How To Defend Your Church

With Pray.com, you can begin each morning with powerful daily prayers, inspiring Bible

“stories, and messages created to strengthen your faith.”

Whether you need peace, encouragement, or a fresh start, Pray.com helps you make prayer part of your everyday life. Download the Pray.com app today. When we look at an location, we look at it from the eyes of the wolf. If you can target the children's ministry, if you can harm the most precious asset that you have and the ones that are the most defenseless, that's where someone's going to want to hurt you.

Church security has become a hot topic after several high-profile attacks and recent years. A retired Nashville police officer is making it his mission to fortify local churches with security lessons any organization can implement. In this episode, we sit down with the founder of a goth-bay tactical to discuss how individuals and organizations can stop most violence before it even happens.

I'm daily wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. This is a weekend episode

“of Morningwire. Also, if you want to see Georgia learn some self-defense tricks stick around”

for the end. Joining us now is founder of a goth-bay tactical kin Alexandra. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. So we've looked a lot at the issue of school shootings and now a lot of attacks on churches they're being targeted in all kinds of ways. And this is your expertise, this is what you can salt on. And so we wanted to ask you some questions about how things have changed in

some things that you've practically learned in terms of how to improve situations, particularly

with churches, which is something we haven't talked as much about. So first of all, give us a little

background if you would on your experience. So I went to the University of Tennessee from 87 to 91 and when I graduated I entered the National Metropolitan Police Department and ended up being an academy instructor there where I taught hand-to-hand combat firearms for police department anywhere from 12 to 1,400 officers. From there I got selected to participate in the FBI as violent crimes task force where I got to work on cases involving bank robbery,

child molesters, famous people who are being blackmailed things like that. So all in this region in Tennessee? Yes, the FBI was the middle discrepancy. And then when that assignment ended I finished my last 11 years as a training officer. Being a police officer is one of the greatest joys because there's no other occupation where you can actually help make a difference to somebody's life every single day. Even if you're resting somebody and if you're taking bad

out of that household and at least giving them some peace until they make bail and come back and get released. But I love changing tires on the side of the road, just helping people and trying to let kids especially view us in a positive light. So how did you get into church

“security specifically? I mean I think back to my childhood I don't think churches needed”

security or at least they weren't as like hardened targets like they are now. What changed and was there an event that made you passionate about that? So it was an accident. I'd been attending Thompson Station Church for 20 plus years, not 26 years and in 2009 the pastor asked even before the need for church security. He was just a fourth thinker and he said, "Hey, why don't you set up a safety ministry here?" I would just feel better. We're growing to be a large church.

We've got just a large children's population and he felt better. He knew my background. So he said you were suited and equipped to do this and so I did and so I started that ministry in 2009. Well he happened to be also the president of the Southern Baptist Convention at the time. So he's standing and so how he tells me he was standing in front of 2800 pastors giving a speech and somebody asked him a question, "Hey, what are you doing for safety at your church?" And then he gave

my name out and what started out is just an offering that I was doing for my church turned into a part-time gig which eventually forced me to choose one of the other because I couldn't continue to do both. What is the sort of process when you first begin working with a church? So we start with

an assessment. You always want to do a security vulnerability assessment because you that enables you

to identify what's broken because you can't fix, if you don't know what's broken you can't fix it. You need an outside unbiased third party to take a look at it and then really divulge where the problems are. See when we look at at a location, we look at it from the eyes of the wolf.

we close up all those holes where I can hurt you then you win. And where we do the most damage,

if you can target the children's ministry, if you can harm the most precious asset that you have and the ones that are the most defenseless, that's where someone's going to want to hurt you. So we focus on that area and then all of the other recommendations just spill out and protect everyone else. But but don't ever lose sight. Your focus is on those that cannot defend themselves and that's

“the children. They don't have a choice. They can only do what we tell them to do. So that's why we want”

to make sure that your processes are in place to keep them safe. There are certain phone calls that somehow stay on the to-do list. The dentist, the annual check-up. Finding a new doctor after you move or change insurance, you keep thinking I'll call tomorrow.

