God Protects Those Who Prepare: Church Security Shouldn’t Be Controversial

I appreciate feedback. It keeps me grounded, honest and on point. Once in a while it stings, but I learn from those mistakes. Sometimes, though, it makes me shake my head. In this case, there’s just no saving people who refuse to acknowledge that bad people exist. That evil exists. Sure, God will protect you. But God also protects those who protect themselves.

I received some critical feedback after The Urgent Case for Better Church Safety ran last month and it exposed a stubborn blind spot.

Critics attacked the allegedly crazy idea of armed people standing between evil and the congregation. One critic in particular dismissed safety teams as the mark of people who are merely “playing church.” Real churches that “know who God is,” he claimed in so many words, need no security because “He [God] has got them.” The commenter’s prescription was repentance, baptism, and seeking God’s face—while the rest of us should stop playing church.

That reasoning is short-sighted and dangerous. It treats prudence as a lack of belief and preparedness as spiritual failure. It’s the same logic that would refuse seat belts because one trusts God to protect them. Or refusing to seek immediate emergency medical treatment for chest pains. Scripture never equates faith with willful blindness to human evil or physical frailty. God protects those who take wise steps to protect themselves and the vulnerable in their care.

The proven benefits of a church safety team make the case stronger than any slogan. Medical emergencies vastly outnumber violent ones. Cardiac arrests, strokes, seizures, diabetic crises, falls, and choking incidents occur far more often than active threats.

Roughly 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen in the United States each year. Immediate CPR can double or triple survival odds. An AED on site can restore a rhythm long before EMS arrives where median response times often run five to ten minutes in bigger cities. By then, without help the victim would have permanent brain damage or be dead. In rural areas? Forget about it.

Uncontrolled bleeding can kill in three to five minutes. Having doctors, physician assistants, EMT paramedics, trauma and ER nurses, or even a single retired nurse on the church team closes that lethal gap. These responders recognize warning signs, start interventions, control hemorrhaging, manage airways, and hand off patients cleanly to arriving paramedics. Churches that staff medical personnel routinely report successful interventions for chest pain, fainting, choking, bleeding and pediatric injuries that might otherwise escalate.

At the same time, armed capability remains a necessary second layer for the uncommon but high-consequence attack. Documented cases show volunteer or staff teams stopping armed intruders before mass casualties occur, including the incident in Effingham, Illinois in July.

Violence is rare, but its cost is beyond measure. A balanced team—medical first, armed as needed—doesn’t replace reliance on God. It practices stewardship. It builds congregational confidence so people can worship without fear. It reflects genuine care for the flock rather than denial of reality.

Safety teams also take care of routine tasks like monitoring parking lots, welcoming guests, making sure secure doors remain closed and locked and that keys and keycards remain secured. Then there’s the big one: making sure that kids in the daycare area are safe and go home with the right people.

Claiming that churches with safety teams are merely “playing church” is like insisting the Good Samaritan should have walked past the wounded man because God would handle it. Or like refusing to lock the doors of the sheepfold because the shepherd is sovereign. Evil exists. Bodies break. The Creator doesn’t need security, but His people, living in a fallen world, do.

Preparedness isn’t unbelief. It’s obedience to the command to watch over one another.

Controversial or not, I will choose a proactive house of worship—even mocked as “playing church”—over an unprepared sanctuary that relies solely on God’s grace, every day of the week and twice on Sundays.