All Episodes

July 10, 2025 45 mins

On Sunday, June 22, 2025, a gunman armed with an AR-15 assault rifle opened fire on Crosspointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, as it assembled for worship. A fast-thinking deacon and two armed members of the congregation's security team killed the gunman before he could enter the church building and take the lives of any members or visitors.

As the frequency of active shooter situations at houses of worship is on the rise, how many congregations are prepared if the worst case happens?

Our guest is Rick Arrington, a security expert who trains houses of worship, schools and law enforcement agencies across the United States. A retired police lieutenant and an elder with the Rocky Mount (Virginia) Church of Christ, Arrington is the founder and CEO of the Crime Prevention Center and author of Securing the Faithful: Preventing and Addressing Crime in Places of Worship from Sunset Institute Press.

In this episode, Rick explains how congregations can better secure themselves against active shooters and other threats without abandoning the compassion, kindness, hospitality and openness that are to characterize the church of Christ.

Link to Crime Prevention Center

Link to Securing the Faithful: Preventing and Addressing Crime in Places of Worship by Rick Arrington

Link to The Christian Chronicle's coverage of active shooters at Church of Christ congregations

Link to a Christian Chronicle story (from March 2020) about Rick Arrington's ministry to help congregations better secure themselves

Listeners to this episode get a 50 PERCENT DISCOUNT on Rick's Securing the Faithful online training course. Click on the link below and enter the discount code PSQ5ZGC at checkout. crimepreventioncenter.org/training-courses/online-securing-the-faithful-course

Donate to support this ministry of "information and inspiration" at christianchronicle.org/donate

Send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcast@christianchronicle.org

Attend the 16th Annual Brotherhood of Men Conference this October 23 - 25 in Dallas, Texas. Click ewhiteministries.com to learn more and register.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
BT Irwin (00:03):
Family and friends, neighbors and, most of all,
strangers.
Welcome to the ChristianChronicle Podcast.
We're bringing you the storiesshaping Church of Christ,
congregations and members aroundthe world.
I'm BT Irwin.
May what you are about to hearbless you and honor God.
We start today in Wayne,michigan, about a 45-minute

(00:24):
drive from where I live.
It's Sunday morning, june 22,2025, and Crosspoint Community
Church is vibrating because it'sthe first day of Vacation Bible
School.
The auditorium is decked outlike an Alaska camping
expedition to reflect thisyear's VBS theme, true North.
Extra.
Kids, parents and volunteersfill the auditorium in

(00:45):
anticipation of one of thebiggest events of the year at
Crosspoint.
As the excitement builds inside,a 31-year-old man pulls into
the parking lot outside.
He steps from his car wearingtactical gear and carrying an
AR-15 style rifle with multipleloaded magazines and a
semi-automatic handgun withextended magazine and hundreds

(01:06):
of rounds of ammunition.
He is not a stranger toCrosspoint Community Church.
His mother is a member and hehas visited the congregation
several times.
Meanwhile, deacon Richard Pryoris arriving late to service.
As he pulls into the parkinglot, he spots the man pulling
guns out of his car.
Pryor drives over, stops, rollsdown his window and asks if
everything is all right.

(01:27):
The man, now armed, does notrespond and begins walking
toward the church building.
What happens next is a blur.
The man opens fire, attractingthe attention of two armed
members of the congregation'ssecurity team.
Pryor makes the split-seconddecision to hit the shooter with

(01:48):
his truck.
The shooter, however, is ableto keep spraying the church
building with bullets.
A bullet from his gun strikesthe leg of Ron Amon, an armed
member of the church securityteam.
As he responds to the scene, heducks for cover behind an air
conditioning unit and returnsfire.
Bullets pepper the lobby of thechurch building as those inside
the auditorium duck for coverand flee for safety.