Then tomorrow becomes next week. And when you finally call, you get a voicemail, a phone tag,

or an appointment three months from now. There has to be an easier way. This episode is sponsored by ZockDock. ZockDock lets you search and compare high quality and network doctors. You can read reviews from real patients, see actual appointment openings, and click to book instantly. No awkward phone call required. In appointments happen fast, usually within 24 to 72 hours. You can even score a same day appointment. It used to take me weeks to make a doctor appointment.

“And when I finally did, it would take even longer to finally get it on the schedule.”

The last time I used ZockDock, I was in a doctor's office within 24 hours. So maybe this is your sign to finally take that appointment off the list. Your health matters and taking care of yourself shouldn't be complicated. Find and book the right doctor with ZockDock. Head to ZockDock.com/wire to get started and check that appointment off your to-do list. That's zocdoc.com/wire. Freedom is given to us by God, not government, but it's ability to endure rest with the people.

We're seeing our God-given rights tested threatened and violated right now, and we must stop it before it's too late. Our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom are fighting some of the most

critical legal battles of our generation, upholding biological truth, defending free speech,

preserving religious liberty. But they depend on friends like you to keep up this work. Your gift today powers the very legal battles that are defining freedom's future. Every dollar you give today will be matched by a special grant while funds last. Visit joinadf.com/wire or text wire to 83848 to make twice the impact for freedom today. That's joinadf.com/wire or text wire to 83848.

Now you said the pastor was forward thinking before the threats against churches was really prominent that has shifted since then. How have you seen that change over the time? And it has that led to just more demand for your types of services. So yes, it's led to more demand. There are some churches that are on the cutting edge. They're just, they realize if something catastrophic happens on their facility, people may not come back. I mean, it changes live forever.

So what are the steps that you take with churches to actually fortify them? Are you training up individuals to be posted in certain places? How does it work? So our process is real simple. We use the deter to tech and deny methodology. So deterrence is the psychological defeat before they even try. For example, 75% of all incidences on faith-based properties occur in the parking lot. So how do you set up deterrence and the psychological

defeat before they even try? We know we know from bad actors who have been arrested and taken alive that they have scoped out locations and they realized, man, I'm not going to be successful there.

“So you've got to, yeah, so they'll go somewhere else. You have to understand, how does a bad guy think?”

A true terrorist is not afraid of a man with a gun. They're afraid of failure. They know death is inevitable. But they want to take as many people and causes much devastation as they can in that process for them to be successful. They have done pre-attacks of violence. So when they do that, they look and they say, I can't, I can't get out of my vehicle without being stopped or being seen. They'll go somewhere else to where they can get out of their vehicle without being seen.

The rub that I continue to have and the conversations that I continue to have between pastors and Dickens or elder boards and safety teams is they don't want to make it unwelcoming. So we have come up with a formula that not only eliminates the not welcoming, we make it overly welcoming. Here's the example. Set up in my church. We have five opportunities to see bad

First, there's no better to turn than a uniform police officer in a police card drinking traffic.

So that's one, they see uniform officers. Two, we have 104 people in our, we call the First Impressions Ministry, which is parking lot, greeters, just people welcoming you every Sunday morning. As soon as you point with parking lot, you will see at a minimum of four men and women in yellow vests directing traffic with signs that say, if you're a visitor, turn your hazards on because we're going to give you the best parking. So just as soon as you turn in, there's four people

waving at you, greeting you, welcoming you, but they're also trained in the powers of observation. If something doesn't look right, they also know because even though these people do not carry guns, they're not armed. They may, if they want to, but they're not part of the safety ministry.

“But everyone has a radio. That's the key. You have to be a communicate.”

