How to protect your congregation from violence in the era of COVID, conspiracy theorists and societal upheaval.
We live in a polarized age. Vandalism against churches has reached record proportions. COVID lockdowns have created social anxiety and disconnection.
These phenomena add to the strain of previous societal fracturing that led to violence at houses of worship. These include the 2017 Sutherland Springs, Texas, massacre, resulting in 27 deaths and more than 20 wounded. In 2014, a gunman killed nine members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The Faith Based Security Network reports 1,967 deadly force incidents occurring at churches between 1999-2018. Incidents include “abductions, attempted abductions, attacks, suspicious deaths, suicides and deadly force intervention.”
Our expert panel will address practical steps churches can take to protect their flocks as well as shield themselves from related litigation.
OUR SPEAKER
VAUGHN BAKER
STRATEGOS INTERNATIONAL
Vaughn Baker is president of Strategos International, a Kansas City, Mo.,-based firm that provides security training, consulting and executive protection services.
Baker has 20 years of experience in law enforcement including patrol, investigation, SWAT and special operations. He has trained thousands of school, health care, government, law enforcement and military personnel in security practices. Baker has also developed specialized intruder response curriculum for schools and churches, including some of the nation’s leading training on behavior pattern recognition. He is the author of The Church Security Handbook and, with Mark Warren, Active Threat.
In addition, he served as deputy director of training and as an instructor for the Surefire Institute, a California-based tactical lighting manufacturer and tactical training company.
He is also the director of security for a church of more than 7,500 in the Kansas City area, a position he has held for more than a decade.
FRITZ HAHN
MINISTRY PACIFIC
Fritz Hahn is the founder and managing member of Ministry Pacific and has three decades of experience in the insurance industry.
Fritz is a U.S. Navy veteran, served in the Submarine Service and earned a bachelor’s degree from California State University in Fullerton. Before founding Ministry Pacific, he worked as a purchasing analyst and later managed the capital equipment purchasing division for over 600 branches of a national financial institution. Fritz was also employed by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in 1984 where he managed material/logistics for one of the competition venues.
After spending decades serving private industry, Fritz founded Ministry Pacific in 2005. The goal: Providing churches and charitable nonprofits with a strategic approach to insurance markets that maximizes their coverage and purchasing power. As Ministry Pacific grew, several employees with church administrative backgrounds joined the company. This helped the organization provide expert knowledge based on real-world experience. Today, Ministry Pacific insures more than 1,000 congregations in 12 mostly Western states. The majority of these are in California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada.