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It Could Happen In Your Church!
Guidelines for your church’s safety and security program.
By Robert Cirtin
What if an intruder armed with a weapon entered your church during the Sunday morning worship service? What if a member of your congregation experienced a heart attack or other medical emergency? It could happen in your church.
These are important questions pastors need to ask. Are you prepared to deal with such situations that may affect the safety and security of your congregation?
The Existing Situation
Even a casual glance at the evening news reveals how quickly and radically society is changing. It has become necessary for the church to respond to these changes. Generally, our places of employment are safe venues free from violent acts. We now know they are not as safe as they once were. We were also confident that schools were places where our children could come and go in relative safety.
In recent years, though, several notorious, violent events have caused us to question that confidence. In the past, the church has been a place where people considered themselves safe from physical harm. However, like some of our schools, several churches have been the scenes of violent acts and other life-threatening events. Vandalism and theft have been common occurrences in churches, but in recent years, we have been experiencing threats to the safety of congregations and church leaders in houses of worship.
The events of September 11, 2001, have shocked us. We also have been shocked by shootings in schools, post offices, churches, restaurants, and other places of business. These tend to be random acts by deranged people. The fact they harm themselves in the process does not make it any easier to accept.
Although there is a low probability that a violent act will occur in any one place, we know that such acts will occur somewhere, sometime. It is incumbent on us in the church community to be prepared for such eventualities. Here is a case in point.
On September 15, 1999, Larry Gene Ashbrook entered the Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Armed with a 9-mm semiautomatic handgun, he began a deadly shooting spree. During a service for teenagers, he stormed the church shouting obscenities, making antireligious comments, and cursing God. When Ashbrook was finished, he had killed four teenagers, three adults, and injured seven others before shooting himself.
Is this type of situation due to an increasing anti-Christian sentiment in our culture, or is it evil, anger, frustration, and mental illness among the populace? Regardless of the reason, church leaders must be cognizant of the problem. Churches can be targets of those who want to harm God’s people. We already know that murders, armed robberies, and physical assaults have been committed in houses of worship.
What would you or your staff do if a member of the congregation experienced a medical emergency? This may include cardiac failure during the service, an injury to a child while attending Sunday School or day care, or an altercation by someone not associated with the church. Who would do what? Who would be responsible? Can chaos be averted?
These and many other events have taught us that local churches must take steps to prepare for situations that may be a threat to church leaders and members of the congregation. Following are a few guidelines that may be incorporated into your church’s safety and security program.
Design A Plan Of Action
Church leaders should prepare for the worst. Police officers train and prepare for the worst-case scenario. The result is that they are prepared to handle almost anything in any given situation.
If a violent event should occur in your church, you do not want to be in a position of not knowing what to do. This leads to confusion, and it may guarantee that the worst-case scenario will happen. Before that situation arises, have a plan of action in place by designating specific leaders to carry out specific tasks depending on the crisis.
For example, decide in advance who will contact the police, fire department, or ambulance. It is important to get the police and other emergency services moving in your direction quickly, and someone knowledgeable of the situation should be prepared to provide as many details as possible. Without such a plan, it is likely that in the confusion and stress of the moment, everyone may assume that someone else has called 911. (Refer to the sidebars, "A Strategy To Reduce Risks—Establishing a Church Safety Team," and "The Safety Coordinator" in the managing legal/risk section. Also see in this section the article, "Low Walls for High Places.")
Designate certain individuals, such as pastoral staff, ushers, or Sunday School teachers to evacuate portions of the building to prevent harm to those inside. You should also determine who will confront the situation. Depending on the level of training and expertise of members of your congregation, designate those whose responsibility it will be to manage the crisis. If there are members of local, state, or federal police agencies among your congregation, you may want to enlist them to serve in leadership positions for when safety and security problems arise.
It is never advisable for someone other than a police officer to confront an armed intruder. Normally, if an intruder expresses certain demands, do everything you can to meet them. If such demands are not met, harm to those in the congregation may occur. When criminals get what they came for, they usually leave in a hurry.
Establish A Church Security Program
You may want to consider instituting a security officer program. You can use volunteers in the church to serve in this capacity. This is not to suggest that they wear uniforms and act as cops on the beat. These are men and women who walk around the church campus and watch for any behavior that might be a threat to the safety and well-being of the congregation or the physical plant. They should be dressed in ordinary church attire and be perceived by the congregation as a service organization rather than a policing force.
For deterrence purposes, it is important that security officers be visible so everyone will know that the church has such personnel and what they are there for. The security officers should be identified with a plastic clip-on badge similar to what ushers wear. They should be assigned to walk the parking lots and hallways and to be seen near the children’s Sunday School rooms, nursery, and choir room before, during, and after the services. Some churches have security officers patrolling the parking lots in golf carts.
In addition, it is a good idea to have someone in the sanctuary designated to provide security. To some, this may seem a bit excessive. But what if an intoxicated person or a person suffering from a mental illness enters the sanctuary and causes a disturbance? Someone should be trained and assigned the responsibility to control such a situation.
Prepare For Medical Emergencies
A few years ago during a morning worship service I attended, a member of the congregation experienced a heart attack during the sermon. As a former police officer, I was trained and certified to perform CPR. A friend of mine sitting nearby was a registered nurse. He and I immediately began performing CPR. Emergency medical personnel were summoned and arrived within 10 minutes. The man was quickly transported to the hospital and survived the heart attack.
A medical plan of action should be in place should medical emergencies arise. Pastoral staff, ushers, and security personnel should be trained to know what to do when a medical emergency occurs. Every church should have at least one well-stocked first-aid kit, and there should be several people who know where it is and how to use it.
You and other key staff and volunteers should learn CPR. Ample evidence exists to show that CPR increases the chance of a person recovering if it is performed immediately after the episode occurs. Portable heart defibrillators are becoming widely available and are inexpensive and easy to operate, and they save lives. (See the sidebar, "Should Your Church Purchase a Defibrillator?")
Traditionally, the church has been a sanctuary to be respected as God’s house. Unfortunately, there are those to whom the sanctity of the church has no relevance or meaning. It is incumbent upon the church to have in place a crisis-management plan that will provide the safety and security your congregation deserves.
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Robert Cirtin, assistant professor of criminal justice and director of the criminal justice program, Evangel University, Springfield, Missouri. He is also president of Robert Cirtin Investigations, a professional investigative and consulting firm that provides investigative and preemployment screening services to businesses and government. |
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