And do you see the radio? Is that something you want to feature prominently? Oh, it's in their hand. They may be using it to wave or maybe clip to the best. Listen, I want those people. It's a strategy. The deterrents. I want them to be able to be seen from NASA. I want them to glow. I want every one of our church members and guests who are there legitimately

to feel like they're here for an experience. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

So after we get past the yellow vests and parking people, we have, because we have so many so much acreage and so many parking lots, we have seven golf carts that are driving around picking people up. So that's a third opportunity. So yeah, please, parking people, now golf carts pick and people up. And then in front of each of our main entrances, we've got tents that say, "Welcome to TSC. How can I help you?" That's four. And then on the outside of our doors, and we have

one entrance in each building, we have the greeters. And if at any time someone radio's in, bad as approaching, the doors are pre-locked. They just step inside you at the doors. Now, everybody inside is safe. So, so, five opportunities to welcome people, but at the same time, bad sees. I mean, I don't even get out of my car without being spotted or we get my handshaked. We're getting loved on. I'm going somewhere else, because they want anonymity. What about

cameras? And then you mentioned the doors, limited access points. You cannot control, save your security in any location if you do not have access control. It's impossible. You can't stop what you can't see when I deal with a new client and they may have 40 doors in 31 of our open by seven in the morning. Church done start till nine. They realize they don't have 31 people to watch those doors. So our goal is to get them down to one or two main, main access points,

because those can be controlled. And cameras are a wonderful thing, especially if you have a good camera operator and someone who knows what to look like and can pay attention. Because we train the camera people, the usher, the greeters, the safety ministry, we all communicate with the same

“language. So, the most important aspect of any mission of any operation is communication.”

But the number one failure in any operation is communication. A lot of times, the camera guy is not speaking the same language as the team guy and they have no idea how to lead them. So when you have these camera views, it's important that we name them a universal language. You know, stairwell one or the lobby, you know, and make sure the team knows what you're calling things so they can respond as quickly as you give them details. When you do have an emergency response,

what is a standard procedure? I mean, what usually triggers, what happens. In a case we had five weeks ago at our church. Two people get out of a car. They're carrying thigh rigs, thigh holsters on their side and they're walking down. We also know who they are because they fit three of my clients in middle Tennessee and they're just YouTubers. They're wanting to see what reaction people have to them open carrying like they were. Well, it worked perfectly because

as soon as they got out of the car, the parking lot people radio downstairs. Hey, this is what we got. We were waiting for them in the parking lot before they ever got close and then we were able to discuss to hey, we have no problem with people can see a carrying, but we don't allow open carry here.

“So we said, if you want to come worship, you're welcome to disarm and you're welcome to come in,”

but we don't allow how you're carrying right now. So you encounter them what within a matter of seconds, seconds. Yeah, as soon as they got out of the car and as soon as the parking lot people saw it, the radio guy hunt. So we had photographs and we had real-time video of and just we followed them all the way to the to the endpoint and then eventually they decided it wasn't. They weren't going to get anywhere. They turned around and left. Now, what about training up

like armed security? Is that the final step for this or do you not always include that?

So, so we have to be very creative because really the only thing that can stop a bad

“actor with a weapon is a good actor with a weapon. Okay. And unless you can deter them before they”

get to that denomination. So deter to tech denies, of course deterrence is the psychological defeat. Detection is you can't stop or you can't see and then denial is what if we train to do to stop them from hurting our people? There's two words in the English language that cannot go together in the same sentence and the sentence make any sense. That's safety and convenience. You cannot be both. Now, we can set you up safely and you look like you're warm and welcoming.

Just like I've described to you. But you're not going to be convenient because we're only having one main access control point. If they have an arm response, you know, we because of my law enforcement background, we have what's called a force continuum and we want to train the entire force continuum.

So the first is your presence, command presence. You standing there can be a deterrent to people

have as we are described. Second is your ability to deescalate verbally. Right? How do you speak?

