How Safe is the Church?

"Those who seek my life set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they plot deception." (Psalm 38:12)

“Strangers are attacking me; ruthless men seek my life-- men without regard for God.” (Psalm 54:3)

According to the most recent statistics I could find, from 1999 to February of 2017, 974 deadly force incidents occurred in churches or faith-based organizations.  Complete stats for 2018 are not yet available.

Due to the rise in violence against places of worship in the United States concern for the safety of worshipers has also risen.  Of course, this is not new in the history of the world. Christians have been the target of non-believers for over two thousand years, and against the Jews for even longer.  Ten percent of all mass shootings now happen in church or on church-owned property.  It is sad when we have to even think about “security” in what used to be considered safe, sacred places of worship and fellowship.

Tolerance and religious liberty are relatively new concepts in society.  As freedom of religion was being established in Europe and North America, persecution continued in other parts of the world. Early on the influence of Great Britain and the United States was able to moderate this, fostering a greater degree of liberty in many countries.  But now Judeo-Christian spiritual and social values have declined in acceptance as our societies have secularized and atheism has increased, and now, traditional resistance to Christianity across the globe has returned to violence.

There once was a time when criminals hesitated to break into a church, let alone violently attack it but now they have become emboldened to target places of worship, not just for theft, but for vandalism, arson, and massacre.  The Apostle Peter told us, “…do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.” (1 Peter 4:12)

Since 2007 attacks on churches has accelerated, creating a growing church safety movement.  Churches all over the country have started new church safety ministries, and labeled them with names such as the Safety Patrol, Security Ministry, The Watchers, etc.  Not surprising, this has led to looking at other areas of safety in the church, including concerns about medical response, disaster preparedness, theft prevention, child protection, etc.  Yet there still remains concern for security, such as responding to violence, calming disruptive persons, and unarmed self-defense.  Associated with these is knowing and understanding the law dealing with use of force, and developing threat awareness?

“The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.” (Proverbs 27:12) 

I have made available for FREE, to anyone interested, a series of Do-it-Yourself forms that can be printed for your use:

1) A Safety & Security Risk Assessment Form.

2) Church Emergency Plan Template

3) A General Fire Safety Checklist

4) A Bomb Threat Checklist

5) A Bomb Threat Distance Chart:  Covers various types of explosive devises to be referred to in an event of a bomb threat evacuation.  These are minimum distances to evacuate away from the area of explosion.

These MS Word documents can be changed as necessary to fit your church size and needs.  I will be adding new forms as time allows.

For a copy of any of these FREE forms, or if you have any questions, you can contact me at:

Integrity Security Consulting

Russ Sharrock

405-762-2471 | integrityseccon@hotmail.com

 

  or message me on my FB account.