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The First Five Minutes: Managing Any Church Emergency | Lead Church Security | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: The First Five Minutes: Managing Any Church Emergency
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Summary
Core Theme
Effective church security hinges on a well-rehearsed, five-step protocol for the critical first five minutes of any emergency, transforming potential chaos into a controlled response that protects congregants.
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Picture this. You're a few minutes into
your worship set. The music is powerful.
People are singing. The room is filled.
Then something happens. A medical
emergency happens. A disruptive
individual is in your side lobby. Or
you've got a parent that's in tears
because they can't find their child.
You've got five minutes to respond. The
question is this. Will you freeze or
will you lead? In church security, the
first five minutes of any emergency
determines whether the situation is
contained or chaotic, whether it ends in
peace or ends in panic. So today on the
Lead Security YouTube channel, I'm going
to show you exactly what you need to do
in those critical first five minutes, no
matter what kind of emergency you're
dealing with. This is the kind of
training that saves lives, protects your
people, and brings order to the moment
where everything could just be
unraveling. So let's go ahead and dive in.
possible security
red flag and helps us a lot.
Let's start this with a question. Why
are the first five minutes so important?
Because in those opening moments, people
are watching. They're listening. They're
reacting. That's when confusion can
spread or confidence can take over. Most
churches don't fail because they don't
care. They fail because they aren't
ready. There's no plan. There's no
leadership. There's no communication.
There's just a bunch of frozen faces
and a bunch of hopeful prayers. Here's a
truth I tell every team I train. You
don't rise to the occasion. You always
fall to the level of your training.
That's why mastering these first five
minutes matters. Because if your team
knows what to do, they're going to do
it. They're going to know how to do it.
They're going to know how to work
together. They don't have to improvise.
They just simply execute. So today we're
talking about a five-step protocol for
handling any church emergency in those
first five minutes. And the first step
is going to be to identify the type of
emergency that you're dealing with
before anybody panics or reacts emotionally.
emotionally.
You need to assess what's actually
happening. You got to ask, is this a
medical emergency? Is is there just a
disruptive person? Do you have a violent
threat? Are we dealing with a missing
child? You don't need every detail right
away. You need to quickly define the
category because the way you respond to
a medical emergency isn't the same way
you're going to respond to a violent
individual. Misidentifying emergency
wastes time. It causes confusion and it
causes delays. So, we have to make sure
we're identifying the right kind of
emergency that we're dealing with. Now,
the second step is going to be to
communicate clearly and immediately. In
emergencies, poor communication causes
chaos. That's why our team needs to be
trained to use radios, use some hand
signals or and especially just some
verbal cues with clarity and with calm.
When you're on the radio or even just
speaking generally, just tell people
what's happening, where it's happening,
and who is responding. Use those three
as like your keys. Don't say things
like, "Hey, I think we've got a
situation." Because that doesn't mean
much of anything. Say, "We've got a
medical emergency. The front left of the
sanctuary and CPR's been started. AED is
in route. Something like Kodatam,
missing boy. Um, he's six years old.
He's got blue a blue shirt on and some
jeans. The more direct and calm you are,
the faster your team is going to be able
to take meaningful action. Step three is
going to be deploy the right people to
the right roles. Every church should
have a plan that already says something
like, if this happens, these people do
this. When a medical emergency happens,
you send your CPR trained person in
immediately. Ah ah ah ah. Staying alive.
Staying alive. Uh uh uh uh. Staying
alive. Staying alive. You can't tell by
the way how I use my
>> Another person's going to be grabbing
the AED or maybe your first aid kit.
Somebody else is going to be meeting
your EMS at the door. When there's a
disruption, one team member is going to
calmly engage the individual. Another
person's going to be observing from a
distance, watching hands, looking. just
make sure things are are staying
cohesive, staying calm. The rest of the
team is going to be aware of the
situation and they're going to position
themselves near vulnerable areas like
your kids ministry entrances or exits.
When a child goes missing, someone
radios, code Adam, all exits get staffed
immediately. Another person checks
bathrooms and closets and another person
is going on your cameras to see if we
can identify where this child has gone.
You've got a calm, trained team member
that's going to stay with the parent and
gather key information as it's available
to us. The first five minutes are not
the time to figure out roles. It's the
time to execute them. So, you want to
get your roles figured out before you
need them. Step four is to control
access whenever needed. Now, let's be
clear. This step isn't for every
emergency. It's for specific high-risk
situations. If there's a violent threat,
an attempted abduction, or something
that's escalating into like a danger
category, then yes, controlling access
becomes absolutely essential.
