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Higher Ground Baptist Church, Kingsport,
Tennessee sponsored this course Feb. 21 2009 at their church. Two of
our team members and myself attended. The Pastor of HGBC and our Pastor
are good friends and thats how we found out about the conference.

8 classes were scheduled: Creating and Planning for Church Security 1
and 2; Offering and Tithing Security; Executive Protection for Pastor
and Visitors; Protecting Nursery and Students; Legal Issues and Aspects
of Church Security. Two hands-on classes were also taught: Self-defense
in the Church and a set of Scenarios in the Sanctuary.

The staff at HGBC were expecting around 50 participants: 270 or so
registered. The classes had to be modified somewhat to accommodate the
larger amount of students. As a result, they didn't get to participate
in the two hands-on classes as much as was originally intended.

We've had a team in place for a couple of years. We did learn quite a bit of things to take back with us, though.

First class I took was Offering Security. This class
talked about ways to physically protect and deliver to the bank
offerings and tithes. Good information for newbies, but nothing really
new to us.

Executive Protection: This class was taught by a deputy who had
been through Secret Service Dignitary Protection School and he brought
out a lot of good information on protecting your principle and any
important guest speakers that may attend your church. The instructor
for this class had a teaching style that had
everyone's attention.

Protecting Nursery and Students: Mostly prevention-running
background checks on workers, having numbering and sign-in/out systems
to keep a child from being abused or abducted. Some great tips on
layouts for rooms if a church is building a new building and can afford
the security upgrades.

Legal Aspects:Taught by Sullivan County (TN) Sheriff Office.
They covered liability as an agent of your church acting in different
situations. Although most PD's tend to not recommend going armed, they
didn't seem to be against it. They did teach that the training course
for getting a CCW wasn't enough in their opinion and that anyone who
was going to carry for CS work should get training, training, and more
training and document everything. “If it's not written down, it didn't
ever happen.” was the comment by the instructor. With that said, the
instructor also said “if someone with a pistol permit and a 4hr CCW
course is all you have when a shooter comes in, that's what you have to
go with.” The pluses and minuses of the ASP baton; pepper spray, and
TASER's were also discussed. It was a pretty deep class.

I didn't participate in the following classes as they were held at the
same time as some of the other classes I attended. This is from my two
team members who did attend:

Hands-on Scenarios had to be pared down due to the amount
of attendees. The deputy who taught the EP class played a disruptive
person in the congregation. The task was to calm him down and/or remove
him. The Self Defense in the Church was mostly standard MA pressure-point and joint-lock work. Church Planning for Security was a class on the steps needed to start and support a security program at your church.

I'm sure I missed quite a bit as there was a lot to take in. Lot's of
notes and hand-outs to go through in the coming days. Others probably
saw things different than I did. All-in-all a very good conference and
I applaud HGBC for getting the information out there. They have a very
squared-away team and they have a great working relationship with the
local LE.

Special thanks to Shea Payne, his team and the HGBC staff for their
hard work, and the Sullivan Co. S.O. for some great speakers.

Higher Ground Baptist is already planning another conference for next
year, possibly with blocks for both churches who are just starting to
plan for security and for teams who are somewhat experienced.