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Inside This Week’s Roll Call Briefing

✅ Current threat condition: HIGH / ORANGE

✅ Suspicious activity and possible surveillance at churches

✅ Armed and violent incidents involving churches

✅ Terrorism and intelligence developments

✅ September dates of significance and elevated-risk periods

✅ Training guidance for working elevated-risk dates

This is meant to be read by your team, or as a reference for team leads as they address the troops, before starting your shift guarding the Body of Christ.

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American Christians have been hearing fragments of the Nigeria story for years. A kidnapped schoolgirl. A burned church. A Christmas massacre. What most believers in this country do not have is a clear picture of what is actually happening, who is driving it, and where it is headed. This article is built to fill that gap.

Nigeria is currently the deadliest country in the world for Christians. Open Doors, in its 2026 World Watch List, reports that of the 4,849 Christians killed for their faith over the past reporting year, 3,490 of them were killed in Nigeria. That is more than seventy percent of the global total coming from a single country. The violence is not limited to one region or one group. It runs from the northeast, where Boko Haram first emerged, through the Middle Belt, where Fulani militia attacks have emptied entire villages, into the northwest, where ISIS-linked groups now move freely, and across the borders into Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Cameroon, and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This is a long article. I wrote it that way on purpose. A pastor, a security team leader, or a congregant who wants to understand this situation should be able to come back to a single piece and have the picture in front of them.

The Scale of the Problem

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with roughly 220 million people, split about evenly between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. The Middle Belt sits between the two halves and has become the fault line where most of the killing occurs. The country sits at the southern edge of the Sahel, the arid band that runs across Africa from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east. Every major jihadist movement currently operating in Africa touches that band somewhere.

The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa documented 79,323 people killed across Nigeria between October 2019 and September 2025, of whom 42,033 were civilians. Forty-four percent of the civilian killings were attributed to Fulani militias, compared to twelve percent for Boko Haram and ISWAP combined. In the states where attacks occur, Christians were killed at a rate approximately 4.4 times higher than Muslims relative to their share of the population. The count was 22,835 Christian civilians killed against 10,519 Muslims.

The numbers do not capture the displacement. Since 2019, more than 2.2 million Nigerians have been driven from their homes by the farmer-herder violence alone. That figure does not include the millions more displaced by Boko Haram, ISWAP, and the kidnapping gangs that now operate across large portions of the country. Entire Christian farming villages have been burned. Survivors are pushed into displacement camps with conditions that are hard for most Americans to picture.

The Nigerian federal government has refused for more than a decade to name what is happening. In December 2025, Abuja finally classified Fulani militias, bandits, and armed gangs as terrorists under a new counterterrorism doctrine. Most Nigerian Christians view the move as too late and too narrow.

Who the Fulani Are

To understand the Middle Belt, you have to understand who the Fulani are. The American press almost always reduces them to a single word, “herdsmen,” which leaves out everything that matters.

The Fulani, also called Fula, Fulbe, or Peul, are one of the largest ethnic groups on the African continent. Estimates place their population between 25 and 45 million, spread across at least twenty countries, with the largest concentrations in Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Niger, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso. About 17 million Fulani live in Nigeria. They are the largest nomadic pastoral community in the world. Roughly a third of them still live as traditional herders moving cattle across the Sahel. The rest are semi-settled farmers, traders, scholars, merchants, and in many countries, the ruling class.

The Fulani were among the earliest sub-Saharan African peoples to convert to Islam, centuries before most of their neighbors. That early conversion shaped their identity and gave them a sense of religious superiority over the surrounding peoples they regarded as pagans. From the 1700s into the 1800s, Fulani clerics led a series of holy wars across West Africa. The most significant was the jihad launched in 1804 by Usman dan Fodio, a Fulani preacher who declared the existing Hausa kings insufficiently Islamic and called the population to revolt. His jihad swept through what is now northern Nigeria and built the Sokoto Caliphate, one of the largest Islamic empires Africa has ever seen. That caliphate lasted until the British arrived in the early 1900s.

The Sokoto Caliphate is not history to the people in the region. The Sultan of Sokoto is still recognized as the traditional religious leader of Sunni Muslims across northern Nigeria. Many of Nigeria’s most powerful political figures have been Fulani or Hausa-Fulani, including former president Muhammadu Buhari. The Fulani are not a marginal people. They are historically the dominant political force in the north. Elements within the Fulani community view the Christian Middle Belt as territory that was not fully conquered during the original jihad, and there are factions now working to finish what Usman dan Fodio started.

The Fulani are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim. Settled, urban Fulani tend to be more devout and more supportive of religious activism. Pastoral Fulani have historically been less rigorous in their practice. That pattern has shifted in the past decade.

How the Herder Conflict Became a Religious Campaign

For generations, Fulani cattle herders and settled farmers across West Africa clashed over grazing land, water, and crop damage. These disputes were local and seasonal, and they were usually resolved through traditional mediation. Something changed in the mid-2010s.

A few factors hit at the same time. Climate pressure pushed pastoral Fulani further south into the Middle Belt looking for water and grazing. The collapse of Libya in 2011 flooded the Sahel with military-grade weapons from Gaddafi’s armories. Boko Haram’s rise in the northeast made Islamist violence regionally normal. And the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, a Fulani herders’ organization, has been accused by Nigerian Christians, law enforcement sources, and international observers of financing weapons distribution and coordinating attacks on Christian villages. In February 2026, nine Fulani leaders linked to Miyetti Allah were arraigned in Abuja on 57 terrorism counts for the June 2025 Benue massacre.

Portions of the Fulani were radicalized inside that environment. Jihadist ideology teaches that Christians are infidels who must be subjugated, killed, or forced to convert. That ideology found receptive ground among some of the armed herders. Attackers began chanting “Allahu Akbar” as they raided Christian farming villages. In December 2023, Fulani militants attacked at least 25 Christian communities across three local government areas in Plateau State on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and killed nearly 200 men, women, and children. The Nigerian Red Cross counted 84 communities affected and 29,350 people displaced. In June 2025, an attack on Yelwata village in Benue State killed between 200 and 270 people. In the first two weeks of 2026, Fulani militants killed at least 12 Christians in Plateau, 13 in Benue, and 10 in Taraba State. On January 18, Fulani militants stormed three churches in Kaduna State during Sunday services and abducted 177 Christians. Kaduna State officials initially denied the attack had happened and only admitted it two days later. The captives were released on February 5 after a joint security operation.

The Nigerian government’s response to attacks like these has followed a consistent pattern. Denial. Reclassification as banditry. Arrests made, then released without charges. Very few prosecutions. Families in the Middle Belt no longer trust that anyone will ever answer for the slaughter of their children.

Boko Haram, ISWAP, and the Sahel

The Fulani militia violence did not develop in isolation. It grew up alongside two formally designated terror organizations that have made Nigeria one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

Boko Haram emerged in Borno State in the northeast around 2002. The name is usually translated as “Western education is forbidden.” By 2009 the group was in open armed rebellion against the Nigerian state, bombing churches, kidnapping schoolgirls, and massacring Christian villages. The 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from Chibok drew brief international attention. Most of those girls never came home.

In 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. A faction formally rebranded as the Islamic State West Africa Province, known as ISWAP. ISWAP is now the more capable of the two groups. It has used drones against Nigerian military bases, seized weapons from government forces, and operates across the Lake Chad Basin where the borders of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon meet. After Niger exited the Multinational Joint Task Force in March 2025 and Chad threatened withdrawal, ISWAP exploited the gap and increased attacks on Nigerian military installations in Borno and Yobe states.

A separate ISIS affiliate operates further west. It was originally called the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and is now known as the Islamic State Sahel Province, or ISSP. ISSP operates mainly in the tri-border region where Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger meet. Since 2024, it has pushed south along the Niger-Nigeria border into Sokoto and Kebbi states in Nigeria’s northwest. That is the region where, on Christmas Day 2025, American forces conducted airstrikes under President Trump’s order. The group that was struck was Lakurawa, an ISIS-linked faction that had moved into the northwest from the Sahel.

The Sahel itself has become the global center of jihadist terrorism. The Global Terrorism Index reports that in 2024, more than half of the 7,555 terrorism deaths recorded worldwide occurred in the region. In 2025 the global total fell to 5,582, with the Sahel still accounting for nearly half. That is the third consecutive year the region has held that position.

The military juntas now ruling Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have expelled French and American forces, turned to Russian mercenary groups for security support, and watched as jihadist groups expanded their control. Al-Qaeda’s Sahel affiliate, JNIM, launched its largest offensive in more than a decade in late April 2026, attacking security forces across Mali, killing the Malian defense minister, and capturing Kidal, the country’s northernmost regional capital. On January 30, 2026, ISSP militants attacked the international airport in Niger’s capital and the adjoining air base. JNIM struck the same airport again on June 18.

The DRC and the Spread Eastward

The same ISIS movement that drives the violence in West Africa has also taken root 2,000 miles to the east in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A group called the Allied Democratic Forces, originally a Ugandan insurgency, pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2018. It is now known as the Islamic State Central Africa Province, or ISCAP.

ISCAP operates in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in eastern Congo. It has massacred churchgoers during services, beheaded villagers who refused to convert, and imposed jizya, the Islamic tax historically demanded from Christians and Jews living under Islamic rule, on entire farming communities. In 2025 alone, the group killed at least 967 civilians, most or all of them Christian villagers. In February, fighters abducted 70 Christians from the village of Mayba, marched them to a Protestant church in Kasanga, and executed them with machetes. In July they killed 43 people at a church in Komanda. On September 8, they infiltrated a funeral wake in Ntoyo village in North Kivu and killed more than 60 mourners.

Along the Niger-Burkina Faso border, jihadists have announced publicly that every male 15 and older who refuses to convert must pay 50,000 CFA francs in jizya. Christians have been told they will live as slaves if they pay, and that those who refuse may leave the village with nothing but the clothes they are wearing. In Mali’s Mopti region, an armed group imposed a monthly payment of 25,000 CFA francs on every Christian over 18 in the village of Douna-Pen, which is more than half the monthly income of most families in one of the poorest countries on earth.

This is the same playbook ISIS ran in Iraq and Syria. It has been exported to Africa, and the African affiliates have proven harder to dislodge than the original.

Where This Is Going

A few trends will determine what happens next.

The first is the collapse of Western security support across the Sahel. The United States withdrew from Niger in 2024. France has been pushed out of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Russian private military contractors have stepped into some of the space, but they have focused on protecting the juntas that hired them rather than rolling back jihadist control. Regional counter-terrorism cooperation has fragmented.

The second is the evolution of the United States response. In late 2025, the Trump administration redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. On Christmas Day 2025, American forces struck ISIS targets in the country’s northwest. On January 22, 2026, AFRICOM Deputy Commander Lieutenant General John Brennan arrived in Abuja to launch a joint working group established in response to that designation. Whether any of this translates into protection for Middle Belt villages is a different question. Airstrikes work against fixed positions of formally designated terror groups. They do not work well against dispersed Fulani militia fighters who live among civilian populations.

The third is the junction forming between ISSP in the Sahel and ISWAP in the Lake Chad Basin. Analysts with the Soufan Center and other counter-terrorism organizations have been tracking the growing connections between these two ISIS provinces. If they succeed in linking operationally across the northern half of West Africa, the result will be a continuous jihadist corridor stretching from the Atlantic coast to Lake Chad.

The fourth is the ideological trajectory of the Fulani militias. What began as resource disputes has moved into identity-based violence with explicit religious framing. Attacks timed to Sunday services, coordinated assaults on Christmas, and the targeting of church leaders are not features of a grazing dispute. They are features of a religious war.

The fifth is demographic. Nigeria’s population is projected to pass 400 million by 2050. If current patterns continue, the Middle Belt Christian population will either be displaced, converted, or killed over the course of a generation. Some Nigerian bishops and African scholars are using the word genocide. Others dispute it. Arguments over terminology do not save lives.

A Biblical Lens

Scripture does not promise that the faithful will be spared.

Jesus told His followers plainly in John 15:18-19, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” That verse is not a metaphor. It is a description of what following Christ has always cost.

The author of Hebrews describes those who came before us in Hebrews 11:37-38, “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” Our brothers and sisters in Nigeria’s Middle Belt villages are standing in that line. They are part of the body of Christ.

Scripture also gives us the response. Paul commanded the church in Galatia in Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” That burden-bearing is not optional. It is what the law of Christ requires.

Conclusion

The persecution of Nigerian Christians is the deadliest ongoing attack on the body of Christ in the world today. It is driven by Fulani militia violence, Boko Haram, ISWAP, and the broader Sahel-wide expansion of ISIS-affiliated groups. It has roots going back to the Sokoto Caliphate of the 1800s. It has been shaped by the collapse of Libya, the radicalization of portions of the Fulani population, and the indifference or complicity of the Nigerian federal government. It is spreading, not contracting, and the entire arc of jihadist violence across Africa, from Senegal to the DRC, is part of the same network.

Pray for the Nigerian church by name. Support the organizations reaching Christians on the ground with aid and protection. Keep pressure on Washington to maintain the pressure on Abuja. Share this with your pastor and your team.

Leave a comment below and tell me what you have seen about Nigeria in your own church conversations. Then share this article with your pastor or team leader so they have it as a reference the next time the topic comes up.

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BLUF

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis (DHS I&A) is aware of no specific, credible foreign terrorist or Domestic Violent Extremist (DVE) threat to events associated with the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. September 11, 2026 falls on a Friday. Observances run 11 and 12 September, and the first regular church service after the anniversary is Sunday, 13 September.

Key Judgments

• Highly Likely: Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) media references 9/11 in propaganda through the anniversary window. DHS states it anticipates an increase.

• Highly Likely: Any attack against a church in this window originates with a lone offender or small group using low-capability methods rather than a directed cell.

• Likely: Hoax bomb threats and false active shooter calls against churches and public events increase during the window.

• Possible: An ISIS-inspired individual attempts an attack against a religious target in the United States during September.

• Unlikely: A coordinated, externally directed mass casualty attack occurs on or near the anniversary.

Source

DHS I&A analytic comment on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, dated 1 September 2026, drawing on multi-agency threat assessments produced in May, June, July, and August 2026, an assessment from the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and Department of Justice case reporting.

The qualifier DHS attaches to its own finding matters as much as the finding. No specific, credible threat has been identified, and special events with large attendance and amplified media coverage remain attractive to physical, cyber, and hoax threat actors because of that coverage.

Threat Actors

DHS I&A assesses lone offenders and small groups, radicalized online and operating with minimal coordination, as the most significant terrorism threat in the homeland. That judgment comes from an August 2026 multi-agency threat assessment. Their decentralized nature enables rapid mobilization against soft targets, and their motivations run across racial, ethnic, political, religious, anti-government, anti-immigration, and other ideological grievances, which produces a wide array of potential targets and makes the threat difficult to counter.

A July 2026 multi-agency assessment records an uptick over the previous 18 months in attacks by lone actors inspired by Sunni violent extremist ideology.

Two categories appear throughout the reporting. A Lone Offender acts alone or without the witting support of others. A Domestic Violent Extremist (DVE) operates primarily within the United States without direction or inspiration from a foreign terrorist group. DHS uses that second term synonymously with domestic terrorist.

Case Activity, 2026

DateLocationDetail19–20 AugAlbany, NYWoman charged over an alleged ISIS-inspired plot to bomb the New York State CapitolJulFort Worth, TXArrest tied to an alleged ISIS-inspired mass shooting plot targeting Election Day; first Department of Justice case filed before the Alien Terrorist Removal Court (ATRC)JunWayne, NJArrest for attempted material support to ISIS; prosecutors allege the subject discussed attacks on churches5 JunKS / CAThree US citizens arrested for alleged conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS18 MaySan Diego, CAShooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego7 MarNew York, NYTwo arrested after allegedly attempting to detonate two improvised explosive devices outside Gracie Mansion; bomb making materials and attack notes recovered

DHS cites the Albany plot, the San Diego shooting, and the Gracie Mansion attack together as evidence of the threat to religious institutions, public gatherings, and events. Five terrorism cases in six months, and none of them required a foreign organization to move an operative into the country.

Extremist Messaging

February 2026. The official ISIS spokesman published a speech calling for attacks on Jewish and Christian targets everywhere.

March 2026. Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) published the 12th edition of its English-language Inspire Guide, praising the ISIS-inspired attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, Australia, and providing instructions for making explosives.

7 May 2026. AQAP released an English-language video titled “Why Jihadi Operations in the West?” encouraging lone actor attacks and using footage from 9/11 and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Assessed by NCTC.

18 August 2026. A pro-ISIS media outlet released a poster commemorating the attacks, closing with a bin Laden quote.

A May 2026 multi-agency public safety awareness report assesses that violent extremist messaging continues to highlight large gatherings and crowded places as attack targets, and that lone actors may attack to commemorate or emulate past attacks or act on published guidance. DHS anticipates increased references to 9/11 in FTO-associated media on or before the anniversary. Christian targets are named directly in the February ISIS speech and in the Wayne, New Jersey case.

