When planning Mission Travel and Outreach Events remember church-sponsored day or overnight trips require insurance coverage. Below is information regarding travel insurance to assist your ministry team and leaders and ensure the travel or events are adequately protected.
If your church has partnered with Lightwell (formerly known as American Church Group) and is part of the group plan through Brotherhood Mutual, your policy already covers all ministry travel within the United States. Whether you are putting on an outreach event or traveling within the United States for ministry, your general liability insurance will follow your staff, your leaders, and your volunteers. You also have no-fault medical coverage that helps with out-of-pocket expense if a participant or volunteer is injured during your ministry event, whether on or off-site. Additional coverage is available for things such as trip cancellation, lost luggage, etc.
If you have a different insurance provider and agent, you’ll want to check with your current liability carrier to determine how coverage applies for your Mission Travel and Outreach Events. While the Conference does not have an accident policy you can buy into (as our group partnership with Brotherhood Mutual offers this already to current policyholders), you do have the option to purchase coverage needed through Faith Ventures. Brotherhood Mutual also offers an accident policy for your special outreach events. Lightwell can assist your church with this coverage as well. Lightwell offers either a blanket policy for the entire year or products for each traveler. Contact Lightwell at [email protected] or call the dedicated line for our Conference at 1-877-786-0831 for more information and to purchase coverage.
Conference policy states that local churches will have or purchase domestic accident medical coverage for day and overnight activities including camps, conferences and retreats, fun trips and domestic mission trips. If your church's policy does not include this coverage, churches must arrange for insurance before a scheduled activity.
If you are traveling outside the United States for Mission Travel, you likely have Worldwide Liability coverage already on your Brotherhood Mutual policy. This coverage extends your general liability anywhere in the world to protect church leaders, staff, and volunteers. To confirm the church has this coverage on their policy, please call Lightwell at 877-786-0831or email [email protected]. They can also provide you with any certificates showing proof of coverage that you may need.
International Travel Guidance: As the Traveler, it is your responsibility to ensure you are aware of and prepared in advance to comply with the specific laws and regulations that may affect your trip. Please download GCFA's checklist for international travel that covers some of the basic steps to be completed in advance of the trip.
(Available to Both Non-Brotherhood Mutual Policyholders and Brotherhood Mutual Policyholders)
Brotherhood Mutual Insurance offers an additional policy for travel insurance called Faith Ventures. This is available to you whether traveling outside of the United States or within, as long as you’re more than 100 miles from your church location. This policy provides coverages such as emergency evacuation, illness medical expense coverage, accident medical expense coverage, security evacuation, and more. You can read more information or purchase the coverage online here. Coverage must be purchased for each traveler.
If you need additional help, please contact Sabrina Aubuchon in the Great Plains Conference office.