those handling their personal goods) are trained, work as a team, and have submitted to a background check out of love for them, it serves to instill confidence in them. They don't need to worry about the people who are in their house, picking up their credit cards, wedding rings, and other family heirlooms. There are plenty of people at a disaster who are there to take advantage of people's weakness. We can assure them that we are not.
So, the background checks aren't really about us as volunteers. They are an act of love toward of neighbor. They give them confidence and help free them from additional burdens of worry.
Is the background check a bit of an inconvenience? It can be. Does it cost a few dollars? Yes. Perhaps you can work out a reimbursement program if you find it too burdensome. Your congregation or District may be receptive to a friendly discussion about including it as a part of their regular Disaster Response budget. Does one need to be offended by the requirement? No. It's not personal. It's for the sake of your neighbor who is hurting. It is simply another expression of love in a world that utterly lacks it.
We're Christians. We humble ourselves so that our neighbor is served with the love of Christ. The little pain and inconvenience we undertake for our confession of Christ's holy name pales in comparison to what the martyrs gave in love for their neighbors and for their Lord Jesus.
On behalf of those who work along-side you and those whom you seek to help, thank you! Thank you for your service to the neighbor in their time of great need; thank you for your passion and caring so deeply! Know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Soli Deo Gloria!
