Our law firm regularly advises on legal aspects of crisis response and risk mitigation for nonprofit organizations. We are grateful for the opportunity to share the following guest article provided by Chris Atkins, Founder and Principal Advisor of the242momentum. Church and other nonprofit leaders will find practical risk management ideas through the242momentum’s approach. While these ideas are framed within the church context, they are adaptable for other ministries and nonprofit organizations that engage in onsite program activities.
Churches today face increasing operational complexity across worship, children’s ministry, facilities, digital systems, and global engagement. When disruption occurs, harm is often compounded not by malice, but by decision confusion—too many well-intentioned people acting at once without shared roles or communication clarity. The Shepherd • Sustain • Send framework exists to give churches a calm, non-tactical readiness architecture that aligns pastoral care, volunteer roles, and ministry systems so the Gospel can continue forward without unnecessary disruption. It is designed to be simple, scalable, and suitable for broad adoption across diverse ministry contexts, as a reference tool that is governance-ready and centering on clarity, restraint, and ministry continuity.
The Core Premise
Churches face increasing operational complexity across worship, children’s ministry, facilities, digital systems, and global engagement. When disruption occurs, harm is compounded less by malice than by decision confusion—too many people acting at once without shared roles, posture, or communication discipline. Readiness in the church is therefore not primarily tactical. It is discipleship infrastructure: the alignment of people, roles, and communication so ministry can continue calmly under stress. To that end, readiness is organized into three tiers: Shepherd, Sustain, and Send. Each tier defines a distinct purpose. Without each layer, predictable failure modes emerge.
Shepherd — Protecting the Gathered Church
Definition: The Shepherd Tier establishes calm, predictable Sunday rhythms that protect worship, children, and pastoral leadership.
Why it exists: Without Shepherd clarity, low-level disruptions escalate, volunteers overreach, and pastoral leaders are pulled into avoidable crises.
Core elements:
• Defined Sunday walkthrough and huddle rhythm
• Clear staff and volunteer roles (who observes, who communicates, who decides)
• Plain-language emergency action steps aligned with objectively reasonable measures
• Children’s ministry access control and reunification clarity
• De-escalation posture for frontline volunteers
• A communication rhythm that informs pastors without disrupting worship
Outcome: A gathered church that experiences readiness as calm shepherding rather than confrontation.
Example: A visibly distraught person enters the church’s narthex a few minutes before the church service is to start, apparently looking around for someone and asking questions loudly to the closest available usher. This usher has been well trained through the above Shepherd elements, as have been the other ushers from their volunteer training. This usher speaks kindly but firmly to the agitated visitor, while the other nearby ushers observe, pray, and consider whether any other measures should be taken for optimal safety. The visitor’s needs are addressed by the trained usher and agrees to move to another location in the church building, where additional steps may be taken such as to identify any benevolence, mental health, or other needs that the church can provide. Meanwhile, the church service proceeds without any disruption, and the ushers remain attentive in their service roles.
Sustain — Strengthening Long-Term Ministry Health
Definition: The Sustain Tier provides the systems and governance that keep readiness consistent over time, across teams and campuses.
Why it exists: Without Sustain, churches experience volunteer burnout, inconsistent responses, duplicated communication, and policy drift.
Core elements:
• Documented roles and decision authority
• Consistent communication pathways
• Incident documentation and review cycles
• Digital stewardship and data protection
• Facility awareness and maintenance rhythms
• Cross-ministry coordination
Contrast: The absence of Sustain can be felt long before it is recognized. Leaders may notice early indicators such as:
• volunteers feel unsure or overloaded
• staff handles crises differently across campuses
• policies exist but aren’t followed
• ministry areas function in silos
• small disruptions create outsize stress
• new campuses “inherit” inconsistent practices
Outcome: Predictable operations that reduce preventable stress on staff and volunteers and protect ministry continuity.
Example: A church experiences a Sunday medical emergency where multiple individuals simultaneously called 911, unaware that a law enforcement officer was already on site with direct radio contact to city dispatch. Nothing was done out of neglect—in fact, everyone was trying to help—but without Sustain-level clarity, well-intentioned responses created confusion, duplicate communication, and unnecessary strain on the team.
Send — Equipping Churches to Serve Beyond the Building
Definition: The Send Tier prepares churches and mission organizations to operate wisely in mobile, cross-cultural, and international contexts.
Why it exists: Without Send clarity, routine disruptions (travel issues, medical needs, communication breakdowns) become crises that distract from witness and care.
Core elements:
• Travel preparation and documentation discipline
• Cultural awareness and partner coordination
• Communication plans and escalation pathways
• Team leader expectations and pastoral care posture
• Country briefings and basic contingency planning
• For teams serving in sensitive contexts, Send provides additional guidance on communication discretion, partner safety, and digital hygiene
Outcome: Teams serve with confidence and restraint, protecting relationships and mission without fear-based framing.
Example: A mission team travels internationally, and one individual loses a passport. Without preparation from a Send framework, the entire team may engage in problem solving, creating a full-team crisis. With a framework in place—copy of documents, embassy contact, communication expectations, and partner liaison—the disruption is contained, calm, and quickly resolved. Send does not raise alarm, but protects relationships and ministry opportunities with preparedness and structure in an effective, helpful way.
Why This Three-Tier Framework Works
Shepherd, Sustain, and Send tools are intentionally non-tactical, role-driven, and scalable. They do not require specialized backgrounds or militarized training. They work because they mirror how ministry actually functions:
• Shepherd protects discipleship in gathered spaces
• Sustain stabilizes systems that support ministry
• Send extends care and clarity beyond the physical facility
The framework prioritizes people over process and clarity over confrontation. Most importantly, all three tiers place people over process and discipleship over disruption. They are grounded in the pastoral call to care for the flock—calmly, wisely, and with integrity.
Next Steps
Churches and other ministries need not adopt all tiers at once. Many begin with Shepherd clarity and layer Sustain and Send as complexity grows. This tiered adoption preserves simplicity while enabling institutional consistency.
As some examples, leaders can begin with small pieces that make an immediate impact:
• establish a simple Sunday walkthrough
• clarify volunteer roles in writing
• adopt one or two basic emergency steps
• create a consistent communication rhythm between staff
• standardize children’s ministry access
• prepare one country brief for an upcoming mission trip
These small steps create momentum and build confidence. From there, churches can expand into the fuller Shepherd, Sustain, and Send structure in a healthy, attainable way for their congregation and leadership team.
Conclusion
Readiness in the church is not about controlling risk, as some may perceive, or about having weapons available to use reactively.[1] It is about stewarding people and protecting the continuity of Gospel ministry through calm, disciplined systems.[2] The Shepherd • Sustain • Send model is thus a framework that churches can adopt, adapt, and steward over time—pastoral in posture, operationally sound, and suitable for broad institutional use.
Thank you to Chris Atkins, Founder and Principal Advisor of the242momentum, for providing this guest blog article. Chris would be honored to support any church or other ministry leader seeking to engage further with the Shepherd, Sustain, Send steps. More information and a contact form can be accessed on the242momentum website.
[1] Potentially life-threatening risks of violence are increasingly of concern to many ministry organizations. Additional resources particularly for responding to specifically identified risks of harm are available through W&O’s Handling Threats and Disturbances article.
[2] A plethora of resources focusing child safety systems are available through the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention. See also W&O’s Child Abuse Prevention article about ECAP accreditation.
