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Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. One Year After Grand Blanc, Is Your Church Ready? On September 28, 2025, four people went to church in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, and never came home. Their names were Craig Hayden, John Bond, Thelma Armstrong, and William “Pat” Howard. A man drove a truck into their meetinghouse, opened fire, and deliberately set the building ablaze. An armed member confronted him before police arrived. The police chief credited that member with buying time for others to escape. Yet one year later, the LDS Church continues to prohibit ordinary members from carrying firearms on church property. That deserves direct criticism. Leadership has revised its security guidance, but the weapons restriction remains. Families attending an ordinary Sunday service are still denied an option that leadership recognizes as appropriate for meetings involving an increased threat. I believe that response is inadequate. When four people have been murdered in your building, every part of your protection model should be examined, including policies leadership would prefer to leave alone. Whether your church is Baptist, Catholic, or nondenominational, you need to study this incident. You may have different policies, but you have the same responsibility to take the protection of your congregation seriously. A fast police response still left people dead Thomas Jacob Sanford attacked the Grand Blanc congregation with a vehicle, gunfire, and fire. The FBI later described the attack as targeted violence believed to be motivated by hatred toward the Mormon religious community. This was a deliberate attack on people gathered for worship. The police response was fast. According to the timeline released by authorities, the first 911 call came from someone who had been shot in the stomach. Police were notified 16 seconds later. A conservation officer arrived in less than two minutes after dispatch, followed by a township officer. They confronted and killed Sanford. I spent 29 years in law enforcement. I understand what responding officers can accomplish, and I understand the limits imposed by travel time. Officers cannot protect someone inside your sanctuary while they are still driving toward your church. Call police immediately when an emergency develops. But your church also needs people prepared to act before officers arrive. Grand Blanc demonstrated how much damage an attacker can inflict during even a fast response. * Register for the October 8 class in Wayne, Michigan * Register for the October 10 class in Crystal Lake, Illinois An armed member bought time Greg Mikat, a hearings investigator with the Michigan Department of Corrections, was carrying a handgun that morning. After the truck struck the building, he went outside and encountered Sanford approaching with a rifle. Mikat fired five rounds. According to the police investigation, none struck Sanford. Sanford shot Mikat three times in the chest. Mikat survived. On the anniversary Sunday, he stood before his congregation and conducted the music. Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William “Bill” Renye described him as a hero and credited him with buying time for most of the congregation to escape through the back. The Deseret News anniversary report documents his actions and the chief’s assessment. Some people will focus on the misses and conclude that his handgun accomplished nothing. That ignores what the police chief said. Mikat confronted a man who was murdering people, and the chief believes that confrontation gave others time to get away. His courage deserves recognition. His misses also require an honest discussion about training. We can respect what he did while examining what every armed church security volunteer should learn from it. A carry permit does not establish your ability to stop an attacker. Neither does owning a good handgun or being the person everyone at church considers knowledgeable about firearms. You need to measure your performance. If you carry, train honestly I have recommended the Bill Drill for years because it gives you a measurable way to work on your draw, recoil control, and accuracy at speed. From the holster, draw and fire six rounds into the A zone, the center scoring area of a standard practical shooting target, at seven yards. The performance goal I recommend working toward is under two seconds, with all six rounds in that scoring area. All six hits count. A fast time with misses does not meet the standard. Build toward that goal at a pace you can safely control, and record both your times and your hits. The drill does not recreate Grand Blanc or establish that someone is prepared for every emergency. You still need judgment, communication, medical training, and practice with the people who will respond beside you. But if you carry a handgun to protect a congregation, avoiding meaningful evaluation of your shooting ability is unacceptable. People are depending on you. They deserve demonstrated competence and continued training. Be honest about what you can do today. Then put in the work to improve it. The policy needs to be challenged After Grand Blanc, the church security department sent a letter to leaders of more than 31,000 congregations, asking them to review security and emergency preparations. The church’s security guidelines updated March 16, 2026 include two greeters at entrances, paired patrols inside and outside, and emergency training that includes Run, Hide, Fight. Those measures have value. The same guidance calls for four to six current law enforcement officers at high profile meetings or during an increased threat environment. Meanwhile, General Handbook section 35.5.7.2 continues to prohibit firearms and other lethal weapons on church property, including concealed weapons, with an exception for current law enforcement officers. Leadership recognizes a role for armed protection. It recommends officers under certain circumstances while prohibiting ordinary members from carrying. Grand Blanc was a Sunday worship meeting. The attacker did not wait for a prominent visitor or a special event. He attacked families gathered for worship. Leadership should explain why those families cannot have trained, organized armed protection provided by qualified members where applicable law allows it. An ordinary Sunday deserves a serious protection plan. Hiring police can be part of that plan, but officers are not always available. Leadership still needs an answer for a service when none are present. Who is prepared to protect the congregation during the minutes before responding officers arrive? My recommendation is to change the policy to permit lawful armed protection by qualified members and establish trained, supported teams at the local level. Set standards, appoint accountable leaders, and provide the resources those teams need. After Grand Blanc, a letter and revised procedures should not end the discussion. The weapons restriction deserves direct examination. More fatal shootings followed On January 7, 2026, a shooting outside a funeral at an LDS meetinghouse in Salt Lake City killed two people and injured six others. Police described a dispute among people attending the funeral. Federal prosecutors later charged two alleged Tongan Crip gang members with firearms offenses related to the investigation. The initial reporting and Justice Department announcement describe those circumstances. On August 17, a funeral at an LDS meetinghouse in Kearns, Utah, ended with one man dead and two others critically injured. Attendees had warned police that trouble might develop. According to KSL’s reporting, officers were already at the location when they heard gunfire. Those two shootings and Grand Blanc left seven people dead in less than 11 months. The circumstances differed. The funeral shootings should not be presented as the same kind of targeted religious attack as Grand Blanc, but they demonstrate other threats that can reach church property. Your team needs to prepare for conflicts brought into funerals, threats against the congregation, and an attacker arriving during worship. Known disputes or gang connections belong in the security assessment before the service begins. Informal arrangements leave unanswered questions I have heard from LDS members who tell me they carry despite the policy. Others say they have formed informal teams. That tells me members are concerned enough to act without institutional support, and it raises questions leadership should resolve. Who knows who is armed? Who has been trained? Who is coordinating the response? Have those people ever trained together? A church should answer those questions through an organized program. Leaving members to private arrangements creates uncertainty during the emergency when clear responsibilities are essential. Give the team defined leadership and train together at least monthly. Brief other lawful carriers on expectations so they understand how to avoid interfering with the team or confusing responding officers. The church’s guidance includes fighting as a last resort. Leadership should examine what its weapons restriction leaves a member facing someone with a rifle. A folding chair may be what is available, but telling someone to improvise does not settle the question of whether qualified armed protection should have been permitted. Preparation starts outside Grand Blanc began with a vehicle reaching an occupied building. Every church should examine where a vehicle could drive directly into its sanctuary, classrooms, or gathering areas. Bring those vulnerabilities to leadership and discuss appropriate barriers with qualified professionals. I teach threat recognition through atmospherics. Know what normal looks like on your property so you can identify behavior that needs attention. Reckless driving, repeated circling, unusual parking, or an approach that does n

