There were several disturbing news items this past week, which involved crime and the church, but really had nothing to do with the church itself.

We often talk about risks and threats to the Christian church, school, ministry, and missionaries. We cite numbers for burglaries, internal theft, child abduction, and arsons. We caution Christian organizations, mostly churches, to take measures to ensure that they do what they can to prevent these types of incidents.

However in the incidents that we witnessed this past week, the church really wasn’t the “target”, but ended up in the middle of the incident and this just shows, sometimes, things come from the outside that you are not expecting.

Take a look at the following:

8/23/09 – Memphis, TN: Two women enter a church during service time to speak with the Pastor, who is a mayoral candidate, and get into a confrontation allegedly because they were openly lesbian

8/23/09 – San Antonio, TX: a 67-year-old woman, walking to church is beaten and robbed

8/23/09 – Buffalo, NY: a triple shooting takes place right in front of a church, resulting in one youth being killed

8/24/09 – Rockford, IL: police on foot chase a wanted subject into a church day-care where children were present and fatally shoot the subject in front of children

8/24/09 – Hempstead, TX: an arrest warrant was issued for a man accused in the shootings of two people outside a Hempstead church.

8/25/09 – Charlotte, NC: a church is fighting the proposal of a half-way house opening right next door because of the potential increase in crime

These were not attacks against the church, they were just incidents that occurred in and around the church.

It just shows the unpredictability of what can happen, just because of what occurs around you.

It also shows that you have to be prepared for the unexpected.

The church is not immune from crime; our statistics bear that out with almost 700 total incidents this year, 67 arsons, 21 acts of violence, and millions of dollars in losses.

The risks are there when the church is the target and when the church just happens to be in the middle of some other incident and plans must be in place to prevent and deal with both of these situations.

Too often the church will concentrate their security and emergency plans when they are most busy: Sunday mornings, Wednesday evenings, Friday evenings – whenever the church is active with services and guests.

But the awareness and the security must be present 24/7.

The church cannot ignore the area were they are situated – security, awareness, and precautions must be in place at all times.

The other tragic incident that occurred this past week was the Pastor that was murdered in a church in Oklahoma. As of this writing the killer has not been caught and police are being silent about the specifics of the case.

But based on what I have seen and read, it appears the Pastor, a 61-year-old female, made it a habit to go into an area that is known for criminal activity (based on area resident reports).

The Pastor’s servant heart was amazing. By accounts she would drive 65 miles to go to this church with no real congregation, just to help anyone that might come in to hear a sermon or need help.

But that one day someone came in and killed her.

Again, anyone that knows the Christian Security Network and my philosophy is that we don’t want to play “Monday morning quarterback” in any tragic situation, but you have to wonder about cases like this.

Was security and personal safety ever a consideration?

Were there things that could have been done to help protect this Pastor? Maybe locking doors, maybe never being in the church alone?

As we have stated before, we need to learn from all these situations. Think about your own church. What should you be doing that you are not?

Lives are at stake.

In Christ,

Jeff Hawkins

Executive Director