(02:10):
Jay Trombley, another armedmember of the church security
team, returns fire from thelobby.
Moments later, the shooter isstruck by a bullet from either
Amon's or Trombley's gun anddies in the church parking lot,
the only death to come as aresult of the mass shooting
event he attempted to start.
Mass shootings, perhaps onceunimaginable for most church

(02:30):
folks in the United States, maynow be a nightmare lurking in
the back of many Christians'minds when they assemble on
Sunday mornings.
The Christian Chronicle hascovered at least three fatal
shootings that took place inChurch of Christ congregations
over the last few years.
After the attempted massshooting at a church right here
in my own city, I recognizedthat we never devoted an episode

(02:51):
of this podcast to securing ourcongregations against active
shooters.
I thought, just as my son'sschool conducts active shooter
drills twice a year, it may be agood idea for congregations to
at least put some thought intothat awful but necessary
question.
What, if so?
I reached out to Rick Arrington.
Rick is a professional securityconsultant and trainer who

(03:12):
serves as an elder with theRocky Mount Church of Christ in
Rocky Mount Virginia.
He is a retired policelieutenant with the Roanoke
Virginia Police Department andhe made church safety a personal
mission starting about 12 yearsago.
He wrote the book Securing theFaithful on the subject of
church security.
You can find that from SunsetInstitute Press link in the show
notes.
He's here with us now.

(03:33):
Rick, thank you for bringingyour experience and wisdom,
along with your pastoral gifts,to share with us today.
Quite well, in the case ofCrosspoint Community Church in
Wayne, michigan, the shooter wassomeone who had come to the
church a few times and had metwith the pastoral staff for
counseling and help.
What do we know about thepeople who have come to church,

(03:54):
armed and ready to do as muchharm as they can.
Is there a profile that'sbeginning to emerge, after so
many years, of these events?

Rick Arrington (04:01):
The facts we know is generally there are
three type of what we would calltriggers, or the things that
initiate this type of attack.
One of them is really you'regoing to be surprised, really
it's robbery, domestic spilloverand impersonal conflict, and

(04:23):
that's in churches and that'snot all across the board, but in
churches specifically.
So when we start to look atthat deeper, we see that where
churches are failing is inprotecting around those things.
Those three together areresponsible for about half of

(04:47):
the attacks.
Wow.
So the profile that's kind ofstarting to emerge is and this
is all based on articles andresearch into the actual post
events and what we're startingto see is, almost exclusively,

(05:08):
the shooters are male up in the90% range.
What we're also seeing is thatit's a single individual,
usually not like two or three.
Attacking so that's up in the70% range.
Attacking so that's up in the70% of drains.

(05:32):
Most of these events happen, orthese active shooting events,
that is to say, fatal events,are when services are not in
session.
So it would be on a Mondaymorning, for example, someone
comes to the building thinkingthe money is stored there to rob
the church.
Or, if you think about thedomestic spillover, quite often

(05:54):
it's someone at the church theelders or someone is counseling
at the church, at the church,and so the person shows up there
knowing there's counseling uh,their spouse or whatever, and
that's how it would end upspilling over there.
I have to say that, while thereare a lot of churches doing

(06:15):
something and that's my emphasisis, regardless of the size of
the congregation, you can dosomething.
Uh's always better than nothing, but I would say that I'm still
hearing a lot when I doseminars.
Oh well, we want to do this,but our minister, our pastor,

(06:38):
our rabbi when I'm doing variousfaith organizations says that
God will take care of us and wedon't need to worry about this
and those sort of things.
I'm still seeing that a lotMost congregations that I deal
with that come to the seminarsare preparing in some way, which

(07:00):
makes sense, because theywouldn't be at the seminar
otherwise.
But I don't know how many ofthe others are or not.
I just I just have no idea.
I just get a sense that a lotare still not prepared.

BT Irwin (07:17):
I've been a church guy my whole life, you know
preacher's kid, and I've been inministry and I've worked with
elders and you know it's hardenough to to to gather the
people and resources to pull offa vacation Bible school or to,
you know, to find enough uhushers to pass the communion on
Sunday morning.
So when it comes to churchsecurity, having a plan, uh

(07:41):
having the funds maybe, and thenhaving the people to work
church security I imagine someleaders may think, well, having
the funds maybe and then havingthe people to work church
security.
I imagine some leaders maythink, well, I can't even find
enough people and resources todo the churchy stuff that we
have to do.
I don't know how we're going tohandle security.
So for those who are in thatboat, kind of basic, simple plan

(08:03):
, do you think a smaller, mediumchurch could pull off just to
to start better securing uhtheir assemblies and their and
their premises from activeshooter situations?

