IV – Know – Page 7

Benefit From the Church Emergency Response Network

MAGEN DAVID ADOM, Israel’s Red Cross, describes itself as the most experienced mass-casualty response organization in the world.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Security Training: Decision Decks Help You Think Through a Crisis Before It Happens ]

As Israel’s national ambulance, blood services, and disaster relief organization, the 30,000 mostly volunteer workers of Magen David Adom (Hebrew for “Red Star of David”) respond to 8 million calls a year.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Understand the Times and Know What to Do ]

Because of the wars and repeated terrorist attacks against Israel, the non-profit agency has emerged as a world leader in emergency medical services.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Directory of Medical Kit Resources ]

American Friends of Magen David Adom has created the Church Emergency Response Network to enable its EMTs and paramedics to share with pastors, church leaders, and houses-of-worship security/safety teams the many lessons they’ve learned through assassin onslaughts, criminal assaults, natural disasters, auto accidents, physical maladies, and more.

Church Security Review: House of Worship Firearms and Use of Force Policy

One of the first responsibilities of a church security/safety team director is to set in writing the policies and procedures of the team to provide clarity in direction and purpose for church leadership and members to exercise sound judgment in the daily security and safety of the church.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Checklist: Church Security/Safety Equipment ]

Policies explain what and why things are done. Procedures explain how things are done. The wide-ranging document typically covers a broad range of categories, including fire, medical, lost child, and more. A model can be found at Southern Mutual Church Insurance Company and a guide is at Sheepdog Church Security and at Christian Warrior Training.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Security Book Review: Defending the Flock ]

In addition to writing a safety manual that covers general topics for your team, another best practice is to create a separate document dedicated to explaining specifically when and what type of force should and should not be used, since violent bad actors seem to be increasingly targeting houses of worship. Armed congregant security teams, especially, should have written policies regarding their firearms training and the use of non-lethal or less-lethal force methods as well.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Organizing, Training & Running a House of Worship Armed Congregant Security Team ]

Emanuel Kapelsohn, an honors graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School who has practiced law since 1978 in New York, Pennsylvania, and other states, and who is president of The Peregrine Corporation, has created the House of Worship Firearms Use of Force Policy (as a service to SemperVerus readers, Mr. Kapelsohn is making this policy bundle available at a $25 discount from the regular price of $424.50. Order the bundle here. Then, on the checkout page, simply type in the discount promo code SEMPERVERUS25).

SemperVerus received a complimentary copy of the House of Worship Firearms Use of Force Policy for review purposes.

Spiritual First Aid Self-Aid Fact Sheets

In today’s world brimming with conflict, it’s not unusual to personally experience stress, grief, panic, even trauma.

The ministry Spiritual First Aid^™ offers the free downloadable PDF resource, 14 Self-Aid Fact Sheets, which provide a quick reference overview of the following common everyday mental health challenges:

By semperverus
Posted on 05/07/202505/07/2025

250th Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord for American Independence

Saturday, April 19, 2025, was the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord of Wednesday, April 19, 1775, the first major military campaign of the American Revolutionary War.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Important US Dates to Commemorate ]

The English government had ordered its British military forces to seize the American civilian colonists’ weapons and gunpowder being stored in Concord, Massachusetts. However, the colonists’ resolute resistance resulted in an American victory and an outpouring of support for liberty and independence.

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the topic of SELF-DEFENSE ]

The battles were fought on the American side primarily by privately armed militias and individuals bearing their personal firearms, an act so indelibly impressed upon the colonists’ consciousness that, 16 years later, after the war was won and the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified December 15, 1791, the individual right to keep and bear arms (today known as The Second Amendment) was definitively prioritized and protected from American government infringement; esteemed enough to be considered one of the top two fundamental and vital civil rights on which to build the great American nation.

How notoriously ironic that 250 years ago, Massachusetts as a colony preeminently prioritized the unalienable civil right to keep and bear arms, with its citizens making the ultimate sacrifice to protect that right, but today it is one of the worst states to infringe on that right!