How to Run Group Member Awareness Training at Your Church

Posted on by

The Member Awareness course is a simple but powerful culture-building tool designed to help churches grow a shared understanding of safe ministry.

It’s a short training course that looks at:

    • What safe ministry is;

    • Why it matters;

    • What to be on the lookout for; and

    • How to raise a concern if something doesn’t feel right.

At its heart, this course is about bringing everyone into the conversation. It helps shift the mindset from “safe ministry is the responsibility of the admin team” to “safe ministry is something we are all responsible for as a church community.”

For many churches, this training has been a really helpful way of building awareness, strengthening culture, and ensuring that safeguarding is understood not just as a system, but as a shared value.

Running Member Awareness as a Group Training

All Safe Ministry Check admins have access to the Member Awareness course and the ability to run it in a group training format.

This makes it a great option for:

    • AGMs;

    • Church-wide training nights;

    • Leadership gatherings; or

    • Any time you want to bring safe ministry back into focus.

How-To Steps

To find the Member Awareness course:

    1. Log in to your Training Portal
    2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and look for the section titled “Other Actions”
    3. From here, you’ll find the option to start the Member Awareness group training, as well as a discussion booklet available to download and print.

The discussion booklet is optional, but many churches find it helpful for giving people space to take notes and engage with the discussion prompts.

Once you’re ready to run the session:

    1. Connect your device to a projector or screen
    2. Start the Member Awareness training from the Training Portal
    3. Play through the videos as a group
    4. When discussion prompts appear, pause the video and take time to discuss together before continuing

The whole session runs for around 15 minutes (depending on length of discussions), making it easy to include within an existing meeting or event.

If you’d like to record who completed the training in Safe Ministry Check, you can do this after the session.

You’ll just need to keep a simple list of who attended.

To record the training:

  1. Log in to your Admin Portal.

  2. Open each person’s SMC profile.

  3. Ensure their trainee type is set to “Member”.

  4. Scroll to Course Progress and select Update.

  5. Choose Group SMC Training as the training method.

  6. Enter the date the training was completed.

  7. Add any relevant notes (for example, who ran the training and where it took place).

  8. Select Submit and Done to add the training to their history.

This allows you to keep a clear record of who has completed the Member Awareness training.

Why This Matters

The Member Awareness course isn’t about ticking boxes or meeting requirements. It’s about shaping culture.

When safe ministry becomes part of the shared language of a church — something everyone understands and feels responsible for — it creates safer, healthier, and more supportive communities.

It helps people feel empowered to speak up, to care for one another well, and to take safeguarding seriously as part of everyday discipleship.

And that’s exactly what safe ministry is about.

 

For more information or support on How to Run Group Member Awareness Training at Your Church, email us at support@safeminsitrycheck.com.au or book a support call with one of our friendly support team.