I – Prepare

Here’s What Your Church Safety Team Needs to Do Sunday Morning

Here is a list of killings that have happened at USA churches since 2012:

December 29, 2019: A killer murdered two people during the morning service at West Freeway Church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas, before he was fatally shot by a volunteer member of the church security team.

November 5, 2017: A killer opened fire at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26 people and wounding about 20 others. No church security team was in place to stop it.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Majority of Protestant Churches Plan for Security ]

September 24, 2017: A man killed a woman and wounded six other people at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee.

Harvard Scientists Say Do These 5 Things to Live Longer

Poor lifestyle habits contribute to a fairly short life expectancy. According to a study by a team of researchers from The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, five critical faculties significantly boost life longevity and will decrease your risk for developing illnesses associated with aging:

  • not smoking
  • exercising regularly (half an hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day)
  • maintaining a healthy body mass index (18.5-24.9)
  • higher diet quality score (upper 40%)
  • consuming alcohol in moderation (one serving a day for women and two servings a day for men)

will considerably reduce instances of morbidity and mortality in middle age.

Read this article in full…


Invite SemperVerus to present its 5 main strategic principles—prepare, aware, be, know, do—to your organization to inspire and motivate your members.

Join the SemperVerus Brotherhood™!

Pastors Network: Churches Have Biblical Duty to Protect

The American Pastors Network (APN) says churches have a biblical and moral responsibility to protect their congregations from attacks.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Church Shooting Analysis Reports ]

“Unfortunately, church security is now a pressing matter in our nation,” said APN President Sam Rohrer. “No longer can we fully count on the peaceful and serene sanctuary of the church. It’s clear that those with evil intentions, whether against the church itself or those inside, have sought to steal and kill and destroy, as we witnessed at West Freeway Church of Christ in a Fort Worth, Texas, suburb. We live in a culture where our churches must seriously think about how to keep people safe. Just as a shepherd carries a staff to guard his sheep, so must every pastor employ ways to protect his flock.”

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Prayer for Church Security Team Members ]

APN offers 10 biblical recommendations for churches to consider when devising policies concerning church security:

The 5 Elements of Self-Defense Law

Attorney Andrew Branca has distilled the self-defense laws in all USA 50 states. He says, “There are at most 5 elements to any self-defense case (and often not even that many). That’s true in every one of the 50 states, and all US territories.”

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

Be sure you adhere to them if you believe you are honestly and reasonably confronted by a situation where you need to prevent an immediate, otherwise unavoidable danger of death, great bodily harm (generally considered a crippling or disfiguring injury), or, in some states, sexual assault to yourself or another innocent person you have the right to protect.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 4 Basic Rules of Gun Safety ]

Buy the book The Law of Self Defense, 3rd Edition through this affiliate link with Amazon

 

The 5 Elements of Self-Defense Law are:

  • Innocence
  • Imminence (ability, opportunity, jeopardy [manifest intent])
  • Proportionality
  • Avoidance
  • Reasonableness (subjective and objective)