Five Reasons Your Church Needs Insurance
Every church, large or small, needs insurance. It’s hard to imagine your beloved place of worship facing a tragedy, but even churches are not immune to accidents, damages or loss.
While it’s important to recognize and minimize risks, it’s crucial that your church has a specialized insurance policy that helps protect your church, its leaders and your congregation.
Here are five reasons why you need insurance for your church, and some of the policies to cover them.
1. Property Protection
All churches need property insurance. Imagine a terrible storm or fire destroying your buildings. Would your church have the funds to rebuild? Property insurance can also cover more than the church building — it can cover the grounds and anything inside the building such as equipment, classroom supplies, other church-owned structures, such as a pastor’s residence or community center, and more.
2. Auto Liability and Physical Damages
Many churches own buses or vans or provide their pastor with a vehicle. These can be covered with an auto policy for your church, which provides protection from damages to the vehicle and bodily injuries that may occur in an accident. Non-owned auto coverage may also be added if members of the church are driving their own vehicles for church-related business.
3. Volunteers and Childcare
Churches differ from most small businesses because many rely heavily on volunteers. Conducting background checks on anyone working with children — including Bible class teachers, nursery workers and more — is one way to ensure children’s safety. Make sure you have policies in place to minimize the liability risk of your congregation and potential harm to others. You can also add sexual misconduct coverage to your church liability insurance for protection from claims made against volunteers or staff.
4. Slips and Falls
Even if your church grounds are well maintained, you can still be liable if someone is injured while on the property or at a church event. This can include someone falling in the parking lot or an injury during a youth group trip.
5. Employees
There are a few reasons your employees could be a risk to your church, so look for special coverages to protect you from these risks:
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Employee Dishonesty coverage protects your church against an employee’s theft of money or property.
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Employee Related Practices coverage provides protection for wrongful acts such as harassment, wrongful termination and failure to promote.
Our church insurance products offer a wide variety of coverage options. Get peace of mind knowing your church is protected. Contact your local Alfa® agent to discuss the insurance needs of your church today.
All coverages are subject to deductibles and policy limits. This is not an insurance policy. It is intended only to provide a general description of Alfa Insurance® and/or its product lines and services. An actual policy contains the specific details of the coverages, conditions and exclusions.