Safety in Your House of Worship (Part Two)

Do you feel safe where you worship?

Two years ago, I helped put together a health and safety team for our church in suburban Chicago. We had several minor incidents, mostly involving panhandlers, prior to the team’s creation. We have been blessedly trouble free since the team has been in service.

If your place of worship has experienced car break-ins, panhandlers bothering your leaders, or even threats to members of the congregation, statistics complied by the National Organization for Church Safety and Security Management (NOCSSM) indicate you’re not alone. Sadly, violence is no stranger to places of worship.

If you’re considering ways to keep your congregation safe, here is some of the takeaway from our experiences over the past two years:

Have a plan. As with most human endeavors involving more than two people, it’s wise to create guidelines. In our case, church elders wanted paperwork in hand before they would allow us to proceed. A policy statement also helped the church’s insurance carrier when we requested an additional liability rider. One rule we wrote immediately was that team members who are not law-enforcement officers would not carry weapons. Another that took a little longer to realize was inclusion of our health professionals and a name change from safety to health and safety.

Choose members wisely. We look for regular attendees who have law-enforcement, safety or medical backgrounds and those who may serve in a similar, or volunteer, capacity at their place of employment (divisional safety monitors, building fire marshals). Students are often eager to step forward. The goal is to attract prayerful, serious, but friendly individuals who easily interact with the rest of the congregation. What we don’t want is “church cops.” Good observational and people skills are excellent qualifiers. So is medical training.

Decide appropriate staffing based on your neighborhood risk assessment, the size of your facility and the number of attendees. We’re fortunate that a number of our ushers are also safety team members and that allows flexibility in scheduling. Our goal is to be unobtrusive but always available.

What equipment is required? While we don’t arm our personnel (some larger places of worship do and the conversation is worth having), we ask that everyone carry a cell phone and a durable flashlight. We also assign each member a two-way radio. The radios, along with their “secret service style” ear buds and microphones may seem unnecessary in a small facility but we decided to use them because they free us from fumbling with phones when moments count. Radios allow us to stay in immediate touch with one another. We can also alert the office and Sunday School classrooms with the push of a button in the event of an emergency. The ear buds make it easy for members to participate in the service, if they wish, and still hear and communicate with the team. The radios serve a more subtle function, too. Along with our ID badges, they identify us both to the congregation and to any outsiders with a non-spiritual agenda.

Establish a routine and stick with it, no matter how unnecessary it may seem. Assume anything could happen. It probably won’t but, if it does, you’ll have a plan in place to deal with it. We check all doors and all rooms, especially rest rooms, constantly. We monitor exterior doors nearest the children’s church. Team members stroll the parking lot to assist arriving and departing worshippers, especially the seniors, and to make sure we intercept strangers with ill intent. Members are on duty in the foyer as long as the church’s doors are open. We have procedures in place for fire, weather and intruder emergencies and to protect our pastors.

Cooperate with public safety officials. We met with local police shortly after we formed the team. We shared the names and phone numbers of pastors, elders and safety leaders as well as facilities information critical for first responders. We also provided blueprints of the building. We work with the fire department on maintaining our alarm systems and conducting emergency evacuation drills.

Meet regularly and train together as a team. Our members are CPR and AED certified and have attended workshops on a variety of topics relevant to our mission with instructors that include police officers and former federal agents. Our health volunteers include a doctor, nurses, eldercare specialists, a physical therapist and a combat medic. A health professional is seated in an easy to reach pew in the sanctuary each Sunday. A well-stocked first aid kit is available in the office with smaller kits in each classroom.

Flexibility is crucial to any health and safety operation. To cover all the bases, think like an outsider, imagine everything that could go wrong on any given Sunday and how you’ll respond if it does, keep smiling and stay in touch with the Lord!