Last week I was privileged enough to be asked to speak at the first National Church Security & Safety Conference which was developed, coordinated, and hosted by the Rock Church in San Diego.

This was a two-day event, the first being a series of speakers on a wide variety of topics and the following day was a table-top exercise on Active Shooter conducted by Infragard, the FBI's public/private partnership organization.

I wanted to make some observations about the seminar, the attendees, and especially about Pastor Miles McPherson, the founder and Senior Pastor of Rock Church.

Like anything else, this was the church's first attempt at putting something like this together, so there are always lessons to be learned and I feel that when they do it again next year, it will be even better and more focused.

Mr. Mike Diggs, the church's Security Director and Mr. John Heine, the Assistant Director put a lot of time and energy into coordinating this event and did an outstanding job. Both are law enforcement and security professionals in their own right and both are intelligent and humble enough to know they don't have all the answers - none of us singly do, so they invited a host of speakers.

Both gentlemen and brothers in Christ did their best to make this an meaningful conference for all attendees and were gracious hosts to those of us who spoke.

And kudos to the attendees, some of whom I have had e-mail contact over the last few years but was finally able to meet in person. Kevin R., Bob M., and Tina D., it was great to see all of you and thank you for your continued support over the years both with CSN and of course in your own home churches. Tina D. traveled all the way from Maryland, about as far as I did for the conference!

As always you wished there were more people in attendance; I never understand why training at such a low cost with such rich content does not fill the room, because anywhere else in the private security sector or law enforcement, it would.

About a year ago or so we worked with a large police department to put on a FREE all-day seminar including lunch and had about the same attendance as we did last week in San Diego; it doesn't get better than free, but you wonder why more didn't show up at that one?

But this is the on-going issue that we, as a Christian community face; emphasis on security and emergency planning is just not there and most of the people who attend these seminars are going on their own time and paying their own expenses.

Plus there are a host of people, companies, organizations, and law enforcement agencies that are now doing church security training and this tends to cloud what is the real message.

From what I have seen, some are good and some are not so good. Some are Christian focused and really understand the needs of the church and some do not. Some are motivated by making money and selling things and others do it as a true calling from God.

But the consistency of the message still remains in question: what is being taught out there to the ones that do show up and are they getting mixed messages from different sources?

Hopefully this will become clearer as faith-based organizations and houses of worship move forward as a true "sector" of the security world and some standardization develops as it has with other industries.

Now, on to Pastor Miles.

I have met everyone from Presidents to Hollywood stars to foreign dignitaries and there are not a lot of people who impress me, but this man does.

Not only because he rose above his own demons, came to know, accept, and love Christ, but because he is such a visionary for his church, starting with nothing and turning the church into an awesome ministry with so many reaches involving so many people in so many areas.

And aside from all this he understands the part about being a good steward of what God has given him and the need to protect his flock.

I feel that after this week Pastor Miles actually has a much better understanding of what are some of the real risks and threats facing the Christian church in the United States as a whole and even though he was doing a very good job protecting his, there are still many that need guidance.

I give Pastor Miles and Rock Church a lot of credit for being so open as to what they do in their church in terms of security and emergency planning; not many churches or ministries do this, in fact many large ones like the Rock Church won't even admit they have security, fearing it will somehow make them appear "un-Christian".

But the Rock Church put it all out there this past week and have vowed to continue to help advance this cause and we can use all the support, guidance, and resources we can...we are stronger together than we are apart...I can't remember where I heard that?

Stay Safe!

In Christ,
Jeff Hawkins
Executive Director