“We teach that. The next is soft, soft empty hand control. What if you have to escort or prevent”

somebody? How do we do that with one out without assaulting them and without hurting them? So then we teach hard empty hand. What if somebody's physically assaulting you? How do you defend yourself? And then deadly force and then of course medical response, you know, we want to make sure if you're training to potentially take a life, you've got to be able to save a life at the same time. So because maybe your life that you're saving or your partner's life. So we train that entire

gambit through stress andoculated training. You will learn absolutely nothing on a YouTube video from from a perspective of emergency techniques. Something happens, but you watch the video bunch of times, no manner of women will rise to the occasion, under stress. You'll sink to the highest level of mastery in your training. And you're not going to master training by watching a video. You have to physically do it. And then not only do you physically do it, but you need to do it

when your heart rate is up and you do it over and over again. So you have some people, some churches will say we want some of these folks trained up fully. Is that process? I would I imagine this is a you know, a shock for a lot of people that have not gone through this kind of thing before. And is

is that a fun process for you to oversee these trainings? It's an incredible process because when you

let's say you've gone through the program and you've trained and it's not you go to church flip the light switch on in your tactical ted, but when churches over you flip the light switch off in your Johnny's second donuts again. Everywhere you go now, you you understand situational awareness. Everywhere you go now, you have gotten a skill that makes you a better husband, a better father, a better citizen, a better wife, a better mother because now everyone around you is safer.

Safety is contagious and you don't turn it on and turn it off. You live you understand living in yellow, which is relaxed, but aware it's everywhere you go. And now you see things that you normally otherwise wouldn't have seen. So what's great is what you're learning for the protection of others

“in church. Really take transcends for your personal life. How could you not want to be a part of that?”

You mentioned the color coding. We talked about this before. We actually started recording. Can you walk through that for us real quick? Sure. There's five color codes, white yellow, orange, red and black. White is how 90% of Americans live their lives. It's relaxed and completely unaware of who's around them. I've interviewed rapist and prison to and so I could study and and understand what do bad guys look for in a victim. And what you're liking or not, they're watching

us. And they say their favorite place to attack is a place to transition. Like you go from a building a safety into the unknown, a parking lot or parking garage. And they say the easiest way for someone not to be considered a victim is when they walk out of those doors. If they will scan the parking lots, scan their surroundings before they walk out. Without their phone in their face, their heads up and they're actually looking. They say, I can't sneak up on that person.

I can't push them down from behind because they'll see me coming. I can't be, they don't see, they're the sickling and lazy but they don't, they don't want to be caught. They don't want to be

identified. Look, I run a company on my cell phone. It is an incredible device. But unfortunately,

our phones have caused our country to go into an acute case of anal cranial insertion. We walk around and we're too busy wondering what the Kardashians are doing, then we're about getting to my vehicle safely. And it's getting our country victimized. It is true. It's amazing how much you just see people looking down and I include myself. I am less aware of my surroundings than ever in my life at this point. So why does a dangerous

place to be? Yellow is just simply relaxed but aware. It is not a state of paranoia. It is a state

to start getting in a habit of living in yellow. They start backing your conduit parking space. I back everywhere I go. Only because I'm generally facing the location that I'm trying to go to and it's really hard to sneak up on me when I'm looking at you. So orange is your intuition.

“We talk about the color codes and that's just listen to your intuition. Right?”

Then red is I'm in the fight. What have I trained to do? We are to talk about you'll always do

what you've done the most and if you've not trained you're going to go into the fetal position. And then black is I'm frozen and fear. Neural epinephrine under that that in Dorfin release will do one of two things to you depending on who you are. One if you're trained it slows down time. It makes everything move in slow motion to allow you to react quicker and the other thing is if you're untrained you become like you have concrete shoes on. But you can train so you're saying training can

really affect that. It's not like this is this is just this person's natural response and it's always going to be like that. No train into response 100% you train for an event. But you've truly

trained not just watched YouTube videos. You'll be amazed at how you perform and you didn't even know

“you did it. People think just because they bought a gun it makes them a gunfighter and the exact”

opposite you're a danger to people unless you've trained. We just want to help people fulfill their goal of keeping themselves in their family and other safe but doing it without hurting anybody else. And you can't do that without range time and and the whole force continuum you are you are ten times more likely to have to put hands on somebody than you're ever going to have to draw your firearm. If you do then you're doing something wrong. There's something wrong in your process

where nothing now the gun comes out. We didn't see it in time. So you know don't just train

gun gun gun gun gun gun. We want to make sure we train awareness. We want to train the escalation.

