Certificates are Back On, New CASIC and Leadership Class and More
I wanted to give everyone an update on what is happening with Christian Warrior Training because there is quite a bit going on right now.
The first thing many of you have been asking about is certificates for our online training. They are back. I had to temporarily shut the certificate system down because I learned that my insurance was not going to cover certain parts of the online training the way we were doing it. I was not willing to keep operating that way without proper coverage, so we stopped issuing certificates until I could get everything worked out.
That has now been resolved, and certificates are turned back on. One thing to keep in mind is that the course system can be finicky. You may need to allow pop-ups in your browser before the certificate will download properly.
I also want to explain something about Christian Warrior Training that I do not think I have ever really laid out before. When I say our training is free, I mean it is free to you. It is definitely not free to produce.
My insurance alone is now about $10,000 a year. Last year, my expenses for Christian Warrior Training were more than $200,000. That includes cameras, computers, websites, email systems, insurance, travel, printing, software, research tools, equipment, and contractors when we need specialized help. There are a lot of expenses involved in keeping this operation going every day.
I am not telling you that because I want everybody reading this to run out and buy a paid subscription. In fact, I want to say the opposite. If paying for Christian Warrior Training means taking money away from your family, do not do it. Take care of your family. If that money needs to go to your church, then give it to your church. Tithe to your church. I come last.
My hope has always been that the people who can afford to support Christian Warrior Training will help make it possible for the people who cannot afford it to receive the same information and training. A paid subscriber may be helping a small rural church somewhere with almost no security budget get information they otherwise would not have access to.
I could put everything behind a paywall. I could charge for every online class, every intelligence product, and every piece of training we produce. I do not want Christian Warrior Training to become a place where somebody has to decide whether they can afford information that might help them protect their church.
That is especially important to me when we are talking about church security. We hear from churches all the time that started a safety ministry because of Christian Warrior Training, or that dealt with a serious incident using things they learned through our training. That is what keeps me focused on the mission.
Christian Warrior Training did not start as a business plan. It started as a newsletter for my own church security team. I was putting information together for my guys, and they asked if they could share it with other churches. Those churches started sharing it, more churches began asking for it, and it just kept growing.
Eventually, Christian Warrior Training became so large that I stopped doing law enforcement training and dedicated myself to this full time. Today, the core of Christian Warrior Training is basically four people: me, my wife Kari, my daughter Caitlin, and my son TJ. We bring in contractors occasionally when we need specialized help, but the four of us are the ones doing the work day after day.
I spend about 60 hours a week working on Christian Warrior Training. I am able to do that because so many of you decided this work was worth supporting, and I am extremely grateful for that support.
Two Free Classes Coming in October
We have two free, in-person church security classes coming up in October. One is in Michigan and the other is outside Chicago in Illinois.
The Michigan class is going to be unique because we will be teaching at the site of an actual active shooter event from last year. The attacker was stopped by the church security team in the parking lot before he was able to enter the church. We will be standing at that location talking about church security preparedness and looking at lessons we can learn from what happened there.
That class was originally limited to 100 people and filled up very quickly. We were able to create more room inside the church and increase attendance to 200. If you tried to register before and were told the event was full, check again because additional seats have been opened.
Register for the Michigan class here
We also have our Illinois class outside Chicago. There are still seats available there as well, and I would love to see as many of you as possible.
Register for the Illinois class here
Both of these classes are free.
Right To Bear Is Helping Make This Possible
Right To Bear is covering my expenses for these training events and helping coordinate what goes into putting them together. I especially want to thank Johnny, Lana, Frank, and Perry for the work they have put in and the support they have shown Christian Warrior Training.
I also want to say this clearly. Right To Bear is the self-defense protection company I use and recommend. I have gotten to know the people behind the company, looked closely at what they are doing, and spent time with the people involved. They understand the church security community and have supported what we are trying to accomplish.
That recommendation is not simply because they are helping with these classes. I have looked at their program and I believe in what they are doing.
CASIC Is Moving Forward
Another project I am very excited about is the Church Active Shooter Instructor Course, or CASIC.
We will conduct our first CASIC course here in Star, Idaho, at my home church. The course is designed to develop instructors who can go back to their own churches and communities and properly train church security teams for an active killer response.
I am going to open a limited number of seats in this first course to people outside our own church organization. I will have more information on that soon.
Beginning next year, my plan is to take CASIC on the road. I want to develop qualified instructors in different parts of the country so they can train churches in their own communities.
CASIC will not be free. I wish I could make everything we do free, but an instructor-level course like this comes with significant expenses. Travel, insurance, printing, facilities, training materials, and the other costs involved in putting on this type of program add up quickly.
I am going to keep the cost as low as I reasonably can. My goal has never been to build Christian Warrior Training around making a large profit. I want it to sustain itself so we can continue producing training, intelligence, and resources for churches.
Where Christian Warrior Training Is Today
Sometimes I still have a hard time believing how far this has grown. Something I started for my own church security team now reaches people in approximately 130 countries.
Some of those people are in places like Iran, Iraq, North Africa, and the Sahel, where Christians can face serious persecution. I am honored that they choose to follow Christian Warrior Training and use what we produce.
That reach is possible because of all of you. Some people support us financially. Some share our videos. Some forward our newsletters to another church. Some take one of our free courses and bring that information back to their team. Others pray for us, and I am always grateful for those prayers.
Going forward, we are going to keep producing intelligence and training. I have new classes planned for next year, including the possibility of a live online leadership course taught over several weeks. We are also going to keep traveling and training churches in person whenever we can.
My goal is to continue making as much of this information available as possible without putting a price tag between someone and information they may need to protect their congregation.
I want the church with a large budget learning alongside the little rural church that barely has a security budget at all. I want both of them getting better, learning from the same information, and raising the standard of church security.
Thank you to everyone who supports Christian Warrior Training, everyone who shares what we produce, and everyone who prays for us. I also want to thank Right To Bear for helping make these upcoming seminars possible, and I want to thank my family because none of this would happen without them.
If you missed the Michigan registration the first time around, check it again because we have opened additional seats. If Michigan does not work for you, I hope I will see you outside Chicago.
Until next time, please pray for the suspects we talk about here at Christian Warrior Training. Pray that they come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and remember your ABCs: Always Be Carrying.
