On this past Sunday, during our 12:30pm worship service, Celebration Church had to briefly evacuate our building due to someone accidentally pulling down the fire alarm. Thanks in large part to several great leaders who demonstrated some incredible resolve, we were able to evacuate the building and re-enter safely to continue with our service.
Once I arrived home, I couldn’t help but to remember the following post I wrote a while back entitled, In Case Of Emergency. Thought it would be great to revisit again today.
Emergencies can come in a large variety of ways.
The Conventional: Fires. Earthquakes. Tornados. Hurricanes. Floods.
The Non-Conventional: Bomb Threats. Armed Robbery. Random (School) Shootings.
For both conventional and non-conventional emergencies, every school, hotel, coffee shop, and church is required by law to have an Emergency Evacuation Plan. Based on my light research, most emergency evacuation plans consist of the following four steps:
(1) The Alert or Alarm
(2) The Exit or Escape Route
(3) The Gathering (Or Assessment) Point
(4) The Re-Entry Procedure
No matter how minuscule or extreme the emergency may be, these four steps seem to be observed at all times; some more thorough than others. However, there is one kind of emergency that many churches have not been able to implement each of these steps in as successfully. Although many have experienced it, very few have taken the time to layout a step by step strategy to address it.
The emergency I am referring to is when a Troubled Church Leader has emerged within your team.
For those who have been around one (or perhaps have been guilty of becoming one once), you know the incredible affect it can have on a church, its leadership as well as its membership. Having the ability to identify, reconcile, or even evacuate a troubled church leader through life’s emergencies, has never been more important. Believe it or not, observing the same four key steps of most Emergency Evacuation Plans could help the church navigate its troubled leaders through the toughest of times.
(1) The Alert or Alarm
Is there a person or department on your church staff who has been identified as the point of contact when a problem has emerged? What button can be pushed for leaders to express their concerns, even when it involves their peers or possibly their pastor? When the pastor cannot be as accessible as he or she may want to be, can an alert be expressed without it becoming an alarm to others?
(2) The Exit or Escape Route
Is there a step by step procedure a leader can be provided in order to bring his or her problem or challenge to a proper resolve? Is the culture in your church one that embraces a safe exit, or one that causes leaders to feel like they need to hide and run for escape?
(3) The Gathering (Or Assessment) Point
If a problem has arisen with a leader that must be resolved or disciplined, is there a gathering point or place for those leaders to go and be reassessed? Will this point be a place of safety where godly counsel and clarity can still be obtained, or rather a place to discard leaders in hope that the shame alone will bring about some correction?
(4) The Re-Entry Procedure
When the emergency has been identified and controlled, what is the re-entry procedure for a leader to observe in order to possibly re-engage with his peers or perhaps his or her previous vocation? Since it is common knowledge that in most emergencies, the elevators (quick access points) are off limits, are the steps still available? And if they are willing to take them, are they blocked or being denied?
As with any kind of emergency, not having a standard emergency plan for when troubled church leaders emerge can prove to be very costly. Discontentment is a fire that must be met with swift action, as it has the ability to often grow out of control when the right measure of wind is added to it.
Know when to evacuate. Know when to gather and reassess.
Know when to sound the alarm.