Rick Arrington (08:14):
Yeah, there, uh, there are very uh, actually,
first thing I would say, there,uh, there are a lot of free
plans.
Uh, department of uh, homelandsecurity has a free plan out
there, a way to look at churchsecurity.
Now, I can't I can't vouch forany of those plans, but I can
tell you that you know thatthose are likely going to be

(08:36):
helpful.
My, my emphasis is always thiswe have to keep it very, very
simple.
Something that people canremember, something that they
can quickly implement, andthat's especially in a church.
But my simple plan is this Ihave a plan.

(08:59):
I call it three R's, and that'sessentially.
One is to recognize what is outof the ordinary.
So, out of the ordinary thereason I use that term is what
we're talking about is actuallysuspicious.
But when I say out of theordinary, it makes better sense

(09:21):
to people because everycongregation is different.
So the congregation that you goto is going to be different
from the one where I'm at orwhere I'm visiting or whatever.
So something that's ordinaryfor a college town congregation
would be extremely out of theordinary in a very rural area.

(09:42):
So that's the first thing isidentify, recognize what's out
of the ordinary.
Two is to report it, and thisis where you have an issue.
A lot of times in New Yorkthere's that phrase that's well
known now of see something, saysomething, but the problem is

(10:08):
they never tell you who to saysomething to.
So this is where the reportcomes in.
If you have a safety team, andthe safety team can be one
person or maybe two people, itdepends on the size of the
congregation.
Obviously, the seminar and theway that I do planning for the

(10:32):
safety team is, you can scale itbased on the size of the
congregation.
So report it to that individualwho has already has some sort
of plan in mind, some sort ofplan that is in place and
hopefully they have instructedthe, the congregation.

(10:54):
When they tell you to do X, yand Z, you do it and and then
the third are beyond.
Beyond recognizing report is torespond.
So you respond accordingly,meaning that the safety team is
going to do one thing but thecongregation would do something
else.

(11:14):
The minister should be with thecongregation because somebody
needs to be there to bring themsome peace, to calm them, and so
they shouldn't be part of thissafety team reacting.
So that's pretty much the waythat I go about simplifying the

(11:37):
plan.

BT Irwin (11:38):
So recognize report and respond Correct.
My son's school has an activeshooter training twice a year
and over the last month or twomy wife has been going through
all employee active shootertraining for the museum where
she works.
Would you recommend thatcongregations actually train all

(11:59):
of their members for activeshooter situations?

Rick Arrington (12:06):
for active shooter situations.
I do recommend training all ofthe members, but I recommend
training them according to theirrole.
So it's going to be a differenttype of training.
For example, if you do have asafety team, we want to train
the safety team and how torecognize, how to respond when
someone reports to you incidents.
We would want to train them onhow to operate any equipment, if

(12:29):
it's video or whatever.
So they're going to have onetype of training.
You're going to have to trainthe congregation also in
recognizing what's out of theordinary and reporting it.
But they don't necessarilyrespond in the same way.
They would report it to thesafety team, but their response

(12:52):
would be to do what the safetyteam says, without curiosity,
without delay, withoutquestioning oh well, why are we
doing this?
You have to respond immediately.
So the way we would train thecongregation is if the safety

(13:14):
team says, run to the basement,you just go to the basement.
You don't say why People wantto interact, they want to assist
.
But if they haven't thetraining that the safety team
does, sometimes they're in theway because the safety team is
concerned about them more sothan dealing with the problem.