Tactics

DHS assesses explosive devices, edged weapons, firearms, and vehicle ramming as likely tactics against special events, based on an August 2026 assessment, because of the vulnerability of crowded venues. The Grand Blanc Township attack in September 2025 used three of the four in a single event: the attacker rammed a pickup into the building, fired into the congregation, and set the structure on fire.

A June 2026 DHS regional perspective report assesses hoax threat perpetrators as increasing in frequency, particularly around high-profile events, because a false bomb threat or false active shooter call disrupts an event, diverts emergency resources, and causes panic at low cost and low risk. For a church, the delivery vector is the office phone line, staff email, or a livestream comment. On 25 August 2026 a pastor in Hayden, Idaho received a threatening email directing recipients to open an attached zip file; the safety team assessed it as a cyber attack rather than a threat of violence. Assign the evacuation decision to one person before that call comes in.

Indicators

• Photography of entrances, exits, or security positions

• Unexplained questions about security procedures

• Bulky clothing inconsistent with the weather or the setting

• Social media traffic discussing vulnerabilities or opportunities to disrupt a specific event

• Acquisition of weapons, ammunition, or explosive precursors in unusual quantity

Report to your state fusion center and to the CWT Intelligence Platform. The National Network of Fusion Centers comprises 80 DHS-recognized centers, established after 2001 because several agencies each held part of the information and none of them put it together. Churches qualify as private sector reporting partners, and most safety teams have never contacted theirs.

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Threat Assessment

The Church Security Threat Level System (CSTLS) holds at HIGH / ORANGE through the anniversary weekend. Nothing in this reporting moves the level. An absence of specific threat reporting is not a downgrade.

It is Highly Likely that FTO propaganda referencing 9/11 circulates through the window and reaches individuals in the United States already inclined toward violence. It is Likely that hoax threats against churches and public gatherings increase through 14 September, and a hoax against a given church is more probable this month than an attack on it. It is Possible that an ISIS-inspired lone offender attempts an attack against a religious target during September; the Albany, Fort Worth, and Wayne cases indicate an active pipeline. It is Unlikely that a coordinated, externally directed operation occurs.

The primary concern for a church safety team is a lone offender with a firearm, edged weapon, or vehicle arriving at a service running larger than normal on an altered schedule. The secondary concern is disruption through hoax threats and cyber attempts against staff email. DHS mitigation guidance, drawn from the 2017 Manchester Arena attack, addresses crowd bottlenecks before an event starts and after it ends rather than during, which places the requirement on the parking lot and on the arrival and departure windows on 13 September.

Biblical Lens

Terrorism is not a modern invention and Scripture does not treat it as one. It appears by tactic, by organization, and by method.

The tactic. Moses tells Israel to remember what Amalek did on the road out of Egypt. Amalek did not meet the fighting men at the front. He attacked Israel when the people were faint and weary and cut down the ones lagging behind, and he did not fear God (Deuteronomy 25:17-18). That is the oldest description of terrorism in the Bible and it is an accurate one. The target was chosen because it was the weakest part of the group, and the purpose was the effect the killing would have on everyone still walking.

The organization. In Acts 21:38, a Roman tribune asks Paul whether he is the Egyptian who stirred up a revolt and led four thousand men of the Assassins into the wilderness. The word translated Assassins is sicarii, the dagger men. Josephus describes them carrying short blades under their cloaks and killing during the festivals in Jerusalem, when the city was packed with worshippers. They used a concealed weapon against a crowded religious gathering, then mixed back into the crowd they had just attacked.

The method. When the Rabshakeh, the field commander sent by Sennacherib, came to the wall of Jerusalem, Hezekiah’s officials asked him to speak Aramaic so the people on the wall would not understand him. He refused, and instead called out in Hebrew in a loud voice so every man sitting on that wall would hear him say their king could not deliver them (2 Kings 18:26-30). The Assyrian army was real. The speech was aimed at the will of the population rather than at the defenses.

The response. Nehemiah faced all three at once. He had threats of attack, he had enemies working to demoralize his people, and he had a work crew that could not stop working.

And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

Nehemiah 4:9. He did both, and the text gives no indication he saw a conflict between them. What follows in that chapter is the operational detail. Half of his men worked while the other half stood with spears, shields, bows, and armor. Every builder wore his sword at his side while he laid stone. The trumpeter stayed beside Nehemiah, and he told the people that wherever they heard the trumpet, they were to rally to that place, because God would fight for them (Nehemiah 4:16-20). He posted a watch, armed the workforce, established an alarm signal, and named a rally point. Then he kept building.

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BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT (BLUF)

Twenty-two churches across southern Kaduna and Plateau states in Nigeria are on red alert through September 5, with hundreds of armed fighters reported staging near the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway. Five reader-submitted suspicious activity reports lead the newsletter, including a man in Bixby, Oklahoma who walked every public space in a church and was studying the fire exit map in a preschool wing holding roughly 200 children when the security team contacted him. At home, a priest was assaulted mid-confession in New Bedford, a man tried to enter a Pennsylvania church carrying a samurai sword, four pastors were arrested on sex charges in a single week, three church fires are under investigation, and more than 30 St. Louis churches have been stripped by metal thieves. Haiti remains the worst of it: 47 dead and more than 50 kidnapped at Kenscoff after families took refuge inside a Protestant church.

TERROR AND INTELLIGENCE UPDATE

Critical Threat Alert: 22 Churches on Red Alert as Armed Fighters Stage Near Kaduna — Kaduna and Plateau States, Nigeria

Truth Nigeria issued a CRITICAL threat alert on August 28 covering a threat window that runs through September 5. The alert reports hundreds of armed fighters staging near Sabon Gaya, close to the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, and a separate element of more than 50 heavily armed fighters moving on more than 50 motorcycles. Twenty-two specific churches were placed on red alert: two Catholic and one Protestant in Chikun Local Government Area, six Catholic and four Protestant in Kachia, four Protestant in the Jema’a and Kafanchan area, and two Catholic and three Protestant along the Saminaka axis. Other locations named include Gonin Gora, Millennium City, the Kaduna Eastern Bypass, Fadan Kamantan, Zonkwa, Samaru, Manchok, Giwa, the Jos area, and the Dandume area of Katsina State. This is a pre-attack warning rather than a post-incident report, and the window closes on the day this newsletter publishes. The full alert, with coordinates and the complete breakdown by parish and area, is at the source link.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: We need to pay more attention to Nigeria. This is a specific threat to them and we need to support Christians there as much as possible.

ISIS Supporters Discuss 3D-Printed Firearms, Edged Weapons, and Vehicle Ramming for Attacks in the West

English-speaking ISIS supporters on an aligned online forum spent August 24 working through how to carry out attacks in Western countries without access to firearms. The discussion centered on 3D-printed guns. When it turned to simpler methods, users settled on edged weapons and vehicle ramming. The targets named in the conversation were politicians, ambassadors, diplomatic facilities, and sporting venues. Analysts flagged the timing against the 81st United Nations General Assembly, which opens in New York on September 8, and against a run of disrupted plots against diplomatic facilities worldwide over the past year. Churches were not named in this discussion. Edged weapons and vehicles have been the tools in the two most recent attacks on worship sites in the West: a screwdriver-type weapon used against worshippers at a Sikh temple in Edmonton on August 21, and a vehicle driven into the gates followed by a knife attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester in October 2025.

Source: East Coast Intelligence Unit.

🛡️ My thoughts: They are telegraphing what they are going to do. We should be paying attention. Future attacks will be more complex involving more than just firearms. It will include knives, vehicles, fire and more all at once.

Wildfire Arson Guide Circulating on ISIS Forums; Separate April Call to Burn Churches Still Standing

ISIS-linked online forums are distributing a wildfire arson guide titled “Burn down your first forest,” aimed at the United Kingdom while that country works through a major wildfire season. The guide covers ignition, evasion of surveillance, and forensic countermeasures, and it frames low-threshold, high-yield arson as a way to exhaust emergency services and open the door to a follow-on attack. That document is current, it circulates on the forums rather than in an official ISIS publication, and its stated target is UK emergency response capacity. It says nothing about churches. The church reference comes from a separate item: the April 2026 issue of al-Naba called on supporters who cannot travel to burn churches and synagogues where they live. Indago analysts cite the two together as parallel strands of the same effort to move sympathizers who stay home. Neither call has been withdrawn. Three American church arson investigations appear in this newsletter, in Lucedale, Oklahoma City, and Lee County, and no investigating agency has linked any of them to terrorism.

Source: Indago Situation Report, Islamic State Weekly Update, 31 August 2026; LBC reporting on the arson guide.

🛡️ My thoughts: This may be for the UK, but it can easily happen in the US and other locations. Pay attention because a lone wolf actor here will read this and think it is a great idea.

Nihilist Network Announces New Leadership and Planned Cells in the United States

A Telegram channel branded to the group No Lives Matter announced a new administrator on August 24, using the handle “Kratos,” after the retirement of an interim leader who went by “Web.” The same post, published in English and Russian, promoted planned cells in the United States, Germany, England, Italy, Romania, Greece, and France. The channel also posted a photograph of rifles and ammunition arranged on a bed to spell out the group’s initials, captioned “It’s time to kill.” No Lives Matter and the Maniac Murder Cult both belong to an alliance calling itself the World Terror Coalition. Law enforcement agencies and independent researchers have linked these networks to multiple school shooting plots, completed attacks, and other acts of violence. The networks recruit online, draw heavily from minors, and operate without a stated ideology, a target doctrine, or political demands.

Source: East Coast Intelligence Unit.

🛡️ My thoughts: This group is emerging and it is very dangerous. Many active shooter incidents have been tied to their influence. Please watch everything this group does. They want total annhilation.

SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS

Reader-submitted suspicious activity at U.S. churches. If you see something similar in your area, submit your own report at intel.christianwarriortraining.com.

Bixby, Oklahoma — Possible surveillance of sanctuary and children’s wing On Sunday, August 30, 2026, a security team member at a church in Bixby, Oklahoma contacted an adult male who entered the building after the second service and walked every public space on the campus. The subject observed both sanctuaries and every sanctuary entry and exit point, then moved into the preschool wing with roughly 200 children inside, where he was studying the posted fire exit map when the team made contact. He gave a thin explanation for his presence, declined an invitation to worship, and left on foot with no associated vehicle, and the team tracked him off campus by drone. The church reports a similar contact in its children’s wing in June 2025.

Hayden, Idaho — Emailed threat against area churches with attached file On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, a pastor at a church in Hayden, Idaho received an emailed threat directed at all churches in the city, paired with a claim of a nationwide threat, instructing recipients to open an attached zip file. The reporting party assesses the message as a phishing or malware delivery built to look like a threat. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office was notified.

Knoxville, Tennessee — Registered sex offender arrested on church campus On Monday, August 24, 2026, a parent was arrested in the parking lot of a church-affiliated Christian school in Knoxville, Tennessee for violating Tennessee sex offender registry restrictions. The man had disclosed his registry status at enrollment, and school leadership had set written limits on his presence on campus. The report is drawn from the head of school’s letter to families.

Glendale, Arizona — Recurring suspicious person observing the safety team Over an ongoing period through Sunday, August 16, 2026, a congregant at a church in Glendale, Arizona reported the same adult male arriving roughly ten minutes into first service every Sunday carrying a backpack the reporting party describes as staged rather than needed. The subject sits front left, does not watch the pastor, and watches the armed and uniformed safety team for the duration of the service. No law enforcement contact has been made.

St. Johns, Arizona — Online threat of a shooting On Tuesday, June 30, 2026, a subject was detained in St. Johns, Arizona after posting online about going into town, shooting people, and standing on the bodies. He was released on bond. The Apache County Sheriff’s Office handled the incident, and the report reached CWT this week relaying the police report.

VIOLENT CRIME

Priest Attacked With Beer Can During Confession — New Bedford, Massachusetts

Jose Nascimento, 59, of New Bedford, was arrested Monday, September 1, after New Bedford police responded to a disturbance at Mount Carmel Church on Bonney Street. According to police, Nascimento entered the church during the confession hour, overturned the altar, and then punched the priest and struck him with a beer can. The priest tried to escort him outside, and the fight continued from there. Nascimento is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, threat to commit a crime, disturbing the peace, and disorderly conduct. The priest has publicly said he forgives him.

Source

Man With Samurai Sword Tried to Enter Church, Prompting Lockdown — Pocono Lake, Pennsylvania

Peter Gershon Wonsia, 30, of White Haven, is charged with misdemeanor terroristic threats, simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime, and disorderly conduct after he tried to enter Pocono Lake Bible Church on Sunday, August 30 carrying what police described as a samurai sword. Staff put the church into lockdown, and no one was injured. Police later executed a search warrant at a Carbon County hotel where Wonsia had been staying.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: The case is a straightforward armed-entry attempt that was stopped at the door because staff recognized the threat and locked the building down. This team did a great job at stopping this threat.

Shooting Near Bethel Church, Four in Custody — Marion County, Mississippi

Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to multiple 911 calls at 1:20 p.m. on Saturday, August 30, reporting a shooting in the area of the Bethel Church community. Four suspects were taken into custody after a search of the area. Local reporting has been thin on victim status, the relationship between the shooters and the church, and whether the incident was on church grounds or in front of the property. The case needs follow-up before Saturday.

Source

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Pastor and City Council Member Charged in Domestic Assault — Oelwein and Hazleton, Iowa

Hayden Robinson, 34, a pastor at an Oelwein, Iowa church and a Hazleton City Council member, was arrested Friday, August 29 and charged with domestic abuse assault, first-degree harassment, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, and child endangerment. Investigators said Robinson left several voicemails threatening to kill the victim in the days after the attack. The charges are domestic in nature rather than church-related, and the case is carried here because the accused holds both a pastorate and an elected municipal seat.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: I know this happened outside of the church, but a good number of church active shooters happen because of domestic violence like this. Monitor your people for signs of stress like this and be prepared to intervene.

SEX CRIMES

Southern California Pastor Charged With Six Felony Counts of Child Molestation — California

David Johnson, a Southern California pastor, is facing six felony counts of child molestation involving two victims. The charges were filed this week and are the most serious brought against him to date. Reporting has not yet confirmed the specific church or the alleged access pathway to the victims. Because the suspect held a pastoral role and the alleged victims are children, this fits the ministry-access grooming pattern the newsletter tracks. Watch for whether the county names the church and whether more victims come forward.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: Pedophiles seek out church jobs so they have easier access to a pool of victims. What are you doing to week them out? Take this course for free and protect your children.

Kentucky Youth Pastor Facing New Federal Charge in Minor Sex Case — Lincoln County, Kentucky

Jason Coulter, a former youth pastor in Lincoln County who previously confessed to sex crimes involving a minor in his congregation, is now facing a federal charge. Reporting from the Lexington Herald Leader indicates the state case centered on Coulter exchanging vulgar text messages with a minor member of his church, and the federal case builds on that same conduct. The minor was a member of the church Coulter served, making the ministry position itself the access route.

Source

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Kansas Pastor Held on $750,000 Bond for Incest and Witness Intimidation

A Kansas pastor is being held on $750,000 bond after being charged with aggravated incest involving intercourse and witness intimidation, according to reporting from The Roys Report. Roys Report policy is not to name minor abuse victims, and the specific church has not yet been named in the coverage available. The witness-intimidation count alleges the accused attempted to influence what a victim or witness told investigators.

Source

Long-Serving Pastor With Multi-State Ministry Arrested on Multiple Felony Sex Abuse Charges — Pleasanton, Kansas

A pastor in Pleasanton, Kansas with a decades-long ministry footprint spanning several states was arrested this week on multiple felony sex abuse charges. Coverage describes a ministry biography with roles in more than one state over many years. The coverage does not state that the alleged offenses occurred on church property. It does establish that the accused held positions with access to children and families across state lines over a period of decades.

Source

ARSON AND SUSPICIOUS FIRES

Rocky Creek Baptist Church Fire — Lucedale, Mississippi

Crews responded to a fire at Rocky Creek Baptist Church in Lucedale, Mississippi on Tuesday morning, September 1. A nearby school was dismissed while the response was underway. The cause has not been announced. The fire marshal’s determination is pending.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: This is your weekly reminder that you need a burglar/fire alarm and a 4k video system.

Southeast Oklahoma City Church Fire Under Investigation — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

A fire that caused significant damage to a church in southeast Oklahoma City began around 2 a.m. on Saturday, August 30. Investigators have not released a cause. The church has not been named in the coverage available.

Source

Buckingham Presbyterian Church Destroyed by Fire, Reignited the Next Morning — Lee County, Florida

A fire late Friday night, August 28, destroyed Buckingham Presbyterian Church on Buckingham Road in Lee County, Florida. The blaze reignited on Saturday morning and required a second response. Members of the congregation gathered outdoors for Sunday services. No cause has been publicly stated, and no arrests have been announced.

