| Matthew 5:9 |
| "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." |
| 03/09/09 - Church violence: It has happened again |
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As details are still coming in we know that a gunman walked into an early morning church service in Maryville, Illinois near St. Louis and shot and killed the Senior Pastor, who was ending a service at the pulpit, and then turned the gun on about 150 people present. The gun apparently jammed and he then began stabbing himself and then stabbed two parishioners that were trying to subdue him. Our hearts, our thoughts and our prayers go out to the Pastor’s family and the church’s congregation; may the Lord comfort them in this time of need. You don’t want to play “Monday morning quarterback” in these situations, however this incident only underscores how serious every Christian church in the U.S. should be taking security. Security is about preparing before something happens, having a plan while something is happening, and then a plan to deal with the aftermath. At this time it really doesn’t matter what the shooter’s motive was for the attack. As we have stated time and time again, the church is seen as a “soft target” - with over 75% of churches having no security or emergency plans in place, what resistance could a gunman expect walking into a church? But security isn’t only about what you do to prevent things from happening, it also entails having a Crisis Management Team to deal with catastrophic incidents after they happen.We don’t know if the First Church of Maryville had such a plan in place, but you can only imagine when something like this occurs and the victim is the leader of your church. This is why leadership roles in a crisis cannot rest with one person; this is why you need a team. Every incident offers “lessons learned” and I am sure in coming weeks we will learn more about the church, the shooter, and other circumstances which will help in future training and awareness. It won’t ease the pain being felt by everyone involved and will leave us all with a sick feeling in the pit of our stomach. We continue to do what we do at the Christian Security Network because we don’t want to see another incident happen like this again. Please take action now – there is no tomorrow. In Christ, Jeff Hawkins Executive Director |
