Securing Your Place Of Worship

Methods of opposing the threat with open arms.

Level One:

Threat Assessment And Response

Eyes on the proximity

The best hope of mitigating the threat is to first see it when it arrives. There should be watchers on the wall.

Sounding the alarm

The staff should have a key word or phrase that signals internally two levels of concern: Caution and Alarm.

Alarm

A person with a weapon in hand. Police activity, fire or fight.

Caution

A known troublemaker or suspicious person should be greeted OUTSIDE the building with a locked door behind the usher or ushers greeting the causer of concern. Other staff members must remain behind locked doors, watching. Ready to raise the Alarm.

Activating the response

When an usher or staff member announces the Alarm Word, all of the staff should immediately and without question perform the lockdown and/or evacuation procedures that have been taught and practiced.

Communication

Practice clear, concise instructions to staff and church members. Direct people away from the perceived threat. Perhaps leaving the building and dispersing opposite of the threat. Even false alarms are good practice.

Level Two:

The delicate balance of Safety and Security as applied in a loving and welcoming place.

Church defense protocol

What this brief document addresses is how to handle the “gray area” person who is not a trusted member of the church, and is also not exhibiting obvious signs of impending violence. Essentially, this opinion article suggests how to protect the congregation without offending the innocent. A person who approaches your church with a weapon in hand is an apparent threat. You should definitely have a plan to address that scenario and deploy whatever means of defense that you select from the vast number of other devices, options and opinions that are available. That is an entirely different subject and is not addressed in this document.

The church is in the business of welcoming strangers and saving souls. When a stranger makes their way to the church doorstep, some caution is a healthy response, given today’s climate of violence that has crossed the boundaries of respect for places of worship. The role and task of the pastor and his usher staff includes the safety of the congregation. This imperative responsibility often runs contrary to obvious security and defense methods that may be used to secure the members of the church. For instance, at one church I visited several years ago, every door throughout the facility was key deadbolt locked except for the front door, and one exit from the kitchen. This “security measure” runs directly contrary to the lawfully required and long-established safety rules concerning free exit from a building in case of fire or other emergency. Locking people in your building with no means of escape is both unwise and unlawful.

The obvious struggle is, how do we filter out the innocent visitor seeking God, from the evildoer seeking to do harm? They both look exactly the same. If a visitor or a stranger is looked at with suspicion and grilled with questions or frisked for weapons, then he or she will likely feel unwelcome in the very place that should be welcoming to every person, regardless of their station in life.

Many attacks in churches have also come from individuals who have some history with the church and/or history with people within the church. These known, troubled souls are as susceptible to evil influences and the performance of destructive acts as a total stranger, perhaps even more. Therefore, for the purposes of this article, both the stranger/visitor as well as the known troubled souls are addressed in the same manner.

The Treatment of the People.

There is a biblical protocol to “mark” someone, both good and bad. In Genesis, God placed a mark upon Cain, who killed his brother, Abel. This was to prevent others from taking Cain’s life in an act of retribution. Some would say this was not a physical mark, but simply a method of taking notice of that man and being sensitive to the man’s presence and actions. Another Bible example of marking a man is in Psalms 37:37 where it tells us to “…mark the perfect man, and behold the upright.” A third such example is recorded in 1 Kings the twentieth chapter, when Benhadad the king of Syria called for the king of Israel to give up their silver and gold, as well as their wives and children. The king of Israel told his people to “mark” this man who seeks to cause mischief. This is the invisible mark that we are able to place upon others, and specifically upon a person who could cause mischief. But just as important as placing the mark, we must quickly and completely be able to remove it. And herein lies the greatest challenge: to be able to apply and remove the mark without the marked person being aware.

This will be difficult to do, and that is where careful training is necessary. Because if a visitor or the troubled adult child of a faithful church member detects your mark upon him, then that offense could drive that person away forever, (and those that he has influence upon) and those are souls that are possibly lost. This loss would also very much be to your own shame and regret. There is, however, a way to mark a potential threat to your congregation without anyone knowing. And the way to do that is to bury the “marking” deep within the warm embrace of charitable love.

When a person is marked for caution, the concern that you are reacting to is quite literally the physical act of that man or woman producing a weapon for mass destruction. The persons with criminal intent look exactly like everyone else in their dress, race, culture and conduct. The difference between the criminal and the innocent resides in their heart. While there may be some clues betrayed by their eyes, “the windows of the soul”, a church staff member doesn’t always have the spiritual vision necessary to see to that level and interpret their intent. Two important aspects of this interaction can be condensed and defined as: 1. Close Physical Security and 2. Customer Service.