(13:38):
So that's the different types oftraining and I always encourage
only one, two depending on thecongregation of people to make
the phone call to 911, to betrained in what to say, to be
trained to tell them okay, thisis what's going on, our safety

(14:04):
team is detaining this person,our safety team has got this
person down, or whatever itmight be.
But they need to be trained andyou don't want, you need to
train the entire congregation tothat.
You don't want all of themcalling because you overrun 911
and they become overwhelmed,don't understand what's going on

(14:27):
, because you got all of thesediffering reports.

BT Irwin (14:33):
In my experience I've been a part of, I've been privy
to conversations incongregations that are talking
about security, and whenever itcomes up as an agenda item to
discuss, there are always twobig questions that seem to rise
to the top, and the first has todo with the church's special
calling and commission in theworld, and that is we're called

(14:55):
and commissioned by our Christto bless those who curse, love
those who hate, pray for thosewho persecute.
We're a hospital for the sickand troubled people.
So the concern I hear amongchurch leaders is that if we
make security a priority, couldour congregation become
exclusive for the very people,exclusive of the very people

(15:18):
that Jesus calls and commissionsus to accept, embrace and
welcome in?
So when you started off ourconversation, you talked about
three triggers robbery, domesticconflict, spillover and
personal conflict and youpainted that picture of maybe an
elder or a minister counselingsomebody who's going through a
difficult situation.

(15:39):
I've worked in churches.
People come all the timelooking for money and for food.
We believe that the church iscalled to love these very people
and come alongside them, andyet they may also pose the
greatest threat to the church,and so I've seen leaders really
struggle with.
Well, how can we be the churchto these people and keep

(16:01):
ourselves safe at the same time?
I reckon you've had to answerthat question a lot of times and
I have.

Rick Arrington (16:10):
My answer is this First off, what my role is
is to give considerations sothat the leadership, the elders
of every congregation, have tomake the decision.
It's not something I could tellthem and say, hey, across the

(16:31):
board, everybody do this.
So I'm going to give themconsiderations, and here's my
consideration.
Now there are folks who say,well, you know, we don't want to
scare them or whatever, but atthe same time, think about this,
and I believe wholeheartedlythat the Bible supports the

(16:56):
concept of protecting themembers also, and what I mean by
that is that we have to protectthem so that they can serve.
And if you think about theaccount of the Good Samaritan,

(17:18):
he provided that service, heprovided that help, but he
didn't take him home with him.
He still kept a level ofsecurity there.
And so there's times when wehave to kind of thread the
needle.
For example, if you're doing afood pantry, and the type of

(17:43):
people that would come to a foodpantry you may have among them
might be someone who's addictedto drugs, it might be someone
with a mental disorder, so youhave to plan for that, and one
of the things that I wouldencourage churches who have that
to do is to have a stand wheresomeone is there, meets them,

(18:08):
greets them, asks them for theirname, their address, and
essentially does what the Bibletells us to do, which is to open
ourselves to them.
But when you meet them, yougreet them, you can determine
are they under the influence ofdrugs or alcohol or whatever?

(18:30):
Are they a danger?
And if so, you can say whydon't you sit right over here?
And we'll have someone prepareyou a box of food and bring it
to you.
Yeah.
And then you, just before theyleave, you say you know in the
future if you come we don't wedon't generally serve someone
who's under the influence, yeah,that sort of thing.

(18:52):
But you don't introduce theminto the building at that point
where everybody else where theycan endanger people.
So there are safety measures Inthe assembly itself during
church services.
One of the things that I reallyemphasize is to limit the

(19:14):
access points to as few aspossible.
Generally, if it's a smallercongregation, one and most
congregations about 80% of thecongregations of faith-based
organizations, churches of allkinds are 100 members or less.
So you have one point of entryand you have people greeting

(19:39):
them.
Isn't that what we should bedoing?
Greeting them.
The only difference is we trainthose greeters, cross-train
them to discuss, to talk to themand identify those things that
are out of the ordinary.
For example, someone who won'tshake your hand, someone who
won't tell you their name, thosesort of things.

