Ask most pastors, congregants or even church safety teams what church security is for, and the quick answer you get is: stopping an active shooter. That answer is not entirely wrong but it is very misleading. The decisions church leaders make regarding their security, if made based on this misrepresentation, are going to be radically inadequate. So let’s talk about what churches actually need a safety team or security for.
The active shooter threat, or incidents of related violent attacks is real and growing. The Family Research Council counted 50 acts of hostility against U.S. churches in 2018, 198 in 2022, a record 485 in 2023, and 415 in 2024, ranging from vandalism and arson to bomb threats and assaults. Gun-related incidents more than doubled in 2024, from 12 to 28. The trend is real, and every church should be prepared for the worst day. That includes a tactical armed response as well as a medical response to an armed threat.
But the worst day is not the most common day. When church leaders decide whether to have a safety team, who to put on it, or whether to hire outside help, they too often build the whole plan around one scenario. The data tells a broader story. The threats or issues that show up most often look nothing like a gunman at the front door, and the team has to be trained and prepared to deal with all of them, at every service and every church event.
What Safety Teams Actually Face
Even among the most serious events, the active shooter motivated by hatred of the church is the exception. Criminologists at The Violence Project, who track homicides at U.S. houses of worship, recorded 379 incidents from 2000 to 2024, about 15 a year across hundreds of thousands of congregations. Most involved a single victim. Seventy-one percent happened outside, in parking lots, courtyards and on steps, and dozens involved domestic disputes spilling into worship settings. There are currently approximately 350,000 Christian churches in the USA.
Carl Chinn’s wider deadly force data agrees: robbery leads at about 24 percent, domestic violence follows at about 15 percent, and hatred of the church accounts for roughly 5 percent.
The January 2026 shooting at a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Salt Lake City fits the pattern. Two people were killed and six wounded in the parking lot during a funeral, after a dispute among attendees. Police said it was not an attack on the faith, and while not stated, this incident had the earmarks of gang violence.
If that is true of the deadliest events, it is even more true of the everyday ones. A capable church safety team routinely handles:
- Medical emergencies, and the overwatch needed to clear space, call 911 and guide responders. Many churches have many older congregants and this can become one of the primary functions of a busy safety team
- Disruptions during worship, including people who appear to be under demonic influence or in a mental health crisis. If your church is very active in community outreach, homeless outreach, those in recovery programs, prison release programs, etc, this is more common
- Domestic disputes that spill into the main service or the children’s ministry, including custody conflicts at pickup. Many of these are people well known to the church and overlooked for that reason but a trained observer will see the signs of distress and monitor that situation more closely. As a church member the safety team volunteer can approach, offer prayer, support or a listening ear and diffused a potentially dangerous situation
- Disgruntled congregants and conflicts with staff or other members
- Sexual predators, whether harassing women or seeking access to children. These more frequently are new to the church and a trained safety team will know who is new and will be able to more quickly identify inappropriate behavior and intervene before an incident occurs and without disrupting the service.
- Theft and robbery, especially targeting the elderly, single women, and purses or phones left on pews, because people relax and drop their guard in church and tend to trust more than perhaps they should. Churches are filled with sinners and those struggling praise God, so leaving things unattended can be a temptation for some.
- Vandalism and break-ins to the building and to cars in the parking lot and this is one of the most common events reported to law enforcement. Regular patrols of the property and parking lot is a deterrent. In my experience we have also discovered incidents of medical crisis, domestic violence, abandoned animals in cars, and other matters while patrolling the parking lot during services.
- Safety hazards on church property, from wet floors to poor lighting, broken locks, abandoned packages, etc.
- Unauthorized access to offices, the offering, children’s areas, expensive media equipment, women’s bathrooms by men, recording devices planted in sensitive areas to obtain door codes or other recordings desirable to someone with bad intentions, as well as other sensitive spaces
None of these makes the news. All of them happen very frequently, unlike an active shooter incident, and can be detrimental to the church and the people there if not handled properly or not handled at all by someone sufficiently trained and well-suited for the position. Throwing one law-enforcement officer or private security contractor, or just a guy that is “good with a gun” at the problem may not be sufficient to appropriately handle the issues that commonly occur in churches.
The Skills a Capable Team Needs
If the worship team sings off key, the camera is not in focus, the sound mix is not right, or the greeters fail to greet everyone properly; no one dies, gets sued or goes to jail. Every single safety-related incident carries the risk of all three for the people protecting. So do the people responsible for managing whatever security solution that is in place, along with the Senior Pastor through something called vicarious liability which includes both civil (lawsuit) or criminal (misdemeanors and felonies).
For that reason your security solution must be qualified, well trained, and responsible. The security leader must be very knowledgeable, well trained at managing teams and people and managing crisis. They must understand the law, both civil and criminal or have direct access to someone who does that is willing to advise. Training and record keeping of that training is mandatory because if you are called to testify in court, they will ask for that and not having it will not bode well for team leadership and the Senior Pastor.