Source

SPECIAL ATTENTION — ST. LOUIS

More Than 30 St. Louis Churches Hit in a Coordinated Property Crime Wave — St. Louis, Missouri

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is investigating a wave of property crimes against churches across several areas of the city, with more than 30 congregations hit. Thieves have been stripping the buildings for scrap metal, copper, and air-conditioning units. At a news conference on Monday, September 1, police issued a warning to the burglars and also to the scrap businesses that may be buying the stolen material. SLMPD characterized the activity as a renewed wave rather than a run of isolated incidents. The reported points of entry are exterior HVAC units, utility areas, and accessible metal on buildings that sit empty most of the week. Property crime is outside this newsletter’s normal scope, and this case is carried for the scale and the geographic spread.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: They are obviously targeting Christians. This can cost your church a lot of money. Get a burglar/fire alarm and a 4k video system.

INTERNATIONAL

Gang Massacre and Mass Kidnapping at Church Refuge — Kenscoff, Haiti

On the night of August 23, approximately 150 armed gang members attacked the community of Kenscoff, in the hills above Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Residents fleeing the violence sought refuge inside a Protestant church. The gang executed 22 people in the church courtyard and another 12 behind the church, and kidnapped more than 50 others in what is one of the largest mass kidnappings in Haiti in recent years. The total death toll now stands at 47, with about 2,500 people displaced. Thirteen captives, six children and seven women, have since been released. Hundreds of mourners gathered at a nearby church this week for the funerals of four of the victims. Pope Leo XIV publicly condemned the attack.

Source

Terrorists Execute Pastor During Abduction — Plateau State, Nigeria

Terrorists killed a Nigerian pastor during an abduction connected to a church leadership meeting in Plateau State, according to Truth Nigeria. The pastor had not planned to travel that day. Truth Nigeria reports that Nigeria’s Catholic Bishops have condemned what they described as an unabated “trail of terror” across the country following this and other attacks on Christian and Muslim communities.

Source

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Inside This Week’s Roll Call Briefing

✅ Current threat condition: HIGH / ORANGE

✅ Suspicious activity and possible surveillance at churches

✅ Armed and violent incidents involving churches

✅ Terrorism and intelligence developments

✅ September dates of significance and elevated-risk periods

✅ Training guidance for working elevated-risk dates

Download The Briefing Here👇

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BLUF

Truth Nigeria issued a CRITICAL threat warning on 28 August reporting hundreds of armed fighters moving toward the main expressway south of Kaduna city, along with source intelligence naming roughly 22 Catholic and Protestant churches as planned targets through 5 September. The sourcing cannot be independently verified. The documented incident record in those same areas this year is severe enough that the warning should be treated as actionable by anyone with people on the ground, and as a doctrine case by everyone else.

Key Judgments

• Highly Likely: Armed attacks against Christian communities in Kaduna and Plateau States will continue at or above the current rate through the end of 2026, independent of what this specific warning window produced.

• Likely: The armed movement reported on 28 August occurred, based on the volume of consistent movement reporting out of the Kaduna corridor this year.

• Likely: Any attack inside the 29 August to 5 September window will be under-reported, denied, or confirmed late by Nigerian authorities, following the pattern of the January church abductions.

• Possible: The church target list reflects actual attacker planning rather than a source’s assessment of which churches are most exposed.

• Unlikely: This warning indicates any threat to congregations in the United States.

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Terms and Geography

Kaduna and Plateau are neighboring states in central Nigeria, in the region where the Muslim north meets the Christian middle belt. Southern Kaduna is heavily Christian and has been the site of repeated mass attacks.

Fulani Ethnic Militia refers to armed groups drawn from the Fulani, a large herding people spread across West Africa. The Nigerian government formally designated these militias as terrorist organizations in December 2025. ISWAP is the Islamic State West Africa Province, the regional Islamic State affiliate. ECWA is the Evangelical Church Winning All, one of the largest Protestant denominations in northern Nigeria. CAN is the Christian Association of Nigeria, the national umbrella body for Nigerian churches.

What the Warning Reports

The alert contains two movement reports and one targeting report.

The first movement report is a sighting on 28 August of hundreds of armed Fulani militia moving from Sabon Gaya toward the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, the main highway running south out of Kaduna city. The alert flags the Gonin Gora and Millennium City area on the southern approach to the city. Destination and intent were not established.

The second is earlier reporting of more than 50 armed fighters on more than 50 motorcycles moving south and east out of Katsina State, crossing Kaduna State and continuing toward Jos, the capital of Plateau State. They were reportedly reinforcing armed groups in Plateau after losses to Nigerian security operations.

The targeting report states that Fulani militia working with ISWAP and a group called Darussalam are planning attacks on churches in four areas of Southern Kaduna: Chikun, Kachia, the Kafanchan area, and the Saminaka corridor. The breakdown totals roughly 22 named Catholic and Protestant churches, with Kachia carrying the most at ten.

The alert does not identify a source, a collection method, or specific dates and times inside the window, and it assigns no confidence level of its own beyond the word CRITICAL.

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Source Assessment

Truth Nigeria is edited by Douglas Burton, a former State Department official in Kirkuk, Iraq, who has covered Nigerian terrorism since 2019 and has written for Epoch Times, EWTN, and Business Insider. Its Kaduna reporter is Luka Binniyat, who also serves as spokesman for the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union.

Police arrested Binniyat on 4 November 2021 on a complaint from Kaduna’s commissioner for internal security, Samuel Aruwan, over a report criticizing the state government’s response to the killing of Christians. He was charged under Nigeria’s cybercrime law, denied bail, and held 84 days before a court released him in January 2022. The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and the Media Foundation for West Africa all took up his case.

The outlet is advocacy journalism rather than wire reporting. Its donate link routes to a ministry called Equipping the Persecuted. Its security alert category holds 123 published warnings, and it does not publish follow-up posts stating whether a warned-of attack actually occurred.

Handle it the way you would handle a reliable confidential informant with good access and an agenda. The information has repeatedly proven accurate. The outlet also wants a specific outcome, which is Western attention on Nigeria. Both are true and neither cancels the other.

The clearest test case is the January church abductions. On 18 January 2026, gunmen struck three churches in the village of Kurmin Wali during Sunday services. The Kaduna State Police Command and the local government chairman said no kidnapping had occurred and accused the media of misleading the public. Rev. Joseph John Hayab, CAN chairman for Nigeria’s 19 northern states, put the count at 172 taken with nine escaping. The final figure reached 177. National police spokesman Benjamin Hundeyin confirmed the incident the following Tuesday. Absence of official confirmation in Kaduna carries almost no evidentiary weight.

Status of the Threat Window

The threat period ran 29 August to 5 September. As of 4 September, I found no open-source reporting of a mass-casualty attack on churches in any of the four named areas inside that window. Truth Nigeria has published no follow-up alert. It did publish a report of a pastor executed during an abduction on 2 September and a report on Kaduna State ignoring kidnapper raids near Rijana on 1 September.

Three explanations fit the available evidence and none can be excluded. The attack did not occur. The attack occurred and has not yet been reported, which is the documented default in Kaduna. Or the warning generated a security response that prevented it. A warning that changed behavior and a warning that was wrong produce the same visible result.

Application for U.S. Church Security Teams

Attackers in Kaduna struck during Sunday services and hit multiple churches in the same community at the same time. The January raid took three churches in Kurmin Wali at once and 177 worshippers with it. At Easter, attackers hit First ECWA Church and St. Augustine Catholic Church in the village of Ariko, killing at least seven and abducting others before Nigerian troops rescued 31. Ariko sits in Kachia, the area carrying the most named targets in the current warning. A service is the only time a community is stationary, concentrated, unarmed, and operating on a published schedule. That condition is identical in Idaho and in Kachia. Your service hours are your highest-risk hours.

In the Easter attack at Ariko, a local councilman said poor cell coverage may have contributed to the scale of the attack by delaying any response. Radios and phone trees are the mechanism by which a warning reaches the people who can act on it.

Southern Kaduna communities have functioning civilian early warning. Residents observe armed movement and report it. What fails is what happens after the report reaches an authority. When volunteers report suspicious activity and see no visible result, they stop reporting. Close that loop on every report your team submits.

Threat Assessment

The overall threat level for churches in the named areas of Kaduna and Plateau States is RED (critical). That assessment does not depend on the outcome of this particular warning window. It is highly likely that armed attacks on Christian communities and church services in these areas continue through the remainder of 2026. It is likely that the armed movement reported on 28 August occurred, and possible that the church target list reflects actual attacker planning rather than a source’s vulnerability assessment. The primary concern is a mass abduction or mass-casualty raid during a Sunday service, which is the demonstrated method in both the January and Easter church attacks. Violence in these two states this year has also included 40 people killed across two communities on Palm Sunday, a Catholic priest and ten others taken at 0320 hours in February, and at least 30 killed at Naridon village in July, eight of them children from a single family. The secondary concern is the reporting gap, since it is likely that any attack inside the window is denied or confirmed late, which strips the warning value away from other congregations in the same corridor.

For congregations in the United States, this warning does not change your threat level. Hold your existing posture based on local indicators. It should change your training emphasis. The 2026 Kaduna cases are documented proof that simultaneous multi-site attacks during service hours are an operational method rather than a tabletop exercise construct.

Biblical Lens

“And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.” (Nehemiah 4:9, ESV)

Nehemiah prayed and posted a guard. The churches in Chikun, Kachia, and Kafanchan are praying. Most have no lawful means to post a guard, because the state that designated these groups as terrorists nine months ago has not put men between them and the road. American congregations have both options available and should use both.

Leave a comment with how your team plans for simultaneous multi-site attacks during service hours, and pass this to your pastor and your team leader.

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Words can’t do justice when trying to describe what Stephen Willeford did that day. I have become friends with Stephen since this interview and what I have found out about him is amazing. Come join me as we talk about how he interrupted the worst church shooting in modern American history.

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INTELLIGENCE/TERRORISM

ISIS-Inspired Plot Against the New York State Capitol — Albany, New York

The Justice Department announced on August 20 that Jessica Bowie, 35, was charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS. Investigators say she was arrested August 19 as she took possession of what she believed was an explosive device, and that she made repeated visits to the Capitol grounds between July 21 and August 9, photographing the building. She recorded a video pledging allegiance to ISIS and distributed it online, and told others she intended to destroy as much of the building as possible and kill senators while they were in session, then flee to Syria. Court filings say she considered buying a firearm to shoot at officers who tried to stop her. The charges are allegations and she is presumed innocent.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: She was an easy catch. Buying bomb making material while wearing a full burkha is very brilliant. There are more out there that have better fieldcraft. We should be worried about the ones we don’t know about.

The 25th Anniversary of September 11 Two Weeks Away- Plus Other Significant Upcoming Dates

Federal counterterrorism reporting flags the PGA Tour Championship in Atlanta from August 27 to 30, Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert from August 30 to September 7, and the US Open in New York from August 30 through September 13. The same calendar marks August 26 as the anniversary of the 2021 ISIS-Khorasan attack at Abbey Gate in Kabul that killed 13 US service members and roughly 160 civilians. The compilers state that these dates are listed because of their historic nature or current threat significance, and that the list is not comprehensive. September 11, 2026 is a Friday, which puts the anniversary weekend on your September 12 and 13 services.

🛡️ My thoughts: There are many dates coming up that can draw problems for the country. It is unknown if any of these will be brought to a Christian church. If there is an event, be prepared to open your church doors to help those affected.

Pro-ISIS Media Releases a 9/11 Anniversary Poster

Al-Bayda Media Foundation released a poster on August 18 titled “The Great Expedition of New York.” It pairs imagery of the World Trade Center attacks with a depiction of Andrew Card whispering to President Bush in the Florida classroom and an image of bin Laden, along with text commemorating the attacks and dwelling on their psychological effect. It mocks 9/11 conspiracy theorists for what it calls an inability to accept reality, and closes on a bin Laden quote encouraging action without limit. Analysts who reviewed it assessed that it aims to resonate with existing supporters and does not indicate an imminent or credible threat. Both ISIS and al-Qa’ida reliably push propaganda ahead of the anniversary.

🛡️ My thoughts: This is meant o draw up excitement from the anti U.S. crowd and anti Christian crowd. Their media efforts get better every day and they are attracting followers.

Western Plot Suspects Are Getting Younger and Most Have No Clear Ideology

France’s national counterterrorism prosecutor reports investigating more than one new jihadi terrorism case a week, with 70 percent of violent plans involving people under 22. In Italy, a 17-year-old girl was arrested in Lombardy on August 22 after downloading explosive vest blueprints, and a 16-year-old boy was arrested in Como for distributing jihadist and neo-Nazi propaganda. In the United Kingdom, the Children’s Commissioner reported on August 18 that child referrals to the Prevent program rose from 2,918 in 2016 and 2017 to 4,715 in 2024 and 2025, that 71 percent of those referrals involved children with no clear ideology, and that 79 percent were closed without progressing. Axel Rudakubana was referred to Prevent three times before his case was closed for lack of a clear ideology, and he went on to kill three girls at Southport in July 2024. Nearly 60 percent of child referrals came from schools. The pattern your youth workers should understand is fixation on violence with no cause attached to it.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: CWT has been tracking this for at least a year and we have been bringing this to you almost weekly. Now we have some data to back it up. This is the kid in your children’s ministry that is lost and listening to AQ and ISIS propaganda.

Four Jihadist Publications This Week, Several Written in English

Al-Qa’ida in the Indian Subcontinent released the August edition of its Urdu magazine with an attack infographic. ISIS put out al-Naba’ issue 561, and the ISIS-Khorasan-affiliated al-Azaim Media Foundation released the fifteenth edition of Voice of Khurasan. Three pro-ISIS outlets published English-language posters, one titled “No Hope for the Crusaders” and another titled “To the Knights of Support.” Crusaders is the standard jihadist term for Western and Christian targets, and English is the tell that the audience is here rather than overseas.

🛡️ My thoughts: This is the material an isolated nineteen-year-old in your county finds on his own, and it is being produced weekly.

SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS

Reader-submitted suspicious activity at U.S. churches. If you see something similar in your area, submit your own report at intel.christianwarriortraining.com.

Hayden, Idaho — Emailed Threat Built Around a Zip File Attachment
On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, a pastor at a church in Hayden, Idaho received an emailed threat directed at all Hayden churches, along with a second threat the reporter described as nationwide. The email told recipients to open an attached zip file for more information. The church’s safety team assessed it as a probable cyber attack built around getting church staff to open the attachment. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office was notified and no report number has been issued.

Fort Mohave, Arizona — Man Claiming to Be Saint Peter Asks for the Pastor
On Sunday, August 23, 2026, at about 10:45, a white male in his mid thirties walked up to two safety team members in the front parking lot of a church in Fort Mohave, Arizona carrying a stone that appeared to be handmade from clay. He said he was Saint Peter and had stone tablets, claimed the stone contained Moses, an alien footprint, and images of himself, and said the government had notified all pastors and priests that he was coming. He asked to speak with the pastor, would not listen when the team members responded, and left without incident after being told to go. The reporting team member documented the vehicle and plate before it left and noted the contact could be casing. Law enforcement was not contacted.

Wichita, Kansas — Truck Staged at the Back of the Lot Accelerates Away From Patrol
On Sunday, August 16, 2026, at 11:30, a roaming patrol at a church in Wichita, Kansas found a late model grey Ford F-150 crew cab parked at the far back of the main lot with the driver still inside. Once the patrol passed by, the driver accelerated hard through the lot and out onto the main street. The patrol vehicle’s camera captured the truck and the tag, and no contact was made. The team reports a few other vehicles have done the same thing over the past several months, a black Corvette one time and a motorcycle another, a different vehicle each time. Law enforcement was not contacted.

Knoxville, Tennessee — Registered Offender Arrested on Shared Church and School Campus
On Monday afternoon, August 24, 2026, a man was arrested in the parking lot of a school that shares a building with a church in Knoxville, Tennessee and charged with violating Tennessee’s restrictions for registered sex offenders. He is the parent of a student and had disclosed his registry status when he enrolled his child, and school leadership set parameters at the outset limiting him to drop off and pickup in compliance with state law. The school says it is not aware of the details behind the violation and has received no information connecting it to the student body. The Knox County Sheriff’s Office is involved. The reporter notes that none of this was passed to parents or to the church security team members.

VIOLENT CRIME

Fatal Shooting at Historic Church Camp Meeting — Lincoln County, North Carolina

Curtis Baxter III was shot and killed at Tuckers Grove Campground near Iron Station, North Carolina, at about 1:20 a.m. on Sunday, August 23. Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies were on site providing security for the Tucker’s Grove Camp Meeting, a ten day annual event hosted by Tucker’s Grove Church and one of the oldest continuously operating African American religious camp meetings in the South, running since the 1870s. The sheriff’s office said a disturbance involving a firearm broke out and that an individual was shot by an unknown suspect. Deputies and EMS treated Baxter and transported him to Atrium Health Main in Charlotte, where he died a short time later. Family members told WSOC that children were playing nearby when the shot was fired. The shooter fled on foot and had not been caught as of this writing, and the sheriff’s office says there were several witnesses.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: This is a good example of conflicts from the street coming to haunt our youth groups. This has been happening several times a month during the summer this year. Use it as a lesson to prepare how to deal with pre-existing conflict that comes to your church.

