church safety

Church safety concerns are increasing due to recent highly publicized church violence incidents in the United States.

Pastors, deacons, elders, and laypeople are left wondering how to respond to the seemingly increasing stream of church violence.

The balance between being an open worship center and a secure minded staff is not hard to achieve with the proper people in place.

Instituting a church safety team can be the best way to increase the chance of an appropriate response should violence come to your church.

A church safety team should be low key, service driven, but trained on how to handle crisis incidents.

Church safety should not be limited to the small chance violence will enter your fellowship. The safety team can handle parking issues, medical emergencies, loss prevention responsibilities, and crisis intervention strategies if necessary.

The last thing your church wants is to appear like you have a safety team. A good church safety team is undetectable, but maintains a wary eye for suspicious activity, and has the communication in hand to contact the appropriate authorities.

The idea is to have a point person or team should a particular crisis occur, so the outcome is better and less injury is sustained.

The church safety personnel should be people of high character (which you hope to have in church), cool under crisis, and should have a steady head.

The last thing you want is a power hungry, Barney Fife type that lets everyone know you have a security or safety team.

The first step in determining the need for church safety is to agree something (anything) can happen, so it is a good idea to have contingency plans in place.

Once you have made the determination of the need, the next step is choosing a team of church members who have the heart of a lion, the demeanor of a servant, and the willingness to learn.

Church safety personnel should be trained in basic first aid, communications, and basic verbal deescalation techniques.

Additionally, dependent on need, some church safety teams may opt to have basic defensive tactics skills which allow them to reasonably and proportionally provide techniques to keep church members safe while they are on the church campus.

A good resource for church safety and church security is found at Church Security Alliance. This is a membership site that provides basic training concepts to laypersons and pastors who decide to implement a security or church safety ministry.

The site may be found at http://www.churchsecuritymember.com