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. Seats Open for Our Free Michigan and Illinois Classes, and Applications Open for Active Shooter Instructor We still have seats in both of our free in-person church safety classes next month. The first is Thursday, October 8, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time at CrossPointe Community Church, 36125 Glenwood Road, Wayne, Michigan. The second is Saturday, October 10, from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Central Time at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 300 Pathway Court, Crystal Lake, Illinois. Both classes run the same material: recognizing warning signs before a situation escalates, de-escalation, building a team, access control, legal considerations, emergency action plans, working with local police, and keeping a church welcoming while it stays secure. Pastors, church leaders, safety team members, ushers, greeters and volunteers are all welcome, and so are the police officers who work with your church. There is no livestream or online option. Registration is through Eventbrite. Enter the promo code CWT at checkout and the class is free. * Register for the October 8 class in Wayne, Michigan * Register for the October 10 class in Crystal Lake, Illinois The Church Active Shooter Instructor Course (CASIC) CASIC is a three-day train-the-trainer certification course for church security team members. This is the first time we are running it. You spend three days learning to plan, teach and run active shooter response training, and you go home qualified to train your own team. Students write operations orders and lesson plans during the course, and the scenario days use blank-firing weapons. Dates: Wednesday, October 28, through Friday, October 30, 2026 Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time each day Location: Eagle, Idaho Tuition: $249 for all three days. The normal price of this course is $1,000. We set it at $249 because the mission of Christian Warrior Training is to keep training free or close to free for church security teams. Class size: 15 students This first class is aimed at churches in our region. Applicants from Idaho, eastern Oregon and eastern Washington get priority for the open seats. If seats remain after that, we will open them to applicants from anywhere. We plan to run CASIC in other parts of the country in 2027, so if you are farther away and do not get a seat this time, there will be more chances next year. NO REGISTRATIONS AT THE DOOR. DO NOT COME UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN AUTHORIZED TO ATTEND. CASIC prerequisites CASIC is an instructor course for people who already know active shooter response, basic church security and safe firearms handling. Over three days it teaches you how to train your own team in that material. Every student has to meet the requirements below. A student who cannot document them is not admitted. We also recommend, but do not require, the following. They are not disqualifying if you do not have them. * Experience as an instructor in any setting: military, law enforcement, coaching or anything else * A Stop the Bleed, Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) or equivalent trauma care course * Defensive handgun training beyond a basic safety class * Knowing your state’s use-of-force law as it applies to armed church security What to send with your application Email the following to [email protected]: * Your church letter. Anyone in your chain of command can sign it, including your pastor, an elder, your safety director or your team leader. It needs to state that your church supports you attending CASIC, that you hold an active role on the security team or have authority to start one, and that you have passed a background check through your church. * Your training certificate from a church security or active shooter response course. * A copy of your concealed carry permit, or your law enforcement or military credential. * Your answer to this question, at least two paragraphs long: Describe your current active shooter training background, your role on your church security team, and what you intend to do with this certification at your church. Include your full name, your church, and your city and state in the email. The signed statement on felony and domestic violence convictions and the enrollment application are completed before the first day of class. If your training background falls short, we will tell you which course to take first so you can apply for a later CASIC class.What to bring * A laptop. You will write operations orders and lesson plans during the course. * A full-face mask for the blank-firing scenarios. * Your church load-out, including your radio, if you want to train in the gear you wear on Sunday. * A blue gun or a laser trainer such as a TitanX or SIRT pistol, if you have one. Do not bring firearms, ammunition, knives, pepper spray or any other weapon. None are allowed on site at any point during the course. The blue gun or laser trainer takes the place of your carry gun for every drill. If your church sits in Idaho, eastern Oregon or eastern Washington, get your letter written this week and send it to [email protected]. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. 10 Ways to Protect Your Church, in the Right Order If I walked into your church this Sunday, I might find three men carrying concealed firearms. If I walked around the building, I might also find a back door propped open, a children’s wing anybody can enter, and an alarm nobody has tested. Those men may be committed, trained, and willing to protect the congregation. But they cannot cover every unsecured entrance, screen every volunteer, or replace a medical response plan. There are other things your church needs to get working, and the order deserves some attention. Here are ten things you can do to protect your church. This is a way to set priorities, not a complete security plan for every building. Take it to your pastor and safety team, look honestly at what you have, and start with the first item that is unfinished. Paid subscribers help us keep church safety training available to churches that cannot afford it. If Christian Warrior Training has helped your team and you are in a position to support the work, please consider a paid subscription. 1. A Working Burglar and Fire Alarm Your building probably sits empty more hours than it is occupied. You need a monitored alarm that covers intrusion and fire, and somebody needs to know that it actually works. Test it regularly and keep the contact list current. Think about who gets called at two in the morning. I do not want the pastor walking into a building to find out whether a burglar is still inside. Have an appropriate response procedure, and put people on the list who will actually answer the phone. An alarm nobody acts on gives you very little protection. 2. A Useful Video System I want footage somebody can use after an incident. A well placed camera with a clear view of an entrance is more useful than a pile of cameras that show a blurry figure walking away. Resolution, placement, lighting, and distance all affect whether you can identify a person. Cover your entrances, children’s areas, offices, sanctuary, and parking lot. Aim for at least 30 days of storage if your system and budget allow it. Then have somebody on your team find a recording and export it. You do not want to discover after an incident that nobody knows how to retrieve the video. 3. Volunteer Screening and Written Safety Policies Some of the people who can harm a church are people the congregation already knows. That is why child protection and financial safeguards belong near the top of this list. Use appropriate background checks for each position, repeat them on a schedule, and use references, supervision, and a waiting period before a new attender serves with children. A background check will not catch everything. Put your rules in writing. Who can work with a child? Can someone be alone with a child? Who counts the money? Who receives a report when somebody raises a concern? If your staff and volunteers give different answers, you have work to do. We have free policy examples available at Christian Warrior Training to help you get started. 