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3+ Sample Church Confidentiality Agreement
What is a Church Confidentiality Agreement?
A church confidentiality agreement is a document that states the declaration of keeping things about the church to be secret. Whether you are an employee in the church, a volunteer, a church member, or even a visitor in the church, you must agree that you will not disclose any information that you have heard or gotten in the church. This includes the secrets of church members or any person that has confided their stories in the church. In churches, we do confessions and it is the responsibility of the church to protect our information. The church must be wary in keeping things to avoid slander and gossips that can happen to any person that has attended the church.
Whether the church is a Baptist Church, a Protestant Church, a Catholic Church, or whatever it may be, pastors and priests need to have a sense of secrecy for everything that has been divulged in the church. It should be responsible for taking care of its sheep. Personal things are been discussed in the church and it is in the goodness of everyone to respect others’ information that they should not tell or gossip about the personal matters that they have heard. Sometimes, our mouth can be sinful. Especially since the matters that can be disclosed in the church are sometimes intriguing. The church should avoid every possibility of gossip that can destroy a person’s life. Everyone should respect his or her neighbor. But to be sure of that, the church will make its volunteers and staff, its church members, and its visitors sign a confidentiality agreement in the church. This is to protect everyone from all harm. Gossipping is easy to do, and it can destroy the church. To protect the church itself, it should be careful that its people will not commit this mistake. Through the agreement, everyone will fear to disclose any information because it is a binding document that can be brought to the court. They will keep their mouth shut so that they will not be dragged with any issue that can make them responsible to answer a legal case. Thus, peace in the church can be maintained and everyone can keep their secrets safe.
Elements of a Church Confidentiality Agreement
Like an ordinary confidentiality agreement, a church staff confidentiality agreement or a church board confidentiality agreement has specific elements. It contains some important matters that are needed to include in the agreement. Read the following and know what a church confidentiality agreement consists of:
Confidential Information
This is the information that is needed to be kept secret. This includes the stories that any church member has shared, the confessions that are made in the church, the tithe that the church has collected, the money that every member gives to the church as tithing, or any important information or details that should be kept secret in the church. As we take refuge in the church, we also tend to share our secrets with it. The church needs to protect every information that we have shared. It is a church that can easily get confiding from anyone. It must understand that after any person has confided in the church, this information should not be disclosed forever. So, this type of information is particularly written in the church confidentiality agreement as confidential information. It should not be disclosed by anyone in the church. Everything should remain secret concerning the church and the agreement.
Confidentiality Exceptions
Though you must completely know that everything that has been shared in the church is completely confidential, there should be a clause that should state the exceptions on the confidential information. This makes the agreement not too severe to follow. It can also emphasize the information that needs to be confidential. Church people can know up to what extent they can speak.
Obligations
The agreement clearly defines the obligations of the persons who are signing it. If you are a staff or a volunteer, you should have the decency to keep everything in the church confidential. Everything that you will happen to know as you work in the church should remain secret. You should be honest not to tell anyone about them. It is also true with visitors. If you are new in the church, you must respect anything that you saw in the church. You must respect the way of worship of any church that you have attended. You should not disclose any information that you have observed as you are in the church. As a church member, you also must respect the privacy of the church. You need to respect every church member and keep their secrets as you may happen to know any of them. You must observe these obligations as a part of the church confidentiality agreement. In any agreement, these things will be clear so that the parties involved will know what to do.
Confidentiality Rules
In the agreement, there should be some rules on how to maintain confidentiality. These rules can direct the person who will sign it how they can keep confidential information. It can be some bulleted rules that define what a person should do when inside the church. It may be a list of things that they will not do or a list of things that they have to keep secret.
Consequence of Breach
There may be some time that the parties involved may not able to keep the church confidentiality agreement. They can divulge information about the church. In this case, there should be a consequence for breach of the church confidentiality agreement. Breach refers to breaking the rules in the agreement. If ever this happens, there should be a clause that will state some consequence that the person who breaks the agreement will face. It may be some penalties or the possibility to face the court of law.
Tips on Church Confidentiality Agreement
Even in church manuals, you can find some confidentiality information. Confidentiality agreement in churches is important because disclosure can destroy the image of the church and can scatter the flock if a slanderous activity will happen it. Confidentiality is a must and the church must be good in keeping it. Consider the following tips and know how you can better keep confidentiality in your church:
How to Make a Church Confidentiality Agreement
Whether you are making a confidentiality agreement for church employees or a confidentiality agreement for church volunteers, you may need some steps to follow to create a better agreement. Here, you can have some steps that you can consider in making a church confidentiality agreement:
Step 1: Define the Confidential Information
Before drafting an agreement, you must first identify what are the things that belong to the term ‘Confidential’. Define the term and state the information that can be pertained to this. To make a contract or agreement, you must tell all the information that should be confidential in your church. Be clear in stating this so that the parties involved will know what to follow. Make a list of all the confidential information that should not be disclosed. State them in a clause and label it as ‘Confidential’.
Step 2: State Responsibilities
After identifying the confidential information, you can now set some responsibilities that the receiving party will do. These responsibilities must be observed in the church to maintain confidentiality. As the receiving party signs the agreement, he or she must know that he or she must be responsible for observing these duties regarding the agreement. Breaking it may be a source of the breach of the agreement and the disclosing party may do an action on his or her end.
Step 3: Set a Period for Confidentiality
Like any other confidentiality agreement, there can be a period for confidentiality. Set a proper time when the receiving party should not disclose the information that they can get in the church. Most information should remain confidential forever, but you must state it in the agreement.
Step 4: Put Severability Clause
In case of severance, the agreement should have a clause about this. If the agreement seems to be illegal, you must put a severability clause that can resolve this issue. There may be times that you cannot enforce the agreement in court and a severability clause can solve this problem.
FAQs
What Will Happen If I Disclose Information About the Church?
This is where a church confidentiality agreement comes in. It secures that no information in the church will be disclosed. If you have disclosed something and you have not signed anything, you have nothing to do and you have no problem. But if you have signed a church confidentiality agreement, you must know that this document is binding, and if you break it, it can be brought to the court of law.
Why Confidentiality is Important in a Church?
Confidentiality is important in a church because it gathers some personal stories and secrets from its church members. This information should remain secret and should not be disclosed to others.
We have complete trust in our brothers and sisters in our church. But to ensure to protect the rights of everyone, there should be a church confidentiality agreement that can keep our information safe. Are you wondering what a church confidentiality agreement looks like? This post has 3+ SAMPLE Church Confidentiality Agreement in PDF. You can even use any template if you like. Download now!