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Finding "lost" children is always a favorite. Usually it is the parent that is lost.

We did stop a misguided soul from popping a lock on a pickup with a screwdriver.

Other than that, we usually just support our children teachers and keep an eye out.

There have been many incidences, but I guess the one that got our neck hair standing up was when a guy we did not recognize approached the stage on the side and just stood there. We often have people go there to pray, but he did not do that. Then he walked back to the back row where he came from, then went forward again. He was only wearing a golf shirt and shorts and shoes (which is not uncommon at our church in the summer time) but the shirt was untucked. By now, I was about 30 feet behind him, another team member was at the front on the far side (not really noticeable by most people), and another team member was coming in the side (unseen by nearly everyone) closest to our unknown contact." At the end of the message our preacher goes to the front row to one side (the far side from our visitor) and sits down until after the final song. Then he either does an alter call or says a final prayer & dismisses the congregation. Well, when the preacher went to sit down, our visitor walked directly towards him. Our team member on that side got to the preacher about the same time as our visitor. The visitor sat down right next to the preacher and security sat right beside the visitor where he could see his hands (thank goodness no body likes to sit on the front row that far to the side). I was on my way but the closest team member waived me off, so I found a seat near by and watched and radioed for everyone else to hold near by. It quickly became apparent from the facial expressions & gestures that everything was okay. When the song was over, the preacher went up on stage & asked the visitor to give his testimony (the Holy Spirit had really moved him and he just couldn't stay in his seat). Then the visitor said he really was anxious for the next opportunity to be baptised. The preacher asked if he was ready right then, and he baptised him right there & then. It was a perfect fit with the preacher's message that day, too.

Hardly anyone noticed what the security team did. We did not over react, thank God, and we did not under react either. We also learned a lot about where we need to be stationed, too. We can't always be in great position, but we constantly work on it and we have reserved seat signs at certain locations. We have also worked with the preacher on verbal & non verbal signals from him to us, and he always knows where to look for one of us.

This is probably more than you wanted, but ……..

Other than that, we have had panhandlers in the parking lots. We have had a lady show up drunk & belligerent. We have had a drunk, abusive, exconvict, live in boyfriend, come to claim his children from nursery. We have had ugly divorce situations, where emotionally unstable spouse comes to church where he/she knows the children and spouse will be. We have had people stalking the preacher, some of the single women, and once a well known visiting speaker. We have had threats from EDPs (emotionally disturbed person). We have had to do "no trespass warrants" on some people. And of course there are the medical emergencies, missing children (one 13 year old girl got stuck in the elevator one night for about 30 minutes before we found her), rowdy teenagers, and an occasional couple parking at the end of our street to make out.

With all this, I can say that in 7 years we have only had to lay hands on any one once; and that was to break up a fight between two teenagers. We have been very blessed to have good people with good judgement on our team, and have been very fortunate not to have a bad situation go bad on us.

It is really a fascinating ministry.

Here in Defiance, a town of about 20,000, we have experienced many expected incidents at what is the largest church in this 6 county area. I have been involved with the ushers for about 14 years and been the "head" usher, or what we at our church call Deacons, for about 10 years. The most memorable incident involved a domestic squabble (no big surprise there)! We had just moved into town from a small rural church building to the town's old 100 year old theater downtown. The old building was wonderfull and had many charecteristics, but having adequate rooms for children's ministries it didn't. The staff decided to place the Nursery in the old ticket office which was right inside the main doors, this seemed to make sense so the parents could drop off their children right as they arrived at church, but proved to be impossible to secure. A couple in the church was going thru a divorce and the young man had custody of their young baby girl. The woman had been to our church plenty and had good knowledge of the workings of the nursery and church service, ie. times and personnel. Basically to make a long story short, she burst in with two burly men braking partition doors and grabbed the baby out of one of the nursery workers arms and ran off with the baby to another state. No one knew what to do and no plan or procedure was in place. The nursery did have a back door that lead to a stairway, and I thought that a worker could easily have escaped with the baby thru there and got help, but I don't blame them for not knowing what to do. The police later explained that we could not have physically stopped her from getting her child, but she knew she was doing something wrong hence the muscle she brought! Plus, they did cause some panic and destroyed church property and threatened the nursery workers. The one thing that burns me up to this day is, I always had a spot in the back of the sanctuary reserved for me and my familly so in an emergency situation people could get me and know exactly where I was, but this Wednesday night someone took my spot in the back row, I was always fighting with people who didn't respect the reserved seating signs and sitting in my spot. People think I did that so I could have this great spot or something? So that particular night I didn't want to fight it and just let the woman sit there and sat somewhere else. Here I found out later that a man who had seen the group come in, noticed something was wrong and came to notify me but couldn't find me! I learned a valuable lesson that day! The family of the young mans baby girl was not happy with the safety our church provided the babies, and I would of had to agree.