(19:59):
Now, I'm not talking about howa person looks unless they're
wearing clothing that'sunseasonal, for example, a long
trench coat when there's 90degrees outside, but I'm saying
that what you're trying to do isto identify behavioral cues

(20:23):
that say this is out of theordinary and you kind of
mentally check those off, andthe more of those you see, the
more you then need to alert yoursafety team if you have one
that this person may deserve alittle extra watching so that
they can maybe sit near them,behind them, whatever.

BT Irwin (20:45):
That's been one of the biggest hesitations that I've
heard from church leaders isthat they want the church to be
a welcoming, hospitable placefor all right.
God calls all of us, invitesall of us to be a part of His
family, and so there's been thatreticence that if we put too

(21:06):
much of an emphasis on security,we may keep away some of the
very people that the Lord hascalled us to love on, and I got
to ask other.
The other big question that'sjust come up repeatedly in my
church struggled with this a fewyears ago is whether or not to
arm the security team.

(21:28):
I've been to congregations thatI know for a fact their
security team is armed.
I went to one a couple of yearsago where you could actually
see his gun on his belt, one acouple years ago where you could
actually see his gun on hisbelt.
Some congregations choose not todo that for scriptural reasons.
You can find scriptural reasonsfor both.
So, based on your experienceright now, are more

(21:50):
congregations now choosing toarm their security team, like
Crosspoint Community Churchobviously did, or are most
congregations still choosing tonot arm their security team?
And in the case ofcongregations that don't arm
their security teams.
What is how?
How might they be able tosecure themselves Nevertheless

(22:14):
against an active shootersituation?
There's a lot in that questionthere, so I'll just let you know
active shooter situation.

Rick Arrington (22:18):
There's a lot in that question there, so I'll
just let you know.
Yeah, there's a lot to unpackthere.
But to answer your question,the first point is you made a
point about being welcoming andall you can still be welcoming.
Good security in a churchshould be invisible.
Let me explain what I mean.
First off, there arecongregations I know one in

(22:41):
particular in Tennessee thathires off-duty police officers
in uniform to stand in the backof the church.
That is an immediate turnoff toa lot of people visiting
because the first thing theythink is, oh, it must be
dangerous.
Here.
My point behind saying it beinginvisible is this we want to

(23:07):
protect, you know, thecongregation but at the same
time we don't want to hurt themission of the church, which is,
of course, the mission of thechurch is to reach those lost
individuals, to invite them in,to bring them in to evangelize
them.
So we can't hurt the mission ofthe church.

(23:29):
But how much harm is done inthe church when there is a
shooting in a church, where,let's say, we will just say some
children are shot in a church,or or or adults for that matter
but how much harm is done bythat going out to the world and

(23:53):
the answering of people saying,well, how come they weren't
prepared?
Like you're pointing out, atCrosspoint they were prepared
and they and they reacted.
There's going to be a lot ofpeople who will criticize that.
I understand that, but whatthey, what they're not realizing
, is how many lives theyactually saved that's right and

(24:17):
how that they helped the mission.
Because those people who havebeen considering, been thinking
I was thinking about going overthat church If there's a
shooting and nobody reacted toit, there was no one there to
protect Then they go.
I'm not going there, I'll findsomewhere else.
You see where I'm going withthis.
It impacts the mission of thechurch.

(24:40):
Now, on the firearms question,of course that's a eldership
decision and and the states aredifferent also.
Also, but I link first off theanswer to your question is many,

(25:01):
many more are having theirsafety team harmed.
I fully believe that you knowthe same Jesus that said turn
the other cheek.
Or that said you know Malchuscalled Malchus out for cutting
the ear I mean Peter out forcutting the ear off of Malchus.
The same Jesus said in Luke 22,do you have a sword?
You know, sell your cloak andgo buy one.

