Churches should be refuges away from the hatred, crime, indifference, and hopelessness of the world. Christian churches are to be Light to our world.
Ephesians 5: 8“for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9(for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth”),
How can a church be a place of Light if the members do not love each other enough to care for and protect the members and children in the church?
How do you build a safe church in an age of hatred, criminal behavior, accidents, and indifference?
Safety is the outcome of love, forward thinking, and a safety culture. Love is a driver, but cultures are where people live their values.
Each church family should take care of itself. This book and author are about guiding churches to make the decisions they need to build safety as an organization.
Proverbs 22:3 “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.”
Avoid the First Mistake: “We can wait on 911.”
Responders are 10-20 minutes to hours away. A heart attack requires attention within 2-3 minutes. Mass murders are generally over within 2-5 minutes. Choking requires response within 10-30 seconds. Serious burns require immediate attention. Serious artery cuts and trauma require attention within 1-2 minutes. Do you have enough professional responders in-house to deal with these emergencies AND evacuations AND traffic AND get critical information to leadership and members AND family members of the injured? Who verifies the hired professionals are working within church guidelines?
We can improve the safety in our churches if we wish to. From first aid to children’s safety, to evacuations, to security, and more, we can step up to the challenges of loving others enough to improve safety. This can be done with straightforward steps if church members are willing. Most of the needs begin with simple education and some dedicated members who are willing to help get this established. Good safety is about LOVE, humility, and diligence—and organization and communication.
I John 4:11 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
My book, Intentional Church Safety (Bevan Collins, 2022) provides detailed information about how to develop a safety committee, teams, and a safety culture that will help members both at church and at home. This is about how to get started building a safety organization and culture, and work through the many questions, alternatives, and resources that surround these challenges. This is not a one-size-fits-all prescription of mandates, but a method where each church can fashion its own safety organization according to its needs and the abilities of its own congregation.
Avoid the Second Mistake: “It will not happen here.”
Tragedies are never planned by the victims. As a Safety Coordinator for my church, I have seen things in the last three years that I never expected to see. From unauthorized entries to crimes in the parking lot, to injuries from falls, to heavily armed gang visitors, to potential mass murderers, to more—if we weren’t organized as a team and had not thought through some of these events we might have reacted wrongly. Instead, we were able to control the drama with calmness, quick action, and keeping the Gospel of Christ in focus.
Our focus on sanitation has kept our church from super-spreader events. Our focus on children’s safety and happiness is helping visitors see we are serious about protecting and supporting their children. All of this has been possible by members of the congregation calmly working together to promote safety and service.
John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”
Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
John 15: 12-13 “This is My commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
Avoid the Third Mistake: “The Safety Committee can do it all.”
The Safety Committee and Safety Teams are to guide the congregation through emergencies. They do provide the immediate responders, but it is the congregation that provides the support they need. Such support includes discipline in the parking lots, help with evacuations, speaking up when something or someone does not look right, providing the alarm when danger is spotted, and helping others get to safety.
A safety culture in churches is entirely built on LOVE and the Gospel of Christ.
Presentations and Consulting from the author is available for churches to help develop their safety teams and plans.
Proverbs 11: 14 “Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory.”
Presentations are generally free for organizations within the NE Oklahoma region. Outside that region, expenses for travel are requested.
Costs for consulting will be dependent on the scope needed by each church and will agreed to after a scope is identified. It is always the focus to minimize costs to the church where possible.
Consulting may include:
- A walk-through of the church and its property.
- Examination of current church policies and practices.
- A questionaire to establish the basic safety status of the church, as well as interests and challenges.
- Meeting(s) with church leadership and members involved in, or interested in, building more safety.
- From the above information, recommendations may be made regarding how to best proceed. This may vary from:
- Changes to, or establishment of a Safety Committee.
- Improvements to current Safety Teams with training and updated practices.
- Recommendations to develop new Safety Teams.
- Recommendations for improved equipment.
- Coordination and reporting recommendations.
- Recommendations for additional training from known experts in various fields.
- Mentoring of church leadership regarding safety and safety administration.
- Mentoring of Safety Team leaders and members.
- Consulting may be done in-person and on-site, or through the web or by phone.
Bevan Collins
Bevan.C.Collins@gmail.com