![]() In June 2020, I wrote a blog, “Is now the time for a Christian Revolution?” It was during the first Trump presidency. We were recovering from the COVID-19 shutdowns and the riots from the death of George Floyd. This country seemed to be coming apart at the seams and we needed help to hold it together. I was reading a book called Trumpocalypse The End-Times President, a Battle Against the Globalist Elite, and the Countdown to Armageddon (Babylon Code) and found these two paragraphs that inspired this blog’s topic. The authors Paul McGuire and Troy Anderson wrote about a Christian revolution. They stated, "While a simply conservative revolution can never succeed, a revolution inspired by Christianity certainly can, because it draws its energies from the existence of the biblical God, the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his second coming, the truth of the Word of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s these factors, and these alone, that ignited the American Revolution. A true “Christian Revolution” can never happen unless the church, individual Christians, and Christian leaders really believe what they are teaching and then act upon it. Only a holy fire can ignite the hearts of men and women. Mere intellectual acknowledgment of the truth of the gospel will never release the explosive energies of heaven. The human heart, mind, and will must be absolutely gripped with the truthfulness of God’s existence and his purpose for their lives and the destiny of mankind. When and only when this happens will the Christian Revolution occur and radically change our world." After that, I wrote, “We need a revolution.” We didn’t start a revolution, November 2020 showed us that we were not ready for a revolution. In fact, it looked more like a surrender than an insurrection. It had to happen. Some churches were not ready, it felt like a lot of popular pastors had to go into captivity and live through four years of being afraid to preach the Word for fear of being canceled. A new administration came in and told all of us that we were white and Christians, we were racist, homophobic, and antisemitic. I heard pastors saying that the sermons they were preaching put down minorities. If they didn’t change how they delivered the Gospel they could be canceled and the feared losing 5013c status. Pastors that I respected and listened to apologized for their biblical teachings. They needed to change how they explained the Gospel to be more empathetic to minorities. If they didn’t fall in line they would be labeled “Christian Nationalists.” The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) tried to put Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality in one of their Resolutions. The United Methodist Church split. It appeared that all denominations had some sort of battle and had lost their Way. My daughter told me that young people looking for stability in their lives were not looking at the church because of all of the scandals, division, and volatility in the church. I started hearing so many mainstream churches wondering why they can’t attract young men. It was because our society had made masculinity a bad word and they had fallen into that trap. Last month The Telegraph posted an article “Young, single men are leaving traditional churches. They found a more 'masculine' alternative.” Even our young men see the loss of adulthood in the traditional church and have headed to the Orthodox church after discovering the "masculine" Christian religion through online influencers. What does this have to do with the church, Trump, Christian revolution, and safety teams? Let’s start with Trump. For now, forget about the 2020 election and all the issues with it. Trump had to lose. If he would have won, he would have spent the next four years trying to survive and might have gone down as the worst president ever. He had a Democratic congress, and they were not going to allow him to have a win, so he had to lose in 2020. Trump needed to be pruned and did God do a pruning on him? Search warrants on his home, being arrested, prosecuted, and found guilty of “Trumped-up” charges. Two assassination attempts and we could go on but we, started to see this was not only against Trump, but this was also against us. If the government could do what they were doing to Trump and had they won the 2024 election what would stop them from doing it to us? We also had to be pruned because we were a country that had turned its back on the Word. Instead of seeking the Bible for guidance we fell into fear of being canceled, worried about civil lawsuits against those who did not fall into line, like the church itself was in their liberal crosshairs. If the other side won in 2024 it would have made them unstoppable. They would have perceived it as a mandate for them to continue their attack on the church, parents, and businesses. If you preached against abortion, that marriage is between one man and one woman, that you stood by Israel, and that our border should be secure, you would be labeled as an enemy of the state. Refuse to do a gay wedding or stop a transgender male from going into the women’s bathroom and watch them come after you. They may not have started by shutting down your church, but they would have found favor in a court with judges appointed from the last administration in a civil suit against your church and do you want to go through that ordeal? But we cried out to our Lord and He heard us. He tore down the barriers between parties. We became a nation of the people, and both sides banded together for the good of the country. That was the start of the revolution and now we have to continue bringing the country back together. A battle plan must be created and implemented by followers of Jesus Christ, without political bias from either side. We need our religious leaders to get back to the teachings of the Bible and not look at the world for the answers to life. We need to be open to conversations with those in need. But we as safety team members need to remember we are still on the wall watching for the wolves in sheep’s clothing wanting to disrupt, harm, or create chaos in our churches. We must understand that we are the new “safe spaces” for those who have been lied to over the past eight years. We have to look at those who voted against us as ones who did not know what they were doing. The other side was blinded by false teachings. We must come to the table and have an honest open discussion, not judgmental but looking at ways of showing them the light and peace they can only find through Jesus Christ. There is no peace in Critical Race Theory (CRT), there is no rest in looking for racism in all that we do, and no comfort in hating others who might not agree with their opinions. As Christians, we must unite to bring those back from the darkness of all the falsehoods they have been given over the last eight years. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV). Jesus gives us the answer and we need to share this foundation for rest. In any revolution there will be battles, there will be casualties, but the expansion of the Kingdom of God will prove worthwhile. McGuire and Anderson wrote in Trumpocalypse that we “draw our energies from the existence of the biblical God, the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his second coming, the truth of the Word of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit.” With Christ at the helm, we can right this ship for our children, and our grandchildren and get this country back on course to “Make America Great Again.”