(25:23):
The difference is in thecontext.
In the context with Malchus,nobody was going to stop him
from from completing the missionthat was given to him by the
Lord.
Yes, the will of the Lord wasgoing to be fulfilled.
In the case in Luke 22, he'stelling them you're going to be

(25:47):
going out without me, these aregoing to be some dangerous times
for you, and so by a sword,you're going to need to protect
yourself.
So there are differentsituations that, in the context,
yes, there are times when afirearm would be needed.
My answer to the firearmquestion is this authorize

(26:18):
someone to use firearms.
They should make sure that theyare uh, well trained in the use
of firearms.
They should make sure that theyare insured, because the uh
they, these individuals, aregoing if they do use a firearm,
they're likely.
And this goes back to my lawenforcement experience.
I just want to make sure theyneed to tell them when the
police show up, you're going tobe neutralized.

(26:39):
They're going to disarm you andprobably have you prone on the
ground, uh, and take the gunaway from you.
They're going to take youdowntown and they're going to uh
, question you about all of this.
They need to be prepared forthat, otherwise they feel like
I'm being arrested and I wasjust doing something good.

(27:00):
Yes.
That's part of the training thatneeds to go and they all need
to qualify annually whoever'scarrying that firearm.
They need to be able to ifthere is some legal issue that
comes up to be able to show that, yes, they are proficient, yes,

(27:21):
they know not to shoot througha wall, you know and that sort
of thing Be aware of theirtarget and beyond All of that
sort of training, be aware oftheir target and beyond all of
that sort of training, I guessthe final thing you ask in that,
like I said, a lot to unpack,but I think the final thing you
asked about was the non-lethalweapons, the potential for

(27:46):
non-lethal, and there's a lot ofnon-lethal weapons out there
and the considerations are huge.
But you think about there aretasers, there's pepper spray,
there's pepper canisters,there's just a number of plastic
bullets, rubber bullets,beanbags.

(28:07):
Here's the concern If anindividual is there we're
talking about an active shooterfor you to use any force at all.
I train safety teams.
Their role is to keep thecongregation safe and that might
mean looking out, seeing a guyget out of the car with a gun

(28:31):
and you lock down the door andsend everybody to a room.
You've accomplished your goalthe safety team at a church is
not a church police department.
They are not to chase the guy,they're not to try to apprehend
them.
Arrest them.
If the guy runs and flees, lethim go Call the police.

(28:51):
That's their job.
Please let them go Call thepolice.
That's their job.
But in the case of non-lethal,if an individual comes in there
with a gun, a taser isrestricted by distance.
Yes, and it absolutely cannotbe fired quicker than a bullet

(29:12):
the speed of a bullet than abullet, the speed of a bullet.
Pepper spray if you were to usepepper spray in an enclosed
environment, it will fill theroom.
It will impact the person usingit, those others in the room.
So these are all considerationsthat you have to make if you're
talking about less than lethalweapons.
And my thing is, when it comesdown to the only time that we

(29:39):
would want to use lethal weaponsas a last resort to protect
individuals from imminent harm.
And I don't see where pepperspray would be needed If we have
a congregation of two or threeindividuals that can help and
you just subdue the individualif they're not armed, I don't

(30:03):
see where any of the non-lethalweapons would be appropriate, in
my opinion.

BT Irwin (30:11):
I have a good friend who has a concealed carry permit
and he's worked church securityand he talked to me at length
about this, the necessity forproper training.
His number one concern is, ifhe ever had to use his weapon in
a church setting, is that hewould hit a bystander, uh, that

(30:33):
he would hit somebody other thanthe, the active shooter.
And, um, he talked quite a bitabout the, the emotional toll it
would take on him to takesomeone else's life, even to
save other people's lives, and Inever thought about all that
before.
But he, he, he was very seriousabout being properly trained,

(30:53):
not only on how to handle afirearm, but how to respond in a
situation in a crowded spaceand how to prepare himself
emotionally for the fallout fromthat.
Those are all things I'd neverconsidered before that
conversation.

Rick Arrington (31:08):
A lot of individuals don't think about
the psychological impact.
When I teach school security,there are people who bring up
the idea of arming teachers andI've had teachers say hey, I
have a concealed carry, don'tyou think it's a good idea to

(31:28):
arm a teacher?
So I asked that teacher Firstoff.
About 80 percent of the schoolshooters are students.
So I asked the teacher okay, uh, let me ask you this.
You had this student last yearand he comes in and he's
shooting.
Can you shoot him?
Can you take his life?
Have you considered that?

