Relying on hope alone for safety and security is dangerous and ineffective; proactive planning, clear policies, and regular training are essential for organizations, especially churches, to effectively respond to emergencies and protect their communities.
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Hope is not a strategy. I'm going to say
that one more time. Hope is not a
strategy. Why? Because when it comes to
safety and security, just hoping bad
things won't happen isn't just risky.
It's actually reckless and it's
dangerous. Too many churches, schools,
and organizations are operating with
this false sense of security, all the
while being completely unaware of the
fact that there are threats all around them.
them.
>> I'm in danger.
>> This is what most of us do. We pray that
nothing ever happens and hope that if it
does, someone else is going to know what
to do. But hope isn't going to stop an
active shooter. Hope doesn't prevent a
child from going missing or being
abducted by a parent who's lost their
custodial rights. Hope by itself doesn't
keep a fire from starting in the church
kitchen or keep it from consuming the
entirety of your church property. And
when seconds matter, hope is not going
to perform CPR or life saving a first
aid care to somebody who's been injured.
Here's the hard truth. Emergencies never
schedule appointments. Chaos is not
going to send an RSVP.
>> I'm your blind spot and my job is easy.
Hide big things.
Chaos and emergencies show up
unannounced and they usually show up
when we're completely unprepared. So if
your plan is to simply hope for the
best, then when that day comes, when
there's a fire, there's a medical
emergency, or just there's a couple that
are screaming obscinities at each other
in your side lobby, you've already lost
some very precious time. It's kind of
like racing a 5K, but letting the
competition start a mile or two ahead.
If you do that, there's no way you're
going to win. And the same thing goes
for not having policies or procedures.
Not having an official policy equates to
confusion. Confusion leads to
hesitation, and hesitation can literally
cost lives. When people don't know their
role, they freeze. They assume somebody
else is going to handle it, which causes
some friction and even arguments among
your team. Hope says we'll figure it out
if something happens or God is going to
protect us. Listen, I believe in God's
protection, but I also believe God
expects us to use wisdom and take
responsibility for the people that he's
entrusted to us. I trust God, but I also
wear my seatelt when I'm driving. And I
apply that same logic as the reason that
we should write policies in our church.
>> He's got a point. Using wisdom and
taking responsibility for the people
we've been entrusted with is called
stewardship. And like it or not,
stewardship is not a passive activity.
Stewardship requires forethought,
meaning brainstorming and thinking about
things that might happen in the future.
But it also requires action, meaning you
got to do some things. The alternative
to leaning on hope as your strategy is
simple. It's being proactive. It's
having official policies and writing
them down. It means you have clear
procedures for what you're going to do
if and it also means you have regular
training for and with your teams. The
alternative to hope as a strategy means
everyone knows what to do. It means
everyone knows where to go. It means
people understand your chain of command
or who they're supposed to talk to if
they have questions. And when the
unexpected happens, instead of panic,
you have a coordinated response. So ask
yourself right now, does my church have
written policies for safety and
security? Does your team know what to do
in a medical emergency? And if the
answer is no, it's time to stop hoping
that nobody ever has a heart attack and
just start planning in case someone
does. Why? Because according to the CDC,
a heart attack occurs every 40 seconds
in the US. And as far as I know,
churches or places of worship aren't
excluded from that statistic. Ask
yourself this one. Does your team have a
policy for checking kids in and out of
kids church? I know a lot of us do the
check-in pretty good, but we fail at checkout.
checkout.
>> Killing me, Smalls.
>> Again, if the answer is no, it's time to
stop hoping a kid doesn't go missing
while they're in your care and start
planning a preventative strategy for our
most vulnerable members. The statistic
for missing children is actually similar
to the heart attack statistic. In the
US, it's estimated that a child goes
missing every 40 to 68 seconds. And that
doesn't mean all of these kids are being
abducted, but it does mean they're going
missing for some reason. So ask yourself
this. Does your team know what it would
do if a child went missing while they
were in your care? If you don't have an
answer for that question, it's time to
write some policies. Now, I know a lot
of you are wondering how we're going to
do that. So, if you don't know how to
write policies, I'm going to give you a
simple process today so that you, even
you, can write policies today. But
before we do that, go ahead and do me a
favor and hit the like button. That
really helps me in this YouTube
algorithm. If you've been tasked with
leading security in your church, hit the
subscribe button. And I format these
videos so you can use them in your own
training sessions. I put out two videos
every month giving you free resources to
lead a security ministry at your local church.
church.
>> That's impressive. If you're new to
church security and could benefit from a
more robust or comprehensive and
organized training, head over to
leadsecurity.com for our full training.