We want to train hand to hand because if you overreact you may have just committed aggravated assault. So so so that there's a training process involved in everything we do. Well like we said at the start you know I mean this is on people's mind more than ever that go to church schools obviously a major focus for us. So we loved having you come on and talk about this is very helpful practically for all of us and hopefully I want to check you with

my church what are they what are they doing exactly. Thank you so much for what you do. Well thank you for having me appreciate it. Thanks for coming on. That was a gop A tactical founder Ken Alexander and this has been a week and addition of morning layer. Okay once you're some in the upper position here elbow will bend this way and if you turn this way

it goes against you on. So just like this group and shoulder. All I want you to do is just standing only do not allow me to bend your arm. Okay I'm going to add slow steady pressure one pad that's I try to go like that. No don't do that except that pressure on that joint. Just like it is okay and I'm going to go slow steady pressure. Wait are you ready? Yeah. Yeah you got to go move the good good good. Excellent good good. Now soon I got to now open and spray your hand.

Now when I say spray flit your hand. Yeah flit you open that hand up. Do not let me bend your arm. Are you ready? But that work. I'll explain the science behind you a minute. Two. Do 90 degrees make fist pretty against my chest. Now this is where we're going to spray shoulders off to me. You put my hand in the shoulders. You face that way. I'll face this way so

“we can kiss. You have to stop me from putting your arm back into your body. All right are you ready”

bar? Yeah. Do some nice slow pressure. It's a possible stop. Okay. Don't open anything. Open and spray but I want you to go one degree outside 90 degrees and because the only thing I'm going to be touching me is this bony part. It's going to hurt me. I'm going to angle your arm so you go across here. Take. Keep maintaining that. Are you a recorder? Yeah. Okay. So so it's called muscle recruitment. Make a fist. You only use two muscles.

Bicep for. Open and spray. Bicep try. Bicep try. I'm sorry four on Bicep try. Bicep delk trapping lat. Using six muscle groups to do this. Only two to do this. So when we so for example when we teach our hand to hand our fighting stance is this. I'm doing that outside 90 fingersplay which makes me stronger but it also looks what to the people. Take care. Well no it also but if you are a bystander and it looks like you're saying dumb dude. Yeah but this is my fighting

stance. Does that make sense? So so I'm strengthening you in that but you're prepared for a conflict.

would and you do this trick, that will be by your drinks all night which your hand just like this.

“Okay. Toast towards me. Good. Do not let me let your thumbs touch. I'm going to put pressure but”

you're going to keep me from letting your thumbs touch or you're ready. Yeah. You're going to have to do this.

And right here we go. Also doesn't matter which foot will take one foot out past 30 degrees. Just one.

“There you go. Just one of them. Do not let me touch your thumbs. Very very important. Yeah. Okay here we go.”

Well crazy. So so like this. Yeah and hand. No so so one foot sliding behind the other.

Oh one foot. But like feet facing forward. The bioma cange behind it is our spine. All of our strength

“comes from our core. And when our spine is a perfect spinal alignment, it does muscles. They push off”

of each other to give you stability. As soon as you open the foot, about past 30 degrees, the coccyx bone, the muscles that wrap on the coccyx hole, pull it in the direction you open that foot, separate contact from the last vertebrae, so it has nothing to push off and you fold like a tent. So my stance. We call it non-aggressive posture. Just like this. Hands out. Hey please don't hurt me or I don't want to be trouble. But this also my parents stance whether it's my draw stroke

or whether I have to fight. That was very cool. So.