Transcription
When I first came on staff at Cal Church about two and a half years ago, I was coming out of a corporate link career. There, you know, I always had a risk management team in-house as part of the corporation. They had a risk management department, and we had challenges in this area. I knew we called when I came on at a church of 10,000 people and with lots of ministries that were involved all over the community, actually over the world, for that matter, as well as large facilities. I realized that the risk that this church was facing from an exposure standpoint, but also realized we had nobody else to call. With my role in techon, I had a lot of responsibilities. I knew there's no way I can ignore anything I need to know about risk management.
So, it really was important to me to find a partner that I could trust, I could depend on. And I will tell you, I found that in Jerry Sparks and the team at AD Financial Insurance. To be able to connect with them right off the bat and realize the level of expertise they have, the accessibility that was offered to me, the answers to questions that came up, and the resources that were available—it's something that every church needs. And talking to other executive pastors around the country, I realized that every church faces exposure, regardless of the size of the church. A church of 50 or a church of 10,000 has exposure. Very few churches understand that exposure, how to minimize the risk associated with it. And that's where having a risk management partner like AD Financial Insurance has been so effective for Calvary Church ever since I came on staff here.
I really appreciate the tools and the resources that, from day one, were made available to me as soon as we engaged AD Financial Insurance. Uh, from the very beginning, having them available to talk about the ministries and really understand—you know, hear first, listen first—before they start offering services or products, but here we're involved, and we're a very diverse church. We're located in the most diverse zip code in the United States. Uh, we have ministries—multi-ethnic ministries—we have ministries from, you know, infant all the way to seniors. We have, you know, going on every week; there's activities all over this campus. And to have a risk management partner that has resources available to us, not just online, but they're incredible resources that are available online. I can start there. I go online. I can find documents. I can find example contracts. I can find, find, find, find, find, find, find, find, find, find, you know, tools and resources for youth and children's ministry.
But when I come across those new ones, to be able to help and call a partner who isn't just working with one church, but actually working with thousands of churches across the country—they experience it all. There's enough experience here at AD Financial Insurance that Calvary Church has already seen. And so for me to call them before an event, before a ministry gets launched and say, "What are some things I should be thinking about before we purchase a piece of property? Uh, we're literally launching a multi-site campus, not yet, you want to go." And I was able to call them first and say, "We're launching a campus. What are some things we should be thinking about?" And walking through the insurance and risk management needs associated with that initiative has been incredibly helpful.
Also, you know, the many live webinars that we've watched with Jerry Sparks and Dr. Richard M. Hammer and just relevant topics that are facing churches today—that you can get ahead of the game. You can actually see what these challenges are going to be and start making changes to your policies, to the different ways you approach ministry, still to make ministry more effective and to limit the exposure that they may face, that they may face, if you weren't aware of those challenges before they came. That's been incredibly helpful for Calvary Church.
As a pastor, I think it's so important for you to understand your God-given talent, what God has—God has called you to and the gifts and abilities He's given you for that calling. Very few pastors actually have risk management as one of their areas. When they look at a resume, you're not going to see risk management on there. It's why it's so important because it's such a significant area for a church and yet so few understand it. It's important for them to have a partner who is an expert who partners with them in ministry but also an expert in the area of insurance risk management. AD Financial Insurance is exactly that for Calvary Church—for us to be able to reach out to them when we're launching new ministries, when we are expanding children's ministry, when we're launching a new campus, for that matter—to be able to reach out to a risk management partner in ministry who has Calvary Church's best interest in mind, who has our faculty and our pastors and our board members' best interest in mind, that can help us foresee what some challenges might be and be able to address those challenges before they ever surface and minimize the disruptions to ministry and the exposure of the church. It's important for—I don't care how big your church is or how small your church is or where you're located at—it's important to have a true partner in this area of risk management and insurance, and that's exactly what AD Financial Insurance and his team there uh has been able to do for Calvary Church, and we—we depend on them heavily. I mean, every time I have a question, I pick up the phone. I know where to call. I jump online. I know where to look. And I appreciate that.