Now Is The Time To Prepare

         When we hear of churches having to deal with violence, we may be led to ponder what we can do to protect ourselves, our congregations, our buildings.  We hear of arson in a number of churches and think, “Oh, yes, we need to be prepared.”  A group of hooded teenagers enter a church and stroll up the aisle (as in Richmond, California, on a February Sunday in 2010) pull out a gun and shoot two people, and we think, “Oh, yes, we need to be prepared”; a youth pastor is convicted of molesting kids in the youth group and we say, “Oh, yes, we need to be prepared.”  But then the budget committee calls and demands our attention.  There is the need to develop a new Sunday School curriculum.  A person in the parish dies and we need to attend to the funeral.  And there is the ever present need to prepare the sermon and service for the next Sunday.  All of these needs demand our attention, and the age-old adage regarding the tyranny of the immediate raises its head.  We are overwhelmed with needs and demands that are in our face, and this remote possibility of violence and danger are pushed to the background; pushed back until the next news report of violence and danger to a church is published.  And then it is again that we think, “When will we be the next news report, a report of a church that could have been prepared to save its congregation but wasn’t because of the seemingly more pressing demands of church life?”  The odds of an accidental fire in the church are not very high, but we have an evacuation plan, and the Fire Marshall will shut us down if we overcrowd the hall or the fire extinguishers are not recharged.  We pay attention to that remote danger.  The danger of violence (which is just as likely, if not more likely, than fire) needs equal attention and priority.

[From the Introduction to Wolves Among The Sheep: Protecting Your Church From Violence (2011),  by T. Craig Isaacs, M.Div., Ph.D.]