There you're going to find more than 60
videos. You're going to have well over a
hundred printable documents to help you
build a team and lead your team well. We
actually just crossed the 300
subscribers threshold on uh our YouTube
channel, but our next big goal is a
th000 subscribers. And we don't want to
grow this channel for the sake of
growth. We want to grow this channel
because we believe every subscriber
represents a community of believers who
are standing watch, who are providing a
safe place for people to connect with
the creator of the world and with the
community that surrounds them. So, if
you appreciate what we do here, if you
find value in these videos, share this
video or this channel with other pastors
and leaders that are in your community
and join me in making churches more
inviting and secure for everyone. Now,
let's jump into this conversation. [Music]
[Music]
It helps us not.
>> The first thing you need to do if you
want to start writing policies is start
with the purpose.
>> Why? Why would you do that? Why would
you do any of that?
>> Explain why your policy exists. You want
to keep it short, just one or two
sentences. And as an example, I'm going
to show you how I wrote my policy for
firearms at my church. The purpose for
that policy reads like this. to ensure
all concealed carriers at our church
follow safe handling practices and
understand response procedures during an
emergency. The second thing you need to
do in writing a policy is to define the
scope. That means you need to clarify
who this policy is going to apply to. Is
it just your staff? Is it your
volunteers? Is it everybody that's on
your property? An example of this, as
stated in my firearms policy, was this
policy applies to all authorized
individuals carrying a firearm on church
property. I wrote authorized individuals
because we have a policy at our church
that states unauthorized weapons are
prohibited on our property, which exists
to alleviate liability and potential
accidents that are just unnecessary. So,
third on this list is to state the
policy clearly.
>> Can you hear me now?
>> Good. You're going to want to write this
rule in a simple statement. Just use
plain language. That means avoid all the
legal jargon that might sound fancy, but
it's only going to serve to blur some
lines. Writing policies is not the time
to try to make you sound smart. It's the
time to make your policies clear and
easy to understand, which is actually
the smart move because then now people
aren't going to ask you a bunch of
unnecessary questions. So, what does
that look like? In my firearms policy,
it states all firearms must remain
holstered unless responding to an
immediate deadly threat. Now, fourth,
you're going to include key procedures.
I know that policy may have felt short,
but that's because we're adding key
procedures here. That means you need to
explain exactly what to do in specific
scenarios regarding this one policy.
You're going to use bullet points to
clarify things. for my firearms policy.
In the case of an active shooter, this
is what that would look like. One, draw
your firearm only if you clearly
identify an active deadly threat. Two,
stop the threat as quickly and as safely
as possible. Three, remember your
backdrop and avoid hitting innocent
bystanders. Four, after the threat is
neutralized, holster immediately, show
empty hands when law enforcement arrives
and follow all of the commands of
whatever law enforcement officer is on
the scene. If you have any questions
regarding this policy specifically, I
actually just dropped a video, I think
it was just last week or two weeks ago,
regarding this policy. If you have any
questions, go back and check that out or
hit me up in the comments. Now, the
fifth part to writing policies is to add
responsibility and accountability. To do
this, you need to name who is going to
be enforcing the policy and what happens
if the policy is violated. An example of
this coming from my very own firearms
policy is failure to comply with this
policy may result in removal from the
security team, revocation of carrying
privileges, and or legal action by the
church leadership. Here's the thing
about consequences, though. You have to
be willing to follow through with them.
You don't want to write any consequences
down that you're not going to have the
guts to back up. See, if you write down
consequences, but you don't ever back
them up, you're only damaging your
reputation as a trusted leader. So, if
you write down consequences, make sure
you follow through. And remember, you
can always use your policy as your backs
stop. Say, "Listen, I'm sorry that I
have to do that, but because we have a
written policy, this is what has to
happen." Now, the last part of policy
writing is to train and review. A policy
is useless without practice. So within
your policy, consider writing a
statement that will be reviewed or
trained regularly. And now that word
regularly is important because every
community isn't going to be able to
train every month or every week, but
every team needs to have training with
some regularity. A statement that you
could use on your written policy to
promote regular reviews and training
could be something like this policy is
going to be reviewed annually and
covered in all safety or security team
training sessions. To wrap this up,
first of all, let me say thanks for
hanging out. I know this one's been a
little bit longer than the other videos,
but I do want to say this. Hope is a
beautiful thing. I know I kind of busted
on hope at the beginning. Hope as a strategy
strategy
is terrible, but hope actually is a
beautiful thing. To quote Martin Luther
King Jr., he said, "We must accept the
finite disappointment but never lose
infinite hope." While that sounds good
and is established in truth, when it
comes to security, hope isn't a
sufficient strategy. We need to make
plans. We need to train our teams and we
need to cultivate a culture that
protects our most vulnerable people. If
you found this video to be helpful, do
me a favor and like the video. That
seemingly small gesture goes further
than you could believe. So until next
time, remember to be vigilant and stay
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