Tips offered to keep congregations safe

GALION - A show of hands Saturday at a church safety seminar revealed many area churches already have safety teams in place and a few others are in the process of forming teams.

"We don't recommend calling them a security team. We recommend calling them safety teams. It encompasses everything, it encompasses safety, security, hospitality, greeters," Derrick Martin of K&M Safety Consultants of Richland County told the group of mostly men who attended the free seminar at First Lutheran Church, 127 S. Columbus St.

Martin, a retired police officer now working as a professional counselor, said churches are a no-carry zone by law in the State of Ohio.

Martin, who attends Fusion Church in Lexington, said safety is as simple as hugging someone to find out if they are carrying a firearm and having parking ministry.

"The people who are in those parking lots are having fun or they wouldn't have signed up for it," he said. "They're getting something out of it. They're helping the church, but they're glorifying God when they do it. Isn't that why we go to church or go to worship?"

 Church safety teams should maintain some form of confidentiality, he said.

"Because if we tell everybody what we're going to do when the bad guy hits, guess what? The bad guy knows," he said.

Martin and safety trainer Gary Kiener said the goal Saturday was for people attending the seminar to take some of the safety ideas back to their church administrations.

The speakers suggested doing background checks on anyone who works at the church and having volunteers fill out an application listing their past addresses and jobs so that the individuals can be checked out through the online court systems in those counties. 

When was the last time each church had a fire drill? The trainers asked guests.

"These are things you have to think about," Martin said. "Safety encompasses everything. It's not just about the guy who is going to come in and go 'bang bang.'"

"How many people have elderly? How many people have people with disabilities? Guess what? That's all safety," Martin said. 

Kiener, who is also a 28-year veteran of the Richland County Sheriff's Office, said, "We want you to start thinking outside that box. What we can do for our congregation in our own church?" 

Seminar-goers also learned about Stop the Bleed methods, active shooter and using the knowledge of people who attend their church, from teachers and nurses to firefighters and factory workers who are parishioners to make their church safer places.

lwhitmir@nncogannett.com

419-521-7223

Twitter: @LWhitmir