Code of Conduct Guide

Session 5: Confidentiality

As a ministry leader, I will, to the best of my ability, commit to the following:

  1. I will maintain and uphold confidentiality appropriately, which means I will hold in confidence whatever information is not mine to share.
  2. I will not use information shared with me in confidence in order to elevate my position or to depreciate that of others.
     

Scripture: Proverbs 11:13

"A gossip betrays a confidence,
   but a trustworthy person keeps a secret."

For Discussion:

  1. Consider what it felt like when you found out that someone shared something you told them in confidence with others. What was the hardest thing for you?
  2. What is the connection between confidentiality and trust?
  3. What kinds of information should be kept confidential and when do you need to disclose it to others? What principles and questions might guide your discernment?

Prayer for Leaders

In these moments of silence we remember our calling to confidentiality and trust. We close our hands into fists, holding people’s confidence. 

<fisted hands>

God, we confess that it’s difficult to maintain confidentiality. Sometimes we violate it in big ways and small ways, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. Our fisted hands remind us that we as leaders are called to hold and maintain high levels of trust.

<pause>

Help us, O God, to be leaders with integrity who hold safe the confidence of the people you have entrusted to us. Give us wisdom to recognize situations that require intervention. Give us kind and compassionate hearts that listen, protect, and seek wholeness and restoration through Christ, our Lord.
Amen.