Controlling access might look like
securing your your children's church
hallways. It might mean that you're
locking down outside doors and
especially classrooms. It also might
look like you're stationing people at
entry points and exit points. You're not
trying to lock everyone in or create
fear, but you're trying to protect your
people that are already inside and limit
exposure to whatever the threat is. In
lower risk emergencies like medical
issues or minor disruptions, controlling
access might not always be needed. So,
you don't want to jump to lockdown mode
unless the situation absolutely calls
for it. Now, step five, call for backup.
That's internally and externally. One of
the biggest mistakes churches make is
waiting too long to call for help. If
someone collapses and is unresponsive,
call 911. If someone becomes aggressive
or they're threatening, call law
enforcement. If a child goes missing,
notify your team and get help moving as
fast as you can. And call 911. I know a
lot of people always wonder about,
especially with Code Adam, should we
call 911? What if the kids just kind of
wandered into a hallway or into a
closet? It's always better to call 911
too early than to call too late.
>> What are you waiting for? Huh?
>> What are you waiting for?
>> Internally, this also means alerting
your pastors, your elders, and your key
leaders. Don't wait until it gets worse.
Call early. Act fast. Communicate
clearly. Now that we've got those five
steps out of the way, let's walk through
three real world examples to see how
this might play out. Scenario one, a
medical emergency in the sanctuary. A
man in the fourth row slumps forward mid
worship. A nearby team member radios
medical front left of sanctuary.
Immediately, a CPR certified responder
is going to the emergency. Another
person is grabbing the AED machine.
somebody else is stepping outside to
greet the EMS that should be arriving
momentarily. Your media team is going to
know to bring the volume down a notch
and whoever might be on camera, make
sure this emergency isn't on camera.
It's not so much an issue of
accountability. We're just trying to
make sure this person gets to maintain
whatever modesty they have. Remember, in
a heart attack situation, there's a good
chance we might be having to cut the
clothes off so that we can use the AED
machine. And we want to help maintain
whatever modesty they have. So, there's
no panic here. There's no there's no
screaming, just trained, intentional,
professional action. Our second scenario
is a suspicious person in the lobby.
It's mid-service. A man in a long coat
is pacing around in the lobby. He's
mumbling to himself. He's glancing
around nervously. Side note, it's
summer, so why is he wearing this long jacket?
jacket?
>> Doesn't make sense, does it?
>> Maybe a greeter noticed him first.
That's one side note is I love engaging
my greeters, my ushers, anybody that
wants to come to our security training,
we offer it, we open it up because if
all I have on my security team is my
security team, then I'm limiting myself.
If I can teach my greeters and my ushers
how to maintain situational awareness,
man, that's just increasing our um
availability and our efficiency. So,
this greeter is going to get a hold of a
a security team member and say, "Hey, um
we've got a problem. This guy a
potential problem in the side lobby."
Then that guy says, "Hey, we've got a
code gray side lobby." A trained team
member walks up and calmly starts a
conversation. just a friendly
conversation. This isn't an an
interrogation. This is the church
actually being the church. Again, we're
not assuming anything here. We're just
being aware. We're not being judgmental.
We're being observational. We're using
teamwork and professionalism to make
sure our people are safe. Scenario
number three. We've got a missing child
that's been reported. A parent
approaches a team member. They're
crying. They're saying their
six-year-old little girl isn't where
she's supposed to be. the volunteer
radios. Hey, we've got a code atom. It's
a girl. She's six years old. She was
wearing a pink dress. She was last seen
at check-ins.
All exits immediately get covered. Team
members start searching bathrooms and
classrooms. One person checks on the
cameras just looking to see if they
happen to see this little girl where she
could have been. Somebody else stays
with the parent, keeps them calm, and
keeps them informed as everything
unfolds. It's a fastm moving response
that's based in training, not on
guesswork. And that's what separates
your volunteer team from a lot of other
teams that are just guessing and making
it up as they go along. That's what
makes you professional and makes
everybody else amateur. Now, if you want
your church to be ready for any
emergency, you need to train for the
first five minutes. You need to run
scenario drills. You need to walk your
building. Practice your communication
protocols. Make sure your team knows
their roles and what they're supposed to
be doing and when they're supposed to be
doing them. If you train for the first
five, you're going to build muscle
memory. You're going to reduce your
panic and you're going to protect your
people. You may not be able to prevent
every emergency, but you can prevent
those emergencies from becoming
disasters. If this episode helped you
think differently about church safety,
hit the like button. If you're not
already subscribed, hit the subscribe
button. Smash the notification bell.
that way you don't miss any of the
content that we upload right here. And
one more thing, share this with your
pastor or share it with a security team
leader at your church. Thanks for
joining me. I'll catch you in the next one.
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