When I began to write this article it started about a young criminal who found his niche walking into unlocked churches to steal.

But as this went to print another news story broke which made the rest of the article pale in comparison and drive home the point I was trying to make about unlocked churches while people are inside. I was hoping this article would have some effect before someone else was hurt, but it already happened, again.

On Saturday, February 26th a woman working alone on a Saturday afternoon in a Georgia church was sexually assaulted and beaten; the offender is still at large.

[source: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/27009831/detail.html ]

I don't know if this church was left unlocked while the victim worked inside; it would not be the first time that this has happened. Churches being left unlocked while staff and volunteers, especially females alone, is insane. We have seen homicides, sexual assaults, beatings and robberies.

Here is the rest of my article, but as I said, it seems a little late with the news of another victim that perhaps didn't have to suffer this tragic attack.

According to reports Travice Gerald LeDoux has been stealing from churches for a decade; he told police he targeted churches "because it is easy and they usually don’t have cameras.”

He said he’s taken property from churches since he was a 13-year-old, at one point using the wedding notices in newspapers to locate nuptials. He’d then take cash from wallets and purses of members of the wedding party, arriving 15 minutes before the ceremony to look for the room where the wedding party put their personal effects.

He later moved on to stealing electronics because he could pawn them for more money, but he did not break into churches at night like a common burglar.

 LeDoux said he tried to enter churches when they would be the emptiest and noted that the noon hour is a particularly good time. He said he didn’t go to churches on Sunday.

After 90 days in jail for stealing from churches he is accused again of stealing from four more after his release.

[source: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/310170/ ]

This young 23-year-old criminal learned at an early age, churches are vulnerable, predictable, and as he put it, "easy".

Yet the church's mentality around the country is "We have to leave our doors open to be inviting to people", I guess thinking that locking the doors during non-service hours, installing an intercom, or maybe having someone present at the doors during special events would somehow make them not Christian?

Here is another incident that happened this past week that turned out a lot worst and could have been even more tragic than it was.

Around noon on February 23rd a church in Hollywood Florida was going about its usual business that most churches probably do during the week. The Pastor was there, a custodian working, and a small Bible study going on in one of the classrooms.

Their doors were open and obviously no one was there to greet or screen people because at one point the custodian heard someone in one of the rooms and found a man he did not recognize trying to make coffee. At some point the custodian confronted the subject and the subject pulled a knife (whether he had it with him or grabbed it from somewhere in the church is unclear) and went after the custodian and Pastor, trying to cut them.

They both retreated, while fending off the attacker, into the Bible study room (where the Bible study was taking place), and were able to lock the subject out. They were very fortunate neither was stabbed.

The police were called and upon entry into the church found the subject still armed and acting in an aggressive manner. When ordered to drop the knife he did not and the police shot him in the arm and chest. The offender is lucky too because he is alive and last reported in stable condition.

[source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hollywood/fl-church-shooting-folo-20110224,0,7090596.story]

But remember the lesson here: it is important to keep your doors unlocked to be open and inviting.

After conducting a risk assessment for a church in the southern states the first thing I recommended to them is that they lock their doors during the day and implement some type of access control. Speaking with a lot of their staff and volunteers they all were concerned that the church was left so open and they were so exposed.

The week after I gave them my report one of the Deacons e-mailed me and told me that they had a homeless man ride his bike into their lobby one afternoon and told the receptionist that he wanted food and glanced down at a handgun he had sitting in a basket on the front of the bicycle - they gave him whatever food they could find.

It drove home the point I had suggested.

Maybe it is me and maybe it is because I have been in the business for so long, but I don't see a big problem here - lock your doors.

And I am not picking on churches.

When I was a Crime Prevention Officer in the Chicago area I was speaking to a neighborhood group one very hot summer evening. This area was experiencing about 40 residential burglaries a week. And they were occurring because people decided because it was so hot out they would sleep with their doors and windows open.

When I was asked what is being done about the problem (like the police had some magic solution) I squarely put the blame where it belonged - back on the people who left their doors and windows open. I said I was sorry but this wasn't "Mayberry" and you can't sleep with your doors and windows unlocked.

Every burglar in the area was coming to that part of town to walk into houses at night, which was unusual because they generally broke into homes during the day, but they saw an opportunity and it was like a feeding frenzy of sharks in this area.

Were they residents happy with my answer? No. Did they eventually get the idea? Yes. They were just lucky the burglars just took "things" and not commit a rape or take a child.

Just because things have always been a certain way doesn't mean they can't change.

Even when my kids were small I could walk in and out of their school any time I wanted, but I sure couldn't now and I wouldn't expect to - schools learned through tragic incidents they have to lock their doors, have intercoms, cameras, and armed police or security in many of them.

The world changes and you change with it or people suffer.

I do not get the Christian-open door policy connection? Will people stop coming to church if there were locked doors and an intercom? Would the offerings go down? Would people become atheists? I don't get the consequences that church leadership seems to feel will happen? Do they think people will believe less in God?

The good news is, some churches do get it.

A great example is the New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngstown, Ohio.

The story about the realization that traditional does not work in real life have been accepted by the church leader Reverend Kenneth Simon. 

In a news article he speaks about the changes they have had to make in the church stating, "The safety of members and guests is paramount."

I encourage you to read the entire article: http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/feb/24/safety-at-the-sanctuary/

The good Reverend sums it up best: "It was only prudent to take precautions."

Well said Pastor, well said; I truly hope your fellow church leaders listen and follow your lead before the Christian community suffers more needless losses.