Seminary addresses child abuse issue

One of the world's leading seminaries training evangelical Christian leaders will be requiring all students pursuing ministry degrees to receive sexual abuse awareness training, and it is believed to be the first time a seminary is making this kind of training a requirement.

Beginning this fall, ministry students at Dallas Theological Seminary will be required to receive an entry-level certification in the training offered by MinistrySafe.

Dr. Mark Yarbrough, Dallas Theological Seminary's vice president for Academic Affairs and academic dean, says in today's world this training is a must for people who will be serving in ministry.

"It is unfortunate that we are living in some pretty dark days and certainly the statistics prove that out," he admits. "And some tragedies have happened in some very good, strong churches and ministries and organizations."

Yarbrough tells OneNewsNow that students going into ministry need to know the importance of establishing safeguards against the sexual abuse of children.

"We wanted to make sure that our students at Dallas Seminary, for those in our ministry-related programs, have an understanding of what is happening and how to better equip not just themselves but the ministries they will serve in in order to better protect our children," he says.

In addition, DTS and MinistrySafe will offer an in-depth course for credit, likely beginning with next year's spring semester. It will provide more than 40 hours of content, including preventative protocols for ministry settings. Both courses will be available to DTS students online.