Easter is such a great time of the year for Christians.

That feeling of renewal, rejoicing in Christ's resurrection, remembering how He died for our sins and gave us the opportunity for eternal life - we are so blessed to have such a glorious Father who sent his Son for us.

I know many of you are praying for an uneventful Easter in terms of crime or emergency incidents; I sure will. In fact, the thousands of people who read this newsletter every week should make it a prayer item with their prayer teams to pray for a safe and secure Easter for all Christians so we may all rejoice in peace. The battle always starts with the spiritual one and we must be prepared in every instance to stand firm (Eph. 6:10-18).

Easter is the largest church holiday for increased attendance, events, such as Passion plays, and at least one church, who has been in contact with us about security and emergency plans, is dropping 70,000 plastic eggs from a helicopter to a waiting crowd of thousands of people and anxious kids! How cool is that, I would love to see that.

Unfortunately, of all the good that comes from the increased Easter activity, criminals are aware of this increase too and see this as opportunity for whatever evil intentions they have in mind, be it theft, burglary, or worst. They see increased attendance as more money the church will have and greater numbers of adults and children mean more confusion and the ability to go unnoticed and in general, more targets.

And it is not all about crime; emergency planning plays a major factor in this increased activity also.

From lost or missing children to medical assists, the numbers will go up as the number of people visiting your church rises. Plus being the spring season, many areas of the country will be at risk for severe weather, especially tornados, which means the Shelter-in-Place plans have to be reviewed.

CSN released a Press Release last week encouraging the media and Christian groups to bring to the attention of churches that it is not too late to make plans to increase security and emergency plans to better prepare for all the increased activity.

There are several key measures that could be done, even with time so short before the holiday.

The first is to make contact with your local law enforcement, fire department, and emergency medical services. Let them know your plans or that you will have increased attendance. Give them the times of the services or events and let them know of the expected attendance. This communication helps emergency responders plan staffing, patrol, and response.

The second is to do a short training session with all your staff and volunteers. Review the top five critical emergency plans (that all of you should know by now) and go over security awareness. Let them know what is expected of them and what they can expect from the church's Safety Team (which you should have in place, in extra numbers).

The third is more strategic and that is to make your church less predictable. As a refresher to training CSN has done in the past, one of the church's greatest vulnerability is their predictability. A person with evil intents only needs to go on your church website and see when people will be present and when they will not and depending on their intents, they may make plans.

So change your routines, put people in places and at times not normally done. Put cars in the parking lot over night, leave on more lights inside and outside the church than normal. And maybe even hire off-duty police or have a trained member of your Safety Team spend the night over the Easter weekend, especially Easter evening and night.

Just doing these three things will greatly enhance your overall security and emergency plans.

It is always a shame to have such great festivities end with a loss of property or worst, a loss of life.

Pray, but prepare and in the rest, trust the Lord.

In Christ,
Jeff Hawkins
Executive Director