“Security team? At church? Armed? If that doesn’t alarm you enough then you are clearly blind to America having a gun obsessive culture.”
“All of our security team have their CCW. All but one is current or former military and police. They also go to training together once a month.”
“In most of the African churches it’s a dogma that using or holding weapons for security around church denies or negates total trust in God who protects and deliver His people. Secondly, churches do not have the resources to purchase weapons or security gadgets… Another school of thought is God’s money should be used for ‘sacred purposes’ like Evangelism and projects…thought from Psalm 127:1.”
“Any person outside of the USA would find this a very strange question…Sorry it’s necessary, but no, I do not know of any church in Europe that has weapons.”
“Do we have an official ‘Security Team?’ No. We are a small, rural church. But, do we have multiple people carrying weapons with the pastor’s approval? Yes. I’m the pastor. Many are open-carry. I’m one of the few adults in the room not carrying. We have planned for any situation.”
“Yes, they conceal carry. However, our first line of defense is an extensive security camera system and locks that can be controlled from our security center computers.”
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“We have several active and retired officers that serve on the armor bearers team. This helps us have an active shooter protocol in place. I believe that the peoples safety is my priority as a pastor, therefore they are carrying for all of our corporate gatherings.”
“As a former member of the security team it took the deacons and trustees 6 months to agree on the rules. Anyone that is part of TGE security team that passes the same certification the local police require can carry handguns with low grain bullets. The do not allow pepper spray and other similar things due to the number of members with breathing issues. The incident that triggered that discussion was someone running up to the pastor during the Sunday service with a package they thought had a bomb in it.”
“My question do we trust God to protect us? Should we carry weapons that kill? We have a team and are trained to be peacemakers. Firearm training and hand to hand. Now if you are not trained do not carry any kind of firearm. Trained in deadly force training. Have an attorney.”
“We have an actual police officer that patrols for us during the service, so yes.”
“Our security team of 10 volunteers are on comms with our greeters and age-graded staff (none carry weapons). We also have three uniformed police officers also on comms who carry weapons. A senior staff person is the liaison between the groups. This arrangement works well for us.”
