Church Disturbance Drills

[longtooth]

The absolute foolishness of the unanounced intruder drill made me think of our church Threat Response Plan.
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/today/i ... es_ph.html

Last Christmas the message part of our service had a surprise to it. Regular Christmas carrols & when I started to bring the message I gave my intro: the Shepherds abiding in the field, the glory of the Angelic announcement, they found the babe in the manger, then returned (Luke 2:20) glorifying & praising God for all the things they had heard & seen.....

At this place in the reading our Associate Pastor (who is a good preaching Preacher) was to come into the Sanctuary in Shepherd costume Praising God & glorifying God for all that they had seen. He would then bring the message.

Weeeellll, he did come in a little more exceted than I thought he would, , double loud, door really BURST open (side door of the church right beside the piano)

Our piano player is one of our "Greeters," young, strong, (so is our Associate). Associate gets past him by about 4 steps before piano player gets to him. Recognizes voice sees face about the time he gets too him. One of our Deacons was out of his seat & w/in 2 or 3 steps of him when he recognized him & of coarse the "Praise God, the Savior is born, the Scriptre is fulfilled, let me tell what we saw." All that helped too.

Lesson: No more surprises. Our "Greeters" are ready to greet any that need prayer or other attention.
After the incident where the PD chased & took down the young guy right at the corner of the church we have talked about a drill at the church too.
All will be announced, before & at the drill too. "This is a drill. This is a drill". If it is not a drill then :THis is no drill.
A chuckle after the Christmas Message. Preacher got reprimanded by the Piano Player It helped the response team.

Have your drills but announce them first.

[Commander Cody]

Praise the Lord for a good outcome.

[Purplehood]

I wonder how many Churches have "Threat Response Plans" or even think about them.

Only in Texas?

[longtooth]

Really there are quit a few. I know I have talked w/ SEVERAL & have sent ours to numerous pastors or members setting them up. I know we were one of the first. We did ours before knowing of any. It really is pretty wide spread now. Churches are not the victim rich zone they used to be.

[bryang]

Praise the Lord..LT, I can just picture all that happening.

What a way to get a service moving and wake up the sleepers, huh? That was great, thanks for sharing.

By the way, it sounds like you have some very dedicated men in your church! Praise the Lord!

-geo

[longtooth]

Our men are very dedicated. No sleepers. I am thankful for the church family God has given me to.

[retrieverman]

Our church is "blessed" to have the local Homeland Security Coordinator as a member, and I have known (and liked him) for 30+ years. He started putting together a threat response plan for the church and made it crystal clear in the first (and only) meeting that CHL holders in the congregation have absolutely NO PLACE in his plan. In his plan, the local LEO's will save us all.

The subject of a formal plan has evidently been dropped. There are, however, still several of us that do carry every Sunday, and I personally view keeping my earthly family and church family safe at church as part of my ministry.

longtooth,
If I named names, you would know who I am talking about.

[AJSully421]

my church is within a mile of wedgwood baptist... i think about it every sunday... and pack my G20 in a planner holster. i used to pocket carry a snubbie, but recently decided that's not enough fire power.

[longtooth]

[quote="retrieverman"]Our church is "blessed" to have the local Homeland Security Coordinator as a member, and I have known (and liked him) for 30+ years. He started putting together a threat response plan for the church and made it crystal clear in the first (and only) meeting that CHL holders in the congregation have absolutely NO PLACE in his plan. In his plan, the local LEO's will save us all.

The subject of a formal plan has evidently been dropped. There are, however, still several of us that do carry every Sunday, and I personally view keeping my earthly family and church family safe at church as part of my ministry.
longtooth,
If I named names, you would know who I am talking about. [/quote.



I am so glad I have a GOOD repor w/ the Diboll PD & Counstable. With that arogance he needs to be envited to the range, severly out shot there, & then told to leave his gun in the vehicle.
It is the first of the physical year at Ang. Rifle & Pistol Club. Interested in a yr membership if you are not already? $85.00 yr. 4 rifle ranges, 3 pistol, shotgun, & good folks to shoot w/. You can be my guest to look at it if I could talk you into it. Bring your shooters, plenty of bullets. Return w/ shooters & lots of brass to reload.

[retrieverman]

I am so glad I have a GOOD repor w/ the Diboll PD & Counstable. With that arogance he needs to be envited to the range, severly out shot there, & then told to leave his gun in the vehicle.
It is the first of the physical year at Ang. Rifle & Pistol Club. Interested in a yr membership if you are not already? $85.00 yr. 4 rifle ranges, 3 pistol, shotgun, & good folks to shoot w/. You can be my guest to look at it if I could talk you into it. Bring your shooters, plenty of bullets. Return w/ shooters & lots of brass to reload.

Thanks for the invitation, but I am already a member. With the increase in fuel cost, I do more shooting behind my house now rather than drive the 30 miles to the range. I reload and shoot year around, but I will make several trips to the range in the fall for some fine tuning of my hunting rifles. I always take my carry guns and run a few rounds through them on these trips.

The gentleman that I am talking about doesn't carry himself, and he doesn't want anyone else to either. I don't have any intention of betting my life or that of my family on the response time of the Nacogdoches PD.

[longtooth]

Good job.

[Excaliber]

Really there are quit a few. I know I have talked w/ SEVERAL & have sent ours to numerous pastors or members setting them up. I know we were one of the first. We did ours before knowing of any. It really is pretty wide spread now. Churches are not the victim rich zone they used to be.

Very true.

In my professional life, I have studied active shooter incidents for over 20 years and put together a detailed presentations on the dynamics of active shooter incidents in both church and business environments. It has been very well received by the pastors and church administrators who I've spoken to and led to serious preparations in a number of cases I know of. I have also observed tactical range training sessions for individual church security teams.

Pastors are catching on to reality much faster than school administrators.

[toddlinder]

Any sample church threat response plans or security plans out there for folks to look at?

My church is beginning the process to talk about creating one.

Thanks,
Todd

[longtooth]

I dont mind sending you a copy of ours.

[The Annoyed Man]

I honestly have no idea if my church has such a response plan or not, but my gut instinct is that they probably don't. I assume that CHL holders are represented in our congregation to the extent that we are so represented in the general population, which would put us at about 10-15 CHL holders, but I personally only know of one other guy besides me who has his.

We are located in a low crime area of a low crime town. I realize that this is no guarantee against armed depredation, but my guess is that church leaders might think it is. I'm sure that they have things like a fire evacuation plan in place, but I would be surprised if their planning included how to react to a disturbance. OTH, there are several cops who attend the church, so maybe that is their "plan."

All I know is that I am armed each weekend, including when I'm on stage (thanks to some practical suggestions from some other church musicians on this board early on in my membership here). Whether or not I would respond in the event of a disturbance would depend upon a number of factors, including whether or not to do so might exacerbate the situation.