4. Control Your Doors Walk your building during a Sunday service and count the doors that are propped open, unlocked, or out of sight. Know which entrances people are supposed to use, and assign somebody to pay attention to them. That side door by the fellowship hall should not let somebody walk through the building unnoticed. Keep track of keys and access codes, and update access when somebody leaves a position. Every required exit still needs to work immediately from the inside. Have your fire marshal or the appropriate local authority review proposed door changes so controlling entry does not interfere with people getting out. 5. Exterior Lighting Go to your property after dark. Look at the parking lot, entrances, walkways, and corners around the building. Can someone leaving Wednesday night Bible study see where they are going? Can your cameras record a face, or do you get a black screen with two headlights in it? Good lighting helps people move safely and helps your team see what is happening. You can spot many of the first problems by taking a walk at night. Write them down and give somebody responsibility for getting them corrected. 6. Children’s Check In and Check Out Have a clear process for who drops a child off and who is authorized to pick that child up. Use matching tags or another reliable system. Decide ahead of time what happens when a tag is lost, adults dispute a pickup, or a custody restriction applies. Do not create an exception because the adult is well known and everybody feels uncomfortable saying no. Control access to the children’s area and assign someone to watch it while keeping emergency exits usable. Practice those awkward conversations before you have a parent standing at the door. The free scenario resources under the Training tab at Christian Warrior Training can help your team prepare. 7. A Trained Unarmed Safety Team Most church safety work happens long before anybody reaches for a weapon. Somebody greets people, watches the parking lot, and notices the person entering the children’s hallway who does not belong there. Somebody needs to speak calmly with a person in crisis and recognize when help is needed. Train your people to observe behavior, communicate, deescalate, and get the right help. Give each person a clear assignment. A safety team shirt does not tell a volunteer what to do, and good intentions do not replace training. 8. Medical Response People fall, have trouble breathing, and suffer medical emergencies during services. Your team needs to be ready to help. Put an AED where someone can get to it quickly, train people in CPR and AED use, and make trauma supplies accessible to trained responders. Send your team to Stop the Bleed training. Assign the jobs before the call happens. Who calls 911? Who brings the equipment? Who meets the ambulance and guides responders to the patient? Practice those assignments so your team can get moving when someone needs help. 9. Team Communications If a team member sees a problem in the parking lot, how does the person in the children’s wing find out? If the answer is that somebody will try to make a phone call, you need to test whether that is a dependable plan. Give your team radios or another reliable way to communicate throughout the property. Test communications in the rooms and hallways where signals tend to fail. Use plain language and practice the calls your team may actually make: a missing child, a medical emergency, a concerning person, or an entrance that needs attention. Having radios and knowing how to use them are two separate things. 10. Armed Team Members I believe armed response can be an important part of church safety. I have made that clear over the years. It is number ten because a firearm cannot secure an open door, screen a children’s volunteer, perform CPR, or tell the rest of the team what is happening. If your church authorizes armed team members, take that responsibility seriously. Establish written standards for selection, qualification, and ongoing training. Address use of force, communications, identification, insurance, and legal review. Make sure your pastor understands the program he is approving. A concealed carry permit by itself does not prepare someone for every responsibility of serving on a church safety team. Preparation and Humility Second Chronicles 26 describes Uzziah fortifying Jerusalem, building towers, securing water, and organizing his men. It also describes the weapons and equipment he provided. There is a lesson there about preparing several parts of a defense and getting people organized. But keep reading. Verse 16 tells us that when Uzziah became strong, he grew proud, and that pride led to his downfall. He stepped into a role God had not given him. That warning applies to me and to every person serving on a church safety team. If we begin enjoying the authority or the gear more than we care about the congregation, we need to examine ourselves. We serve the church under its leadership. The people God has placed in front of us are the reason we do this work. What to Do at Your Next Meeting Bring these ten items to your next safety team meeting. Mark which ones are actually working, then identify the first unfinished item. Maybe it is the alarm. Maybe it is the children’s checkout procedure. Maybe everybody has a radio, but nobody has tested it in the back hallway. Make that your next project and keep moving down the list. Tell me in the comments which number your church needs to work on and what is making it difficult. Your answers help me develop training that is useful to your team. Keep praying for the people who might threaten our churches. Pray that they turn away from violence and come to know Jesus Christ. Keep caring for the congregation, and remember your ABCs: Always Be Carrying. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. Christian creators should not have to fight a faceless system simply to warn churches about crime, but that is exactly what Christian Warrior Training is dealing with right now. Do social media companies discriminate against Christian creators and Christian channels? I will let you decide. I can only tell you what Christian Warrior Training is dealing with right now and show you the example Facebook gave me when I finally reached a real person. This is not a complaint about one post failing to perform well. It is about a platform restricting our ability to reach people, refusing to explain the original violation, and then labeling a basic church security warning as politically divisive. Register for the October 10 class in Crystal Lake, Illinois Register for the October 8 class in Wayne, Michigan How Facebook Helped Us Reach Thousands Facebook and Instagram have never produced much direct income for Christian Warrior Training. Together, they might bring in a couple hundred dollars in a month. Their real value was distribution. When Facebook shared our content with people who did not already follow us, those people could watch it, decide whether it was useful, and follow the page if they wanted more. That allowed us to reach Christians, church safety volunteers, pastors, Jewish followers, and others who wanted practical information about protecting their churches and families. When my daughter Caitlyn took over our Facebook work, the page grew from roughly 1,000 followers to 60,000 in about three months. The growth happened because Facebook was recommending our content. People saw the information, found value in it, and chose to follow us. Then, in April, everything changed. Restricted Without an Explanation Facebook demonetized the page and stopped recommending our content. The notice said we had violated community standards, but it did not tell me what we had posted that supposedly violated those standards. That leaves a creator trying to correct a problem that Facebook will not identify. You cannot remove the offending post, change your approach, or even make a meaningful appeal when no one will tell you what you allegedly did wrong. More recently, I received another notice telling me that I had 30 days to appeal or Facebook might take further action against the account. The notice did not clearly explain what that action would be. It could have meant another restriction, or it could have placed the entire Facebook and Instagram presence at risk. I clicked the appeal button. Nothing happened. That is a common problem for creators dealing with large social media companies. There is often no obvious phone number, no accessible customer service department, and no person who can explain why an account has been restricted. Paying for Access to Customer Service I belong to a Signal group with some of the largest firearms creators online. Several of them told me that purchasing Meta Verified could provide access to customer service. I paid $12.95, worked through the support process, and finally reached someone. The support representative called to confirm my identity. Communication was difficult at times, but we worked through it. I asked him to open the Christian Warrior Training page and show me the type of post Facebook considered a problem. The example he selected was a warning about thieves stripping copper, scrap metal, and air conditioning equipment from more than 30 churches in St. Louis. The post explained that police were seeing a renewed crime wave rather than a few isolated incidents. It warned church leaders about the repeated thefts and offered practical steps they could take to protect buildings that may sit empty for much of the week. Facebook classified that church crime warning as politically divisive. Read that again. A post warning churches about theft and helping them protect their property was presented as an example of politically divisive content. There was no political candidate