Overnight Shooting on Daystar Church Property — Black Jack, Missouri

Police responded to a shooting on the grounds of Daystar Church in the 5100 block of North Highway 67 in Black Jack, Missouri, at about 1:30 a.m. on Friday, August 21. Officers found an adult male on the property with at least one gunshot wound. He was transported to a hospital with injuries described as non life threatening. No suspect information, motive, or arrest has been released. This report is preliminary and the responding agency has not been named in coverage.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: Remember that trouble comes to the church often and it will, statistically, happen after hours outside of worship service hours and in the parking lot or surrounding areas. People that are running from danger will seek refuge at the church, whether it is open or not.

Man Charged in Assault on First Baptist Church Grounds — Burlington, Vermont

Dylan Andrews, 35, of Winooski, Vermont, has been charged with aggravated assault after allegedly striking a person in the head on the grounds of First Baptist Church on St. Paul Street in Burlington. WCAX reports the attack happened on the evening of August 10, with charges filed August 24. Burlington police found the victim unconscious on the ground. Andrews was ordered held without bail. Police said the assault was one of several violent incidents downtown that week, including a shooting and two stabbings, and that none of them appear to be related.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: Use this as an example for your next scenario training. This happens frequently. Throw in a mentally ill man that is homeless in that training and you will be ahead of the curve when something like this comes to your church.

Woman Charged With Felony Battery of Child in Church Parking Lot — Steuben County, Indiana

Amy Fuller, 44, has been charged with Level 5 felony domestic battery and Level 6 felony neglect of a dependent after an incident in a church parking lot in northeast Indiana. Police were called to the church on a domestic battery report, and multiple witnesses told officers they watched Fuller drag a child to her car and punch him in the head repeatedly with closed fists after he asked for water. Fuller tried to leave the scene with two children in the vehicle and officers stopped the car. She told police she reacted because the child was “embarrassing me in front of people.” Medical personnel documented a large lump on the back of the child’s head and a hand shaped welt on his leg. Fuller was booked into the Steuben County Jail and faces up to eight and a half years if convicted on both counts.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: You will have to make a decision here; intervene and stop her from leaving and hold her for the police, or let the police find her. Think about it now, talk about it with your team and role play this scenario at training. Work it out now so you aren’t caught with your pants down when it happens at your church.

Pregnant Woman Stabbed in Face by Fellow Churchgoer — Harris County, Texas

Carrieale Williams, 19, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly stabbing a pregnant woman in the face, arms, and hands on the morning of Thursday, August 20, in the 12000 block of Dona Lane in northeast Harris County, Texas. The two women knew each other through church and had no other prior relationship. Williams invited the victim to a home on Dona Lane, and the victim noticed Williams trying to conceal a knife before Williams pulled it out and a struggle over the blade followed. Harris County Constable Precinct 3 deputies responded to an in progress call reporting a life in danger, arrested Williams at the scene at 5:52 a.m., and the victim was hospitalized with injuries that were not life threatening. Court records state the victim is dating Williams’ ex boyfriend. ABC13 reports the charge is aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against a pregnant person, and court records show Williams was arrested in January 2025 for assault on a pregnant person in a case that was later dismissed.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: I’m including this because we have a duty to check in with our congregants and ask them how they are doing and look for tell tale signs of domestic abuse or any sign they are in danger.

SEX CRIMES

Lutheran Vicar Charged With Molesting Two Month Old Infant — Fort Wayne, Indiana

Josiah Junkin, 27, a Lutheran vicar in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is charged with one count of child molesting for allegedly molesting a two month old girl in 2024 while changing her diaper. The case surfaced through a Michigan investigation after a man who had spoken with Junkin reported his disclosures to Michigan police. A woman told investigators that Junkin had struggled with a pornography addiction, including child sexual abuse material, since childhood, and that he admitted molesting the infant. A Michigan detective confirmed Junkin admitted the abuse took place in Fort Wayne, and one person told investigators he molested the girl on four occasions. Investigators also received photographs of Junkin’s journal from a sex addiction program describing sexual fantasies and his own acknowledgment of risk. A separate report went to the Indiana Department of Child Services, and the Indiana charge followed. Junkin is held in the Allen County Jail and faces up to 12 years if convicted.

A vicar is a seminary student completing a supervised church internship. No news outlet has named the congregation or the seminary, and the reporting does not place the alleged offense inside a church building.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: There is a huge millstone waiting to be hung on this man’s neck and I want to be there when the Lord places it on him. Please know that PEDOPHILES are seeking jobs in the church, maybe even your church, so that they can have easy access to victims. What are you doing to stop it?

ARSON AND SUSPICIOUS FIRES

Teen Charged With Arson in Fire That Destroyed Historic Church — Cleveland, Ohio

John Patrick McManamon, 19, has been charged with felony arson in the fire that destroyed the former Friendship Baptist Church at East 55th Street and Central Avenue in Cleveland shortly before 2 a.m. on Friday, August 21. More than 60 Cleveland firefighters responded, the roof collapsed as crews worked, and damage is estimated at more than $750,000. Investigators ruled the fire incendiary and said it was not set for financial reasons. According to the arrest warrant, McManamon and two other people entered the vacant building to take part in a social media trend described as “urban mining,” and a photo posted to social media from inside the building showed a fire in its incipient stage with multiple points of origin. Real time crime camera footage captured a vehicle parked on East 57th Street behind the church at about 11:58 p.m. and the group entering the structure. The building went up in the mid 1890s as a synagogue and had been vacant roughly seven years. McManamon was arraigned August 26 and held on a $10,000 bond.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: this is your weekly reminder that you need a fire alarm at your church.

Copper Theft From HVAC Units Sets Church on Fire — Amarillo, Texas

Amarillo firefighters were called to a church at 815 N. Jefferson Street at about 8:20 p.m. on Thursday, August 20, and had the fire under control by about 9 p.m. Investigators determined someone used a torch to cut copper refrigerant lines off the exterior HVAC condenser units in an attempted theft. The open flame ignited combustible material inside the exterior wall, and the fire spread into the building and a mechanical closet. Crews searched the structure and found it empty, and no injuries were reported. The Amarillo Fire Marshal’s Office ruled the cause reckless arson during an attempted theft. No suspect has been named and the case remains open. The fire department is asking property owners to secure exterior HVAC equipment where possible and report suspicious activity around churches.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: Copper theft is almost always done by meth addicts. They will cause more damage than the copper is actually worth. The recycling companies gladly take it, knowing how it was obtained.

VEHICLE COLLISIONS

Fleeing DUI Driver Crashes SUV Into Church — Indiantown, Florida

Geremias Pascual, 28, is charged with fleeing and eluding, DUI, and four counts of DUI related property damage after crashing an SUV into a church in Indiantown, Florida, on Monday, August 25. Martin County sheriff’s deputies saw the SUV swerving onto the grass while heading north on SW Washington Avenue through a residential neighborhood, and Pascual did not stop when they tried to pull him over. A PIT maneuver failed and Pascual accelerated before striking a tree, a power pole, and the side of the church. The SUV hit the church’s back building and destroyed both air conditioning units, the ones serving the fellowship hall and the children’s ministry wing, punched a hole in the stucco exterior, and broke a water spigot that cut off water to the property. Damage is described as thousands of dollars and no one was injured. Pascual was booked into the Martin County Jail, and CBS12 reports he is held on an ICE detainer.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: Pedestrian safety at your church should be paramount. Many of you are getting bollards and I applaud you. We all need to keep that fight going.

INTERNATIONAL

Gang Executes 22 Inside Church Compound Sheltering Displaced Families — Kenscoff, Haiti

Armed members of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition raided the hillside commune of Kenscoff above Port-au-Prince on the night of Sunday, August 23, and the attack continued into Monday. Gunmen stormed a church compound where people displaced by earlier gang violence had taken shelter, and BINUH, the UN Integrated Office in Haiti, reported that 22 of the victims were executed inside that compound. The UN put the toll at 47 killed and 22 injured on Tuesday, August 25, with more than 50 kidnapped, and said the count could rise. At least five children are among the dead. The Christian Post identifies the site as the Church of the Ark of the New Covenant, an evangelical congregation near the municipal cemetery, and reports the worship center was torched and animals killed. Kenscoff has absorbed roughly a dozen gang assaults since 2025. The United States has designated Viv Ansanm a foreign terrorist organization.

Source

Pastor Killed and Church Leaders Abducted in Nuba Mountains — Heiban District, Sudan

Pastor Adel Idris Jongool of the Episcopal Church of Sudan was shot during an attack on the Dabbi area of Heiban District in South Kordofan and died of his wounds. Open Doors reports six civilians were shot in the Dabbi area on July 23. Pastor Yaqob Ibrahim Tia of the Sudanese Church of Christ was seized from his home in Heiban on July 23 along with two of his sons, a 15 year old nephew, and a fifth man, and all five were released July 28. Zakaria Suliman Jana, also of the Sudanese Church of Christ, was abducted July 31 and released the next day. Dozens of worshippers were kidnapped from an Anglican seminary and from churches, 32 were released, and an unknown number remained missing as of August 12. Church sources attribute the attacks to a breakaway faction of the rebel SPLA-N allied with the Rapid Support Forces. Morning Star News also reports a June 19 attack at Holy Cross parish in Kauda that killed a Catholic priest and one of his guards.

Source

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Intel Monitor/Report Suspicious Activity

Inside This Week’s Roll Call Briefing

✅ Current threat condition: HIGH / ORANGE

✅ Terrorism and intelligence developments affecting churches

✅ Violent crime incidents and lessons for safety teams

✅ Sex crimes and child protection concerns

✅ Arson, suspicious activity, and emerging threats

✅ Training guidance and our Christ First discussion

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An insurance underwriter put it in writing this summer:

“It is a hard no, even if just in classroom. We do not intend to cover being told it is ok to use any weapon or how to use one.”

Not live fire. Not force on force. Not putting a gun in anyone’s hand. Being told. A church security instructor standing in a classroom, explaining when the law allows a man to defend his congregation, is conduct that carrier will not touch. That sentence came from RSUI’s underwriter, relayed to me in writing by my broker on July 10, after I asked whether the weapons exclusion on their quote could be amended. I have the email. I will show it to you in the video that goes with this article.

That quote is the end of the story. Here is the beginning.

Five clean years, then one honest answer

Graves and Associates has carried professional liability and general liability since July of 2021. Five years, zero claims, premiums paid on time. This spring the renewal quote came in at $3,621 and I did what I teach every one of you to do with any contract: I read the whole policy before signing. I found a terrorism exclusion that appeared to apply across every insuring clause, no cyber coverage at all, and a business activities description that did not clearly include the instructor training courses I plan to launch. So I asked six questions in writing before binding. Would a negligence claim be covered if a church I trained were attacked. What does the terrorism endorsement actually restore. Does the policy cover instructor certification.

The carrier’s answer was to pull the renewal entirely. Their stated reason, word for word: “Given the significant changes to the risk profile, including hands-on training, potential safety and evasion guidance, general security advisory services, and product sales, together with our review of the additional website, the account unfortunately now falls outside of our underwriting appetite.”

Safety and evasion guidance. Teaching people how to not die put me outside their appetite. They offered me an extension to August 1 for another $157 so I could go find somebody else.

Everybody said no

My broker marketed the account to the standard carriers: Liberty Mutual, The Hartford, Nationwide, Guard, Travelers. Every one declined. The nature of the business was outside their appetite. She went to the surplus lines markets, the specialty carriers that exist specifically for hard risks. Higher premiums, declines, or blocked submissions. A firearms industry program I applied to directly denied the application. By July 15 my broker told me plainly that she had reached the end of the companies she could approach. The one general liability quote she could secure came from RSUI, and it carried the weapons exclusion you read at the top of this article. When I asked if the exclusion could be removed for classroom instruction with inert training aids, laser trainers and blue plastic guns, nothing that fires anything, the answer was the hard no.

Some of you are thinking there must be more to it. A claim, a lawsuit, something in the file. There is not. Five years, zero losses, and the loss runs to prove it. What changed was that I told the truth on a renewal application about where this ministry is headed. Honesty is what triggered all of it, and I would do it again, because a policy bound on an incomplete application is worse than no policy at all. Buried in the conditions of that same policy was an application warranty stating that any misrepresentation or non-disclosure renders the policy null and void and relieves the carrier of all liability. Plenty of trainers in this industry are paying premiums right now on policies their carriers would void the day a claim arrived, because the application never mentioned what they actually teach.

The part that should make you angry

The insurance industry does not treat church violence as a fringe concern. Carriers that serve churches publish active shooter preparedness guidance. They distribute security checklists. They recommend congregations assess their vulnerabilities and train their people. The industry’s own risk materials tell churches to prepare for exactly the attack my courses address.

Then the trainer shows up to buy coverage and the same industry says no. They will insure the church that receives the training. They will publish the checklist telling the church to get it. They will not cover the man who provides it, and one of them will not even cover him for talking about it in a classroom. I spent almost thirty years in law enforcement and I have sat across the table from people doing things they knew were indefensible. They at least had the decency to look uncomfortable. This industry put its position on letterhead.

How it got solved, and the disclosure that goes with it

What cold submissions could not do, a relationship did. Most of you know I work with Right To Bear, and I will say plainly what I say every time: I am an affiliate, they sponsor this ministry, and there is a link below. Weigh that however you want. The facts are the facts either way. When I told them what was happening, their owner connected me with his brokerage, Moultrie Insurance, a firm that lives in the self defense world and was not scared of the words church security. Within weeks Moultrie placed what six months of shopping could not: general liability through Kinsale, an A rated carrier, and professional liability through Lloyd’s of London, written for a company whose application says in plain language that it teaches active shooter response and instructor courses. Classroom based, laser trainers and blue guns, no live fire, no simunition, all of it disclosed and all of it on the record.

The price of being insured honestly is about $9,000 a year, roughly two and a half times what the old policy cost. That is the market telling you what this work is worth to insure when the carrier actually knows what you do. I will take accurate and expensive over cheap and void every day of the week.

Two questions to send your broker this week

If you train church security teams, or you are the safety director who brings trainers in, do not assume your coverage works. Claims made policies plus application warranties mean the policy you are paying for is only as good as what your application disclosed. So send your broker two questions in writing and keep the answers.

Does my policy contain a weapons exclusion, and does it apply to instruction? Not range work, instruction. You now know at least one carrier reads that exclusion to bar being told how to use a weapon in a classroom.

Does my carrier know exactly what I teach? Active shooter response, defensive tactics, firearms content, all of it, in writing, on the application. If the answer is no, fix it before you teach another class, because you will not find out what that omission costs until the worst day of your career, and by then the answer is already written into Condition 4.

I got my answers the hard way so you can get yours with an email. Send it this week.

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TERROR/INTELLIGENCE

Kuwait Foils ISIS Plot Against Shia Mosque; Suspect Built Drone for Vital Facility Attack

On August 12, 2026, Kuwaiti authorities announced they had disrupted an apparent ISIS plot to target a vital facility. The arrested suspect is a Kuwaiti citizen alleged to be aligned with ISIS. Officials say he had received training on unmanned aerial vehicle use and improvised explosive device construction and had built a functional drone for the attack. Separately, Kuwaiti authorities arrested two minors trained by ISIS in explosives manufacturing, with reporting indicating the intended target of that separate cell was a Shia mosque. Al-Naba issue 560 referenced the case. This is the first confirmed instance in this reporting period of an ISIS operative in the Gulf building a functional drone for offensive use, and the recruitment of minors into operational cells is a significant escalation.

Sources: NYPD OSI Reporting 8-16-26; Indago Islamic State Weekly Update; Anadolu Agency; Arab Times; Kurdistan 24.

🛡️ My thoughts: You NEED to pay attention to these disrupted plots. Drones are becoming central to many disrupted attacks. At some point in the future, someone will use a drone to kill our people here in the homeland. I put out a few drone videos last year and received some flak over it. People need to wake up to this emerging threat and start trying to figure out how to protect the body of Christ from this new menace.

AI-Generated Anti Semitic Threat Depicts Attack on Federal Reserve

On August 6, 2026, a racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist online user posted an AI-generated image of a masked figure in a jacket bearing the SS symbol, brandishing a firearm outside an office building, captioned “Omw to the Federal Reserve.” The same day the user posted a 51-second video showing a masked person shooting an antisemitic caricature of a Jewish person. In further posts the user urged followers to take action, writing that the sooner they started “doing things IRL the better.” The Federal Reserve System operates the Board in Washington plus 12 regional banks, including a New York branch in lower Manhattan. AI-generated recruitment content is now cheap, fast, and portable, and it is being pointed at Jewish community targets as well as federal ones.

Source: NYPD OSI Reporting 8-16-26.

