Safety in the Sanctuary: Is Your Church Prepared?

Physical safety of staff and members is important and can include making sure the fire code and other requirements are being followed. It’s important to be aware of issues that could create problems—hazards that might cause someone to trip and fall or dark areas around the church that could invite potential

unwelcome entry from individuals wishing to do harm.

Rodgers says churches need to have a plan in place to handle “simple disruptions” to the church program. These could include noisy cell phone users, a baby crying during the service or a person wandering through the sanctuary looking for friends he or she wants to sit with. “None of these require a SWAT team, but each could be better handled with a prepared plan of how the church wants these disruptions cared for,” says Rodgers.

He suggests some preliminary actions that could help. If babies are not normally kept in your worship service, ushers or greeters should take the opportunity to meet the parents and let them know about your church’s wonderful childcare options. Once a service starts, access to the sanctuary can be limited to the doors that are the least distracting, making sure there are hosts at those doors to assist late-comers and help them find appropriate seating.

“Put some trust in the ‘Holy Hunch’ or DLR [Doesn’t Look Right],” advises Rodgers. “If a greeter or a staff member becomes wary of a visitor, a point needs to be made to speak to that person and gather more information. It may be someone to keep an eye on, or it may be someone just so uncomfortable in church that he doesn’t know what to do and needs some help.”

Developing Your Church’s Security Team

Security within a church setting can be difficult to think about. There’s a natural expectation from most that church experiences are safe, and violent incidents are the last thing someone might expect to happen while in worship. And no one wants to see the image of a security guard, arms folded, standing at the door of your church, glaring down at your members and visitors as they attempt to walk in! But a carefully chosen and well-trained church security team made up of both staff and volunteers can help a great deal to establish planned safety responses without going to the extreme of posting an armed guard at every door.

“Our objective is to keep everyone—the church, the pastors and all of our guests including members and visitors—safe without creating a distracting or alarming environment,” says Brian McAuliffe, the CFO and director of operations at Willow Creek Community Church.

Careful thought should be given to every element of the program, including what your church calls the security team. Some churches call this group a Safety Team; others want to emphasize the ministry behind the service and have established a Safety Ministry. Willow Creek has a Protection Ministry for their children’s program.