church security – Page 14

Interview with Simon Osamoh of Kingswood Security Consulting

If you’d like to be interviewed to share best practices of your own church security/safety team, contact SemperVerus by emailing staytrue@semperverus.com.

SemperVerus interviewed Simon Osamoh, host of the podcast, Who I Became and founder of Kingswood Security Consulting and the Worship Security Academy, offering proactive safety solutions & innovative security risk management.

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

How important is it for churches of any size to have a volunteer security/safety team?
In the past decade, crime has significantly impacted nonprofits, including houses of worship. Once considered safe havens, churches now find themselves confronting challenges such as mass shootings, embezzlement, child misconduct, and other criminal activities. These incidents highlight the brokenness of our world and emphasize the necessity of preparation.

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

Tragic events like the 2017 Sutherland Springs, Texas, mass shooting and the Charleston AME Church shooting remind us that it’s not a matter of “if” but “when” a crisis may arise. Churches must ask themselves: What is our pre-planned response to emergencies? This is where a security ministry proves invaluable. It provides a framework for handling medical emergencies, disturbances, lost children, and even natural disasters with a coordinated plan.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Shooting Analysis Reports ]

However, forming a security team shouldn’t focus solely on active shooter scenarios or the presence of firearms. Statistically, you’re more likely to need team members trained in providing first aid, supporting someone facing a personal crisis, or de-escalating situations involving mental health challenges.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Gentle Response De-Escalation Training for Church Security Teams ]

The role of a security ministry extends beyond protection; it’s a ministry of care and preparation, ensuring that all who enter the church feel safe and supported. Regardless of size, every church benefits from having a dedicated team to manage security and safety, cultivating an environment where worship can flourish without fear.

Decision-Making Under Stress—19 Factors to Consider

When confronted by a criminal or terrorist deadly force threat, human performance experiences extreme stress, affecting the potential victim’s self-defensive cognitive, physical, and emotional ability.

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

Police veteran, founder of Critical Incident Review, and use-of-force expert Jamie Borden, explains in his book, Anatomy of a Critical Incident: Navigating Controversy, the many critical factors that must be taken into consideration when evaluating police officer behavior in these highly complex encounters.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 5 Elements of Self-Defense Law ]

Law enforcement officers are the book’s target audience, but the following split-second decision-making elements excerpted from the book also apply to responsibly armed self-defense citizens and church security team volunteers facing life-and-death conditions. Where the word “officer” is located in the book, it is replaced with [defender] in this excerpt:

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the topic of CHURCH SECURITY ]

• Tunnel Vision — The phenomenon where a [defender] becomes narrowly, visually focused on a specific threat, potentially missing other critical elements of the situation.

• Auditory Exclusion — A temporary inability to process or encode certain sounds, often due to high stress, which can lead to missed commands or critical background noises. This is not an individual going deaf; rather just not encoding or filtering the audible stimulus, affecting the ability to recall later. The question becomes: not was the sound audible in the evidence, rather, was the sound perceived or heard by the [defender].

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Concealed Carry Daily Prayer ]

COGNITIVE OVERLOAD:

Church Security Armament Recommendations By Tom Givens, John Correia, and 6 Other Professionals

SemperVerus asked 8 firearms training professionals for their recommendations as to what they consider to be optimal for church security team volunteers to carry while on duty, having as their objective to protect others rather than concerning their own everyday self-defense.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Security Training: Decision Decks Help You Think Through a Crisis Before It Happens ]

Every one of the questioned professionals stresses the absolute #1 prioritization of obtaining ongoing defensive mindset and quality skill training as the primary requirement before considering what guns and gear should be used. It’s not the weapon that makes the defender succeed; it’s the defender’s superior training and mental acuity. Once that is understood, they offer their equipment recommendations.

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

The categories to which the professionals responded are:

Brand of firearm
Style (full size/duty size, compact, subcompact, micro compact, pocket, etc.)
Optics/Sights (red dot, reflex, night sights, 3-dot sights, black out rear site, fiber optic, tritium, etc.)
Carry method (IWB, OWB, appendix, shoulder, pocket, ankle, off-body, etc.)
Action Type (revolver, semi-auto)
Action (single, double, DA/SA, hammer, striker, etc.)
External Safety: (yes, no)
Magazine (single stack, double stack)
Magazine Capacity
Number of Extra Magazines
Caliber
Ammo Brand
Weapon Mounted Light (yes, no)

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the topic of AMMO ]

Click each of the following names to view their recommendations:

Tom Givens
John Correia
Kris P. Moloney
Steve Moses
Stephen P. Wenger
Keith Graves
Del Kostanko
Matt Witte

What to Take to the Shooting Range—Including a Prayer

Whether you go to the shooting range to qualify for volunteering on your church security team or to train to improve your personal armed self-defense skills, you go to increase your defensive marksmanship to be consistently accurate.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Firearms Training: A Directory of Shooting Drills ]

The more you train, the more you become proficient in handling firearms and the safer you are as a defender, because you know you are responsible for every bullet that leaves your gun.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 4 Basic Rules of Gun Safety ]

The time you spend at the range is not an expense, it’s an investment, since…