🛡️ My thoughts: I have noticed that many disrupted plots involved a published AI video of the attack the person wanted to conduct. This is leakage and we should all be paying attention to these threats.

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IRGC Consolidates Power in Tehran After Death of Ali Khamenei

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has completed what analysts describe as a “white coup” following the February 2026 airstrike that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. His son Mojtaba Khamenei was named the new Supreme Leader on March 9 and has not been seen in public since, reportedly suffering from severe injuries sustained in the same strike. On August 9, hardliner Major General Mohsen Rezaei, a longtime opponent of diplomatic concessions and the former commander of the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq war, was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Council. The move gives the IRGC operational control of Iran’s national security, foreign policy, and wartime economy at a moment when Iran’s proxy network across Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon remains active and Iran’s economy is contracting under a U.S. naval blockade of Kharg Island. Iran and its proxies retain the capacity and the stated intent to strike Western and Jewish targets abroad.

Sources: Indago Iran Weekly Update; NYPD OSI Reporting 8-16-26; Reuters; The New York Times.

🛡️ My thoughts: I am deeply concerned about the direction of the Iran war. An analyst, whom I respect, said yesterday that Iran reached out to their proxies and sent personnel from Iran during the cease fire to help set up future attacks against Americans. Remember, there are at least 30k Iranian proxy members in the United States right now. I cannot overstate how concerned I am with future events.

Colorado Man Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Join ISIS

On August 12, 2026, Davin Daniel Meyer, 21, pleaded guilty in federal court in Colorado to attempting to provide material support to ISIS. Meyer was arrested at Denver International Airport on July 14, 2023, as he prepared to travel to Türkiye and then Iraq to join the group. Prosecutors said Meyer had been radicalized through extremist videos online and was reported to law enforcement at age 17 for making violent threats tied to his extremist beliefs. After turning 18 he communicated with people he believed were ISIS recruiters, who were actually FBI informants, and met three times with an undercover operative. Sentencing is set for December 17, with the government capping its recommendation at 10 years followed by lifetime supervised release, and the judge allowed Meyer to remain free on bond pending sentencing.

Sources: NYPD OSI Reporting 8-16-26; Courthouse News Service.

🛡️ My thoughts: Know that we have Americans fighting for ISIS right now and are learning how to wage war against America and Christians. They will return home with their knowledge.

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US and Nigeria Formalize Priority on Protecting Middle Belt Christian Communities

On August 12, 2026, the U.S. Department of State hosted the second session of the U.S.-Nigeria Joint Working Group in Washington. The group’s stated agenda named three priority areas: protecting Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, holding perpetrators of violence accountable, and building military cooperation between the two governments. Participants also flagged continuing challenges in receiving credible casualty reports and identified gaps in humanitarian expenditure transparency. This is the first U.S.-Nigeria working group session in 2026 to name the protection of Middle Belt Christians as a stated deliverable rather than a background concern, and it comes as ISWAP, ISIS-Sahel, and Boko Haram continue targeted attacks on Christian villages and pastors across northern and central Nigeria.

Sources: NCTC Counterterrorism Digest 13-19 August 2026; U.S. Department of State.

🛡️ My thoughts: This is a good first step. I am not for war. However, this would be a just war that I can support. We will continue to watch what America will do to help Christians being slaughtered in a genocide.

VIOLENT CRIME

Funeral Shooting at LDS Meetinghouse Leaves One Dead — Kearns, Utah

One man was killed and two others were critically injured in a shooting outside a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse at 4660 W. 5015 South in Kearns, Utah, on Monday, August 17, 2026. Unified Police responded to multiple 911 calls just before 11:30 a.m. and found three 18-year-old males shot during a funeral service. Vilisoni Angilau, 18, was pronounced dead at Intermountain Medical Center. Witnesses told investigators that a 17-year-old was fighting another male in the church parking lot when the teen’s father, Afuhia Masiu Manatau, 45, handed his son a gun, and the son shot two people before those men took the gun and shot him. Manatau was booked for investigation of murder and for discharging a firearm causing serious injury, and three nearby Kearns schools went into secure protocol during the police response.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: I did a video breakdown of this incident that you can see below.

Drive-By Shooting as Funeral Procession Formed — Columbus, Ohio

Two people were shot outside Antioch Jordan Church on Woodland Avenue in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday, August 17, 2026, as a funeral service was concluding and the procession was forming for the cemetery. The service was for Demontae Johnson, 20, who was killed on July 27. Columbus police said someone in a dark-colored vehicle fired into the crowd and that investigators believe multiple people were involved with at least one shooter. Both victims are expected to survive. Sgt. James Fuqua said more than 200 people were on the property at the time, and police have asked the public for information.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: This happened on the same day as the LDS gang funeral shooting. I have seen an uptick in shootings at funerals this year. I need you to pay attention to who you are memorializing at your church. If you sense danger, based on the person’s life history, then cancel it. Don’t bring danger to your church. They lived a life of crime and violence. Why would we allow their cohorts and enemies to our church to do harm? If there is no indicator of violence, hopefully they come and learn about the sacrifice Christ made for us and accept his forgiveness.

Federal Hate Crime Charges in Central Synagogue Attack — New York, New York

Larry Montes, 46, of the Bronx, was charged federally after an attack during Shabbat services at Central Synagogue in Manhattan on Friday, August 14, 2026. Roughly 375 people were present when Montes stood up, shouted, and struck two ceremonial silver candlesticks, damaging them. Prosecutors say he punched a female congregant, then spat on and headbutted a security guard while being handcuffed, using racial and religious slurs. He is charged with two counts of committing a hate crime, each carrying up to 10 years, and one count of destruction of religious property resulting in bodily injury, carrying up to 20 years. The case was announced by Jamie McDonald, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Source

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Squatter Attacks Three Contractors With Metal Pipe — Berkeley, California

Donald Malone, 28, was arrested after contractors found him sleeping inside the shuttered Trinity United Methodist Church near Bancroft Way and Dana Street in Berkeley, California, on Saturday morning, August 15, 2026. Police say the workers asked Malone to leave, he refused, and after they called police he attacked all three with a five-foot metal pipe. Officer Byron White said the crew asked the man to leave, he refused, they called police, and that is when he attacked them. Investigators put the damage inside the building at roughly $20,000, including broken electrical equipment, overturned speakers, and a smashed drum set. Malone faces three felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one felony count of vandalism, and prosecutors have petitioned to revoke his probation on a prior assault conviction.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: I worked 30 years in this county. I do not expect that he will get significant jail time for this crime. For those of you worshiping and working security in socialist run counties like this one, please be careful. The politicians have made these places less safe and have pro criminal policies that hurt your safety.

Gunfire Outside Church During Sunday Service — Houston, Texas

Houston police responded to a report of gunfire outside a church at 14109 South Post Oak Road on Sunday, August 16, 2026. The call came in at 11:19 a.m., in the middle of a service attended by about 70 people, and a nearby resident who heard the shots alerted police. The service ended early and the congregation was moved out of the building. No one was struck and no one was transported for treatment. HPD said officers arrived within minutes and had the area under control, and no suspect information has been released.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: When you hear gunfire outside, lock the church down. Lock the children’s ministry down and have armed people stand near the entrances to protect the flock.

SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS

Reader-submitted suspicious activity at U.S. churches. If you see something similar in your area, submit your own report at alert.christianwarriortraining.com. We rely on YOU to submit reports to help us warn other churches.

Rural Missouri — Verbal Threat From Former Member, Ongoing The wife of a pastor at a rural church in Missouri received a phone call from a former member of the congregation who said God had told him to come confront the church about removing the pastor. The former member has a history of substance abuse and a pending weapons charge. The report is classified as an ongoing threat and has been referred to the county sheriff’s office.

Rural Missouri — Two White Pickups Parked in Lot, Fled on Contact On two separate occasions, a security team member at a rural church in Missouri observed a white pickup truck park in the church lot after services had already begun. In both instances the driver never exited the vehicle. Both drivers left the moment a security team member walked out to make contact. The two vehicles were reported separately and involved different trucks.

San Leandro, California — First-Time Attendee Filmed Congregation and Scanned Camera Positions A security team member at a church in San Leandro, California reported that a first-time attendee recorded himself and the congregation during the service without permission. The man seated himself dead center to the platform and repeatedly scanned the room, paying particular attention to the placement of the church’s cameras. When the security team approached him after the service, he became evasive.

Midland, Texas — Man in All Black Livestreamed Entryway, Then Closed on the Platform A security team member at a church in Midland, Texas observed a man dressed entirely in black livestreaming himself in the building entryway. The man then filmed the pastor while the sermon was in progress, and afterward moved forward to a seat within four rows of the stage. The security team quietly closed in around him and contained the situation without incident.

Georgetown, Texas — Wooden Cross With Writing Left by Man in White Truck A man arrived at a church in Georgetown, Texas in a white truck and left a wooden cross bearing writing on it at the property. The drop was captured on the church’s camera system. The subject did not attempt to enter the building.

Payette, Idaho — Motorcyclist Watched After-Service Meal From the Lot A motorcyclist stopped in the parking lot of a church in Payette, Idaho, removed his helmet, and watched an after-service meal for several minutes before leaving. He made no attempt to approach the building or speak to anyone.

SEX CRIMES

Cross Church Maintenance Worker Charged With Assaulting a Minor — Rogers, Arkansas

A former maintenance employee at Cross Church in Rogers, Arkansas, identified in court documents as Barrowman, was arrested in mid-August 2026 on allegations that he sexually assaulted a juvenile at the church. Court documents describe three separate incidents. In the first two, the suspect is accused of groping the victim over the victim’s clothes, and those two incidents are said to have occurred about two weeks before the third. The suspect held a maintenance position that gave him routine access to the church facility. He is no longer employed there.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: You are more likely to have your children sexually assaulted by a church staff member than you are to have an active shooter. make sure you take our training course on protecting children.

Pastor Arrested on Multiple Child Sexual Assault Charges — Blythe and Indio, California

Riverside County sheriff’s deputies arrested Lino Hernandez, 41, on multiple child sexual assault charges after serving a search warrant at his home in Blythe, California, in August 2026. Hernandez served as a pastor at churches in Blythe and in Indio. The investigation opened in June 2026 after an allegation that a minor had been sexually assaulted. Investigators said publicly that there may be additional victims and asked anyone with information to come forward. Authorities have not named the congregations where he served.

Source

ARSON AND SUSPICIOUS FIRES

Man Charged With Setting Fire at Church Entryway — North Miami Beach, Florida

Joseph Drew, 39, is accused of placing a wicker basket on top of a sign at the entryway of Arch Creek Bible Chapel, 13740 NE 20 Place in North Miami Beach, Florida, and setting it on fire on Monday, August 10, 2026. Surveillance video recorded the fire being set, and Drew later acknowledged to investigators that he was the person on the video. Police arrested him on Saturday, August 15, at a Valero gas station at 1900 NE 163rd Street and booked him into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. He is charged with second-degree arson, burglary of an occupied structure, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Drew told investigators he blacked out, and no one was injured in the fire.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: Every church needs a burglar/fire alarm and a 4k video system. This is the most basic security action you can take to protect your church.

INTERNATIONAL

ISCAP Kills 38 Christians in Coordinated Village Attacks — Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of Congo

The Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP), formerly the ADF, killed 38 Christians and captured 24 in a coordinated assault on three villages in the Mambasa Territory of Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, the week of August 9, 2026. A single engagement inside that campaign killed 32 civilians and took 24 hostages, and more than 60 homes and shops were burned in the same series of attacks. Since December 2024, ISCAP has killed more than 1,300 Christians in Ituri, and the group is now expanding westward toward Haut-Uélé, a gold-mining province where humanitarian workers are managing an active Ebola response. Islamic State central media featured the killings in this week’s al-Naba issue 560.

Sources: Barnabas Aid; Indago Islamic State Weekly Update (17 August 2026); Al-Naba Newsletter 560.

🛡️ My thought: My dream is to form a mission of Christian former special operators and SWAT team members to go to Nigeria and help organize them for self defense. I would love to help them organize and fight back. Keep these people in your prayers.

Two Christians Kidnapped in Boko Haram Raid — Mahoula, Cameroon

Two Christians from separate congregations were kidnapped when militants raided the village of Mahoula in the Mayo-Sava division of far north Cameroon on Monday, August 10, 2026. Open Doors attributes the attack to Boko Haram, which has operated across this stretch of the Nigeria border since 2014. The region has seen repeated kidnappings, sexual assaults, destruction of property, and killings. Pastor Babien of nearby Amchidé said believers there are struggling under relentless insecurity and are exposed during farming season. As of this reporting, there is no word on the release of the two men.

Source

Pastor and Six Church Workers Held Incommunicado — Wenzhou and Shanghai, China

Pastor David Tang of Purpose Driven Church, also called Biaogan Church, in Wenzhou was detained in Shanghai at about 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, along with a financial administrator from his congregation and five ministry workers from Shanghai. The congregation is unregistered and operates independently of the government-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement. Authorities have given no charges, and the seven remain held with their whereabouts unknown. Family members and attorneys have not been told where they are or what their legal status is. ChinaAid founder Bob Fu said authorities increasingly use criminal or financial allegations in place of explicitly political or religious charges, and officials blocked online posts about the detentions.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts? China is on a tear with Christian home churches. Please keep the Chinese Christians in your prayers. With the influx of communist/socialist politicians getting elected, please remember how much Christians suffer persecution under these types of governments.

Man Convicted of Raping Pensioner Outside Church — Harrow, England

A jury at Harrow Crown Court found Bruke Desalagne, 33, guilty of rape on Sunday, August 16, 2026, after deliberating for just over two hours. The attack happened around midnight on July 23, 2025, outside St John’s Church on Station Road in Harrow, northwest London, where Desalagne moved a heavily intoxicated man in his 60s from a public bench to an area behind construction hoarding at the church. The assault lasted roughly 20 minutes, and prosecutors said Desalagne paused each time pedestrians or traffic passed, including a double-decker bus, then resumed once they were gone. A woman watching from her car recorded part of the attack on her phone and called police, who arrested Desalagne at the scene on suspicion of rape and sexual assault and charged him the following day. Desalagne entered the United Kingdom as a clandestine entrant, claimed asylum, and was granted indefinite leave to remain in 2022. Sentencing is set for autumn 2026.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: The most basic security you can do for your church is a 4k video system along with an alarm system. Here, the video would capture the crime, which the police can use to help prosecute criminals.

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This roll call is meant for you to show your team before they start working on Sunday. You can use the video I created, or you can use the PDF download below. Feel free to email it to your team, but it is best to go over this together 15 minutes before you start your shift.

✅ Training this week is dealing with drones.

✅ DON’T FORGET TO LOG SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY AT INTEL.CHRISTIANWARRIORTRAINING.COM

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First, Christ is King! I am so thankful that He created this platform so we can all communicate and make our churches and the Body of Christ safer every day.

Reminder: Log Suspicious Activity

The intel dashboard is thriving! Your suspicious activity reports are flowing in. If you have an event at your church, after contacting your local police and regional intelligence center, please log it with us at intel.christianwarriortraining.com by hitting the “report” button. It allows others in your area to see what is happening in real time.

Two New Classes

If you are in the area of Illinois and Michigan, I’ll be teaching in those two states coming up in October. The details for the MI class is still being worked out, but it will be at the location of a previous active shooter event. The flyer for Illinois is below. If you are within a few hours, please make the drive. I will make it worth your while. If you’ve been to one of my classes before, give some encouragement in the comments to let everyone know if it is worth their time.

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New Leadership Book for Church Security Teams

I wrote a book! My goal here is to help leaders run their team effectively. Here’s what I cover:

Order Now!

• How to build a team structure that functions under pressure

• How to screen and onboard volunteers using a biblical character framework

• How to handle the problem volunteer that every team eventually encounters

• How to navigate the pastoral relationship when the pastor is disengaged

• How to build and defend a budget in ministry language

• How to develop the next generation of leaders before you need them

• The legal framework every team leader must understand, including negligence liability and citizen’s arrest authority

• What leniency bias costs a security program and how to resist it as a Christian leader

If you buy it, I would greatly appreciate you rating the book on Amazon.

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What Happened

A funeral was underway at an LDS church in Kearns, Utah, on the morning of Monday, August 17, 2026. Police were already on the property before anything happened. People planning to attend had called the Unified Police Department that morning, told them there could be trouble at the service, and asked that officers be there and be visible. UPD sent them. Officers were standing in that parking lot at 11:25 a.m. when they heard gunfire on the south side of the building.

Officers found the first victim lying in the road with critical injuries. Medical personnel worked on him at the scene and he was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. While officers were treating him, they saw a second victim being carried to a vehicle in the church parking lot. Officers ordered the occupants to stop. They did not. The vehicle fled and was boxed in a short distance away near 4700 South and 4000 West in West Valley City, where officers finally got that man into an ambulance. A third victim was located at the church, also shot, also critical. All three were men. No officer fired a weapon.

