I call for the body of Christ to persist in
prayer and to take seriously the call to humbly seek solutions to violence in
the church. We must reject our
inclination to entrench behind the superficial political talking points
parroted in these times and ask what we, as the Church of Jesus Christ, can and
should do to keep those that bear His image safe from this violence.
While there is comfort in knowing that
the faithful gathering of believers endures despite potential violence,
churches across the country will be thinking and praying through security for
their upcoming service, painfully aware that, on any given Sunday, it could be
them facing a crisis.
So, as a result of my research and
experience, I want to encourage church leaders and laypeople to ask how we can
think through questions of security while at the same time remaining welcoming
and open to our communities. So as
pastors, elders, and ministry leaders begin the hard and complex procedure of
refining their security processes, I want to offer some practical advice for us
all to consider:
A. It is time wake up to the need for
security. Those churches that have
experienced these assaults must be a reminder us that no church is immune from
potential attack. While it is essential
that we resist the urge to unreasonable fear, churches must take seriously the
question of security and be proactive in safeguarding their people.
There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of
statistical research on church shootings, but when criminologist Dallas Drake
and two interns first searched for church shootings in the United States, they
found there were more shootings in Christian churches between 2006 and 2016—147
of them—than in the prior 25 years. [1] Concerned with the threat of violence in or
around the church, security teams began to develop protocol and training for
everything from monitoring exits to administering communion.
While I don’t think this level of
security is normal for all churches, it does reinforce the need for churches to
think through issues of security.
Churches present easy targets for those hoping to inflict harm. Churches are a collection of people, facing
forward and away from the exits, who are focused on worshiping and serving
their Savior rather than considering their own safety.
The challenge is smaller churches. In these cases, churches need to look at
using volunteers with little to no experience or training in law enforcement to
supply their security. If this is
impossible, churches need to challenge these volunteers to undergo some form of
training in order to be better equipped for their role.
B. It is important to develop strong relationships
with law enforcement in your community.
A strong working relationship is critical for a host of reasons:
1) It allows church leaders the freedom to call
the police for advice and insight on problems that come up. If someone is causing a disturbance or there
are threats for potential violence made against the church, police can provide
not only physical support but also wisdom on the proper response. Beyond these immediate situations, police
training on issues such as domestic violence, sexual assault, and online
bullying are invaluable, if not necessary, for churches struggling to discern
the correct pathway forward.
2) It allows the police to become familiar with
your building in case of emergency. A
church might consider opening their building to police to host drills and other
events because it will help familiarize officers with the doors and flow.
3) Developing a relationship with the
police in your community provides a window to witness and minister. While attacks against churches are
comparatively rare, police regularly face stressful situations where the church
can be active in its support.
C. It is helpful to consider “visible
deterrence.”
Allow me to preface this by saying that
there is a concept called the Force Continuum (sequence), which has been
around for years. In a situation where
you are required to defend yourselves a question that will often arise is, “How
much force are you allowed to use in a tense and potentially dangerous
situation?”
The first level of the Force Continuum is Presence. The mere presence of a visible, and maybe
even uniformed, security person is often enough to stop a crime in progress or
prevent future crime. It’s the idea that
attackers often look for soft or easy targets, and they will be
frightened off by even the potential for push back. Rather than having security hidden or blended
into the people, an open presence among the people can both reassure and
protect. [2]
Simply by a having a uniformed volunteer
on the lookout, many threats can be diverted before they even begin. For bigger churches, this may extend to
having security vehicles and/or officers outside in the parking lot to
establish a clear presence among the arriving congregants.
I understand that some people will worry that
this “visible deterrence” could actually deter honest people
from church. This is a real tension that
needs to be thoughtfully navigated between the need for security and our
primary duty to welcome all kinds of people to church. Security volunteers need to be trained
effectively in balancing an inviting heart aimed at those who need Jesus
against scanning and identifying threats.
D. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure. This is perhaps nowhere as true as
in training your staff to respond to emergencies. On-going training for staff and volunteers is
crucial. More than simply knowing how to
respond to violent situations, proper training helps prevent situations where
security volunteers go overboard out of fear.
Proper training is about teaching your volunteers and staff to discern
the right actions under the right situations.
In this respect, make use of church members
with experience or current employment in law enforcement. Just as churches use members with accounting backgrounds
for financial management of the church and those with musical abilities on the
worship team, churches need to rely upon members with experience in security or
violence prevention. The three specific
areas would be police, military, and private security firms (Private Security
Contractors).
Aside from the wealth of experience that they
can bring to your church on the issue of security, these individuals represent
hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of training and experience. They have put in the time to understand how
to identify and react to threats and can help train others in your church in
the fundamentals of security.
This emphasis upon training is repeatedly
voiced by security professionals.
Churches who take security seriously should be meeting regularly
(monthly or quarterly) to go over processes and to work through scenarios.
Churches should also think about periodically incorporating ushers, greeters,
and pastoral staff into this training as they often serve as the first people
to identify a threat. As mentioned
above, these would be great opportunities to reach out to police departments to
either lead or at least occasionally provide assistance.
A reminder: security is under the providence of
God.
I’ve been bothered by some of the foolishness
I’ve seen on social media—people boasting that their church would have done
better. That’s foolish. If you are not familiar with firearms, you
don’t understand how surprise, tactics, body armor, and semi-automatic weapons
work. Security can and does help, but even in some of the past shooter events,
multiple people were dead before a good guy with a gun stopped a bad guy with a
gun.
The “we’d stop them here” boasting is
superficial ignorance but, more importantly, it devalues the victims by
implicitly suggesting that they could have done better to stop the deaths of
their loved ones.
While thinking through security is necessary,
no security plan is foolproof.
Where does that leave us? At the end of the day, we have to trust the
Lord and live by faith, not fear. So,
even as I have outlined some practical measures churches can explore to help
strengthen their security processes, I want to remind us that we have to resist
the urge to act out of fear. We live in
a world groaning and broken under the weight of sin where evil knows where to
find and harm the good.
Yet despite
this, scripture consistently calls us to not be afraid. We must remember that God is sovereign and
reminds us, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am
your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my
righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)
Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy 1:7 that, “God
did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of
self-discipline.”
In Philippians
4:6-7 Paul urges us to come to God rather than to act in anxiety, recognizing
that God gives to us supernatural peace to combat the fears of this world in
addition to the wisdom to navigate life.
Near the end of the Gospel of John, Jesus leaves the disciples with
these comforting words:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I
give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be
troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)
We must be wise and decisive and, in all
our actions, we must reject fear. Our
fear says that we control all things, whereas God’s Word reminds us that
He is sovereign. So as we begin to think
through how to keep our people safe, we should begin with the reminder that our
hope is secure in God!
[1] Francie Diep, Pacific
Standard, https://psmag.com/news/research-on-shootings-in-churches, May 3, 2017
[2] National Institute of
Justice, "The Use-of-Force Continuum," August 3, 2009, nij.ojp.gov:
https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/use-force-continuum
https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/use-force-continuum
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