LOWELL — With its red doors open wide, Christ Episcopal Church offers a sacred haven for workers in downtown Little Rock. The doors, flung open during the day, are a silent invitation to step inside, sit and pray.
Nationwide, however, those seeking a spiritual pit stop during the workweek are increasingly encountering locked doors at houses of worship. Reacting to well-publicized acts of violence in churches, ministers are locking doors, hiring security guards and training members to spot suspicious activity.
For the Rev. Scott Walters, pastor of Christ Church, maintaining an open and welcoming spirit while ensuring the safety and security of parishioners requires balance.
"Part of our identity is we're the church with the open red doors and that's an important witness of our Christian hospitality," he said. "But we also realize part of hospitality is to make sure people are safe."
To help ensure that safety, the church has organized a team to review policies and procedures. Part of the solution includes limiting access to certain areas of the church without shutting out those seeking help ora place to pray.
The church is a gathering place for support groups throughout the week, and also welcomes the homeless and hungry to share in a free meal once a month. People are in and out throughout the day. Locking down the church isn't practical and it runs contrary to the congregation's mission, Walters said.
"I think a lot of openness is appropriate, if we are careful," he said.
Walters said the church hasn't had trouble with intruders, but a few incidents prompted the staff to assemble the safety team.
"We try to be open to the downtown poor and let them come in," Walters said. "Once or twice we've realized they'd gotten farther into the building than they should have. They didn't cause any harm."
Because of those incidents, the team began discussing safety measures, including which doors should be secured when rooms are not in use, whether to post members at doors during events and the possibility of hiring an off-duty police officer to patrol the parking lot during large evening events.
"It highlighted areas we needed to pay attention to," Walters said. "But we do in-tentionally use the language of hospitality when talking about it. We are called to be hospitable to all kinds of people."
And the big red doors will remain open.
The topic of church security drew pastors and church staff from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas to a conference in Fayetteville recently. They discussed violent incidents at houses of worship in the past few years and actions churches can take to improve safety, including establishing a church security team.
Vaughn Baker, co-owner of Strategos International, which provides intruder response training for churches, schools and businesses, led the twoday conference. He said security is a topic churches are being forced to confront.
"We are seeing a significant increase in violence at churches," he said. "This is not a big-city problem."
Based on statistics from the Christian Security Network, Baker said from January to June there have been 17 shootings or acts of violence in churches in America, including six deaths. Despite these high-profile cases, burglaries and thefts still account for the majority of crimes in houses of worship. That can also lead to violence.
Baker said, statistically, a violent act in church isn't likely but congregations must be prepared for the possibility.
"What would happen if it did occur?" he asked. "If we have a right to feel safe anywhere it should be in church. ... But, don't take for granted that something bad won't happen."
Baker, who has 24 years of law enforcement experience, said the biggest mistake churches make is thinking "it can't happen here." And, when an intruder enters a church or a violent act is committed, he said, bystanders often try to rationalize what's occurring.
"They say to themselves,'This can't be happening,'" Baker said.
The goal for churches is to establish a plan of action while maintaining an atmosphere conducive to worship.
"Most important is to increase awareness among the staff," he said. "If you are not aware of suspicious behavior you can't prevent it .... They need to know what suspicious activity looks like."
Mike Boyce, a volunteer from Keypoint Church, attended the conference. Hesaid the church, with locations in Bentonville and Springdale, hasn't had any violent incidents or emergencies but the congregation wants to be prepared. Boyce said he's concerned about more than intruders, including medical emergencies and fire.
"Our No. 1 need is a system of communication and a way to alert people to hazards," Boyce said. "And, a general watchfulness."
Boyce said the conference alerted him to the multitudeof risks facing the church.
"It was a splash of cold water in the face of what could happen," he said.
First United Methodist Church in Springdale formed a committee to address safety and security about six months ago. The Rev. David Freeman said the team is focusing on many areas, including medical emergencies, severe weather, fire and protection from intruders.
"We need a full plan," Freeman said.
With almost 1,000 people on campus on Sunday mornings, Freeman said a plan of action in emergencies is essential. The need for something as simple as what to do in the event of severe weather came to the staff's attention during Vacation Bible School this summer. The area was under a tornado warning just as VBS was ending for the day. Parents were milling around outside waiting to pick up their children and the campus was full of people when the storm approached.
"Luckily all the kids were in the sanctuary and we moved them into the halls," Freeman said. "We sent teachers to get the parents from outside and bring them in ... there was a lot of chaos."
Freeman said that incident alerted the staff to the need for an emergency and security plan that encompasses a variety of needs, including how to mobilize a crowd. The teamis discussing everything from first aid training and evacuation routes to worst-case scenarios involving an intruder with a gun.
"What do you do? How do you protect yourself?" he asked.
Like Walters, Freeman said the church staff is trying to balance the need for safety with the congregation's desire to be a welcoming place of worship.
"We don't want this to become a fortress," he said. "We want people to have access to this church and to good news that's proclaimed here, and we're trying to figure out how to walk that line."
Religion, Pages 14, 15 on 09/26/2009