The building is the Salt Lake Tongan Central Stake at 4660 West 5015 South. For readers outside the LDS Church, that name needs unpacking. A ward is a local congregation, roughly what most of us would call a church. A stake is a group of wards covering an area, closer to what other denominations call a district or a diocese. The stake center is the larger building at the hub of it, used for the bigger gatherings a single ward building cannot hold. This one serves Tongan congregations and its services are conducted in the Tongan language.

The funeral flyer puts the timeline in sharper focus than any news report has. The Family Program was scheduled from 8:00 a.m. to noon and the Bishop’s Program from noon to 1:00 p.m. The shooting happened at 11:25, during the family portion, about 35 minutes before the ecclesiastical service was set to begin. Police had been on that property for hours.

Assistant Chief Justin Hoyal told reporters that investigators believed they had everyone involved, though no arrests were announced. Detectives said the shooting may be gang-involved. Three Granite School District campuses went into secure protocol, including West Kearns Elementary next door, and were released just before 12:30 p.m. School had been back in session less than a week.

The man being buried was ‘Ofatangikivaha Angilau, 23 years old, born April 17, 2003. He had been killed ten days earlier.

The Riverton Shooting That Led to This Funeral

On the afternoon of August 7, Angilau walked into the Holiday Oil station at 12600 South 4185 West in Riverton and tried to buy alcohol. He had no ID. The clerk refused the sale. Riverton public information officer Nate Slack said Angilau became belligerent and argumentative, that another customer tried to de-escalate, and that Angilau left the store and got into his car.

He drove around the lot, and then he came back inside with a shotgun. Armed civilians inside the store shot him before he could use it. He made it out the door and collapsed outside, where he died. No police were involved. Riverton later corrected its initial statement and confirmed Angilau never fired the shotgun. A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation has told me there were two shooters, not one, and early reporting on the incident also indicated two customers may have fired.

A young man carried a shotgun into a store to settle an argument over a beer, and two lawfully armed strangers stopped him in the few seconds available to them.

The Hospital, and What Intermountain Told the Public

The two surviving victims went to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, the flagship Level I trauma center for the Salt Lake Valley. What happened there has not been reported honestly, and church leaders and hospital administrators should pay attention to it.

Intermountain closed the entire campus. Appointments were canceled. Ambulances and Life Flight were diverted away from a Level I trauma center to other facilities. Spokesman Jess Gomez told reporters the closure was entirely precautionary, that there was no danger, and that nothing was going on inside. A woman named Kristy Nebeker stood outside for hours unable to reach her daughter, who had been brought in after a crash, and told a reporter she could not get anyone to let her in or tell her anything.

Now put that next to what the police said and what people saw. Assistant Chief Hoyal said the hospital closed its campus to keep the peace. Gomez himself confirmed that agencies from roughly 10 departments across the valley responded to the facility. KUTV reported that drivers passing the hospital saw fully geared SWAT officers, snipers, an armored vehicle, and multiple agencies stacked up outside. I have reviewed photographs of a police countersniper posted in the parking lot and an armored rescue vehicle parked at the entrance, which I am not able to publish yet.

I spent a career on SWAT, including time as a supervisor. You do not deploy a countersniper and an armored rescue vehicle to make people feel better. You do not pull 10 agencies off patrol and divert trauma traffic off a Level I center as a courtesy. A countersniper goes up because a commander has assessed there is an armed threat present or inbound and has decided he needs a precision option. That is the only reason. Every one of those decisions goes in a log with a name attached to it.

A medical source inside the building described a fight in the emergency room parking area and armed subjects attempting to get to the surviving victim. The independent analyst S2 Underground reported multiple shots-fired calls at the facility. Neither account has been confirmed by any agency. But the response posture is a matter of public record, and the posture does not fit the statement.

Intermountain owes the public an explanation, and so far it has given the public a press line instead. When you divert ambulances off a trauma center, you have made a decision that carries risk for every cardiac and trauma patient in the valley that afternoon. That is a decision people are entitled to understand. Telling them nothing was happening while snipers were on the property does not build trust. It burns it.

Who the Tongan Crip Gang Is

The Tongan Crip Gang started in Inglewood, California, and moved into the Salt Lake Valley in the late 1980s when members relocated to escape heavy California gang enforcement. I was working a gang team in California during that enforcement era, and that migration pattern is exactly what we watched happen. Pressure in Los Angeles pushed sets outward into Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and the Pacific Northwest, and Salt Lake caught a large share of it.

TCG is a Crip-aligned set drawing primarily from the Tongan community. Its rivals include the Kearns Town Bloods, the Baby Regulators, and a splinter group of former members called the Tongan Crip Regulators. That rival list is important for understanding this incident, because Kearns is not clean TCG ground. It is contested. Kearns Town Bloods is rooted in that same community, and the Baby Regulators feud with TCG is a Tongan-on-Tongan conflict that has been running for decades. Federal prosecutors have taken TCG apart in racketeering cases more than once, with sentences running into decades.

The piece most people outside Utah do not understand is the church connection. The Tongan community in Salt Lake County is large, roughly 13,000 people by the analyst S2 Underground’s count, which he places at about a quarter of the entire Tongan population of the United States. The LDS Church has built dedicated Tongan stakes and wards to serve them, conducted in the Tongan language, with their own cultural centers. Yesterday’s funeral was at one of them. Salt Lake Tongan Central Stake is not a general meetinghouse that happened to host a Tongan family. It is a Tongan stake center.

S2 Underground’s assessment is that some of these buildings are “not really houses of worship, but actually safehouses for the Tongan Crip Gang.” He points to gang colors displayed around the structures and to the fact that police now pre-stage at Tongan funerals because they assess with high confidence that shooting is likely. His reporting is reliable and his assessment lines up with what I am looking at.

I have reviewed a photograph of Angilau wearing Crip attire, and I have reviewed the family’s own funeral announcement, which lists the Nofo’aki, the Tongan gathering held Saturday, August 15, at a residence in West Valley City belonging to a man named Siale Angilau. That surname turns up in federal Tongan Crip Gang prosecutions in Salt Lake City. It appears generally that there are some gang associations here with the Tongan Crip Gang. That is fairly obvious from the material and I am not going to belabor it, because the point of this article is not who this young man ran with. It is what happened at the building.

One detail on the flyer will fly past most readers. It carries a Utah Jazz logo and a green and gold KC. In California in the 1980s and 1990s, when enforcement got heavy and wearing colors got you stopped, sets moved to sports team jerseys and logos as a way to show unity without announcing membership. Blue teams for Crip sets, red for Bloods, and local school iconography layered underneath. I cannot tell you with certainty that is what is happening on this flyer, but that is what it looks like to a set of eyes that spent years reading it.

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The January Shooting at Rose Park

On January 7, 2026, at an LDS meetinghouse at 660 North Redwood Road in Salt Lake City’s Rose Park neighborhood, a funeral was underway inside the chapel when a fight broke out in the parking lot and turned into gunfire. Sione Vatuvei, 38, and Vaea Tulikihihifo, 46, were killed. Six more people were shot. A witness told investigators she arrived to find a large group of men standing in the parking lot smoking and drinking, wearing gang attire, and that two men fired toward the church until they ran out of ammunition. Detectives reported that witnesses were uncooperative. Two men were arrested for obstruction of justice before anyone was arrested for the killings.

Same county, same denomination, same event type, seven months apart. I covered that shooting on video in January, and this is what I said on camera at the time:

We’re gonna save this because I’m going to replay it after your next active shooter event. Some of you are going to die because of the ineptness of your church security program and your inability to create a structured security program at the meeting house.

I take no satisfaction in being right about that. A man is dead and two more are fighting for their lives, and the outcome was predictable enough that the police showed up before the shooting to stand in the parking lot and wait for it.

The Decision Nobody Made

Somebody called the police on the morning of August 17 and told them there could be a problem at this funeral. Police believed that report enough to send officers and post them in the open as a deterrent. The stake had a known gang funeral on its calendar, in a building that serves a community with an active gang problem, seven months after two men were shot to death at a funeral at another LDS building in the same county.

At that point the funeral should have been postponed, relocated to a controlled site, or held with restricted access. It went forward as scheduled.

I understand why nobody wanted to be the one to call it off. A family is grieving, the cultural expectation around a Tongan funeral is enormous, and telling that family no would have been the hardest conversation a bishop or stake president had all year. But that is the job. Somebody in that building had the authority to say the service could not proceed as planned, and the cost of not saying it was one man dead and two in surgery, with an elementary school in lockdown next door and children inside it.

Church leaders need to understand something about that threshold. If the threat is credible enough that you want armed police standing on your property, it is credible enough that you should not be running the event. Those two positions cannot both be true at once. Asking for officers is an admission that you expect violence. Proceeding anyway is a decision to accept it.

Your people’s physical safety comes before anyone’s feelings about a service. That is not cold. That is the whole reason a security ministry exists.

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What to Do When a Gang Is Operating Inside Your Church

Most of you reading this do not have a TCG problem. Some of you have a gang problem you have decided not to look at, and it usually starts small. A few young men in colors in the back row. A set of hand signs in a youth group photo. Graffiti on the dumpster enclosure that somebody paints over without reporting. A funeral request from a family the neighborhood knows about.

There is a norm in some communities that the church is off limits, that whatever happens in the street stays in the street. That norm is real where it exists and it has kept a lot of buildings quiet over the years. It does not exist here. Two funerals in seven months say it plainly. If you are counting on an unwritten rule to protect your building, you are counting on something you have no control over and no way to enforce.

Start with your written policy, because everything else runs off it. Your policy needs to state that gang colors, indicia, and hand signs are not permitted in the building, and it needs to name who enforces that and how. It needs to give your pastor or bishop the explicit authority to postpone, relocate, or restrict access to any funeral or event based on a threat assessment, without having to negotiate it with a family in the moment. Write that down before you need it, because you will not win that argument on the day.

Then do a threat assessment on every funeral. Not just the ones that worry you. Every one. Who is the deceased, how did he die, is there an open investigation, is there a rival faction with a grievance, has there been retaliatory violence in the last 90 days. Your local police gang unit will talk to you if you build the relationship before you need it. In Salt Lake County that is the Metro Gang Unit. In your county it is somebody with the same job and the same phone number sitting unused.

Do not confuse a security response with a ministry response. You need both and they are separate tracks. Gang intervention inside a congregation is real ministry work and there are people who do it well, but it is done by leaders and mentors over years, not by a team member in a polo shirt on a Sunday morning. The security team’s job is to keep people alive long enough for that work to happen. Do not ask your volunteers to do outreach to a set while they are supposed to be running a perimeter.

Finally, work the parking lot. Both of these shootings happened outside the building. The chapel was never breached in Rose Park or in Kearns. Roughly 75 percent of attacks at churches happen in the parking lot, and these two incidents are textbook. If your team is all inside greeting people at the door, your team is in the wrong place.

The LDS Security Problem

I have written about this before and I am going to keep writing about it. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a security problem across its meetinghouses nationwide, and the response from leadership has been inadequate at the ward level, at the stake level, and above. I disagree with LDS theology and that is a separate conversation from whether their buildings are safe.

Buildings sit unlocked and unstaffed. There is no consistent trained security presence. There is no standardized threat assessment process for events. And the guidance discourages members from carrying, which brings me back to Riverton.

Think about what actually happened on August 7. A young man walked into a store with a shotgun, and two armed private citizens stopped him before he could kill the clerk. That young man was a member of the LDS Church. He was buried out of an LDS stake center ten days later. The people who stopped him were exercising a right his own church discourages his fellow members from exercising.

Now move that same scenario 200 yards down the road into the stake center on a Sunday morning. Same man, same shotgun, same three seconds to decide. Who stops him in that building?

Nobody in that room is armed, because they were told not to be. That is the entire answer, and church leadership needs to reckon with it. Members should be permitted to carry concealed in accordance with the laws of the state they live in. A policy that leaves a congregation defenseless is not a neutral policy. It is a decision, and the consequences of that decision land on the people in the pews.

Biblical Perspective

Scripture is not silent on the man who knows his property is dangerous and does nothing about it. The law God gave Israel addressed it directly and assigned the liability without hedging.

Exodus 21:29

“But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.”

Read that carefully, because it is a three-part test and every part of it was met in Kearns. The danger had a history. The owner had been warned. The owner did not restrain it. God does not treat the owner as an unlucky bystander to a tragedy on his own property. He treats him as responsible, and He does it because the owner had knowledge and authority and used neither.

An unforeseen accident is a different case entirely, and the passage right before this one says so. The distinction the text draws is knowledge. Once you have been warned, the calculus changes and so does your accountability before God. A stake that receives a warning serious enough to summon armed police to its parking lot has been warned. What it does in the hour after that warning is a moral act, not an administrative one.

The second passage speaks to what a building becomes when nobody guards what happens inside it.

Jeremiah 7:11

“Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.”

Jeremiah is standing at the gate of the temple, watching people treat the building as a sanctuary in the criminal sense rather than the holy one. They committed violence and theft in the street, then came inside and stood in a house with God’s name on it and considered themselves safe. God’s answer is that He sees it. The building does not launder anything. His name on the door does not sanctify what is being carried through it.

That is the warning for any congregation that lets a criminal element establish itself in the pews and tells itself that hospitality covers the problem. Welcoming a sinner into your church is the mission. Allowing a criminal enterprise to use your building as its ground is something else, and Jeremiah puts God’s own eyes on it. A leader who sees colors in the back row and looks away is not being gracious. He is deciding that the peace of his week is worth more than the safety of his people.

Final Assessment

Three men were shot at a church in Kearns because a funeral went forward that should not have. The warning was specific, it was delivered the morning of, and it was credible enough that armed officers were standing in the parking lot when the shots were fired. The threat assessment was correct. The decision that should have followed it was never made.

Intermountain Medical Center then told the public there was no danger while snipers were on the property and ambulances were being turned away from a Level I trauma center. That is not a small thing and it should not be allowed to pass. When institutions manage the narrative instead of telling people the truth, the public loses the ability to make good decisions about its own safety.

For your team, the takeaway is narrow and immediate. Get funeral and memorial risk assessment into your written policy this month, with named authority to postpone or relocate. Get your parking lot covered. Get a working relationship with your county gang unit before you need one. And if you ever find yourself asking police to stand outside your building because of what might happen at an event, understand that you have already answered the question of whether that event should proceed.

If your church has a history of violence connected to a group that meets there, and you are worried enough to call the police, cancel the service. Your people go home alive. That is the standard.

Leave a Comment

What is your team’s policy on funerals and memorial services? Do you have written authority to postpone or relocate one? Leave a comment below and tell me how you handle it. If this piece is useful, send it to your pastor, your bishop, or your team leader.

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Copyright © 2026 Keith Graves. All rights reserved.

Intel Monitor/Report Suspicious Activity

Please watch the video. I am looking for info from followers on the shooting at a church in Kearns, UT today.

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Intel Monitor/Report Suspicious Activity

In this video, I walk through what I carry to church and why I have chosen each piece of equipment. If you carry a firearm as part of a church safety team or simply as a concealed carrier attending church, I think you need to look seriously at whether your equipment matches the threat you believe you may have to face. I cover my normal handgun setup, a smaller concealed carry option, communications, less lethal options, body armor, medical gear, and the equipment I keep available if an incident requires me to move from a handgun to a rifle. You can carry capable equipment without walking into church looking like you are headed to a SWAT callout. The goal is to blend in during normal church activities while having the equipment, training, and options necessary to protect the congregation if something happens.

Gear Mentioned in the Video

Firearms and Firearm Equipment

• Glock 45, 9mm

• Glock 20, 10mm, my normal church carry handgun

• Glock 43X, discussed as a smaller concealed carry option

• .300 Blackout rifle/carbine

• Speer Gold Dot 9mm ammunition

• Trijicon SRO red dot optic

• Aimpoint COA red dot optic, on the Glock 43X

• Radian barrel and compensator

• Radian Magwell

• Streamlight TLR 1 HP X weapon light

• Palmetto State Armory Dagger magazines, 15 round magazines used with my Glock 43X

Holsters and Load Carrying Equipment

• T.REX Arms inside the waistband holster GET 15% off with code CWT

• T.REX Arms Bailout Bag / Active Shooter Bag GET 15% off with code CWT

T.REX Arms discount: Use code CWT for 15% off eligible equipment.

Body Armor

• Premier Body Armor GT plates

• Premier Body Armor soft body armor

• T.REX Arms concealable hard armor / covert plate carrier

• Security identification placards

Communications

• PocLink radio

Less Lethal

• POM MK 3 pepper spray

Medical and Support Equipment

• T Rex Arms Med Pouch (use code CWT for a 15% discount)

Clothing and Footwear

• Poncho button down shirt

• KÜHL hiking pants

• Altama shoes

The specific clothing is less important than the concept behind it. I want clothing that allows me to blend in with the congregation while still being able to move, run, access my firearm, and carry the equipment I need without advertising everything I have on me.

The video goes into considerably more detail about how these pieces work together and why I have different options available depending on what happens. My basic approach is simple: armor, bag, and carbine.

