Hope Isn’t a Plan: Is Your Church a Sitting Duck?

Denial isn’t just stupid—it has no survival value. Acting as though the wolves only hunt other sheep in other pastures?  That’s not faith, that’s wishful thinking. So why then do many Christian churches (along with synagogues) opt not to have safety teams?

Are they counting on God’s divine protection? God helps those who help themselves and standing unprepared for evil to come knocking has real-world consequences for real people.

I’ve been to a handful of churches that have top notch safety teams and like many, I’ve been to churches that not only had multiple unlocked and unmonitored entrances — some dark by the way — that had no safety team at all. Unfortunately, unprepared or ill-prepared is still the norm.  Yes, even at events and major religious holidays that bring crowds.

These unprotected churches are sitting ducks.  At one Christmas Eve service I attended, no one had radios or earpieces. No one, save a dad or three who looked like hard-charging alphas, were anywhere to be seen or found. And those men clearly were on dad duty, not part of a safety and security team.

The greeters? Sweet smiles, zero comms. At that service a few years ago, many in the congregation joined me and slipped in through a shadowy lower-level door from the back parking lot…unmanned, unlocked, and unmonitored. It was a perfect back door through which to stage a nightmare. Before, during and after the service?  The pastor stood exposed like a trophy buck in an open field.

I run with security-minded folks, including some who have done it professionally. When I talked about this one particular church they simply shook their heads in disbelief. “They’re one bad incident from going under,” one said.  Indeed.

When one, with sarcasm in his voice, raised the possibility of a super-professional, Secret Service level team, we all laughed. With open side doors and zero visible presence? That’s not discreet, that’s delusional. Unmonitored, dark entrances and an utter lack of thought about congregants’ safety? That kind of negligence is wishful thinking and can turn peace on earth into last rites.

Why do so many religious institutions still play ostrich? Because facing evil means admitting it exists. As for admitting that guns might be necessary to protect people, that’s clearly too icky for the pearl-clutchers in the congregation who think psalms and lordly vibes are body armor enough. As if lunatics and criminals give a damn about holy water and hymnals.

The only thing that stops bad guys with evil in their hearts is a good guy or gal with a gun.

In the video above, Jack Wilson takes the shot that drops the bad guy after he murdered two people and marched towards the pastor. Jack Wilson, a man in his 70s, stood in the back as part of his church’s safety team. He saw the situation unfold and took action in the span of a couple of seconds.

He didn’t “rise to the occasion,” he defaulted to his training. In his back yard at home, Jack had a simple range and one of his favorite drills was to draw and fire, from concealment in under 1.5 seconds. His target? A paper plate at 15 yards.

Jack Wilson shot that drill hundreds of times each year.

When the lunatic blasted Jack’s fellow safety team member and then an usher, Jack knew what he had to do and he did it. When Jack’s shot broke, the bad guy was 46 feet away and moving in a very chaotic environment with lives on the line.  Even with all that, Jack Wilson shot the guy in the earhole, dropping him like a bad habit.

The first safety team member who was killed? He had a brand new gun in a brand new leather holster his daughter had given him for a special occasion. The good guy’s new leather holster wouldn’t give up the gun freely, slowing his draw stroke and costing him his life. Failure to train with your gear is training to fail.

A failure to plan is a plan for a body count

So why does every church need a trained safety team? Because evil exists.

A prepared house of worship looks like most others. They greet like pros, but they have medics ready to treat Grandpa’s heart attack before paramedics in an ambulance even leave the station. (Aging congregations should be begging for this.) They carry tourniquets and battle dressings in case someone is seriously hurt by accident or by malice. Volunteers with EMT, paramedic or even physician training can handle a lot, starting to help in a few seconds.

Safety teams also watch the skies for tornadoes, the nursery area for pervs, the parking lot for homeless bums aggressively panhandling, or armed robbers asking more persuasively with a blade or the barrel of a gun.  They even protect congregants from domestic abusers who know the subject of their violent anger will be at church on Sundays.

But let’s cut the polite crap: their real job is stopping the next psycho from turning your sanctuary into a slaughterhouse.  They watch for lunatics carrying long guns making their way to the front doors.

These teams oversee the parking lots, the perimeter, the doors, and the stage. Radios communicate potential threats and the response while the congregants are none the wiser. They engage sketchy visitors before potential problems can even get to the sanctuary. A guy with a duffel bag or backpack? “Can I have you leave your backpack over here please? We don’t allow backpacks in the sanctuary,” a polite man with an earpiece says after making contact. Of course one or two of his teammates is standing close by. The backpack doesn’t accompany Mr. Thousand Yard Stare into the sanctuary.

Other examples include the Lakewood Church in Houston, 2024—armed whackjob sprayed 30 rounds during services. Off-duty cops on the security team dropped her before it became a massacre. Bloodbath averted. It made headlines for a day, and then was forgotten, all because the good guys won.

The New Life Church in Colorado is another example where good guys kept a lunatic from slaughtering hundreds of innocents.

Now flip it: no team, no plan. The attacker walks in unchallenged. People, including children, die screaming, or bleeding out before cops clear the scene for paramedics to care for the wounded. Survivors scatter to other churches—or quit their faith altogether. The congregation craters. Lawsuits rain down because “reasonable steps” weren’t taken. Your place of peace became a crime scene that people drive past and whisper about. Eventually, it may be bulldozed and turned into a memorial like in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Sadly, it’s not that rare. Churches get hit constantly—shootings, stabbings, arsons, vehicle rams. 2025 alone saw multiple deadly attacks: Michigan LDS chapel rammed, shot up and set ablaze (four dead). A Minneapolis Catholic school mass turned into a horror (kids killed). Kentucky church women gunned down.

Most religious event attacks are thwarted and never hit the news because trained teams shut them down before things go completely sideways. The ones that succeed? They’re the ones that make national headlines and fill graveyards.

Don’t wait for the sirens. Don’t wait for the funerals.

Demand that your church gets serious. Push for a real safety team—trained, equipped, communicating. Plans for medical, fire, weather, active threats…the works. If they won’t start one or ban guns on the property, take your time, talents and treasure to another church, a church that will welcome you and watch your family’s back while you worship with the congregation.

Evil doesn’t RSVP. It knocks with a battering ram. And when it does, you’d better have someone ready to answer—with force if necessary.

Your family deserves better than hope and a prayer. They deserve a fighting chance.