The security camera convicted him, but it did not prevent the problem. This is something I have to constantly remind people about. A security camera may deter theft, but only diligent people can prevent it.

Price: About $50

When you are with a church without a permanent residence, your security situation is very different than a church meeting in its own building. For nearly 2 years, our satellite campus lived out of trailers and storage rooms. All equipment was accompanied by wheels or was hauled in from homes and our other campus each week. In college I had wwhat we referred to as “the children’s program in the trunk” as we hauled most everything needed for leading Sunday School and Children’s Church in the back of my Saturn.

But, what happens when your church trailer gets stolen? This happened to KineticChurch (requires Flash and disabled pop-up blockers to use their site) last month, and they are responding with pleas for the equipment to be returned. David Milam, their church planter, has posted about what they are doing to try to recover the trailer and its contents. The campaign includes billboards and YouTube videos emphasizing forgiveness and the importance of the trailer to their ministry. You can see the importance placed on this trailer in their other YouTube videos and in a blog post from August 2007 about raising funds to purchase it.

With one month already past and the Bibles and communion equipment found dumped I doubt anything else is coming back. I’ll say that this is a clever campaign, and it may draw attention that will lead to more evangelism (though I personally wouldn’t be attracted to a church doing this campaign), but prevention is the only way to deal with this.

Tongue locks,  thick chains, heavy duty padlocks, a responsible person making sure it is properly secured, and a good parking location will make a huge difference when your property is portable.

This item looks to be very “set it and forget it,” and useful for areas without convenient electricity. Motion activated lighting is both a safety and security feature, but some of the places where it can be most helpful are not the places where you there is already electricity.

I have several solar powered single LED landscaping lights. They look great, give that little bit of extra light to our front sidewalk, they can be easily pulled out of the ground to make mowing easier, but by morning they are dark. Nice, but not quite security lights.

It gives off the same amount of light as a 10 Watt halogen, so it isn’t really blindingly bright. In fact, I wonder if this item may need to brighten before it is really ready.

There is an interesting statement in the original story, “if somebody who has the ability to fly a 747 across the Pacific wants a gun, you give it to them.” I would not agree. Someone needs to be good with a plane before I trust them with a plane, and they need to be good with a gun before I trust them with a gun.

This issue pops up continually in church security and safety. There are many people that I trust at the church to do certain things, but that does not mean they get the master keys or alarm codes.  I saw a list of people who have been entrusted with master keys over the years and we know in hindsight that several of them were far from trustworthy.

When trusting someone with a security responsibility, you cannot immediately assume that their spiritual status gives them the discernment necessary for every other task. Judge an individual according to the job to be performed, not by their success in unrelated areas.

1. The security of the believer: Protecting churches from attack

2. Church security: What to do when under attack at church

3. Church security demands all hands on deck — with firearms included?

These are a good starting point if you are working your church into the idea of building a security team, but you will also want to look into another article entitled Why local churches are adding security (also discussed in the church security forum).

Other models can be found through Google Products.

A woman was kicked out of church for sowing harmony and discord. When she came back to visit months later they had her arrested.

It reminded me of the issue of sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 where Paul told them to kick the guy out.
In 2 Corinthians 2:5-8 Paul urged them to be forgiving and welcome someone back in after changing their heart. I believe it is the same person as in 1 Corinthians.

I don’t think this is something that the police should have been called in on unless it was a real security issue. I would say this needed to be handled within the church, as a doctrine issue and not as a security threat. This falls under 1 Corinthians 6:1-8.

I thought it was interesting that several people left the church due to the incident and others backed the minister up completely.

What do you think?

Many good Christians have taken many different sides on this issue over the years, but not everyone has to act on it. Where do you stand on using potentially deadly force in defense of self or others?

What are the other options?