in the post. There was no political party. There was no election argument. It was a church security warning based on reported criminal activity. I asked the representative a simple question: If someone is warning people about crime and giving them ways to protect themselves, should that not be the kind of useful information a social media company wants on its platform? He agreed. The Appeal Was Rejected While Support Was Helping Me Facebook then required me to upload identification. I provided a government issued ID while the representative was still helping me by phone. The system rejected it almost immediately. The representative was there with me, walking through the process, and the automated system still refused the identification. I spent about an hour on the phone trying to resolve a problem that should never have required this much effort. As I write this, I am still waiting to learn whether Facebook will accept my identification and restore the page’s ability to reach people. Why I Am Telling You This I am sharing this because most viewers never see what happens behind the screen. You may follow a page and assume you will continue to see its posts. That is no longer a safe assumption. A social media company can stop recommending a creator overnight. It can reduce the audience without clearly identifying the reason. It can threaten further action while providing an appeal button that does not work. The creator may have no meaningful way to reach a person unless he pays for a verification service. Firearms creators have dealt with these restrictions for years. Content related to the Second Amendment is routinely limited, demonetized, or removed. Christian creators face many of the same problems when they discuss faith, evil, crime, self defense, and the responsibility to protect innocent people. In this case, Facebook’s own example was not inflammatory or partisan. It was a factual warning intended to help churches prevent theft. I believe this is censorship. Whatever label Facebook places on it, the practical result is the same: fewer people receive information that can help them protect their church and family, and fewer people hear the message of Jesus Christ. Do Not Let an Algorithm Decide Whether We Stay Connected If you follow Christian Warrior Training on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or another platform, please like the page, subscribe, and turn on alerts. Those actions may help, but none of them guarantees that the platform will continue showing you our work. The best way to stay connected is to subscribe at ChristianWarriorTraining.com. I send only a few emails each week. I do not spam you, and I do not share your information. If a social media company removes Christian Warrior Training, the email list gives us a way to reconnect somewhere else with as little interruption as possible. If you can afford a paid subscription, it directly supports this work and helps us continue providing church security information, training, and intelligence. If you cannot afford one, stay on the free list. Take care of your family and tithe to your church first. The people who can support this ministry help keep the information available for those who cannot. Please pray for Christian Warrior Training. Pray that we can continue reaching the people who need this information. Pray also for the people making these decisions, that they will come to know Christ and understand the effect these restrictions have on others. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. Certificates are Back On, New CASIC and Leadership Class and More I wanted to give everyone an update on what is happening with Christian Warrior Training because there is quite a bit going on right now. The first thing many of you have been asking about is certificates for our online training. They are back. I had to temporarily shut the certificate system down because I learned that my insurance was not going to cover certain parts of the online training the way we were doing it. I was not willing to keep operating that way without proper coverage, so we stopped issuing certificates until I could get everything worked out. That has now been resolved, and certificates are turned back on. One thing to keep in mind is that the course system can be finicky. You may need to allow pop-ups in your browser before the certificate will download properly. I also want to explain something about Christian Warrior Training that I do not think I have ever really laid out before. When I say our training is free, I mean it is free to you. It is definitely not free to produce. My insurance alone is now about $10,000 a year. Last year, my expenses for Christian Warrior Training were more than $200,000. That includes cameras, computers, websites, email systems, insurance, travel, printing, software, research tools, equipment, and contractors when we need specialized help. There are a lot of expenses involved in keeping this operation going every day. I am not telling you that because I want everybody reading this to run out and buy a paid subscription. In fact, I want to say the opposite. If paying for Christian Warrior Training means taking money away from your family, do not do it. Take care of your family. If that money needs to go to your church, then give it to your church. Tithe to your church. I come last. My hope has always been that the people who can afford to support Christian Warrior Training will help make it possible for the people who cannot afford it to receive the same information and training. A paid subscriber may be helping a small rural church somewhere with almost no security budget get information they otherwise would not have access to. I could put everything behind a paywall. I could charge for every online class, every intelligence product, and every piece of training we produce. I do not want Christian Warrior Training to become a place where somebody has to decide whether they can afford information that might help them protect their church. That is especially important to me when we are talking about church security. We hear from churches all the time that started a safety ministry because of Christian Warrior Training, or that dealt with a serious incident using things they learned through our training. That is what keeps me focused on the mission. Christian Warrior Training did not start as a business plan. It started as a newsletter for my own church security team. I was putting information together for my guys, and they asked if they could share it with other churches. Those churches started sharing it, more churches began asking for it, and it just kept growing. Eventually, Christian Warrior Training became so large that I stopped doing law enforcement training and dedicated myself to this full time. Today, the core of Christian Warrior Training is basically four people: me, my wife Kari, my daughter Caitlin, and my son TJ. We bring in contractors occasionally when we need specialized help, but the four of us are the ones doing the work day after day. I spend about 60 hours a week working on Christian Warrior Training. I am able to do that because so many of you decided this work was worth supporting, and I am extremely grateful for that support. Two Free Classes Coming in October We have two free, in-person church security classes coming up in October. One is in Michigan and the other is outside Chicago in Illinois. The Michigan class is going to be unique because we will be teaching at the site of an actual active shooter event from last year. The attacker was stopped by the church security team in the parking lot before he was able to enter the church. We will be standing at that location talking about church security preparedness and looking at lessons we can learn from what happened there. That class was originally limited to 100 people and filled up very quickly. We were able to create more room inside the church and increase attendance to 200. If you tried to register before and were told the event was full, check again because additional seats have been opened. Register for the Michigan class here We also have our Illinois class outside Chicago. There are still seats available there as well, and I would love to see as many of you as possible. Register for the Illinois class here Both of these classes are free. Right To Bear Is Helping Make This Possible Right To Bear is covering my expenses for these training events and helping coordinate what goes into putting them together. I especially want to thank Johnny, Lana, Frank, and Perry for the work they have put in and the support they have shown Christian Warrior Training. I also want to say this clearly. Right To Bear is the self-defense protection company I use and recommend. I have gotten to know the people behind the company, looked closely at what they are doing, and spent time with the people involved. They understand the church security community and have supported what we are trying to accomplish. That recommendation is not simply because they are helping with these classes. I have looked at their program and I believe in what they are doing. CASIC Is Moving Forward Another project I am very excited about is the Church Active Shooter Instructor Course, or CASIC. We will conduct our first CASIC course here in Star, Idaho, at my home church. The