Behavior of Church Staff

2439121 · April 2002

Is it legal to terminate two employess of a church for having an inappropriate relationship with each other. I should let you know that we have no written policies regarding this issue, and the only warning they received was a verbal warning 7 months ago.

Thank You!
Kellee Raymer

Paul in Cannon Beach · April 2002

Kellee,

Could you provide more information regarding the employees, what jobs they held, what type of inappropriate behavior, why only one warning seven months ago, and why you want to terminate them now? Is there a reason why you are being vague?

[email]paulknoch@hotmail.com[/email]

2439121 · April 2002

The two employees in question are in two different positions. One is ordained and the other in a non-ordained staff member. Because of the questions surrending his and her relationship and the fact that he is ordained, the termination falls under the responsibility of the Senior Pastor, as well as the initial warning did. Why only one, I don't know. My concern as Administrator is that they are still employees, and we have no written policies on this, nor a written warning, only a verbal.

Rockie · April 2002

Kellee: Since you have no policies or procedures in place for this type of incident, I would STRONGLY advise you to run this by your attorney before proceeding. There are several issues at play here, one of them being a possible sexual harassment suit if the parties are terminated. The ordained person, I assume, is in a position of trust and the other, I assume, works directly for the ordained party. You see where I am going with this? Once this is cleaned up, you really should have a fraternization policy, especially between supervisors and employees to avoid this type of on the job relationship. You can't, by any means, dictate people's personal relationships, but at least they will know the consequences of their behavior.
I worked for a bank once where the President and his secretary had a similar relationship and he was told to put an end to it and refused to do so. He and the secretary were terminated and she filed a sexual harassment suit. Even though the relationship was one of mutual consent, she decided that she wanted to end the relationship after the warning. The President did not. When both were terminated, then she filed suit and won based on the position of trust the President held over her. Believe me, these things can be nasty, so it is very much in your best interest to seek legal counsel.

Good luck!

WT · April 2002

As a church organization, you may regulate the personal behavior of your employees. Do not use fraternization or other modern buzz words. Stick with adultery, fornication, or other translations of the Greek porneia. You may not have a handbook or policy but you must have a church constitution or other papers of incorporation under the state. Usually these have statements about behavior of staff expected by the church. You are a religious organization, go to I Timothy for standards of conduct for ordained persons and quote this in any termination letter. Courts are loathe to interfere in religious standards for religious organizations. Any person in an ordained position could be immediately terminated for such items as sexual relations outside of wedlock and even the appearance of a relationship is cause for concern. Keep the matter in a religous context as is your right.

Paul in Cannon Beach · April 2002

Is your church independent or part of a large denomination (Baptist, Presbyterian, etc..) If you are part of a larger denomination, you may be able to utilize their resources for legal assistance in this matter.

If you are a small church, you might want to consider a process of mediation or arbitration. For more details, go to [url]www.hispeace.org[/url] You can find out about mediation resources there.

[email]paulknoch@hotmail.com[/email]

Behavior of Church Staff

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