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TERROR AND THREAT UPDATE

TIER 1 — Direct Christian Targeting

ISIS Claims 62 Christians Killed in Eastern Congo — Ituri and Beni, DRC

ISIS Central Africa Province claimed in its weekly newsletter that its fighters killed 62 Christians in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo during the reporting week, captured 10 more, burned approximately 115 homes, and displaced hundreds of people. The claimed operations concentrated in Ituri, with two attacks in the Beni area. Individual claimed actions include a raid on the village of Mongwiko in which 17 Christians were killed by knife and two taken captive, a raid on the villages of Bakwa and Kabutimo in which 13 were killed and eight taken captive, and three separate attacks around the town of Andiri accounting for roughly 19 more deaths and more than 40 homes burned. The group also claimed it burned two Congolese army barracks, wounded soldiers in a firefight near the village of Chanchani in Beni, and killed five more Christians aboard a river boat near the town of Biondo.

[Source: al-Naba issue 559]

🛡️ My thoughts: Each week Isis puts out the tally for the number of Christians that they killed that week. It is indeed a genocide occurring in Nigeria and we should continue to support and pray for our brothers and sisters in Africa.

ISIS Restates Convert, Pay, or Die Ultimatum to Congolese Christians

In the same issue, ISIS Central Africa Province stated that the recent wave of attacks was accompanied by a renewed message to Congolese Christians. The group said Christians in the region have been given three options: convert to Islam voluntarily, pay the jizya tax in a subordinate status in exchange for being left in their villages unharmed, or continue to face war. The statement closed by telling Christians to consider the fate of those attacked before them. The same issue reported that fighters in Mozambique conducted a preaching circuit near the town of Natolo in Montepuez district, where they met with local Muslims and with what the group described as protected persons who had already secured their own safety by paying the jizya.

[Source: al-Naba issue 559]

🛡️ My thoughts: the tax will be paid if you don't convert, but if you pay it, you will still be a slave to the Muslims. They will continue to treat you like a dog and torture your people.

ISIS Weekly Tally Classifies 72 of 90 Casualties as Christians

ISIS published a weekly operational infographic claiming 22 operations producing more than 90 killed and wounded. Of those casualties, the group classified 72 as Christians and 18 as apostates or unbelievers. The provincial breakdown claimed 67 casualties across 11 operations in Central Africa, 16 casualties across 7 operations in West Africa, 5 casualties across 3 operations in Mozambique, and 2 casualties across 2 operations in Khorasan. The group also claimed one commander killed, eight vehicles burned or disabled, and three military sites burned.

[Source: al-Naba issue 559]

ISIS West Africa Publishes 50-Day Campaign Totals for Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon

A second ISIS infographic in the same issue covered a period of just under 50 days, running from 2 Muharram to 18 Safar 1448. The group claimed 72 attacks producing 110 killed and wounded, including two commanders. Of the claimed casualties, 69 were categorized as army and police, 32 as militia members, and 9 as Christians. Claimed materiel losses included 50 vehicles destroyed or disabled, 40 homes burned, and 7 positions burned. The group broke its attacks into 8 bombings, 7 ambushes, 24 assaults and firefights, and 33 other actions, distributed across Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa in northern Nigeria, the Maroua area of far northern Cameroon, and Diffa in southeastern Niger.

[Source: al-Naba issue 559]

🛡️ My thoughts: Americans may think that this does not apply to them. It does apply to you because they are Christians being slaughtered and a genocide. You should study these attacks because this is how they will attack you when they finally get organized in America. If you think the organization isn't happening, just look at Texas and Michigan.

TIER 2 — Attack Methods

Pro-ISIS Forum User Solicits Explosives, Poison, and Drone Instruction

On 3 August, a pro-ISIS user posted a request on a group-affiliated forum, written in Tajik, asking for information on constructing homemade explosives, creating poisonous materials, and using unmanned aerial vehicles. The user did not state a purpose or intended target and also asked to be directed to pro-ISIS channels that could supply further material. Another user responded by pointing him to a channel that has been prolific in producing tactical manuals. Analysts noted that a separate pro-ISIS user recently urged readers to exploit the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran to prepare to move into areas with wider security gaps.

[Source: NYPD OSI Reporting, 9 August 2026]

🛡️ My thoughts: these weapons are readily available. You can go online right now and buy C4, dynamite, and other explosives. The weapons markets work just like the drug markets on the dark web. They're very difficult to investigate and stop. Attacks on churches have become more complex when you look at the last few years. Isis has been telling people how to construct improvise explosives to use vehicles, knives, firearms, fire, all at the same time.

TIER 3 — United States Homeland

Iranian Cyber Actors Compromise Municipal Water Systems in at Least Seven States

United States intelligence agencies assess that cyberattacks against water systems in dozens of municipalities across at least seven states were likely carried out by Iranian cyber actors. The intrusions targeted programmable logic controllers, the equipment used to remotely control and monitor system components, and were first reported in late July when operators at multiple Minnesota water systems reported malicious activity. Pennsylvania systems were also affected. The attacks did not compromise drinking water quality or produce prolonged service disruptions. Analysts placed the activity in a pattern going back more than a decade, including the 2023 intrusion at a water provider in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and a 2013 intrusion into the control systems of a dam in Rye, New York.

[Source: NYPD OSI Reporting, 9 August 2026; Indago Iran Weekly Update, 10 August 2026]

🛡️ My thoughts: this should be deeply concerning. The government has been warning us for quite a long time that these bad actors are in our municipal systems. This includes power. Do you need to prepare to be without water or electricity for over 30 days.

Christian Warrior Prepper

Christian Warrior Prepper equips believers with practical survival skills and biblical guidance for uncertain times. Join our community dedicated to preparedness, resilience, and faith-driven action.

By Keith Graves

TIER 5 — Dates to Watch This Week

• 15 August. Spanish and European authorities are watching for a signaled second mass border crossing at Ceuta. Roughly 70,000 migrants breached the border from Morocco in the first event, and Spanish authorities confirmed at least a dozen convicted terrorists among the arrivals.

• 21 August. The United States 60-day general license authorizing Iranian oil sales expires. Analysts assess its collapse as the leading trigger for renewed regional escalation.

VIOLENT CRIME

Mass Shooting and Hostage Plot Against a Church Disrupted — Venice, Florida

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested 19-year-old Giovanni Pimienta of Venice on charges of written threats to kill, threats to bomb or conduct a mass shooting, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device to commit a felony. The investigation began July 31 when an FDLE agent received information through the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force about a person communicating online about obtaining weapons and glorifying prior mass shootings. According to the arrest affidavit, an anonymous tip on August 7 reported that Pimienta had written a manifesto, displayed guns on a messaging app, and had recently visited a local church and interviewed staff members about the exits. Investigators also recovered an AI-generated video and a manifesto posted to social media that promoted white supremacist, antisemitic, anti-Black, anti-Muslim, and accelerationist views. Agents served a search warrant at his residence on August 7 and seized a handgun and multiple electronic devices; the affidavit states Pimienta admitted sharing a plan with online associates to take hostages at the church, release those who agreed with his views, kill those who did not, and flee to Cuba. The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, Venice Police Department, and FBI assisted, and the case is being prosecuted by the State Attorney for the 12th Judicial Circuit.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: this man's reconnaissance should've set off major alarms. I have a free class on identifying threats just like this. Take that course, it's free to you as a fellow follower of Christ. This was a tragedy that was averted. In the rollcall briefing put out yesterday, I discussed how you need to prepare and train for hostage taking like this.

Vehicle Occupants Fired On While Driving Home From Church — Collins, Mississippi

Holly Cadence Morgan, 38, of Seminary is jailed in Covington County on one count of shooting into an occupied vehicle and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. Authorities say Morgan was a passenger in a stopped vehicle at the intersection of Cascio-Taormina Road and Highway 590 when she opened the door, stepped out, and fired three times at a passing car occupied by a family heading home from a church service. One bullet struck the vehicle and no one was injured. Investigators say Morgan did not know anyone in the vehicle and have not established why she fired on them. The arrest was reported on Wednesday, August 12.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: please have situational awareness at all times. While you leave your target because of your beliefs. Although that was not the case here, you should still pay attention to your surroundings and be ready to act. Here, when you see somebody getting ready to fire upon you, your vehicle can become a wonderful weapon to defend yourself.

Body Found Beside Church Parking Lot, State Police Investigating — Hoxie, Arkansas

Hoxie police were notified at approximately 3:15 p.m. on Tuesday, August 11, of a body on property adjacent to the parking lot of People’s Faith Tabernacle Church at 1202 Sullens Road. Arkansas State Police identified the deceased as James Frey, 34, of Salem, roughly an hour northwest of Hoxie in Fulton County. At the request of the Hoxie Police Department, special agents with the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division took over the case. Frey’s body was transported to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory, where the cause and manner of death will be determined. Authorities have released no cause of death, no suspect information, and no stated connection between the death and the church. Hoxie is in Lawrence County in northeast Arkansas.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: this is a sad event. We don't know how he died. But we do know that people that need Christ the most will go to a church 24/7 when they are in crisis. Whether it's a medical crisis, a drug overdose, or somebody trying to kill them. Have a 4K video system that includes the church perimeter. It is a force multiplier for you and the recording helps law-enforcement self crime.

Former Teacher and Choir Member Charged in Church Bomb Threat — Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Melissa Ann Redway on Monday, August 10, on charges including writing threats to kill or do bodily injury and threatening to discharge a destructive device. According to the arrest report, the threat was emailed to Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in February and referenced a concert scheduled at the church for February 20, stating she first needed to blow up the entire church with herself present at the concert. Redway had been a teacher at Westminster Academy, the church’s private school, and was laid off after a brain injury left her unable to perform her duties. Police say she also lost her position in the church choir and did not accept the news well, and a witness reported she arrived at a choir practice wearing a cassock, ran down the aisle, and left the building. The church’s executive director told police that Redway’s behavior had been increasingly concerning and expressed concern for the safety of congregants and students. Bond was set at $7,500.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: another crisis averted. Please study incidents like this and use it as a scenario in your next training day.

SEX CRIMES

Christian Academy Closes After Fifth Arrest in Sex Offender Scandal — Pawleys Island, South Carolina

Pawleys Island Community Church elders announced in an email to members on Monday, August 10, that the congregation is formally ending Pawleys Island Christian Academy after 25 years of operation. The case centers on Warren Spencer Perry, 70, a registered sex offender who pleaded guilty in 2023 to third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and who served in volunteer custodial and maintenance roles on the shared church and school campus. South Carolina probation officials arrested Perry on July 14 for allegedly entering areas frequented by children and repeatedly contacting minors, and the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation after a parent complaint in July. Five people have now been arrested: Perry, former senior pastor Don Williams, his wife Ginny Williams, former academy director Jennifer “Niki” Howard, and church director of operations and missions Michael Anthony Fields, on charges including obstruction of justice, criminal conspiracy, and unlawfully placing a child at risk.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: this event was church ending. You should constantly think about crime like this and how I can end your church. I love my church and don't want to see it closed because of something stupid like somebody protecting the church instead of the innocent. But yet, this occurs several times a year around America. The Bible is clear: victims come before protecting the church.

Affidavit Details Released in Pastor’s Indecency Case — Edinburg, Texas

Jorge Ivan Gonzalez Martinez, 49, of McAllen, a pastor at Iglesia Internacional Poder y Gloria in Edinburg, was arrested July 27 and charged with three counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact and one count of indecency with a child by exposure. Arrest affidavit details released this week state a girl made an outcry to a parent on July 19 that Martinez had touched her inappropriately on multiple occasions between March and April 2025. The affidavit states all of the alleged incidents occurred in the church’s camera room. During a Children’s Advocacy Center interview on July 24, the child reported the conduct began with hugs that became tighter and involved body contact, progressed to kisses, and escalated to Martinez pulling down her clothing and placing her hand on his genitals over his clothes. Edinburg Police Chief Jaime Ayala said additional children have come forward with allegations, though investigators concluded those findings did not rise to the level of further criminal offenses. Bond was initially set at $300,000 and Martinez has since posted $70,000 in bonds and been released; the investigation remains open.

Source

Charges Against Former Youth Pastor Double to 36 Counts — Clute, Texas

A Brazoria County grand jury returned a new round of indictments against Adrian Gerard Johnson, 35, a former youth pastor at Destiny Church in Clute, doubling the number of charges against him from 18 to 36. The charges include trafficking, aggravated sexual assault of a child, sexual assault of a child, sexual performance by a child, compelling prostitution, and indecency with a child. The indictments were filed directly with the grand jury by the Lake Jackson Police Department, which is leading the investigation. The original 18 counts covered offenses alleged between July 2015 and November 2020 involving three girls, and it is not yet clear whether the new indictments involve the same girls or additional accusers. Several women have alleged Johnson abused them when they attended the church or its affiliated school, Kairos Christian Academy. The case began with a multi-agency investigation opened in July 2025 after a 20-year-old woman filed a complaint alleging abuse that started when she was a teenager.

Source

ARSON AND SUSPICIOUS FIRES

Church Arson Suspect Admitted Attempt on Second Church — Brooklyn, New York

Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York disclosed in a detention memo that John Jones, 24, admitted setting the June 19 fire that destroyed the 173-year-old South Bushwick Reformed Church at 855 Bushwick Avenue, and further stated he had recently attempted to burn down a second church in Brooklyn. Jones was arrested on August 5 for shoplifting at a Midtown CVS and made the admissions during the post-arrest interview. Investigators recovered a notebook containing a handwritten chart with categories for violent targets, including entries reading murder them, kill them, and stab them, along with tally marks and repeated misspellings of the word church. The criminal complaint alleges surveillance footage shows Jones attempting to enter the church on the afternoon of June 19, walking to a nearby store to buy a lighter, and returning to the church before the fire started. The three-alarm blaze destroyed the sanctuary and toppled the steeple of the building, which was designated a New York City landmark in 1968 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Jones faces up to 20 years if convicted, and prosecutors are seeking pretrial detention.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: this man was going to continue burning other churches in New York City. New York City should be on alert. With Mayer mamdani, crimes against Christian and Jews has been skyrocketing.

Suspected Arson Destroys Church Storage Shed — McHenry, Illinois

The McHenry Township Fire Protection District responded at approximately 2:49 a.m. on Tuesday, July 28, to a reported structure fire at Faith Presbyterian Church, 2107 West Lincoln Road in McHenry. A 911 caller reported a large shed on fire, and arriving crews confirmed a standalone shed heavily engulfed. The fire destroyed the shed and its contents. Fire officials have deemed the fire suspicious and the investigation is open, with investigators publicly seeking information from the community as of August 9. The church credited neighbors in the adjacent Eastwood Manor subdivision for calling 911 quickly and the fire district for a response that kept the fire from spreading.

Source

🛡️ My thoughts: this is your reminder that I give every week to have a burglar alarm, a fire alarm, and a 4K video system. This is the most basic security measures in church can take.

Fire at Church Previously Targeted With Swastika Graffiti — Broomfield, Colorado

Colorado firefighters responded to a fire at a Broomfield church, and the extent of the damage is under investigation. The cause has not been publicly determined. Broomfield police investigated an incident at the same church last fall in which a swastika and other symbols were painted on the church sign. No injuries were reported.

Source

INTERNATIONAL

Monk Arrested After Stabbing Two at Monastery — Cyprus

A 51-year-old monk was arrested after allegedly stabbing two men at a monastery in Cyprus on Friday, August 7. Reports state the monk had been asked to leave the monastery, went to his room, and returned with a box cutter. He attempted to stab the abbot but instead struck a 53-year-old maintenance worker, and also wounded a 27-year-old preacher. Both victims were hospitalized. The abbot and members of the church committee were present during the incident.

Source

Bishop Says Gangs Are Targeting the Church as 65 Parishes Close — Haiti

Bishop Joseph Gontrand Décoste of Jérémie said armed gangs have made the church a direct target as violence continues to spread across Haiti. Reporting this week indicates 65 Catholic parishes have closed because of gang activity. Gangs are not only seizing church buildings and schools but converting them into fortified positions. Priests, seminarians, and nuns are regularly among the victims, and attacks on religious schools and kidnappings of clergy have been used to establish control over regions of the country. The bishop said congregations in his diocese continue to gather, pray, and worship despite the daily threat.

Source

Forty Anti-Christian Hate Crimes Recorded in a Single Month — Europe

The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians documented more than three dozen attacks targeting Christian churches, symbols, and worshippers across Europe during July. Incidents in the report include the desecration of churches with bodily waste and the stabbing of a woman as she prayed inside a Catholic church in Ireland. The report was published this week.

Source

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Copyright © 2026 Keith Graves. All rights reserved.

Intel Monitor/Report Suspicious Activity

This week’s Roll Call Briefing examines a planned hostage attack against a Florida church and the warning signs investigators uncovered before the suspect could act. We also cover the shooting of a family returning home from church, several developing terrorism concerns, violent incidents affecting churches, and how safety teams should respond when an armed suspect takes hostages.