course is designed to develop instructors who can go back to their own churches and communities and properly train church security teams for an active killer response. I am going to open a limited number of seats in this first course to people outside our own church organization. I will have more information on that soon. Beginning next year, my plan is to take CASIC on the road. I want to develop qualified instructors in different parts of the country so they can train churches in their own communities. CASIC will not be free. I wish I could make everything we do free, but an instructor-level course like this comes with significant expenses. Travel, insurance, printing, facilities, training materials, and the other costs involved in putting on this type of program add up quickly. I am going to keep the cost as low as I reasonably can. My goal has never been to build Christian Warrior Training around making a large profit. I want it to sustain itself so we can continue producing training, intelligence, and resources for churches. Where Christian Warrior Training Is Today Sometimes I still have a hard time believing how far this has grown. Something I started for my own church security team now reaches people in approximately 130 countries. Some of those people are in places like Iran, Iraq, North Africa, and the Sahel, where Christians can face serious persecution. I am honored that they choose to follow Christian Warrior Training and use what we produce. That reach is possible because of all of you. Some people support us financially. Some share our videos. Some forward our newsletters to another church. Some take one of our free courses and bring that information back to their team. Others pray for us, and I am always grateful for those prayers. Going forward, we are going to keep producing intelligence and training. I have new classes planned for next year, including the possibility of a live online leadership course taught over several weeks. We are also going to keep traveling and training churches in person whenever we can. My goal is to continue making as much of this information available as possible without putting a price tag between someone and information they may need to protect their congregation. I want the church with a large budget learning alongside the little rural church that barely has a security budget at all. I want both of them getting better, learning from the same information, and raising the standard of church security. Thank you to everyone who supports Christian Warrior Training, everyone who shares what we produce, and everyone who prays for us. I also want to thank Right To Bear for helping make these upcoming seminars possible, and I want to thank my family because none of this would happen without them. If you missed the Michigan registration the first time around, check it again because we have opened additional seats. If Michigan does not work for you, I hope I will see you outside Chicago. Register for Michigan Register for Illinois Until next time, please pray for the suspects we talk about here at Christian Warrior Training. Pray that they come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and remember your ABCs: Always Be Carrying. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. What Happened A 12-year-old girl died after a reversing SUV struck her on the property of Cedar Branch Missionary Baptist Church in Loris, South Carolina, on the night of Wednesday, September 16, 2026. Kantori Chestnut had attended a funeral at the church, 744 Cedar Branch Road, earlier that day. Just before 10 p.m., the driver of a 2026 Nissan Rogue was backing up on church property when the vehicle struck Kantori and then struck a building. Horry County Fire Rescue (HCFR) was dispatched at 9:53 p.m. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) took Kantori and the driver, who was alone in the vehicle, to the hospital, where Kantori died from her injuries. The South Carolina Highway Patrol (SCHP) is investigating. At the time of writing, SCHP has not released a cause, identified the driver, or announced charges. HCFR reported that three people were transported to the hospital, while SCHP has accounted for two. Reports also differ on why Kantori was still at the church at 10 p.m. The coroner’s office said the funeral took place hours earlier, while local law enforcement described her as leaving a church service. Kantori lived in Loris and attended Loris Middle School, where she was a cheerleader. She had played recreational softball in town since 2019. Woody Hinson, the Loris interim recreation director, told The Sun News she was one of the fastest kids he had ever seen and described her as outgoing and always laughing. Satellite imagery of the property shows a small L-shaped church set back from Cedar Branch Road on open grass. A dirt loop drive runs off the road and across the front of the building. There is a small concrete apron at the entrance, no paved lot, no marked parking spaces, and no visible parking lot lighting, and tree lines surround the property. At night, people leaving this church walk out the front door directly into the area where vehicles drive and park, with nothing marking where one ends and the other begins. No one in this incident set out to hurt anyone. The danger was an ordinary vehicle moving through a dark area where people were on foot. Pedestrians and Vehicles on Unmarked Ground I have been telling church security teams for years that pedestrian protection is part of their job, and for most churches it is still an afterthought. Teams staff the doors, the sanctuary, and the children’s wing. When the service ends, those posts close, and the congregation walks out to the parking area on its own. At dismissal, the entire congregation is on foot and moving between vehicles that are starting up and pulling out. A grass or dirt lot makes this worse. Without marked spaces, there are no drive aisles and no walking lanes. Drivers park wherever there is room and leave in whatever direction is open. Pedestrians walk wherever the cars are not, which changes every few seconds. A Nissan Rogue weighs well over a ton and a half, and at walking speed it can kill a child. You do not need to pave your lot to fix this. Cone off a walking lane from the main door to the parking area and keep people in it at dismissal. Mark the edges of the drive area with cones, rope, or temporary stakes so drivers and pedestrians can both see where vehicles belong. Keep children with an adult in the parking area. Make that a standing rule, announce it before dismissal at evening events, and have your team enforce it. The Same Exposure a Vehicle Attack Would Use This was not a terrorist attack, and nothing reported suggests it was anything other than an accident. It still shows how exposed the people in most church parking areas are. A crowd leaving a building on foot, mixed in with moving vehicles and with nothing between them, is the condition a vehicle ramming attacker looks for. At Cedar Branch, a vehicle moving in reverse at parking lot speed killed a child. A driver who wanted to hurt people could come off the road at 30 miles per hour and reach the front door with nothing in his way. Look at the area where your congregation gathers after services, usually right outside the main doors. Put something between that area and the drive lanes. Permanent bollards and heavy planters are the best option. Where the budget does not allow them, park a church van or a team member’s truck as a barrier at dismissal. Keep people from standing in groups in the drive area, and move conversations onto the sidewalk or into the building. Lighting for Pedestrian and Vehicle Safety Most churches think about exterior lighting in terms of burglary. Lighting also decides whether a driver can see a person standing behind his vehicle and whether a person can see a vehicle coming. A rural church surrounded by trees has no streetlights and no neighboring buildings to add light, so after sunset the parking area is only as bright as the church makes it. Walk your parking area at 10 p.m. on a night with no event. Stand where people park, at the far edges, and behind where vehicles sit, and look for places where a person would be hard to see from a driver’s seat. Install or repair lighting to cover the walking path from the door to the parking area first, then the drive area. Until permanent lighting is in place, put portable work lights out for evening events. Traffic Control Teams for Surge Events A funeral at a small rural church can bring several times the normal Sunday attendance onto a property built for far fewer vehicles. Visitors who have never been there park on the grass and in the drive lanes. Drivers are grieving and distracted. Adults stand among the vehicles talking long after the service, while children run around them. A repast keeps people on the property well after dark. Any event that draws a large crowd, whatever the size of your church, needs team members assigned to the parking area. Those team members need training before the event. Equip them with reflective vests and lighted wands or flashlights. Teach them standard hand signals and where to stand so they are never in a vehicle’s path, and give them radio contact with the team inside the building. Keep at least one team member in the parking area