There was a time when Pastors didn’t need to be knowledgable about security and the law pertaining to security but those days are gone. It’s part of running a church now so ignorance may be viewed as negligence in any court of law.
Because the threats are broad, the skill sets must be broad too. A church safety team member should possess the following skills:
- De-escalation. Most conflicts can be calmed with words, posture and patience long before they turn physical.
- Observation and attention to detail. Noticing the person who doesn’t fit, the anomaly in a crowd, behavioral patterns, body language, the item left behind, or the door wedged open. Also, be able to identify someone showing signs of medical distress and go to their aid before a crisis occurs. People in medical distress often go to the bathroom where they won’t create a spectacle. I personally dealt with two life-threatening incidents that occurred in the ladies restroom at church that may have been fatal had we not noticed the distress on the ladies faces when they went to the bathroom.
- Spiritual maturity. Team members should show the fruit of the Spirit and be able to speak with calm authority about spiritual matters, and do it all with the love of Jesus in their hearts, and without causing a disruption in the service or embarrassment for the person involved without any judgement or bias.
- Clear communication, spoken and written. Radio discipline, briefings with leadership, and be able to write detailed and accurate incident reports without bias.
- Discretion. Monitoring and mitigating risk without distracting the congregation or interrupting the service.
- Confidentiality. Protecting the privacy of pastors, church leaders and the families involved in sensitive situations.
- Asset protection. Deterring theft or robbery of the offering, church property and congregants’ belongings, and controlling access to sensitive areas.
- Physical fitness and defensive capability. Proficiency with firearms, physically restraining a violent person, and working as a team to contain and control an attacker.
- Friendly and outgoing while appearing fit and capable and alert. Being friendly and helpful builds relationships and trust and can mitigate any prejudice against having security in church. If someone is a concern, approaching them in a friendly manner and striking up conversation helps immensely in determining if there is any potential threat. Most of all that security solution is part of the church and is someone who is capable of gaining the trust and respect of those in the church. In an emergency the congregation will listen to and obey someone they respect and trust to protect them so things happen faster and more smoothly.
That last item matters. Violent attacks are less common, but they do happen, and a team must be prepared for whatever threat presents itself. Law enforcement or backup for your contracted deputy if that is your security strategy, is on average about three minutes away. Most active shooter events are over in less than three minutes. In fact most incidents other than medical crisis, are over in less than three minutes. Whomever is there protecting your church has to be able to handle whatever comes their way on their own until help arrives.
The point is not that defensive skill is unimportant, it is extremely important, but it can’t be the only criteria you use to choose the protection solution for your church.
The Contracting Question
Many churches choose to hire off-duty law enforcement or private security instead of building a volunteer team. That can be a sound decision, but it raises a question leaders rarely ask: what exactly are we contracting for?
An officer parked in the lot or a guard posted at the door may be well prepared to respond to an armed attacker. But can that person recognize a predator grooming a child in the hallway? Calm a grieving member who is shouting at an elder? Pray with someone in spiritual distress during the altar call? Handle a custody dispute at the children’s check-in without frightening the kids? Keep a pastor’s private matters private?
Before signing a contract, church leaders should ask whether the people they hire can mitigate all of the issues a church safety team will encounter, or whether they are simply buying active shooter prevention. The second may give peace of mind, but it leaves most of the church’s very real and most common risks uncovered every single Sunday.
Our Recommendation
We highly recommend one of two approaches.
- A fully trained volunteer safety team drawn from the congregation, capable of addressing any and every issue that may arise, from a medical call to a violent attacker. Most churches have ex-military or ex-law enforcement members in their congregation who are capable of creating a custom security solution for your church based on your specific challenges and needs.
- A blended team that pairs trained volunteers with contracted law enforcement or private security specialists in church protection.
Volunteers from the congregation bring something no contractor can: they know the people. They know which family is in a custody fight, which visitor seems out of place, and which member is struggling. Professionals bring advanced defensive training and legal authority. Together, they cover the full range of what a church actually faces.
Whatever model you choose, staff it for the church you have, not just the headline you fear. Prepare for the active shooter, because that day could come. But train for the Sunday that is almost certain to come: the fall in the foyer, the angry ex-spouse at children’s check-in, the purse left on the pew. A team ready for all of it is a team that truly protects the flock. And in 2026 and beyond, providing a security solution for your church is a prudent precaution.
Sources
- Family Research Council, Hostility Against Churches (2024 edition), as reported by K-LOVE News and The Daily Signal
- The Violence Project house of worship homicide data, via James Densley and Jillian Peterson, Religion News Service / The Conversation
- Carl Chinn, Faith Based Security Network deadly force incident data, as reported by CVPSD
- Salt Lake City meetinghouse shooting: KUER and Salt Lake Tribune