(31:48):
And then like, oh, I, andthey're like, oh, I don't know,
I don't think I can.
That's the psychological issue.
It takes a lot out of theindividual.
As a police officer, I wasfortunate and I retired.
In law enforcement, I wasfortunate.
I was involved in severalshootings, but I never had to

(32:11):
take a life.
Someone else did that was withme, but I never had to take a
life.
Uh, someone else did that waswith me, but I didn't have to.

BT Irwin (32:16):
When my wife and I were talking about what happened
at Crosspoint Community Churchand the.
You know the story is RichardPryor, who was a deacon there,
uh, hit the shooter with histruck.
Um, made the split seconddecision to, to, to run over,
try to run over the shooter withhis truck.
And my wife said to me I don'tknow if I could do that.

(32:39):
You know just the idea ofrunning over another human being
with a truck.
Right, that's not a gun, butthat speaks to just the emotions
.
For people who are conditionedand trained their whole lives as
Christians to care for peopleand to guard human life.
It's not as simple as it sounds, as my friend pointed out to me

(33:03):
.
So here at the end I just wantto ask you is there anything
else that you really feel likeyou need to talk about here that
congregations and their leadersneed to consider right now that
maybe they don't know, or it'ssomething that you just you try
to share with audiences whereveryou go?
That maybe isn't so intuitiveto us on this subject.

Rick Arrington (33:23):
Well, a couple of things.
I would say this.
First off, if you haveindividuals, a safety team
doesn't have to be a personthat's a bruiser, a brawler or
anything of that nature.
They don't have to be armed.
A safety team can be a fewmembers and, of course, we solve

(33:45):
all church situations.
All of the needs of the churchare solved, as they did in Act
VI, right, we look out among usto those who have certain skill
sets, and you pick those and youemphasize to them.
The first point I'm making hereis emphasize that your ultimate

(34:10):
goal is to keep the congregationsafe.
You do that by either movingthe threat away from the
congregation or the congregationaway from the threat.
Very simple stuff.
So if you got an individualthat's screaming, yelling,
acting crazy, and they want to,you know I'm going to kill this
or that or whatever.

(34:31):
And you and you talk to themand they get them outside the
door, close the door, lock thedoor.
You've done, you've succeededin what you're supposed to do.
You can then call the policeand what have you?
The second point I would make isthat, as I said, statistically
this stuff happens outside morethan inside, happens outside

(34:57):
more than inside.
If we have a safety team, thenI want them checking the parking
lot before, during and after.
The reason the parking lot isas a person pulls in, when they
get out of the car, that's whenyou're going to see the firearm
if they have one, that's whenyou're going to see the person
that you don't recognize and youcan watch them carefully.

(35:19):
If you begin service this iswhat I would tell you also is
that once service begins, thatsingle point of entry that I was
talking about, you want to five, 10, 15 minutes into the
service, lock the door.
You know having an egress by apanic bar, but lock the door and

(35:44):
I've had people ourcongregation, we did this for
about six months before I toldanyone and they didn't notice.
The only time you notice is whensomebody comes visiting and
they can't get in.
They knock on the door andthey're like well, we, you know,
I've had people ask me why, whyare we doing that?
That's not, you know, we'rekeeping people out.
No, think about it.

(36:06):
When Peter was in prison, theywere praying for him and, of
course, when he was let out, hegoes to where they're at and he
had to knock on the door becausethey were locked in.
And if you read it, it says forfear.
They were locked in for fear.
So this is very scriptural to dothis.

(36:27):
And then you know, beforeservice is over, what I would
say there's always a closingprayer and during that closing
prayer your safety team, someonegoes out, walks the parking lot
real quickly, makes surenothing suspicious out there,
comes back in and then everybodycan leave safely.