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In our November 2024 online seminar “Getting Ready for the Holidays” we talked about preparing the safety teams for the Christmas season. Since so many churches have other activities on their property, I felt we needed to make sure that safety was a part of every celebration happening on the campus.
I also talked about how mental health issues are going to be the next biggest threat to the churches. An essay by the Journal of Crime and Justice cited a study done by James Densley and Jillian Peterson of the Violence Prevention Project, “Murder in a time of crisis: a qualitative exploration of the 2020 homicide spike through offender interviews.” In this article, Densley and Peterson said that there was an unprecedented 30% increase in homicides in the United States since 2020, “the largest surge in over a century.” They attributed this recent increase to the “COVID-19 pandemic, social isolation, economic instability, and civil unrest.” When the churches came together after the COVID-19 restrictions we warned safety teams of possible issues by those who lost a loved one, their business, or having a hard time with isolation. This was a hard time in this country and shutting down the churches was truly one of the worst things this country did and there are still people that have not gotten over it. Densley and Peterson confirmed what we were concerned about by stating in their findings that “The pandemic and subsequent civil unrest only intensified these challenges, creating an environment where mental health struggles, economic hardship, and the breakdown of routine escalated personal crises. For some, losing jobs, facing homelessness, or dealing with unaddressed mental health conditions triggered extreme reactions.” Another look at mental health issues in America, Facts.net published a paper from the World Federation for Mental Health, “40 Facts about World Mental Health Day.” The World Federation for Mental Health “promotes mental well-being, reduces stigma, and advocates for better mental health services.” In this article, it states that:
No sooner than we did the webinar I observed a newspaper article from White Settlement, Texas where a person suffering from mental health issues was arrested with multiple weapons and improvised exploding devices (IEDs) in his van. His target is a church. Since then, there have been multiple incidents where people with mental health issues targeted Christian organizations, not to disrupt services but to kill people. Three more incidents (as I am writing this, a shooting has happened at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin) involving Christian facilities have happened over the past month where it appears subjects with mental health issues have either attempted to shoot someone in the church or tried to kill people at a live nativity event. On December 4th, while visiting Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists in Palermo, California, a person with a history of mental health issues asked about enrolling his child into the school only to later produce a firearm and shoot two students and then committed suicide. During a December 8th church service in Suffolk, Virginia, a man tried to shoot a staff member. He was tackled by the pastor and safety team members before anyone was hurt. Then on December 11th, a man drove his vehicle on church property in Allen County, Indiana yelling he wanted to kill everyone there before police and church members were able to stop him from injuring anyone. The church was just finishing a live Christmas nativity event when the suspect arrived. Looking at the incidents and seeing the reactions of the suspects after the arrest are clear signs of mental health issues. Looking deeper into these occurrences we really must ask the question of what is triggering these people to decide they need to kill people at churches or religious organizations during this Christmas season. If this is any sign of what safety teams may be facing as their churches hit full capacity during the Christmas services, we need to be ready. Pastor Kevin Haggerty and I just did a Rumble video podcast talking about the church needing to be “Safe Places” for those who are angry or depressed. Angry or depressed at the way the election went, not understanding why God would take a loved one or just the way the world seems to be headed toward destruction. We, the church, need to be safe places for people to move away from all the craziness in this world and remember the real “reason for the season,” the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the peace He offers all of us. I am praying that churches across the country all have wonderful and peaceful Christmas services, but we, the safety team of the church, have to be watchful and proactive for what Satin may throw against us this Christmas season. Have a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year. During my time with the Norfolk Police Department, I worked in a unit called Crime Analysis. Supervisors Benny Rogerson, Bruce Hierstein and Les Barnard put together a book that showed algorithms that with the right crime data could almost predict the next crime. It was all new stuff back in the 1980s and since then there have been hundreds of books written on being proactive in crime prevention through crime analysis. When you watch today’s crime shows, crime analysis is always used as a part of the process to catch the bad guy. They make it look fancy and easy when actuality it is challenging work from the officers and analysist who serve in departments today. Today’s computers make the work a little easier, but they all started with innovators like Benny, Bruce, and Les.
