![]() Ezekiel 33 (NIV) “33 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, 4 then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. 5 Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’” What a month! God is on the move my brothers and sisters and the question I keep asking myself am I ready for the work? I got to sit down with my good friend Kevin Haggerty. Kevin has started a YouTube page called the Godlogic Project and if you can, go out and subscribe to his page at https://www.youtube.com/godlogicproject. The reason why this was such a big deal to me, Kevin and I met right after we started Trinity Security Allies and he has been a faithful follower and supporter of our ministry. Kevin is with Next Level Church (some people might know it as TN24) and they let us use their church for conceal weapon classes for free. If you have never heard Kevin speak you need to go to his page and click on one of his videos. He speaks the Word and does not sugarcoat it. Kevin interviewed me and we discussed church security and safety. He recorded this interview and will be putting this out on his YouTube page. More to come. On February 13th, I had the opportunity to talk with Julie Workman. For those that don’t know who Julie Workman is, she is one of the survivors of the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church Shooting. I spent 90 minutes with Julie and all I kept hearing over and over again was about God’s love, strength and presence in such a horrific incident. Julie had two sons with her the day of the shooting. One of her sons was able to get out of the church with a minor injury. The other one who was leading the worship music was shot twice, one hitting his spine and taking away the use of his legs. Julie was also shot that day but God was with her. She said it felt like she was hit by a Mac truck but the bullet did not penetrate her chest. Not only was her testimony inspiring but her message was clear, God prepares us for whatever we may face. He does not put you out there without the knowledge and tools to do what may come our way. You see Julie is a nurse and works in the operation room. Because of her training, she was able to do triage on several of the victims and save lives that day. Without Julie there, her training and the presence of God in such a tragedy more lives would have been lost. I am hoping one day we all get to hear her talk about that day. Back to the to the opening Bible verses. From the start of our ministry, I am always looking for Bible verses that support our ministry. To give an example we use Nehemiah 4:13-16 for why we do what we do. At a church training, someone asked me a question about hiring private security guards instead of using your own men and women in the church safety team. At that time I was in a study on John and I found John 10:11-13 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.” Please don’t start sending me emails about what is wrong with security guards, nothing if they are members of your church. We hire deputies to help with our traffic and after they are finished they patrol the campus and are a great deterrent but they leave after their time is up. Even if you have hired someone to do your safety, are you prepared if the private security or sworn law enforcement officers cannot show up on your campus? We are the sheepdogs of our church but we have to still be prepared even if we have other help. So coming across Ezekiel 33 I thought to myself God is telling us that we must protect the church. As I read it, God is quite clear that as the times start to deteriorate and the attacks on the churches continue to grow, we the leaders of the church need to start preparing for the worse. Reading Ezekiel 33 I felt God will hold us accountable if we do not heed His warning and start protecting His Bride. Of course, when I read verses like this and go out and look to see what other scholars are saying about this I start to think I am trying to read something into it. Then I found someone who thinks like me (kind of scary isn’t it, hey Kevin found another guy that thinks like us). Ken Cayce from Discover Books of the Bible wrote on Ezekiel 33 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman,” Ken states “This message is as much for the ministers of our day, as it is for the people of Israel. The pastor of a church must also, be a watchman. He must look out to the world and warn his people of all danger. The minister is responsible for warning the people of spiritual things. Unfortunately, some ministers preach nothing but love and good times.” Now I don’t know about your pastor but mine is warning our members of the spiritual things but we need to expand this and talk about the physical dangers children of God are facing in our fallen world. We had a man come into our church this last Sunday that even made the deputies uncomfortable. Our pastor was up preaching, he didn’t have time to do what we do while this person was on the campus. This person was on the campus all three services and we finally had to remove him from the Worship Center so people could get back to worship. Brothers and Sisters, I have said this over and over, we are chosen. This is not a position to be taken lightly. Let’s look at another part of Chapter 33. “3 and he (the watchman) sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, 4 then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. 5 Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves.” This sounds fairly simple, we warn them, they don’t listen then their blood is on their own head. But then read on, “6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’” Follow me on this, Julie Workman said that one of the things she realized after the shooting that day in Sutherland Springs, God had been preparing her for that moment. At that moment when friends and family were dying around her, she stayed calm and worked on saving lives. God had trained her all her life for that one moment. It took 20 minutes before the paramedics got into the building. People with the injuries Julie was dealing with could have died within 5 minutes from their injuries if she had not been there. So if you have been called to take on the responsibility, not from your church, but you feel this calling from God, if you don’t stand up and warn your church of what is out here and it is only a matter of time before something bad is going to happen at your church, “but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’”. Are we tracking yet? We have come to a time where it is not a luxury to have a safety team on your campus it is a must. Two people this last month committed suicide inside a church. I am saddened that this happened on any church property but you know what I am glad of (don’t think of me as morbid). I am glad that these people did not take anyone with them. I am glad it wasn’t a suicide by cop where they walked into those churches and started killing members and waited to have a shootout with the cops. Sorry folks we need to wake up and start thinking about these situations. No, I have not gone off the deep end. I read day after day what is happening around the country to churches and I am afraid of those that bury their heads in the sand and say, “it won’t happen here”. That was the same thing Julie thought on that beautiful November morning in the small town of Sutherland Springs. That was until reality sat in and evil came through the door and she found herself being used for what God had been training her for all her life.
