How To Secure Your Church in 7 Steps

A comprehensive road map to improve your church safety 

STEP 1: Create a Strong Security Culture

• Canvas the views of your church, vestry, sexton, vergers, lay leadership, pastors, and executive directors to name a few. Obtaining leadership views on safety and security before commencing any change is critical to your later success. This will help you identify the support that you have or limitations as you go forward.
• Now that you have the views of church leadership, create a “mission statement” to support and reflect the attitudes of your church on security and help build authority.

STEP 2: Form A Safety Committee

• Running security for a busy ministry can be a full time job. You cannot be successful without interdepartmental input; after all, they will execute the security procedures you later write. Find some likeminded individuals from different ministry departments to help you start. Start with individuals who may also understand risk like children's ministry and finance teams.
• Define your priorities and people’s roles. It is advantageous if a church leader is on the committee to help influence change or put forward budgetary projections.
• Meet monthly and talk through the mission statement. Discuss security priorities and work as a team to influence change around procedures and culture.
• Ask the committee to meet after security events occur at your church as well as security events that take place around the country. This is a create way to create change.

STEP 3: Protect Your Perimeter

• We are two steps in and haven't touched on physical security. At this stage we want you to walk, not run. As a general rule though, protection of your perimeter is physical security 101.
• Use what you have in place to educate all staff on the importance of shutting all doors and windows. Check doors locks and windows. Do you have the appropriate hardware on doors? What protocols are in place at your preschool to protect God’s vulnerable children?
• Use good “hospitality” to talk with people that staff and volunteers don’t recognize as they enter. This method is simple, highly effective and doesn't cost anything!
• You may have 15 entrances to your church but do you need them all open? Can you divert all entering foot traffic past a team member or front desk to be greeted as they enter?

STEP 4: Conduct a Security Risk Assessment

• A security risk assessment could be the first step, but I place it at step 4 because you can achieve steps 1 through 3 without any budget or specific skill.
• A security risk assessment is vital to your success in securing your place of worship. You can do it yourself or hire a professional. There are pros and cons either way just focus on the how!
• Advice and templates are available online to help you complete a risk assessment but perhaps someone in your congregation has experience in this area?
• Always remember the gifts that you have. A security risk assessment conducted by a highly trained and experienced security expert should be see an investment. Failure to address risk could result in high legal liability later.
• After the risk assessment, it's always good practice to ask your church insurer or legal advisor what recommendations they suggest you start with first to ensure your budget is well spent.

STEP 5: Build Emergency Action Planning

• Identify critical policies and procedures. Start with protecting the most vulnerable; children, elderly, money movement etc. Think in terms of all hazards; fire, severe weather, lost children, suspicious people and active shooter.
• Equally as important as writing the procedures, is checking they work and make sense. Can they be performed under stress? Ask the question- “Do people taking action have the right skills in emergency procedures response?”
• Make sure staff understand your security response and work to the level of their gifts and abilities.
• Consider professional help in writing your procedures. If written poorly they may expose you to additional risk and costly litigation later.
• Share your Emergency Action Plan (EAP) with city emergency managers and Law Enforcement professionals to get their advice and support.
• When you hear of security incidents at other houses of worship, bring your safety committee together. Discuss how you would respond to this event if it happened at your church.

STEP 6: Conduct Safety Training

• Start with those in critical positions who come into regular contact with people such as child and youth workers, pastors, ushers, greeters, volunteers, facilities and maintenance workers etc.
• Educate teams on suspicious behavior. Find some interesting cases on the internet and work out how you could have prevented them at your church.
• Educate staff on the risk factors for violence and encourage your community, “If you see something, say something”.
• Train on basic first aid and test procedures at least quarterly through table top exercises.

STEP 7: Implement a Safety Team

• Find the right person to lead the team, will this be a staff member or volunteer? Most often security is good old-fashioned customer service with a willingness to take action when something seems out of place. The strongest quality is a servants heart and a desire to help protect your people!
• Never just take people because they volunteer. These roles have a great depth of responsibility and liability for your church. As Jesus did, choose your disciples wisely, hold an informational evening for those that you feel might have the skills needed for your team and ask people to join.
• Don’t be afraid to interview prospective team members, even volunteers. It's important that they align with your church culture and vision for the team.
• For any new team setting expectations as to what they can and cannot do is critical to success.
• Like any area of the church people will leave or volunteer in different ministries of the church. Do what you can to document your program, creating templates and check lists to make onboarding new volunteers easier.
• Ask yourself, how will you communicate safety and security events that occurred during the week that may need a safety teams attention on a Sunday?

Simon Osamoh is a British American and founder of Kingswood Security Consulting and the Worship Security Academy. He spent 14 years as a Detective in England working serious and organized crime. He moved to the United States to Head Counter Terrorism at Mall of America, Minnesota. Simon is a Christian and has spent over a decade helping non-profits stay safe and secure. He is the author of three books, Securing Church Operations, Church Safety Responding to Suspicious Behavior and 10 Powerful Strategies for Conflict De-escalation. He is the host of the Church Security Made Simple Podcast and a member of the Worship Facility Editorial Advisory Board.

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