Church safety consultants scour the internet looking for crimes against houses of worship and then put valuable information in weekly emails, podcasts, or blogs to inform you of incidents involving churches. This is a form of Crime Analysis for the church safety world. If you are on such an email list, do you read these emails and start to watch for those types of trends in your area? If there is a rash of vehicle burglaries in your church area, could your church parking lot during Christmas services with cars loaded with Christmas presents be their next target? If there is a rash of vandalism in your area, look at the recordings on your cameras to see if someone might be surveilling your property. Pictures of a suspicious person captured on your system may help police in the arrest of others committing vandalism in your area. Looking at my Google Alerts today I came across a news article, “Man found with bombs in White Settlement planned to attack church.” Reading the article, the suspect not only had bombs but two AR style weapons, a handgun, and a lot of ammunition. While reading the article I remembered that the West Freeway Church of Christ shooting was also in White Settlement. Taking the address of the arrest and looking up the church’s address, I found the suspect was arrested less than two miles from the church. This really does not mean much. There are churches all around the area of the arrest but looking at this from my crime analysist point of view, I saw some parallels. The West Freeway Church of Christ shooting happened in December of 2019, five years ago. Researchers have found a lot of mass shooters plan to do something near or on anniversaries of other shootings. Could this suspect be a past friend or associate of the shooter at the West Freeway Church of Christ shooting? If they had a look at his computer, would you find the West Freeway Church of Christ shooting in his search history? Little things like this cross our minds and cause us to ask these questions. You see, we start to look at things differently after working with some of the best minds in Crime Analysis. If you do not get a weekly crime against churches newsletter, look at getting on someone’s email list. Simon Osamoh with Worship Security Academy, or James Maute with Church Safety & Security or our own Jessica Howard at Trinity Security Allies. The information provided by these church safety experts could save someone’s life and give you an insight into what is happening to churches around the country to share with your safety team and the leadership of the church. Church safety is not an option anymore. If you do not have a safety team, go to your leadership of the church, and ask them this simple question, “Do you want everyone in your church safe?” It seems a little rhetorical but if they do not immediately respond yes, maybe this is not the church for you and your family. ![]() “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3. Several weeks ago I did an online seminar, “Who Do We Work For?” Simple answer, we work for the Lord, not the congregation of the church and not the leaders of the church. In this online seminar I placed more responsibilities on safety team members. Not only do we have to keep a watch for the wolves that may come into our house of worship, but now we need to keep an eye on the threats in the church, and those threats could be our own leaders. Over the past two years, I have been personally involved in two incidents where pastors were caught sending inappropriate text messages to women who were not their wives. Both occurrences were heartbreaking and caused pain to the church and the family members. People who had put a lot of faith in the pastors suddenly realize they are just like everyone else, flawed. At Trinity Security Allies, we receive daily information from across the country about issues that churches are having to face. From vandalisms, shootings, break-ins, robberies to sexual sins against the church. Make no mistake, vandalism, break-ins and robberies are up, but what seems to be becoming more frequent is the immoral decline of the church. Recently we learned that Tony Evans stepped away from his Dallas megachurch due to an undisclosed sin. Robert Morris resigned from his Texas megachurch due to allegations of a past relationship with a 12-year-old. Then even sadder news a megachurch in Lexington, KY, LexCity was closing their doors because of their pastor, Zachary King, being charged with first-degree rape, third-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, third-degree sodomy, and first-degree sexual abuse. Members of the church felt they could no longer support the church because this was the second time something like this had happened in the church. “Former Lexington pastor charged with rape, exploitation and sexual abuse of a minor.” “Megachurch pastor admits past ‘inappropriate’ behavior with ‘young lady’ after accusation of molesting 12-year-old.” Headlines like these are like blood in shark infested water. It becomes a feeding frenzy, and the attacks are vicious and many. At least in these two churches we know what the crime is, but in the case of Tony Evens, the accusations are coming in fast and damaging. One article listed 13 possible reasons why Evens left the church. The list included adultery, homosexuality and connections with the death of his new wife’s husband. These are sad because all he has to do is come out and confess his sins so the church, Tony’s friends and family can heal. These speculations only fuel the fire of those that want to destroy the church. Another example of a vicious attack is an opinion piece from the Lexington Herald-Leader “LexCity scandal shows again that churches, not drag shows, are hurting our children.” In this article it boldly proclaims that Zachary King’s victims were not attacked by a drag queen but by the clergy of the church. To add salt to the wound, the author writes “We can argue whether LexCity is abdicating responsibility by closing its doors, or whether they are too tainted to “rebrand” yet again. For the people who found spiritual fulfillment there, I’m sorry. For the victims of its pastors, I’m even sorrier.” Do they really care? They went on and talked about recent occurrences around the world like the victims abused in the Southern Baptist cases and the abuses covered up by the Catholic Church. The author finished with “And those are just the ones we know about. But we know they’re not drag queens. They are Christian leaders, and for some reason they still have the power to hurt their parishioners. That’s what people should be outraged about. Not drag queens.” In a time that our country is totally divided, the church needs to get its act together and be the light on the hill for all that are hurting and looking for the answer, Jesus Christ. So how do we tie the safety teams of churches around the country into this issue? Because we are the protector of Christ Bride and unless we start to look at the dangers from the inside, just like the problem from the outside we are going to continue to see these headlines. The problem is that we, the church, have allowed these things to happen. Pastors are only human and as safety team members they need to be watched over just like those in the congregation. They are also a part of the flock and the threats against them are not of flesh and blood, but the devil’s scheme to destroy the church. Pray every day for your leadership in the church. Go to your pastors and make time to sit or go break bread with them. Let them know you are there for them in these precarious times. Make sure that they have someone that holds them accountable and if they don’t, offer your services. Most of the time when you have a breakfast meeting, they will pay because of the value of your friendship and the accountability partner you have become to them. ![]() Somewhere in 2010 it came to my attention that we had a regular attendee, John, who had been arrested for sexually assaulting a minor. We as Christians are supposed to be forgiving and the Bible gives us plenty of verses about the joy of a repentance sinner. Luke 15:7 is a great example, “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” But Christ said in Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” God had a plan for John and my paths to cross so I could teach you about this issue. The first thing John did when came to us was groom the church. He made his presence known with most the staff and leaders. John charmed the lead pastor by relaying he was an upstanding citizen, had just moved into town and was looking for a Spirit lead church. He told the pastor after listening to the music and his powerful sermons he was so moved and decided this was going to be his new home church. John had also found a single mother, Betty* who had an eleven-year-old daughter, Lisa*, and he turned his charm toward Betty after winning over the church. It wasn’t even a month later that John had Betty fooled that he had changed his ways and she had nothing to worry about. He had fooled the gatekeeper and the church, so he turned his attention to Lisa. Lisa was one of Jessica, my oldest daughters, best friends. Lisa had stayed over at our house on so many occasions that we started calling her our third daughter. On Wednesday night Jessica and Lisa would go to Youth Church together. Wendy and I would drop them off and Betty would pick them up. One night Jessica told me that Betty had brought her new boyfriend, John, to pick the girls up and something about John made her feel uneasy. She couldn’t quite explain it but there was something in the way he treated Lisa that just didn’t seem right. Then we started hearing stories of how John was acting around Lisa, and alarm bells started going off. Lisa told Jessica the reason she liked John so much was he paid so much attention to her that he helped her with her homework. Sounds innocent, but Lisa liked to lay on the floor while doing her homework and John would lay next to her, tickling and roughhousing with her. Another thing, he was always buying her popsicles and loved to watch her eat them. If you have never taken a class on sexual predators, these are classic signs of grooming. Then another parent of one of Jessica’s friends pulled me aside and told me that John was a registered sex offender. Several members of the church became concerned over John’s past and behavior. It was brought to the attention of the church’s leadership, so the church requested a copy of John’s arrest report. When we reviewed the report we realized this was