A recent all-day event on church risk management in California was presented by Christianity Today in partnership with ChurchWest Insurance Services. More than 250 ministry leaders and pastors attended. ChurchWest is an independent agency that serves nearly 3,000 ministries in California, Arizona, and Nevada.

"It's important for the health of all ministries to be aware of the threats they face," said Charlie Cutler, Managing Partner of ChurchWest. "Bringing people in to hear these top speakers from across the nation and watching them speak on risk topics is eye-opening. Plus it's fun for us to be a part of."

I asked Charlie how the partnership for this event developed with Christianity Today's Church Law & Tax Team, including his thoughts on senior editor Richard Hammar.

How did the idea for this event develop?

The editor of Christianity Today's Church Law & Tax Team, Matt Branaugh, and I were talking about a vision we share. Church leaders often don't spend time communicating with other church leaders outside of their own church or churches outside of their own denomination. We thought this event would be a great opportunity to bring many churches together, focus on common ministry challenges that church leaders are dealing with, and provide them with tools to help them be safer and be more efficient in ministry.

Why did you want to partner with Christianity Today for this event?

All of the organizations that partnered with us for this event, including Christianity Today's Church Law & Tax Team, are serving ministries and have great credibility with ministries.

Our churches really appreciate Christianity Today, Church Law & Tax Report, and Richard Hammar being out here.

Risk management and church law are very tough subjects to talk about and keep people engaged with. Nobody does that as well as Richard Hammar.

What did it mean to you to have Richard Hammar at this event?

When I talk to people about Richard Hammar, most people that have worked in a church for a while are familiar with him.

We work with so many people that are coming out of the corporate world whose second career is in ministry, and they don't know about him. Frequently, I'll sit there with people and say, "Believe it or not, there is a book called Pastor, Church & Law." The guy that wrote this is Richard Hammar. He wrote the book on this topic because there was nothing like it at the time. And he is, in my opinion, the ultimate authority on the topic. Richard Hammar started it and other people have done a fantastic job of further developing the topic and keeping it up to date, but he's definitely the leader in church law.

It's difficult not to be negative when discussing the lawsuits that churches face each day. Some of the reasons churches are in court are accusations of sexual abuse and not following mandatory reporting laws. Also, tax laws and religious freedom laws are all very important, constantly evolving, and very difficult to stay on top of. The focus of the event is the realities that are out there, what churches should be doing to prevent them, and cutting through some of the scare tactics that we've seen from other organizations and the misinformation that's out there.

Richard Hammar delivers a presentation on this subject in such a way that you can tell that his heart is in protecting ministry. I look at that and at what we did for this event as really contributing to ministry because it helps churches become much more efficient in what they're doing. They're not re-inventing the wheel and they are protecting the reputation of the Bride of Christ and the church body.

Michelle Dowell is editorial coordinator for the Church Law & Tax Team at Christianity Today.