Does Your Church Have a Safety Program in Place?

You are probably aware of the church shooting in Texas last week where a mass slaughter was averted by a church security guard. It was a miracle that more people were not killed. This was God’s grace in action.

An interview about this event is available here.

Don Swartzlander (our Shipping Manager) reports

 A GRAPHIC and disturbing video of the actual church shooting that was being live streamed on the internet is here and an in-depth interview with the “hero” of the Texas shooting can be viewed here.

The tragedy at West Freeway Church of Christ could have been much worse if the Security Team had not been there.  The Team was not just there; they had been established, trained, and prepared for incidents such as this.

The shot that ended the tragedy was taken from more than 40 feet in a crisis situation.  Training, practice and God’s anointing caused the shot to hit its mark and save lives.  

I have personally lead an armed/unarmed security/safety team at our church for almost 10 years.  We train and are prepared for the worst. But our team isn’t just for “Shooting Emergencies”.  There is a vast array of situations that can be handled by our Safety Team.  Some are medical emergencies and we have had 2 doctors and 4 nurses on our team. We handle natural disasters (especially blizzards as we are in Buffalo, NY), special activity supervision, parking lot supervision, Sunday School supervision, church entry and exit supervision, offerings and deposit supervision, and much more.  Our team is vital to the safety and functioning of our church.

We feel it is important for every church to have a security plan in place so people are protected.  We function on the saying that it’s better to have a safety team and not need it than to need a safety team and not have it.   

CLU has developed a course on this: CHU101/501 The Place of Worship Assessment for Safety and Security. Don Swartzlander is the instructor and you can find the course description here. Churches may be ready to invest in their congregation's safety by covering the cost of this 5-credit course ($522). CLU is developing additional courses in the area of church security.

Act today: Protect your people. You may enroll in this course by calling our offices at 1-800-466-6961. If you would like to speak with Don directly, he can also be reached at the office number or at shippingmanager@cluonline.com.