Recently, parishioners of a Church in Chesterfield, MO were hit with a disturbing announcement in their Sunday bulletin.
Someone knew enough about church operations to know who printed their Sunday bulletins and slipped in an article attempting to form a security team for the church.
Allegedly, the actual wording of the ad was,
We are calling all young men back to the church to form a militia dedicated to protecting the Holy Eucharist, our congregation, our clergy, and the church grounds.
The militia is called … The Legion of Santa Lana.
Santa Lana = Holy Light, Wool
This militia will be composed of young men between the ages of 18-29. Training will include strict physical fitness standards, classroom study, and instruction in military operations.
Then a QR link was provided for sign-ups.
Apparently, nobody from church leadership reviewed the bulletin before it was distributed.
This is so bizarre it makes me wonder if it was a trick from someone intending to sabotage any plans for intentional security. If so, they played it well. I trust there is a serious investigation going on.
Admittedly however, there are still pockets of fanatics who would feel that is a good model of security. Some reading this might be wondering, “what’s wrong with that?”
A lot!
Think About it
The case for security in faith-based operations has been well established. Episodes like that however, evidence there is still work to be done in educating those called into the great endeavor.
There are a lot of voices regarding the best way to go about church security. Not all those voices are experienced in true ministry security.
There is a solution.
A large team of seasoned professionals work hard every year to provide the best instruction available for serious security in faith-based organizations.
The Faith Based Security Network’s, Security Operations Summit (S.O.S.) is the annual summit of effective principles in this field. The summit has over 30 different speakers, presenting in 18 Plenary Sessions, plus 60 breakouts, addressing 30 topics and 4 case studies over 4 days.
It’s coming up the 23rd through the 27th of July! The link where you can learn more, and register is https://www.fbsnamerica.com/events/sos24.
It will be over on July 27th and attendees will come home with great resources, contacts and tools to do ministry security well.
We hope your team is there!
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