13 Comments
May 20Liked by Keith Graves

I think another question should be "are you willing to lay down you life if necessary to keep the wolf from the sheep".

Expand full comment
May 20·edited May 20

Something that came to my mind while watching your Lakewood debrief video was the Biblical reference to the hired hand in John 10. There, Jesus is describing himself as the “good shepherd”. He describes the hired hand as not willing to do what Richard Moch wrote in his comment. Another possible criteria for inclusion on a safety ministry team would be that the person is a committed member of that local body, and that they have already demonstrated that they have the qualities of an “under shepherd”.

Expand full comment

What would the four hours of training per month entail. Can you give a brief synopsis?

Expand full comment

I'm nitpicking here. I agree with your premise and conclusions, but I wish we could find another term for what you call the "worship team." Instrumental and/or vocal music (group or congregational) is certainly supportive of worship, but worship is a personal thing. May i suggest they be called the "music team" or the "enhancement team," or some other term of your choice.

Expand full comment

We refer to ours as the worship leaders/Worship leading team. Agreed that we all worship. Their job is to practice and be ready to lead us into a heart of worship and to assist us with preparing our hearts to receive what God has to share with us that day.

Expand full comment

We are a new Church the Saftey team was together before we all went thru a min background check. who do you guys use for backgrounds? and what is the cost?

Thanks

David

Expand full comment

We utilize background checks through our local sheriffs department. Unfortunately that does not cover statewide items. I would encourage you to examine what areas your security team will regularly work in. For people that work with our kids at camp, they are required to go through a state run Level 2 fingerprint based system. I considering we propose this for our kids teams and security team members that work around our kids as well.

Expand full comment

Our Emergency Response Team (ERT) has an interview and background check system in place. What we do not do is train. There is always talk of doing dry runs and even live drills during the weekday youth groups to see how, not only the ERT members, but the small group leaders react to an active shooter scenario. But, of course, it's never more than talk. Leadership just won't make that commitment.

Expand full comment

I would encourage you to see if you can hire a local sheriff deputy to run a shooting day for your team or find someone with rural property and use the drills that have been mentioned on this channel or others. Make it a fun/bonding day for your team but also utilize it to evaluate the marksmanship of your team. Target practice isn’t all you need but its a great start.

Expand full comment

We just started a Safety Ministry at our church. I was accepted as a member of the team. I did not go through an interview, although I have been a member for almost 4 years and have served in other ministries so I was at least a known quantity to the church staff. After watching this I plan to talk to the Safety Ministry Leader about interviews. Being a godly man does not mean you are necessarily a good fit for the Safety team. Are you willing to risk your life and possibly take one is a good thing for all team members to consider. I did have to fill out a background check questionnaire which I assume they followed up on, but do not know for certain what they did with it. I also had to get a CCW license and pass a pistol skill test called AZPOST that includes 50 timed shots at distances of 25, 15, 7, and 3 yards with tactical and emergency reloads and one handed shots with both hands. All team members will have to pass this skill test yearly. We have also had scenario training with the local police department and are scheduled to do some real world scenario training with paintball type weapons later this year. That should be interesting (i.e. humbling) to see how we do with someone shooting back, even if it is non-lethal.

Expand full comment

Good message. I'm new on this and don't know if Keith reads the messages and am wondering how I could connect with him directly off line? Possibly an answer to his prayer. Has to do with

https://youtu.be/5ILceEUBNQY?si=O1S_AMQRXWZ-i_vH

Thanks, Phil

Expand full comment

I think the interview question/scenario to determine if someone would use deadly force is absolutely necessary. I was not asked that during my interview, but I would have answered appropriately. Thank you.

Expand full comment

👍👏

Expand full comment