During a medical emergency, we need to know what to do and what not to do. This means that members of the Church Safety Team, as well as church staff, need to know First Aid. Listen to this podcast to learn more.

Church Safety Team members need to be fit for the job – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually – in order to be ready to respond to a “Code Blue” (the Church Security radio code for a medical emergency). Are you "fit" for duty? Listen to this podcast to find out!

Conflict in our own personal lives can impact our roles as members of Church Safety Teams. On the positive side, it can help us understand the persons we are dealing with. On the negative side, if we cannot deal with conflict at home, it may hamper our ability to deal with it at church.

Fitly spoken words are the gentle answer that turns away wrath, which is like golden apples in a silver setting of non-verbal communication. The object is to calm the subject and remove the threat of violence.

Too many times after a violent disruption, whether low-level or more serious, even tragic with loss of life, somebody says, “We should have seen it coming.” A tragedy is more tragic when it could have been prevented. The need for verbal de-escalation is an opportunity to minister to the person at risk. Part of this is understanding what the subject is dealing with at his or her end.

An old expression for seeing and preventing potential problems is “meeting trouble at the door.” Law officers and security guards are rightly commended when they prevent violence in a public, business or domestic setting. For those of us with safety ministries in churches, part of our charge is preventing disruption and violence.

As church safety-security ministries, certain equipment is needed, both for the team as a whole and for its members. Some items are more essential than others. Optional equipment may be essential for a large congregation, especially one with a large campus.

We are concerned with more than just buildings. A church is not the building, but its members. A flood affects the church’s members where they live, work, shop, and go to school. As church safety ministries, we help our congregations to plan, prepare for, and respond to threatening weather and natural disasters, including floods.

There are times when a winter storm makes it impossible for anyone to get anywhere until the storm is over. We at Sheepdog Church Security are here to help you keep the flock safe, including during winter storms.

Obviously, we can’t prevent hurricanes from hitting our community, and we can’t reasonably expect to always be the exception. But we can be examples for the community by making reasonable preparations for the contingency of strong storms, such as a hurricane or nor’easter, and by helping others at these times.