Henry County Georgia Sheriff Keith MacBrayer is very familiar with the safety and security challenges facing 21st century churches. Although Henry County has not seen a rash of crime in and around churches, MacBrayer says all places of worship need to be prepared for the worst. But what he found when he talked to church leaders in his count was completely the opposite.
“It just got me thinking that every church ought to have some type of plan for this situation,” MacBrayer said and then referred to a scenario he presented to churches about what to do when a threatening looking person enters the church. “There really was no plan. Do you call the police? Do you not call the police? Do you escort him out? Do members of the church talk to him and ask if they can help him?”
MacBrayer was so concerned about the lack of security or even a basic plan of how churches would deal with a threat or emergency, he created a Security and Safety Seminar for churches.
“Many churches have members of their congregation who are active or have law enforcement backgrounds and some are retired military,” MacBrayer said. “We help them set up a security team and it may just be two or three people that are designated members to take action if something would happen.”
Both Pastor Stathum and Sheriff MacBrayer say having a security team in place, along with locking doors and installing security cameras can help reduce the number of crimes and speed up reaction to other emergencies that have become reality in places of worship all over the country.
It only takes one occurrence handled incorrectly to change the rest of someone's life. Whether is a car being broken into or someone with a weapon entering a worship service, it's a good thing to have a plan in place for these types of situations.
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