During my time working in defense contracting and security consulting, I observed some trends within the industry that absolutely broke my heart. Most notably was the surge in churches seeking professional training to mitigate the threat of an active shooter following the Sutherland Springs Church Shooting in 2017. Churches across the country immediately realized that they were unprepared to respond to the very real threats they faced. Over and over again I would visit these churches, conduct a risk assessment and deliver recommendations on security enhancements and training that would get them where they needed to be. Unfortunately, time and time again they would respond that it just wasn’t in their budget to pursue Active Violent Intruder training. This was astounding to me as our prices were drastically lower then our competitors who practically prey on churches and mission organization by using bait and switch “training” events that were really just 2-hour long sales pitches. I just remember thinking, “As the body of Christ, what can we do to ensure these organizations (large and small) receive the high level training they need without the excessive price tag.” The other issue I encountered was the fact most of the companies specialized in security training for churches brought plenty of law enforcement experience but failed to bring the most crucial element to the equation… Christ.
When Annah and I sold everything to become full-time missionaries with YWAM Montana, I prayed I would have the opportunity to address these issues in the mission field. The first challenge my co-director and I were faced with as YWAM Security was overcoming the preconceived notions of what security in ministry looks like. The two most common assumptions we encountered were that security means either low budget rent-a-cops that are ill-equipped to preform their duties or macho, overly aggressive guys that are anything but approachable. Over the past 10-months of vision casting and sharing our heart for this unique ministry, we have been able to gradually redefine security of YWAM Montana as a group of throughly trained men and women proficient in situational awareness, response to suspicious activity, verbal de-escalation, detainment and self-defense with a genuine desire to bring Christ into people’s worst days and potentially worst decisions.
Our next objective was to create an active shooter response curriculum specifically designed for mission organizations and churches that keeps Christ at the center of it all. After nearly a year of development I feel so blessed to share that I’ve had the privilege of training seven instructors that are beyond capable of teaching this curriculum anywhere in the world God may call them. Furthermore, my fellow instructors and I had the honor of putting over 150 missionaries through the new curriculum earlier today. The feedback and encouragement we received was amazing but the best part is that it was 100% free instead of the $24,000 some of these predatory companies are charging. I’m so excited to see how God will use this team and this training to make ministries across the nation and around the world safer.