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New Edition of Hostility Against Churches Report Shows a Doubling of Attacks

The newest edition of Family Research Council’s (FRC) Hostility Against Churches report suggests hostility against US churches has rapidly accelerated.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Prayer for Church Security Team Members ]

FRC identifies 436 hostility incidents in 2023—more than double the number identified in 2022 and more than 8 times the number identified in 2018, the first year for which FRC collected data.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Security: Church Crisis Response Checklist ]

Notable findings in the 183-page report include:

Church Security: Church Crisis Response Checklist

Does your congregation know what to do in the first few hours and days after a tragedy?

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Prayer for Church Security Team Members ]

Research studied by the ministry Spiritual First Aid shows that most churches, organizations, and communities are not well prepared for mass traumas.

That’s why it has now published the complimentary evidence-based crisis response tool, Trauma-Informed Church Crisis Response: A Field Guide for the First 72 Hours. It’s an outline of the critical stages following a crisis, providing a comprehensive list of practical actions your congregation can take to support those impacted by a major event, such as a mass killing or natural disaster.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Directory of Medical Kit Resources ]

Here are a few excerpts:

Self-Defense and Church Security: Make Scanning Your Priority

The article, Priority of Scan – An Officer Survival Necessity by Calibre Press instructor Lt. Kelly DeVoll (ret.) is written for the readership of professional police officers. But it also has much bearing for individual self-defense and church security situational awareness. Here are the major points adapted for civilian practice:

• In keeping with Col. Jeff Cooper’s observational “Color Code,” we must always avoid complacency (the color “white” in the Code) when in public; nothing should be considered mindless routine. Instead, cultivate a mindful routine. [The Color Code can also be described using adjectives: White = Complacent; Yellow = Observant; Orange = Hazard; Red = Action.]

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Chart: The Spectrum of Potential Threat Personas in Self-Defense and Church Security ]

• When you’re interacting with a person, that person, potentially, is “one of the most dangerous creatures on earth.” You must visualize and assess any means of attack that person could use against you. To that end, develop this priority of scan sequence and use it continuously: hands, waist, face, head-to-toe.

Spiritual Fitness: Top 12 Acts for a Christian

The Bible extensively mentions the word heart more than 500 times in the New International Version English translation. It means the seat and center of all life; your inner person; the profound essence of your personality; the seat of your thoughts, passions, desires, affections, appetites, purposes, endeavors. It’s what drives you. Learn all the ways the Bible refers to the heart in the Encyclopedia of the Bible, free to read online.

Scripture emphasizes the phrase “with all your heart,” which conveys the message of unconditional, unlimited, resolute, total, complete, steadfast, ardent, zealous, all-in, no-turning-back involvement and commitment.

The following brief list is meant to help you, as a follower of Jesus Christ, focus your daily attention on the most important behaviors that make up the SemperVerus life. And the first one is the most important one; the one that should motivate us in doing all the others. “We are never nearer Christ than when we find ourselves lost in a holy amazement at his unspeakable love.” John Owen (1616-1683), An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. III-V, in Works of John Owen, v.XXI, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1854, p. 528.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Situational Awareness: Spiritual Self-Defense ]

With all my heart, I will…