Cost depends on your state and county (additional mandatory fees may apply). The difference depends on the reliability of the information for that state and county in the national database. If the search is conducted in a state or county that doesn’t report all its criminal records to the national database, it may be necessary to run both a national search and a local county or statewide criminal search to get accurate data.

Protect My Ministry has come up with a minimum recommendation depending on what state and county you and the prospective volunteer are located in. For some locations where the states do provide reliable data to the national database, the minimum recommendation is a BASIC Package. For other locations, the minimum recommendation is a PLUS (county or statewide) Package.

GuideStone clients receive discounted pricing. More details.

There is no one answer to this question since there is no national requirement for all states to keep standardized records. The data available in the many databases available for search is not equally maintained and accessed by each state. That’s why it′s critical that you work with a credible background screening company like Protect My Ministry.

Protect My Ministry helps you choose from cost-friendly background check packages through an intuitive online consultation. Recommendations are based on the quality of data available in each state and industry best practices. At the very minimum, background checks should cover Social Security Number Verification, National Criminal Search and Sexual Predator/Offender Registries Search.

A background check is a "records" screening of an individual which can be as small as a one-county check or as in-depth as a security clearance investigation. Public and private records can be searched once the applicant’s consent is given.

Standard policy is to screen volunteers every one to three years.

Not necessarily. Convictions that automatically disqualify an individual from serving may include:

• Any history of a sexual crime, especially those against children.
• A crime of violence against another person within the past seven years.

If the background check turns up potentially disqualifying information about an individual, it will come back as an "Alert.” Your leadership should review alerts on a case-by-case basis to determine if they are disqualifying. You will need to decide whether past behavior, combined with other data available about the individual, reasonably suggests that this person could pose a danger of sexually or physically abusing children. If the answer is "yes," that person should not serve.

Protect My Ministry is one of the only background check companies that will do a free "re-verification" of records from the national criminal database for a volunteer and to do a true 50-state search on sexual offenders.

Protect My Ministry background checks are performed on secure sites. Their online systems are kept in secure servers with offsite backups. Protect My Ministry is a Christian-owned and operated business, being 51% business and 49% ministry. Protect My Ministry seeks to offer a balance between cost and comprehensiveness.

We recommend that you keep any information confidential received through a background check. You may keep it in a confidential file, and it should only be released to individuals who are authorized to review the information, such as the leaders and church pastors.

Yes. In fact, all staff and employees of the church or ministry, including its senior pastor, should pass an even more rigorous criminal background check, including employment and education verifications, driving history and credit history searches.

Churches have an obligation to exercise “due diligence” in protecting their members, especially children. By performing background checks on your volunteers, your ministry:

• Establishes a safeguard that will, in many cases, scare off sexual predators.
• Offers peace of mind to discerning members who want to know your ministry is being proactive in trying to protect children.