Charge Conference 2025 Important Insurance Update
Greetings SGAGMC,
You hear us say all the time that we exist to help local churches. Everything we do as a conference from discipleship programming to leadership development to administrative processes is done with your local church in mind. All of our decisions are guided with a goal of helping rather than hindering local ministry.
This year at annual conference, we approved a petition regarding insurance liability coverage for clergy and assigned laity (CLMs) to help churches be best protected in the event of a claim. The policy included requirements for $1,000,000 worth of professional liability, misconduct, and sexual abuse coverages, as well as a requirement to list the South Georgia Annual Conference as an additional insured. As a conference staff we started receiving exemption requests and questions from churches about their coverages, and we realized that some of our churches will have a difficult time being approved for the amount of coverage required. For other churches it might create a financial burden. Additionally, an Insurance Task Force appointed to evaluate our annual conference coverages, discovered the disciplinary language that prompted the policy may be adjusted next year.
In light of these developments, the SGAGMC Connectional Council approved a resolution (link to document) on Thursday, September 25th, 2025, to suspend the policy while we gather information to better guide our congregational and conference insurance plans. Here is what this means for your local church:
We STILL absolutely want to encourage you to obtain the coverages outlined in the petition, and to list the conference as an additional insured. We believe churches should have these coverages for proper protection, we just do not have the grounds to enforce a conference policy at this time.
Churches without the coverages outlined in the petition do not need to submit an exemption request at this time.
Churches with the coverages outlined in the petition are invited to submit their certificates of insurance to the conference.
The Connectional Council has directed the Insurance Task Force to conduct additional research on coverage types and potential insurers, and so we will update the conference as more information is available. We plan to revisit this policy in July 2026 at our next annual conference. In the meantime, we encourage churches to discuss with their insurers the coverages they need, and to keep serving Jesus and reaching new people with the Gospel!
Blessings,
Anthony McPhail, Conference Operations Officer