Planting Space

One mistake I have seen church planters make is not fully understanding their insurance policy. This really hit home at New Life last week as we had a scare about exactly what is and what is not covered in regard to our moon bounce (bounce house). As more and more church plants and new churches purchase moon bounces it becomes increasingly important to understand your coverage. A bad situation (a child breaking an arm) can go from bad to really bad (can you say $1M lawsuit?) if you are not adequately covered.

After many discussions with our insurance company, here is what we discovered applies to our policy:

• We host an event on Sunday morning for kids in our children’s ministry: Covered
• We host a church-wide event on Saturday morning which is open for the community: Covered
• A small group holds a smaller outreach event targeting a neighborhood: Covered
• The church partners with an outside organization to provide the moon bounce: Depends
• The church loans the moon bounce to an outside organization: NOT Covered - don’t even go there!
  
• A church family decides to have a backyard birthday party and uses the moon bounce: Not Covered - disaster waiting to happen.

So let’s talk about the depends scenario real quick. If it is readily apparent to your average attendee that the moon bounce is being sponsored by the church, was setup by and is being operated by church volunteers, then we are covered. The idea is that even though we are partnering with another organization, most people understand that the moon bounce portion of the event is a church deal. If we are doing it under the radar then we are not covered. So our policy is that we setup and operate the moon bounce and that we have adequate signage and other “promotional” stuff going on (e.g. handing a flyer or frisbee with our name, logo and website or other promo piece to everyone in line) that people know this is a New Life deal.

Of course your policy may differ. I only point out the scenarios above to make you aware of the issues you need to understand. Whenever possible, get clarification of your coverage in writing. I recommend writing your rep an e-mail asking very specific questions with examples and having them respond back in writing. Finally, educate your volunteers on just what is and what is not covered.

Side notes: develop clear policies, have a “use guide”, provide formal training and consider having a “certification process” for volunteers, and finally, maintain your equipment.

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