• A Florida suspect who allegedly cased a church and planned to take hostages

• A family’s vehicle struck by gunfire while they were returning home from church

• ISIS claims involving the deaths of Christians in the Congo

• Pro ISIS requests for explosives, poison, and drone instructions

• Iranian cyberattacks against American water systems

• A bomb threat, suspicious death, and sex offender case involving churches

• Recognizing leakage and pre-attack reconnaissance

• Understanding hostage and barricaded incidents

• Psalm 144:1 and the responsibility to prepare

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Active Shooter Incidents In The U

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Churches were the least-attacked place in America last year and took twenty-six percent of the casualties. The FBI counted 34 active shooter attacks in 2025. Three of them happened at churches, which is nine percent of the total and the smallest share of any category in the report. Those three attacks put 43 of the 166 casualties in the country on the ground.

Picture your own building on a Sunday morning. Two hundred people in rows, seated, facing forward, most of them past sixty. The doors are propped because it is warm. Somebody’s grandkids are in the second row. A man walks across the lot with a rifle and starts shooting through the window glass from outside, and nobody inside sees him coming because everybody inside is looking at the pulpit. That is Minneapolis, August 27th. Thirty casualties in about two minutes.

I read all seventy-six pages of this report. There are about two pages in it about churches, because the report is written for cops, not for you. What follows is the part that reaches into your building.

Nine percent and twenty-six percent

Commerce locations took the most attacks in 2025 with fourteen. Open spaces took seven, government buildings six, schools four, and churches three. Nationally the year was worse than the one before it by a wide margin. Attacks were up 42 percent from 24 to 34, casualties were up 57 percent from 106 to 166, and mass killings more than doubled from three to seven. Every shooter was male, every one of them worked alone, and their ages ran from 16 to 77.

You will see people run the division on that and report 14.3 casualties per church attack against a national average of 4.9. I am not going to lean on that number and neither should you. Thirty of the 43 came from Minneapolis alone. One attack is carrying that average, and any statistic built on three events will do that.

Here is the honest version. The three attacks produced 1 casualty, 12 casualties, and 30 casualties. Take Minneapolis out of the math entirely and the other two still averaged 6.5, above the national 4.9. Widen the window to five years, where the sample is big enough to mean something, and the FBI counts seven church attacks and 54 casualties from 2021 through 2025. That is 7.7 per attack against 4.9 across every location. Only schools ran higher.

Why does a church run high year after year? Density. A man shooting in a parking lot is shooting at people who are spread out, moving, and dropping behind cars. A man shooting into a sanctuary during a service is shooting into rows of people who are sitting down, packed shoulder to shoulder, facing the other way. Every round he fires has somebody in front of it. That will not change, which is why churches and schools sit at the top of that chart year after year while the attack counts stay low.

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Three attacks, read side by side

The FBI writes these summaries in about four sentences each. Put the three next to each other and they teach a great deal more than any one of them does alone.

On Sunday, June 22nd, at CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, a 31 year old man with a rifle opened fire outside as the service began. A parishioner watching it happen struck the shooter with his vehicle. Armed church security engaged him and killed him at the scene. One member of that security team was injured. Nobody in the congregation was killed.

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On Wednesday, August 27th, at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, a 23 year old man barricaded the exit doors from the outside and fired through the windows during a back-to-school Mass. He never entered the building. Two people were killed and twenty-eight were wounded, and the majority of the victims were children in pre-K through eighth grade. He died by suicide before police arrived. Total duration, about two minutes. That was the highest casualty count of any active shooter attack in the United States in 2025, and it happened at a church, on a weekday morning, with the kids there.

On Sunday, September 28th, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, a 40 year old man rammed his truck into the building, opened fire on the congregation with a rifle, set the building on fire, and kept shooting. He was carrying improvised explosive devices. A congregant drew his personal weapon and wounded him. Police arrived one minute and fifty-eight seconds after dispatch, which is a fast response by any standard in this country, and killed him. Four dead, eight wounded, three minutes and forty-three seconds from first shot to finish.

One of those three churches had an armed team standing post that morning. That is the church where no member of the congregation was killed.

I am not going to tell you a single case settles an argument, because it does not. But this is the only case we have from 2025 in which an attacker at a church ran into an armed, organized response. That congregation lost nobody. The two that did not have a team lost thirty people shot in one and twelve in the other.

The attack starts outside

Two of the three attacks began outside the building, and one of them never came inside at all.

That should change where you put your people. Most church security plans concentrate everything at the entrance and the back of the sanctuary. The greeters work the door, somebody stands at the rear with eyes on the room, and the whole design assumes the threat walks in through the front where you can see him. At CrossPointe the fight happened in the lot. At Annunciation the attacker worked the exterior wall, blocked the doors so the people inside could not get out, and shot through the glass.

Somebody is going to tell me that a man standing in the parking lot cannot stop a rifle. He is right, and that is not the job. The job is to see a man crossing the lot with a long gun and get that information into the building thirty seconds sooner than it would have arrived otherwise. In thirty seconds your people can be off the pews, behind cover, and the doors can be handled.

So post a man outside during service. Give him a radio, a clear line of sight on the approaches, and permission to walk up to somebody and start a conversation. For most churches reading this, that is the single cheapest change available, and it can be in place this Sunday.

Thirty seconds, not three minutes

Ed Monk is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, a West Point graduate, and a working law enforcement officer who has been researching active shooter attacks since 2007. His book came out in 2025, and it is called First 30 Seconds: The Active Shooter Problem. The number in that title is the most useful figure in this entire subject, and it is far more demanding than anything in the FBI report.

Monk’s finding is that to have a high mathematical probability of holding the victim count in single digits, zero to nine, the attacker has to be stopped inside the first thirty seconds of his attack. His research puts most attackers firing a new shot every three to five seconds. By the thirty-second mark the tenth victim is frequently already down. By the third minute, counts in the twenties and thirties are common.

Now set that against the FBI numbers. Average police response at the three church attacks was two minutes and fifty-nine seconds from dispatch to arrival, and the fastest was one minute fifty-eight at Grand Blanc.

Those are good response times. Those are officers driving hard. They are also about six times longer than Monk’s window.

And 2:59 flatters us. I say us because I spent my career on that end of the call. That clock does not start when the shooting starts, it starts at dispatch. Before dispatch, somebody in your building has to hear it, understand what it is, and get through to a call taker. Arrival on scene is not the end either. Officers still have to make entry, find him, and put him down. The gap your team has to cover is longer than three minutes, not equal to it.

Watch Monk’s math play out in the FBI’s own summaries. Minneapolis ran about two minutes and produced thirty casualties. Grand Blanc ran three minutes and forty-three seconds and produced twelve. At CrossPointe a parishioner hit the attacker with a vehicle and the security team killed him in the opening moments of the attack, and the total came to one injured security member.

The national picture holds up too. Law enforcement intervened in thirteen of the thirty-four attacks while the shooter was still shooting at people. In the other twenty-one it was over before an officer arrived.

So thirty seconds is the standard, and nobody is driving to your address in thirty seconds. That is the whole argument for a trained team on site, and it is why you time your drills. Run the full response and put a real number on each piece. How long to get the exterior doors handled. How long to get the front three rows down and behind something. How long for your team to cross the lot to a man at the far end of it. Write those numbers down and compare them to thirty seconds. A team that knows its own times can plan. A team that has never measured is guessing.

The man in your directory

Two of the three church shooters had ties to the church they attacked, as former members or attendees. They had sat in those rooms. Nationally, fifteen of the thirty-four shooters had some connection to the location or to the victims, and seven of them were classified as insider threats, meaning they had legitimate access at the time of the attack.

I have been telling you this for years, and here is the federal government’s own data confirming it. Most church security training in this country goes heavy on stranger recognition. Watch the door, watch the unfamiliar face, watch the man who does not fit. That work matters and we teach it. But it is not where these attacks came from. The man who attacked Annunciation and the man who attacked CrossPointe were not strangers to those buildings. They had sat in them.

So the greeter’s job is bigger than spotting a new face. It is noticing the familiar one. The man who left angry two years ago. The one who was removed from a ministry position. The family whose situation came apart inside your church last spring. Your safety team should know those names. That is not gossip, it is a threat assessment, and there is a difference between the two.

And when he does show up, you meet him. You close the distance, get your eyes on him, interrupt his OODA loop, and say something friendly. Hey brother, good to see you, everything all right? If he came to talk to his pastor, he tells you so and you just helped a hurting man. If he came for something else, he now knows he has been seen and identified, and the plan he walked in with does not work anymore. Both of those come out of one friendly conversation.

What actually stops these

Twenty-three of the thirty-four shooters in 2025, sixty-eight percent of them, showed what the FBI calls predatory behavior. That means they considered the attack, planned it, and prepared for it. That figure was fifty-eight percent in 2024, so it is climbing. Those planned attacks caused seventy-six percent of every casualty in the report.

That is good news for your team. A man who plans for six weeks leaves six weeks of evidence lying around, and somebody almost always sees a piece of it. The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit says it flat out on page 74: mass shooters do not just snap.

The back of the report carries an appendix of attacks that were stopped in 2025. Read it and the pattern jumps out. A social media company reported a 16 year old’s post and police found him inside a school in Queens with a handgun and ammunition. A family in Atlanta called after a man livestreamed his plan to attack the airport. Students told their administrators in Schertz, Texas. Students told campus police at the University at Buffalo, and officers seized his firearms the day before he intended to act. Every one of those began with a person saying something out loud to somebody they trusted.

There is one item on the FBI’s list of concerning behaviors that belongs on your team’s briefing sheet this week, and it is this: asking questions about or testing security at a possible target. If a man is walking your building asking which doors stay unlocked, when the offering gets moved, and whether the fellow in the blue polo is carrying, that is your warning sign. Write it down, tell your team leader, and call your local police department.

If you are wrong about a neighbor, you have one awkward conversation and you move on. If you are right and you said nothing, you carry that for the rest of your life.

How worried you should actually be

Not very. A piece like this can leave a man convinced the sky is falling, and the men who have been running your team for ten years will tune out the moment they smell that.

Three attacks in a country with well over three hundred thousand congregations means the odds that your specific church is targeted in a given year are very small. Most churches will exist their entire lives and never see one. Any newsletter that tells you different is trying to sell you a course.

Two things changed this year. When an attack does happen at a church, more people get shot than at the average attack anywhere else, and that has held across five years and seven attacks. It comes from the physical arrangement of a worship service rather than from anything you did wrong. And the direction moved. Church attacks went from one to three. Attacks overall moved out of open spaces, which fell from half of all incidents in 2024 to twenty-one percent in 2025, and into occupied buildings, where commerce attacks more than tripled.

So here is where that leaves you. The odds are low, more people get shot at a church than anywhere else when it happens, and the fixes are cheap. A man posted outside during service. Exit doors that open from the inside. A phone number people can call. None of that takes a budget, and none of it takes anybody walking around your church looking like he is going to war.

Nehemiah prayed and he posted a guard

“And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.” — Nehemiah 4:9, ESV

He did both, and the text puts them in the same sentence without treating either one as a substitute for the other. The men rebuilding that wall worked with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other, and nobody in that account suggested the weapon showed a lack of faith.

Proverbs 22:3 draws the line between the prudent man and the simple one, and it is worth reading slowly. “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” The difference between those two men is not courage. It is whether he looked.

The FBI just handed you seventy-six pages of what is coming. Go look at your own building.

Three things this week. Post a man outside during service. Run one drill and write down how long each piece of it actually took. Get your team the names of the people who left your church angry.

Then send this to your pastor and your team leader. The men who need to read it are not the ones who subscribe to a church security newsletter. They are sitting next to you on Sunday and they have never thought about any of it, and you are the one who is going to hand it to them.

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Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Active Shooter Incidents in the United States, 2025, prepared with the ALERRT Center at Texas State University. Data current as of March 19, 2026.

The Intelligence Monitor is free and it stays free. No paywall, no login, no trial period. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, use it and don’t think twice about the money.

It still costs real money to build and maintain. The people who pay for something they could have for nothing are the reason it exists at all, and we need the ones who can afford it to cover the ones who can’t. Take what you find in here and do something with it. Be the watchman on the wall.The CWT Intelligence Monitor Is Live and It Is Free

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Intel Monitor/Report Suspicious Activity

Go to the dashboard here, but I suggest you take the tutorial I made in this video so you can use all of the features.

Go to the Dashboard

Christian Warrior Training now operates a live intelligence dashboard for church safety teams at intel.christianwarriortraining.com. It pulls from 31 news sources, sorts every qualifying incident by severity and by institution, plots it on a map you can filter by state or by country, and publishes a weekly situation report. It also takes suspicious activity reports directly from the people sitting in the pews.

As of this writing the monitor is holding 305 incidents in its 14 day window. Last week alone it logged 173 qualifying incidents: 4 critical, 49 high, and 120 medium. The breakdown by institution was 85 Christian, 43 Jewish, 40 Catholic, 3 LDS, and 2 mixed. The top categories were violence and assault at 57, vandalism and property damage at 34, and burglary and theft at 31. Those are not projections. That is one week of reporting on churches and religious institutions in this country and abroad.

There is no account to create, no login, no tracking, and no cost.

What the Monitor Does

The dashboard ingests public news feeds on an automated schedule and classifies each incident with a rule based system. Critical, high, medium, low. In scope right now are Christian, Catholic, Jewish, and LDS institutions in the United States, with a smaller global watch section for source linked incidents overseas. Every entry carries a direct publisher link or a clearly labeled aggregator link so you can go read the original before you act on anything.

The current CWT threat level sits at the top of the page. It has been at HIGH, Orange, since June 5, 2026, and it is displayed alongside the incident data so your team sees the posture and the reason for it in the same glance.

How to Actually Use It

Start with the map. Tap your state and the feed filters down to your state only. If you want a wider picture, switch to the global map and tap a country. Then set your time range with the buttons above the feed: 24 hours, 72 hours, 7 days, 14 days, or 30 days. Set the region to U.S. focus or Global Watch depending on what you are looking for.

Below the feed you will find the severity distribution, the top incident types for the window, a weekly trend line, and a source health list showing when each of the 31 feeds last checked in and whether it errored.

The button most teams will use every week is Print Briefing. It takes whatever filters you have set and renders a clean, printable incident briefing with sources, timestamps, and locations. Set it to your state, set it to 7 days, print it, and you have a briefing sheet for Sunday morning without writing a word.

If you run your own systems, the public feeds are at slash feed dot xml and slash feed dot json, and they accept filters for group, severity, and range.

Reporting What the News Never Covers

The monitor can only see what a newsroom published. That is the limitation of every open source product, and most of what threatens a congregation never gets that far. The car that has now been in your lot three Sundays in a row does not make the news. The man photographing your entrances does not make the news.

That is what the report form is for. It sits at intel.christianwarriortraining.com slash report, and it is open to pastors, staff, safety team members, volunteers, and anyone in the congregation who saw something. There is a full six step version and a quick version for when you are short on time. You get a reference ID on the confirmation page.

Your report stays private. Reporter contact information never publishes under any circumstance. If, and only if, you check the optional permission box, a reviewer may publish a frozen, redacted summary of what you saw. Those appear on the public dashboard labeled Community Report. There is one on there right now out of O’Fallon, Missouri, where a safety team worked a man who sat on a curb facing the sanctuary entrance writing in a notebook during the 9:30 service. Their team contacted him, their off duty officer took a position where he could see him, and they watched him leave. That report is now sitting in front of every team in the country because one man took ten minutes to file it.

Photo metadata, including GPS location, is stripped from images before upload. This is not an emergency channel and it is not monitored in real time. Call 911 first, then file.

The Ask: Corporate Sponsors

I want this to stay free for every church in America, and I need help holding that line.

There is a sponsor line at the top of the dashboard. I am opening it to businesses that want their name in front of church safety teams, security directors, and pastors: security integrators, camera and access control companies, insurance carriers, firearms and medical gear manufacturers, training organizations, and church management platforms. Your placement sits above the incident feed, which is the first thing a team leader looks at when he opens the page.

If you run a company that serves this space, email Info@gravesassociates.com and I will send you the traffic numbers, the audience breakdown, and the rates. If you know somebody who should see this, forward it to them. Sponsorship is what keeps a paywall off this thing.

The Biblical Lens

Ezekiel 33:6 puts the responsibility exactly where it belongs.

“But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.”

The watchman is not judged on whether the sword came. He is judged on whether he blew the trumpet. Notice what the passage does not require of him. It does not require certainty, a confirmed threat, or proof that the enemy is real. It requires that when he sees something, he makes noise.

That is the entire premise of the report form. You do not have to be sure. You have to tell somebody.

Go Use It

Open intel.christianwarriortraining.com on your phone right now, tap your state, and see what has happened around you in the last 30 days. Then bookmark the report page and put the link in your team’s group chat so every one of them can file without asking you first.

Tell me in the comments what you find in your state, and what you want the dashboard to do that it does not do yet. I am still building this. Send this to your pastor and your team leader so they know it exists.

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