until the last vehicle has left the property. Your team controls traffic on church property only. In most states, volunteers have no authority to direct traffic on a public road. For large funerals, the church should request police at the road entrance. Cedar Branch Road connects to Highway 9 near the church, and a rural road at night with a line of vehicles turning out of a dirt drive is exactly where that request is needed. Coordinate the plan with the funeral director ahead of time, since funeral home staff will be directing the procession. Medical Response Until EMS Arrives A vehicle strike causes blunt trauma, crush injuries, and bleeding, and your team controls the minutes before the ambulance arrives. One team member calls 911 and gives the street address of the church. Responders in Loris were dispatched to an intersection area, which is common on rural roads, so post your church’s physical address at every door and put it in every team member’s phone. A second team member stays with the victim and does not move the injured person unless the scene is unsafe. That team member controls bleeding with direct pressure or a tourniquet, and someone brings the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and the trauma kit to the scene. A third team member goes to the road entrance to meet the ambulance and guide it in, which is harder at night on an unmarked dirt drive. A fourth moves the crowd back, keeps witnesses on scene for police, and stays with the driver, who may also need medical care. If your team does not have Stop the Bleed training, schedule it this month. Biblical Perspective Ecclesiastes 9:12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them. Kantori came to church to mourn someone else. By the end of the night, the congregation that gathered for one funeral was preparing for another. Solomon describes this exactly. Death does not send a warning, and it does not wait for a good time. Every church security team should read this verse as a plain statement about the ground it works on. 2 Samuel 12:22–23 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” David lost a child and grieved hard while there was still hope. When the child died, he got up, washed, worshiped, and ate. He called the loss what it was and stated his hope just as plainly: he would go to the child. A church offers a family the same thing after a death like this one. The family does not need explanations. It needs people who will sit with them and point them to the hope David held. Your team will be among the first people at the scene and among the last to leave, and the family and the driver will remember how your team treated them. John 11:9–10 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” Jesus said this on His way to the tomb of Lazarus, in a chapter about a family grieving a death. His point is about walking in Him, who is the light of the world. The image He uses is literal: a person walking at night cannot see what is in front of him. Everyone who walked across the property at Cedar Branch that night was in that position, driver and pedestrian alike. A church cannot give anyone the light Jesus is speaking of by installing fixtures. It can make sure the people of God can see

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. FREE, LIVE TRAINING IN ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN Don’t forget to sign up for either the Michigan or Illinois classes. I’m giving these classes for free. It is in person only. Inside This Week’s Roll Call Briefing ✅ Current threat condition: HIGH / ORANGE ✅ Suspicious activity and possible surveillance at churches ✅ Armed and violent incidents involving churches ✅ Terrorism and intelligence developments ✅ September dates of significance and elevated-risk periods ✅ Training guidance for working elevated-risk dates This is meant to be read by your team, or as a reference for team leads as they address the troops, before starting your shift guarding the Body of Christ. Download The Briefing Here👇

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. American Christians have been hearing fragments of the Nigeria story for years. A kidnapped schoolgirl. A burned church. A Christmas massacre. What most believers in this country do not have is a clear picture of what is actually happening, who is driving it, and where it is headed. This article is built to fill that gap. Nigeria is currently the deadliest country in the world for Christians. Open Doors, in its 2026 World Watch List, reports that of the 4,849 Christians killed for their faith over the past reporting year, 3,490 of them were killed in Nigeria. That is more than seventy percent of the global total coming from a single country. The violence is not limited to one region or one group. It runs from the northeast, where Boko Haram first emerged, through the Middle Belt, where Fulani militia attacks have emptied entire villages, into the northwest, where ISIS-linked groups now move freely, and across the borders into Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Cameroon, and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is a long article. I wrote it that way on purpose. A pastor, a security team leader, or a congregant who wants to understand this situation should be able to come back to a single piece and have the picture in front of them. The Scale of the Problem Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with roughly 220 million people, split about evenly between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. The Middle Belt sits between the two halves and has become the fault line where most of the killing occurs. The country sits at the southern edge of the Sahel, the arid band that runs across Africa from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east. Every major jihadist movement currently operating in Africa touches that band somewhere. The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa documented 79,323 people killed across Nigeria between October 2019 and September 2025, of whom 42,033 were civilians. Forty-four percent of the civilian killings were attributed to Fulani militias, compared to twelve percent for Boko Haram and ISWAP combined. In the states where attacks occur, Christians were killed at a rate approximately 4.4 times higher than Muslims relative to their share of the population. The count was 22,835 Christian civilians killed against 10,519 Muslims. The numbers do not capture the displacement. Since 2019, more than 2.2 million Nigerians have been driven from their homes by the farmer-herder violence alone. That figure does not include the millions more displaced by Boko Haram, ISWAP, and the kidnapping gangs that now operate across large portions of the country. Entire Christian farming villages have been burned. Survivors are pushed into displacement camps with conditions that are hard for most Americans to picture. The Nigerian federal government has refused for more than a decade to name what is happening. In December 2025, Abuja finally classified Fulani militias, bandits, and armed gangs as terrorists under a new counterterrorism doctrine. Most Nigerian Christians view the move as too late and too narrow. Who the Fulani Are To understand the Middle Belt, you have to understand who the Fulani are. The American press almost always reduces them to a single word, “herdsmen,” which leaves out everything that matters. The Fulani, also called Fula, Fulbe, or Peul, are one of the largest ethnic groups on the African continent. Estimates place their population between 25 and 45 million, spread across at least twenty countries, with the largest concentrations in Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Niger, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso. About 17 million Fulani live in Nigeria. They are the largest nomadic pastoral community in the world. Roughly a third of them still live as traditional herders moving cattle across the Sahel. The rest are semi-settled farmers, traders, scholars, merchants, and in many countries, the ruling class. The Fulani were among the earliest sub-Saharan African peoples to convert to Islam, centuries before most of their neighbors. That early conversion shaped their identity and gave them a sense of religious superiority over the surrounding peoples they regarded as pagans. From the 1700s into the 1800s, Fulani clerics led a series of holy wars across West Africa. The most significant was the jihad launched in 1804 by Usman dan Fodio, a Fulani preacher who declared the existing Hausa kings insufficiently Islamic and called the population to revolt. His jihad swept through what is now northern Nigeria and built the Sokoto Caliphate, one of the largest Islamic empires Africa has ever seen. That caliphate lasted until the British arrived in the early 1900s. The Sokoto Caliphate is not history to the people in the region. The Sultan of Sokoto is still recognized as the traditional religious leader of Sunni Muslims across northern Nigeria. Many of Nigeria’s most powerful political figures have been Fulani or Hausa-Fulani, including former president Muhammadu Buhari. The Fulani are not a marginal people. They are historically the dominant political force in the north. Elements within the Fulani community view the Christian Middle Belt as territory that was not fully conquered during