(36:50):
Everybody can leave safely.
That's a very simplistic thingto do, but it's just the thing
that we do need to do.
And during the non-hours, aswith most churches of Christ
that don't have a full teamthere during the Monday through

(37:10):
Friday, the preacher may bethere by himself.
Lock the door, lock the door,give him an intercom or a camera
, something that he can seewho's out there and he can
communicate with them.
I can't overemphasize thatpoint.

BT Irwin (37:30):
You never know who's going to show up.
The last church where my dadserved in Eastern Tennessee,
somebody came to the door andthe door was locked.
But they got him on camera andit was a bear.
So you just never know who'sgoing to show up.
I know, I know.

(37:54):
My dad sent me the video of it.
He's like look who came tovisit the office today and there
was a.
There was a black bear standingat the door trying to get in.
So we're going to put a link toyour website in the show notes.
Are there any other resourcesthat you'd recommend that
churches check out?
Of course your book will linkthat in the show notes Any other
resources that that yourecommend to church leaders.

Rick Arrington (38:19):
I would definitely tell them to first
off contact their church.
Insurance companies often havea resource that's free and of
course I'm talking about freebecause the congregations, like
I said, especially smallercongregations, have limited

(38:40):
resources and most of ourresources are we need to put out
for evangelism, but that's free.
Department Homeland securitycontact.
I will say this securitycontact.

(39:01):
I will say this I teach a lot oflaw enforcement on how to do
assessments and security atchurches and I would say contact
your local police department orsheriff's office and ask for
anyone that can do an assessmentof the church.
Those are always free andthey'll there'll be a great
wealth of knowledge.
Not only will it give yousomething free to work with, if

(39:26):
they have it, but also you'll beable to get them into the
building so that they can seethe building layout in case they
have to respond.
And the final thing is, whilethey're there, you can maybe
invite them to come back tochurch.
So I really emphasize workingwith the local law enforcement

(39:52):
because a lot of those, believeit or not, I've got a lot of
friends that were working in lawenforcement that are now either
ministers or very active inchurch, and it's just because
their hours are kind of odd.
Sometimes they may have to showup in uniform while they're on

(40:13):
duty, but you know, if thechurch is open to that,
recognizing that, you might beable to get a lot of assistance
from the local law enforcement.

BT Irwin (40:25):
That's excellent.
Well, rick Arrington is aprofessional security consultant
and trainer who serves as anelder with the Rocky Mountain
Church of Christ in RockyMountain, virginia.
He's author of the bookSecuring the Faithful.
We'll put links to Rick and hisinformation in the show notes.
Rick, thank you for sharingyour experience and wisdom with
us today.

Rick Arrington (40:43):
Thanks for having me.

BT Irwin (40:44):
It's been a pleasure.
We hope that something youheard in this episode encouraged
, enlightened or enriched you insome way.
If it did, thanks be to God andplease pay it forward.
Subscribe to this podcast andshare it with a friend.
Recommend and review itwherever you listen to your
favorite podcasts.
Your subscription,recommendation and review help
us reach more people.
Please send your comments,ideas and suggestions to podcast

(41:08):
at christianchronicleorg anddon't forget our ministry to
inform and inspire Christiansand congregations around the
world is a nonprofit ministrythat relies on your generosity.
So if you like the show and youwant to keep it going and make
it even better, please make atax-deductible gift to the
Christian Chronicle atChristianChronicleorg slash

(41:34):
donate.
The Christian Chronicle podcastis a production of the Christian
Chronicle Incorporated,informing and inspiring Church
of Christ congregations, membersand ministries around the world
since 1943.
The Christian Chronicle'smanaging editor is Audrey
Jackson, editor-in-chief BobbyRoss Jr and executive director
and CEO Eric Trigestad.
The Christian Chronicle podcastis written, directed, hosted

(41:54):
and edited by BT Irwin and isproduced by James Flanagan at
Podcast your Voice Studios inthe Motor City, detroit,
michigan, usa.
Until next time, may grace andpeace be yours in abundance.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.

24/7 News: The Latest

24/7 News: The Latest

The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.