Easter is upon us. Is your Safety Team Ready?

​Are We Ready?
 
Happy Easter, Christ has Risen! I found this description of Easter on the internet, “the most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”  See that, “the most important” of the Christian Church. That means we will be seeing our “Chreasters” soon.  You know those that only come to church on Christmas and Easter.  Of course we will also have the faithful that understand this is the most important celebration of our lives, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 
 
Because of several issues that have happened around the country and the world we are taking a little harder look at the safety for our church on Easter.  Why would we do anything different than we would any other weekend, because Satan would love to disrupt or destroy a church during this most Holy celebration.  Understand what is said here is only my opinions and my opinions only.  The only bases for what I am about to say is my observation of the world and my experience in what we do for churches. These are things I think about as to why Easter is so different and we need to plan differently for it.

• Like I said, the Chreasters will be showing up.  What does that mean to us?  We will be seeing people we have never seen before showing up at out church.  Our church leaders will be saying, “this is great”, which I agree, but it will be adding a bit more anxiety to our Safety Team Members and every volunteer on campus.  We get to know our regulars, our members, and we know who our potential problems are.  We have those that make everyone nervous and we keep a watchful eye on them but Easter weekend there will be a lot of new faces.  We all want to be welcoming everyone with open arms but we have to always be looking for those anomalies, those that are hurting or that wolf in sheep clothing.  Please if it has been a time since you looked at the Threat Profiling training I will include a link where you can get the Combat Profiling PDF and review it with your Team.

• There have been several current events that have happened both locally and around the world that concerns me enough to place it as some of the reasons we need to be on a little of a high alert.  San Antonio had a man get out of his car and shoot an Ar-15 at a church. Then we have the New Zealand Mosque shooting.  Within hours after the attack it was pointed out that the shooter was a white supremacist and part of the alt-right, and a self-described eco-fascist and an ethnonationalist.  We have no evidence that this will cause attacks on Christian churches but we have to be watching for extremist groups on our most important celebration of the Christian Church.

• Some other observations I have on the recent house of worship shootings.  In Sutherland Springs the death toll was 26 but now because of the shooting in New Zealand the death tolls are up to 50.  The shooter in New Zealand wore a Go-Pro which gave it the appearance of a first person shooter game.  It was reported that Facebook took down over 1.5 million postings of the video in first 24 hours after the attack.  In my opinion this attack now attracts a whole new group of evil out there.  Those that make first person shooter games a reality world would love to do something like that in real life.  Make no mistake evil is out there that would love to make a name for themselves by attacking a church on Easter with a high mortality rate. So think about this, the largest attendance in churches across country will be on Easter weekend.  If you don’t think this has been attempted before on Easter Sunday, read about what happened on Easter Sunday, March 26th, 2017 at Bellevue Baptist Church.  It can happen and almost did.

• Another item of concern is that I received information for another Church Safety Team Member that one of the local county sheriff’s office advised them that “a statement was made via a Facebook post referencing that it is time for a church shooting”.  If you noticed I did not list the agency or the person’s name that sent me over the information because at this time this information has not been verified.  I am reaching out to my sources to see if we can find some validity to this statement. I feel I need to pass it on since we are nearing Easter and Satan would love to see a something like this happen to disrupt the most important celebration of the Christian Church.

• If your church is doing God’s will in the community then it will be under attack.  If you have made a stand against something like pro-choice or you believe what the Bible says about marriage between a single man and a single woman then you will be under the microscope of someone that wants to make a statement.  Look at what happened to the filmmakers of “Unplanned” with Twitter and Google.  Call it what you want but that was an attack on a Christian value of Pro-life.  Brothers and sisters there are people out here that don’t like us and will do just about anything to disrupt our calling.  You should be watching your social media for people that are out there posting things about you that are unflattering or could be looked at as a threat.  Our own church right now is being attacked on social media and because of the red flags we have seen on certain post we contacted Pasco County Sheriff’s Office and made a report.  If your church is putting out videos about your upcoming Easter services make sure you pay attention to the responses you get from your post.  Sometimes the person who is attacking your church on social media will use their real name and Facebook account.  Make sure you have a picture on hand of that person and share it with your Safety Team Members. 

 
June 2018 the U.S. Department of Justice/ Federal Bureau of Investigation put out a publication called A Study Of The Pre-Attack Behaviors Of Active Shooters In The United States Between 2000 And 2013.  In this article they looked at over 60 cases of active shooter and found that they were more likely to occur in an educational facility or a house of worship.  This tells me there is still a lot of work for us to be doing and we cannot let our guard down at any time.  We must be diligent on our walls and make sure that all is safe and our churches are open to those that are coming to worship, those that are hurting and we keep a watchful eye out for those wolves in sheep clothing.
 
Last week I was having dinner with a good friend that is a retired Norfolk Police Lieutenant.  We started talking about the New Zealand Mosque shooting.  He stressed to me that one of his greatest fears was that the next big shooting was going to happen at a vacation spot.  He said not like at Disney or a big amusement park but like at a beach where on a really busy weekend families are out enjoying themselves when someone comes on the beach with a weapon and starts shooting.  As we were sitting there talking I started thinking about how a lot of churches are going to be hosting an Easter egg hunt and a Sunrise Service.  Maybe you have never thought about this being a potential target but after the dinner discussion I had with my friend I feel we need to pay more attention to what is going on around us instead of worrying about how many eggs have been found or how nice it is to have a service outside.  This is what I am talking about, a habitual place where we feel nothing could happen.  We have to be on alert to make sure this is the biggest celebration of the Christian Church and also the safest. Easter weekend make sure that you have Team Members at your doors with your Greeters, listen to your ushers.  Make sure that you have at least two rovers in the parking lot because of the large amount of people that you are going to have coming and going at your churches. Remember “15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work.” Nehemiah 4:15.
 
Have a great and blessed Easter.  Remember He has risen and conquered death so let’s celebrate!

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