the original jihad, and there are factions now working to finish what Usman dan Fodio started. The Fulani are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim. Settled, urban Fulani tend to be more devout and more supportive of religious activism. Pastoral Fulani have historically been less rigorous in their practice. That pattern has shifted in the past decade. How the Herder Conflict Became a Religious Campaign For generations, Fulani cattle herders and settled farmers across West Africa clashed over grazing land, water, and crop damage. These disputes were local and seasonal, and they were usually resolved through traditional mediation. Something changed in the mid-2010s. A few factors hit at the same time. Climate pressure pushed pastoral Fulani further south into the Middle Belt looking for water and grazing. The collapse of Libya in 2011 flooded the Sahel with military-grade weapons from Gaddafi’s armories. Boko Haram’s rise in the northeast made Islamist violence regionally normal. And the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, a Fulani herders’ organization, has been accused by Nigerian Christians, law enforcement sources, and international observers of financing weapons distribution and coordinating attacks on Christian villages. In February 2026, nine Fulani leaders linked to Miyetti Allah were arraigned in Abuja on 57 terrorism counts for the June 2025 Benue massacre. Portions of the Fulani were radicalized inside that environment. Jihadist ideology teaches that Christians are infidels who must be subjugated, killed, or forced to convert. That ideology found receptive ground among some of the armed herders. Attackers began chanting “Allahu Akbar” as they raided Christian farming villages. In December 2023, Fulani militants attacked at least 25 Christian communities across three local government areas in Plateau State on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and killed nearly 200 men, women, and children. The Nigerian Red Cross counted 84 communities affected and 29,350 people displaced. In June 2025, an attack on Yelwata village in Benue State killed between 200 and 270 people. In the first two weeks of 2026, Fulani militants killed at least 12 Christians in Plateau, 13 in Benue, and 10 in Taraba State. On January 18, Fulani militants stormed three churches in Kaduna State during Sunday services and abducted 177 Christians. Kaduna State officials initially denied the attack had happened and only admitted it two days later. The captives were released on February 5 after a joint security operation. The Nigerian government’s response to attacks like these has followed a consistent pattern. Denial. Reclassification as banditry. Arrests made, then released without charges. Very few prosecutions. Families in the Middle Belt no longer trust that anyone will ever answer for the slaughter of their children. Boko Haram, ISWAP, and the Sahel The Fulani militia violence did not develop in isolation. It grew up alongside two formally designated terror organizations that have made Nigeria one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Boko Haram emerged in Borno State in the northeast around 2002. The name is usually translated as “Western education is forbidden.” By 2009 the group was in open armed rebellion against the Nigerian state, bombing churches, kidnapping schoolgirls, and massacring Christian villages. The 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from Chibok drew brief international attention. Most of those girls never came home. In 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. A faction formally rebranded as the Islamic State West Africa Province, known as ISWAP. ISWAP is now the more capable of the two groups. It has used drones against Nigerian military bases, seized weapons from government forces, and operates across the Lake Chad Basin where the borders of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon meet. After Niger exited the Multinational Joint Task Force in March 2025 and Chad threatened withdrawal, ISWAP exploited the gap and increased attacks on Nigerian military installations in Borno and Yobe states. A separate ISIS affiliate operates further west. It was originally called the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and is now known as the Islamic State Sahel Province, or ISSP. ISSP operates mainly in the tri-border region where Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger meet. Since 2024, it has pushed south along the Niger-Nigeria border into Sokoto and Kebbi states in Nigeria’s northwest. That is the region where, on Christmas Day 2025, American forces conducted airstrikes under President Trump’s order. The group that was struck was Lakurawa, an ISIS-linked faction that had moved i

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. Words can’t do justice when trying to describe what Stephen Willeford did that day. I have become friends with Stephen since this interview and what I have found out about him is amazing. Come join me as we talk about how he interrupted the worst church shooting in modern American history. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. An insurance underwriter put it in writing this summer: “It is a hard no, even if just in classroom. We do not intend to cover being told it is ok to use any weapon or how to use one.” Not live fire. Not force on force. Not putting a gun in anyone’s hand. Being told. A church security instructor standing in a classroom, explaining when the law allows a man to defend his congregation, is conduct that carrier will not touch. That sentence came from RSUI’s underwriter, relayed to me in writing by my broker on July 10, after I asked whether the weapons exclusion on their quote could be amended. I have the email. I will show it to you in the video that goes with this article. That quote is the end of the story. Here is the beginning. Five clean years, then one honest answer Graves and Associates has carried professional liability and general liability since July of 2021. Five years, zero claims, premiums paid on time. This spring the renewal quote came in at $3,621 and I did what I teach every one of you to do with any contract: I read the whole policy before signing. I found a terrorism exclusion that appeared to apply across every insuring clause, no cyber coverage at all, and a business activities description that did not clearly include the instructor training courses I plan to launch. So I asked six questions in writing before binding. Would a negligence claim be covered if a church I trained were attacked. What does the terrorism endorsement actually restore. Does the policy cover instructor certification. The carrier’s answer was to pull the renewal entirely. Their stated reason, word for word: “Given the significant changes to the risk profile, including hands-on training, potential safety and evasion guidance, general security advisory services, and product sales, together with our review of the additional website, the account unfortunately now falls outside of our underwriting appetite.” Safety and evasion guidance. Teaching people how to not die put me outside their appetite. They offered me an extension to August 1 for another $157 so I could go find somebody else. Everybody said no My broker marketed the account to the standard carriers: Liberty Mutual, The Hartford, Nationwide, Guard, Travelers. Every one declined. The nature of the business was outside their appetite. She went to the surplus lines markets, the specialty carriers that exist specifically for hard risks. Higher premiums, declines, or blocked submissions. A firearms industry program I applied to directly denied the application. By July 15 my broker told me plainly that she had reached the end of the companies she could approach. The one general liability quote she could secure came from RSUI, and it carried the weapons exclusion you read at the top of this article. When I asked if the exclusion could be removed for classroom instruction with inert training aids, laser trainers and blue plastic guns, nothing that fires anything, the answer was the hard no. Some of you are thinking there must be more to it. A claim, a lawsuit, something in the file. There is not. Five years, zero losses, and the loss runs to prove it. What changed was that I told the truth on a renewal application about where this ministry is headed. Honesty is what triggered all of it, and I would do it again, because a policy bound on an incomplete application is worse than no policy at all. Buried in the conditions of that same policy was an application warranty stating that any misrepresentation or non-disclosure renders the policy null and void and relieves the carrier of all liability. Plenty of trainers in this industry are paying premiums right now on policies their carriers would void the day a claim arrived, because the application never mentioned what they actually teach. The part that should make you angry The insurance industry does not treat church violence as a fringe concern. Carriers that serve churches publish active shooter preparedness guidance. They distribute security checklists. They recommend congregations assess their vulnerabilities and train their people. The industry’s own risk materials tell churches to prepare for exactly the attack my courses address. Then