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I made that statement at a church safety seminar in North Carolina. Once the announcement sunk in they looked at me like I had insulted their families. This is one of those issues that has been bothering me for some time. I continue to hear stories of safety teams that spend a lot of time, money and effort on training on how to confront an active shooter instead of guaranteeing the safety of those around them. They go to these firearms classes that teach them how to come out of the pew firing away at the active shooter. I watch them take classes on how to clear your house in case you hear an intruder or I heard one church was using police resources to learn how to go room to room and find a hidden shooter. Every time I hear of a safety team that spends more time on how to take down a shooter instead of planning on how to protect those in a church shooting I cringe.
In our church safety training we talk about knowing your campus and positions. One position, a rover driving around your facility looking for anomalies is a priority. Why do we say anomalies instead of threats? If your rover is only looking for the man in or getting out of his car with the weapon in his hands he may miss the child that was accidentally left in his car seat while the parents are in church. We deal with these types of families every Sunday morning, you know the type that come running like their hair is on fire, total chaos. Checking their kids in 5 minutes before church starts, kids still half dressed with their tooth brushes still in their mouths, we all know the type. I have seen families, that are running late, trying to gather all their kids and necessities they need for church forgetting to shut the van door, turn their vehicle off or forgetting the diaper bag next to the back tire. They are one step away from leaving that child in the car seat. Remember I live in Florida and our winters can get quite warm, think about our summers. Over the years we have seen several deaths of infants left in a car seat from the parents just being too busy, forgetful or doing something really stupid. When I read of two incidents at churches back in 2016 I started having my rovers look into vehicles with car seats to make sure they are always empty when the parents are in church. I don’t want it to happen in our church and I am sure you would regret it happening at yours. I had one church contact me because they kept having cars pull up in their church parking lot, driver staying in the car for a short period of time then drive recklessly away when their rover approached them. It caused them some alarm with all the activity. They found out Pokémon Go had a character in their parking lot and all those playing the game kept coming in and leaving. When people were coming and going between services it became a hazard. So, train your rover in the parking lot to look not only for threats, but also anomalies. Make sure you stress the importance of your rovers. They are our first line of defense in cases of an active shooter. In our threat profiling we look at normal human behavior patterns to detect a possible threat. We must be trained in what to look for before it has the opportunity to strike. Once we put into play that this person is a threat then we must start making moves to protect those on the church property. It may be confronting the threat or it may be warning those around of the situation. In Sutherland springs we have learned that the shooter started shooting outside the church, killing two church members. He then began shooting at the building with several hundred rounds before entering the church. The shooter exited his vehicle dressed in black tactical gear wearing a bullet proof vest and carrying an AR-15 style rifle. When we look at the shooting at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, Tennessee, the shooter was wearing a ski mask with two handguns as he got out of his vehicle and made his way to the church. On the way into the church he shot and killed a member as she was leaving. Before they could react, the shooter was in the building. Both churches did not have a plan or a team to be watching for these threats as the threat got out of their vehicle and started their killings. We need to watch outside as much as we watch inside. Back to active shooter. Pasco County Sheriff’s Office has started its ABCs for school safety in the event of an active shooter. Alert, Barricade and Counter. Notice the order. The first thing you need to do is Alert 911, get the troops on the way. I want everyone coming. Alert others and move to a safe place. The second thing is to Barricade yourself behind something, preferably a solid wooden door with a lock. If you have desk and chairs start piling them against the door and then turn off the lights and wait for help to arrive. The last thing, if you have no other option is to Confront. This should be the last thing in an active shooter situation at a church. Even if you have Safety Team members that are already in contact with the shooter, others need to be slowing the injuries and deaths down by finding safety in locked rooms. Let’s take a few minutes and look at the dynamics of an active shooter. The shooter wants to kill as many people as they can before the police, or some outside force stops them. They are going to be shooting at anything that moves, but if we take the targets away, haven’t we done the right thing? If the shooter has nothing to shoot at and knows that the police are on the way, the best thing for the shooter to do is either leave or wait to confront the cavalry. Once you start the shooting at the bad guy, unless you’re the best shot in the world and take him out with the first shot, then there will be bullets flying. The more and more bullets that are buzzing around the more loved ones or people you know are in danger of being hit. One last thought of the dynamics of an active shooter. Most modern projectiles will go through walls. If you have confronted your active shooter in front of your children’s ministry you have now put them right in the gunfight. As I said once you start shooting not only do you have to be concerned about where your bullets are going, you also have to worry about the shooters rounds penetrating walls and hitting people you know and love. If you must confront the shooter, try to move them away from the church or populated areas. How do we do that? We need that rover in the parking lot that can sound the alarm and while other Safety Team members are locking down the interior, you may want to move out to the perimeter, find cover and confront the shooter outside if possible. No contradiction here, just showing you to have multiple plans in protecting the church. The first must be the lockdown or barricade taking the targets away from the shooter. Slowing down the shooter how ever possible until the cavalry arrives is the next step. Right after the Aurora Movie Theater shooting I was talking to a friend about active shootings and he asked me what I would do if I was at a movie theater with my family and a guy walked in and started shooting. I told him my main priority was making sure my family was safe, get them down on the floor, if near an exit get them out of the theater. After that I would respond to the threat and this is because of my police training. The last thing you want to do is put your loved ones right in the middle of a gunfight. The same thing goes with your church. We have to protect the flock before we put them right in the middle of an exchange of bullets. We need to have a plan and train others to keep the flock out of harm’s way. Just have a couple of plans on how you would protect those in an active shooter situation and work the plan. No plan means more casualties. Even if the plan is a bad plan, at least it’s been discussed. Give me a call and let’s work on a couple of plans of how to protect your flock …against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12. |
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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