worse than we had thought. The report said John’s ex-wife found out that he had been molesting her daughters and later during the investigation found out John had also molested her sons. For some reason unknown to us, because of the seriousness of the crime, the court only listed John as an offender and not a predator. During this time we also found out that John had remarried, and his now wife had him removed from their home because she was afraid that John had been grooming her children. Because of what we were seeing, we felt Lisa was going to be his next victim. I told the leadership of the church that they should talk to him about his past and question his intentions with Betty and Lisa. If the church did not feel comfortable with the conversation, we would discuss our next step. Yet when we sat down with the lead pastor, he felt it was a bad idea to confront John with his past. Maybe we were the ones that could turn John around, and maybe we should get him into a men’s group and the brothers could gather around him and help him see the error of his ways. The pastor went down a whole list of concessions we were going to do to keep John in our church so “we” could change him and bring him back into the flock. I could see the pastor getting really excited about the opportunity to bring someone like John around. I told the pastor that I would do what he wanted me to do, but in my experience in law enforcement, most men like John do not change. Besides standing on the outside and looking at what was going on, I could see that John had already won the pastor over and had picked his next victim. The pastor told me to keep an eye on John and if I saw anything else, bring it to his attention and he would decide what to do next. Reminding him of an old Star Trek saying, “logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” The pastor agreed with my logic and decided to give John a call and talk to him about his past and his relationship with Betty and Lisa. When the pastor called John and explained to him that his past had been brought to the pastors attention by other members of the church, John showed his true colors. He cursed out the pastor and told him he would never come back to our church again. Apparently this was not the church of redemption he thought it was. John never came back to the church, but I found out later he went to another church and started grooming another little girl before being run off from that church. John is now serving life in the penitentiary because he couldn’t change his ways. Every church I have attended in these past nine years has stories like this. Pastors just do not want to give up on anyone and that someone becomes a cancer that hurts the church. Pastors need to understand that we lean on them to lead the church and teach us about the Gospel. Yet sometimes we have to remind them that no matter how hard they try to change a harden heart, it is the Holy Spirit that convicts and transforms the hearts. Our pastor has pulled me to the side on many occasion to tell me he wants me to work with someone because of my walk with the Lord. I never tell him no. Using the gifts God has given me, it normally takes about two minutes of talking to this person and I can see they will not give up the sin that they love. It is not that we don’t try yet after a period of time most always show their true colors and leave the church. They want to check the box of attending a church because they are afraid God on judgment day might look at them and say, “I knew you not”. In our training “Your Safety Has Become Your Responsibility” we dive into Gavin De Becker’s book, “The Gift of Fear.” De Becker breaks it down that during most conversations, when a person is being deceptive there will be red flags you can pick up on. De Becker explains we need to listen to what our intuition says. De Becker says “intuition is always right in at least two important ways: 1. It is always in response to something. 2. It always has your best interest at heart.” We have something more powerful than our intuition; we have the Holy Spirit so those two things De Becker talks about are supercharged to protect us at all times. As quoted, all through the Bible there are verses about the joy of a repentance sinner like Luke 15:7. To me, there is no greater joy than seeing someone repent, experience God’s grace and join the flock. We rejoice as they go on to live the life that God has planned for them. Yet we must understand there are times we try and try to help someone understand the error of their ways only to see them become a cancer in the church and do more harm than good. So pastors when your safety team members bring someone to your attention that appears to be a disruption to the church, listen to them. Remember your job is to lead and teach, ours is to protect the flock. *Betty and Lisa’s names were changed to protect their privacy. You can find John Polgar’s information on FDLE Department of Corrections website. |
AuthorJim has many years of law enforcement experience and has run the safety team at his church for several years. TSA was formed after he realized God's calling when multiple churches reached out and asked him to present at their church. Archives
February 2025
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