the trainer shows up to buy coverage and the same industry says no. They will insure the church that receives the training. They will publish the checklist telling the church to get it. They will not cover the man who provides it, and one of them will not even cover him for talking about it in a classroom. I spent almost thirty years in law enforcement and I have sat across the table from people doing things they knew were indefensible. They at least had the decency to look uncomfortable. This industry put its position on letterhead. How it got solved, and the disclosure that goes with it What cold submissions could not do, a relationship did. Most of you know I work with Right To Bear, and I will say plainly what I say every time: I am an affiliate, they sponsor this ministry, and there is a link below. Weigh that however you want. The facts are the facts either way. When I told them what was happening, their owner connected me with his brokerage, Moultrie Insurance, a firm that lives in the self defense world and was not scared of the words church security. Within weeks Moultrie placed what six months of shopping could not: general liability through Kinsale, an A rated carrier, and professional liability through Lloyd’s of London, written for a company whose application says in plain language that it teaches active shooter response and instructor courses. Classroom based, laser trainers and blue guns, no live fire, no simunition, all of it disclosed and all of it on the record. The price of being insured honestly is about $9,000 a year, roughly two and a half times what the old policy cost. That is the market telling you what this work is worth to insure when the carrier actually knows what you do. I will take accurate and expensive over cheap and void every day of the week. Two questions to send your broker this week If you train church security teams, or you are the safety director who brings trainers in, do not assume your coverage works. Claims made policies plus application warranties mean the policy you are paying for is only as good as what your application disclosed. So send your broker two questions in writing and keep the answers. Does my policy contain a weapons exclusion, and does it apply to instruction? Not range work, instruction. You now know at least one carrier reads that exclusion to bar being told how to use a weapon in a classroom. Does my carrier know exactly what I teach? Active shooter response, defensive tactics, firearms content, all of it, in writing, on the application. If the answer is no, fix it before you teach another class, because you will not find out what that omission costs until the worst day of your career, and by then the answer is already written into Condition 4. I got my answers the hard way so you can get yours with an email. Send it this week. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. Please watch the video. I am looking for info from followers on the shooting at a church in Kearns, UT today. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. In this video, I walk through what I carry to church and why I have chosen each piece of equipment. If you carry a firearm as part of a church safety team or simply as a concealed carrier attending church, I think you need to look seriously at whether your equipment matches the threat you believe you may have to face. I cover my normal handgun setup, a smaller concealed carry option, communications, less lethal options, body armor, medical gear, and the equipment I keep available if an incident requires me to move from a handgun to a rifle. You can carry capable equipment without walking into church looking like you are headed to a SWAT callout. The goal is to blend in during normal church activities while having the equipment, training, and options necessary to protect the congregation if something happens. Gear Mentioned in the Video Firearms and Firearm Equipment * Glock 45, 9mm * Glock 20, 10mm, my normal church carry handgun * Glock 43X, discussed as a smaller concealed carry option * .300 Blackout rifle/carbine * Speer Gold Dot 9mm ammunition * Trijicon SRO red dot optic * Aimpoint COA red dot optic, on the Glock 43X * Radian barrel and compensator * Radian Magwell * Streamlight TLR 1 HP X weapon light * Palmetto State Armory Dagger magazines, 15 round magazines used with my Glock 43X Holsters and Load Carrying Equipment * T.REX Arms inside the waistband holster GET 15% off with code CWT * T.REX Arms Bailout Bag / Active Shooter Bag GET 15% off with code CWT T.REX Arms discount: Use code CWT for 15% off eligible equipment. Body Armor * Premier Body Armor GT plates * Premier Body Armor soft body armor * T.REX Arms concealable hard armor / covert plate carrier * Security identification placards Communications * PocLink radio Less Lethal * POM MK 3 pepper spray Medical and Support Equipment * T Rex Arms Med Pouch (use code CWT for a 15% discount) Clothing and Footwear * Poncho button down shirt * KÜHL hiking pants * Altama shoes The specific clothing is less important than the concept behind it. I want clothing that allows me to blend in with the congregation while still being able to move, run, access my firearm, and carry the equipment I need without advertising everything I have on me. The video goes into considerably more detail about how these pieces work together and why I have different options available depending on what happens. My basic approach is simple: armor, bag, and carbine. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. This week’s Roll Call Briefing examines a planned hostage attack against a Florida church and the warning signs investigators uncovered before the suspect could act. We also cover the shooting of a family returning home from church, several developing terrorism concerns, violent incidents affecting churches, and how safety teams should respond when an armed suspect takes hostages. * A Florida suspect who allegedly cased a church and planned to take hostages * A family’s vehicle struck by gunfire while they were returning home from church * ISIS claims involving the deaths of Christians in the Congo * Pro ISIS requests for explosives, poison, and drone instructions * Iranian cyberattacks against American water systems * A bomb threat, suspicious death, and sex offender case involving churches * Recognizing leakage and pre-attack reconnaissance * Understanding hostage and barricaded incidents * Psalm 144:1 and the responsibility to prepare DOWNLOAD THE ROLL CALL BRIEFING HANDOUT 👇

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. What Is In This Week’s Briefing ✅ Current threat level determination and the reasoning behind holding at Orange ✅ Alert posture for the week, including staffing and protocol guidance ✅ 3 intelligence items covering a mass shooting stopped by armed citizens, a foreign paid-attacker network now operating in North America, and juvenile self-radicalization targeting schools ✅ 4 church incidents from the past 3 weeks, each with the security lesson attached ✅ Training focus with 5 leader prompts you can read straight off the page at roll call ✅ Briefing intent with this week’s Scripture for your team ✅ Personnel assignment grid and the daily checklist Why The Paywall Is Back The Roll Call Briefing has always been a for those that are gracious enough to support CWT. If it weren’t for them, we could not do any of this. I opened it up in April because the threat picture at that time involved specific dangers I wanted in front of every church in the country, whether they paid or not. Those threats have passed. New ones have taken their place, but the picture is more settled, and the reason I opened the gate no longer applies. So the paywall returns. Understand what you are and are not losing. The underlying information is still free. Every incident in this briefing appears in the Saturday Church Crime Newsletter at no cost to you. What the paid briefing gives you is the format: a finished, printable sheet you can put in your team leader’s hand before he steps in front of his people to brief a shift. That work takes hours every week, and it is what the subscription pays for. It helps pay for the analysis and personnel who help me put this all together. The Training Stays Free The free training at christianwarriortraining.com is not moving behind a paywall and never will. Every intelligence analysis we publish carries a training element you can take straight to your team, and every year we release a training matrix you can use to schedule your people out for the full year. If your budget is tight, use those. They are there for you. If your church is getting value out of these briefings, forward this to your pastor or your team leader. Then drop a comment below and tell me what your team is working on this month. DOWNLOAD THE ROLL CALL BRIEFING SHEET BELOW👇

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. Download the Briefing Here ↓ This week, ISIS claims more than 100 people killed or wounded, including 80 Christians, while eight separate incidents were reported at American churches. We also look at new attack material aimed at lone actors, four threats against U.S. churches, two shootings on or near church property, and how church safety teams can protect outdoor gatherings from vehicle attacks. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe