![]() Vital parts to a safety team are having a leader, having regular meetings, and scheduling at the minimum yearly training. As you are organizing we strongly encourage you not to call your team a security team. Every congregation needs an organized safety team. Thousands of congregations have no safety plan or have something thrown together. Not having an official firearms policy for your church is almost begging for a lawsuit. In addition, most church insurance companies we work with almost always want to know who on the church security team is carrying and if they have been trained.Ĭommandment #5 Thou shalt have an organized safety/security team. While you can never know who exactly is carrying a firearm you can take helpful steps to help curb accidental or intentional firearms violent activities. As someone who does church security training almost every weekend in America, I rarely find a church that has a firearms policy. Most churches take a don’t ask don’t tell approach to firearms. Whatever you choose, be trained and certified. If God tells you to have unarmed security do that. If God tells you to do armed security do that. There are other dangers at church such as robbery, fire, health issues, and weather concerns. We want to keep our church safe from all threats.Ĭommandment #4 Thou shalt have a firearms policy. One of the biggest questions I get at every training I do is what should we do with firearms? We tell every church to pray and do what God tells you to do. While we need every church in America to have a trained response to an active shooter there is a much higher likelihood of a heart attack at your church this weekend. Sadly there is a greater chance a young person gets molested at your church this weekend. Lastly, we want each church to have a trained safety or security team. One person no matter how much training they have received cannot keep an entire congregation safe. It takes a team.Ĭommandment #3 Thou shalt not be focused only on active shooters. ![]() In addition, we want ushers and greeters trained on what to do during an active attacker event. ![]() Here are 10 baseline considerations for keeping your church safe in 2021.Ĭommandment #1 Thou shalt lock the doors.This sounds so simple but in the majority of churches, important doors are unlocked. Any room not being used during worship should be locked. Why would we give potential threats easy access to parts of the building to potentially harm parishioners or commit sexual crimes? In addition, once church starts access doors that have crash bars is a simple way to keep a threat out or at least slow them down.Sadly the majority of churches do not follow this commandment.Ĭommandment #2 Thou shalt use a team approach to safety.So many churches tell me they don’t need training because they have a couple of firearms permit holders in the church. While this can be a good or bad thing we want to use a team approach. This means we want a trained parking lot team. This team should be trained in looking for and spotting potential threats. Almost every active attacker gives off clues prior to the event. According to Carl Chinn, there have been over 1700 deadly incidents at American churches since 1999. However, sadly this is something that is now at the forefront of ministry. Church Security is something never even thought of in the American Church for decades upon decades.
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