Close Physical Security

In my personal experience as a plain-clothed security provider, events caused me to affect the arrest of between 150-200 criminal actors per year during the twelve-plus years that I performed that job. Granted, the vast majority of those apprehensions were for the misdemeanor crime of shoplifting, and not in any way comparable to the horrible crime that has invaded our places of worship. What is a skillset that has kept me safe in every instance was the unwavering safety principles of close physical security. In a simple term, “Watch the Hands”.

In one such harrowing experience, a young man seemed compliant enough to not warrant the handcuffs when I stopped him for stealing, so I escorted him to the office unrestrained, but with a maintained close watch on the hands. When we arrived in the security office, he shoved his right hand into his right front jeans pocket to retrieve a knife. I grabbed his wrist and, with the assistance of my team members, took possession of the knife. The example here is to reinforce the two rules of close proximity physical security that are 1. Be within arms’ reach (or one short step away) and 2. watch the hands.

Customer Service

In the public access setting such as your place of worship, the way to handle a suspicious person is to meet them when they enter the property and don’t leave their side. Now, that could certainly be offensive to anyone, and while this method will help prevent a loss being suffered, it also doesn’t make a person feel very welcome. So, the proper way to secure a dubious visitor is to be within a comfortable proximity of their person, but wrap that presence in a warm welcome as you greet them with a friendly smile and a generous offering of assistance. This falls in line with the charitable love mentioned above. When a visitor arrives at your assembly and is marked for caution, your usher team should greet them with a smile and a warm handshake and some kind of personal introduction. Offer to find them a good seat, engage them in some conversation, and even offer to find the person who invited them to your assembly. And if they just wandered in off the street, offer to join them during the service to answer any questions they might have as the service progresses. This is excellent “customer service”, and ensures that someone is always within hugging distance. You might also win a friend and help save their soul.

There is an apparent flaw in this method of marking a stranger. Giving this much personalized attention to each suspicious person could quickly lead an observer to conclude who is being marked and who isn’t. And that is true. It would be obvious. And when you mark your fellow church member’s invitee or cousin, it is offensive. So, the next step is to conceal the marking. The absolute best way to hide the friendly handshake-introduction-welcoming conversation treatment of a marked person is obvious: greet EVERY visitor and stranger and invitee the same way! Not just the troubled adult who grew up in your church, or the odiferous wanderer who is hoping for a handout, or the nicely dressed person wearing their summer overcoat…. but everyone. Period.

Usher Selection

There are three basic types of ushers. One usher is too warm. He assumes everyone is innocent, and would be caught totally off guard by a sudden act of aggression. Another type of usher is too cold. He may look at every stranger as a threat, and show a face of distrust and suspicion to every visitor. But somewhere in the middle should be the usher who is just right. One who has a Christ-like spirit, love for the people, and the wisdom and physical ability to stand in the gap in the unlikely event that things go wrong. Yes, a physical presence. A bad person who intends to cause great harm will certainly assess his likelihood of success by considering who is standing close enough to him. Someone with the physical ability and mature awareness to be able to stop his horrible act. We should also look at our ushers to see what they see. (A huge red flag would be a visitor who keeps creating distance between himself and the friendly, welcoming usher staff.)

In summary, the numerical probability of your assembly being targeted in a mass casualty crime event is very, very small. So even though the threat is real, it is so unlikely that you could very possibly destroy more souls trying to prevent such a tragedy, by providing challenges, insults, offensive posturing and locked doors, than you would ever lose in an actual mass shooting event occurring in your church. Additionally, from a spiritual perspective, souls lost to a madman are not lost souls. We all have hope of a resurrection, and those who have to face martyrdom will receive the promise of an even greater reward. But a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city. A visitor pulling on a locked door, or even worse: getting roughed up emotionally without cause in a church house is like God Himself rejecting that soul. A soul offended like that may be lost for eternity.

This opinion piece concludes the following: Show all strangers genuine charity. Love them the way you can imagine Jesus opened His arms to the lost and undone when He walked this earth. Our greatest mission is to show the welcoming love that becomes who we are as we become like Christ. And….. you can also go take a grappling class.

If a bad guy shows his evil intent, and you are close enough to give a hug, the rest will take care of itself, naturally. No gun required.

Church Security