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Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches. My analyst notes are available to paid subscribers. Scroll to the bottom to read them. Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, and many churches across the country will open their buildings as polling places. There is no known specific threat against church polling places this year, but recent elections have produced an armed and belligerent voter inside a church polling room, disorderly conduct arrests, an explosive device detonated half a block from a church polling entrance, and hundreds of hoax bomb threats against polling sites. Teams at host churches should meet the election official running their site before Tuesday, staff the building and parking lot during voting hours, leave all contact with federal personnel to election officials and local police, and check whether their state restricts firearms at polling places. Key Judgments * Highly Likely: Hoax bomb threats sent by email or phone will close some polling places for a short time on November 3, as they did in 2024 and 2025. * Likely: At least one church polling place in the country will have a belligerent voter or bystander who requires a police response. * Likely: Rumors and sightings of federal agents near polling places will spread on social media during Election Day and draw arguments or small protests at some sites. * Possible: Tension over results will carry into the days after the election, including Wednesday night services. * Unlikely: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be stationed at church polling places. * Unlikely: A planned attack will target a church because it is serving as a polling place. * Likely: Armed church team members in states with polling place weapons laws will violate those laws on November 3 unless their team leaders check the law first. What Has Happened at Church Polling Places On Election Day 2024, a man walked into the polling place at First Friends Meeting, a Quaker church in Indianapolis, wearing a campaign shirt and hat. Indiana law bars campaign clothing inside a polling place, so a poll worker told him to remove the hat and turn the shirt inside out. The man yelled and cursed, put his cap on the poll worker’s head, and pulled off his shirt to show two handguns and a knife in his waistband. The election official in charge of the site walked him to the front of the line, got him checked in, let him vote, and escorted him out. Two Indianapolis police officers arrived, questioned him on the church grounds, and released him. Voters left the line, some of them through the church kitchen, and turnout at the site dropped off for the rest of the day. The Marion County Election Board held public hearings on the case and believed the evidence supported a charge under Indiana’s new poll worker protection law. A grand jury heard the case in May 2025 and did not return an indictment. First Friends then declined to serve as a polling site for the May 2026 primary, ending a practice of at least 20 years, and was still deciding whether to host in November. The same day in Coventry, Rhode Island, police arrested Timothy Masse, 33, at the Maple Root Baptist Church polling place at about 10:15 a.m. Police said he confronted voters, campaign supporters, and election staff, yelled obscenities, and interfered with polling operations. He was charged with disorderly conduct. Police released body camera footage of the arrest. On May 19, 2026, during the Pennsylvania primary, an explosive device thrown from a moving pickup truck detonated about half a block from the entrance of Salem United Church of Christ in Catasauqua, which was serving as the borough’s First District polling place. Nobody was hurt. Investigators found 17 more homemade explosive devices in the truck. A father, 56, and his son, 24, were charged with felonies including conspiracy to unlawfully possess or manufacture a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to risk a catastrophe, and a judge upheld the charges. The Lehigh County District Attorney says there is no evidence the device was aimed at the election or the church. Voting continued all day through an alternate entrance while the street outside was a crime scene. Hoax threats have caused the most widespread disruption. On Election Day 2024, 32 of 177 polling places in Fulton County, Georgia, received bomb threats, and five were briefly evacuated. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said many of the threats that day came from Russian email domains. The Brennan Center for Justice counted at least 227 bomb threats against voting locations in the 2024 election. In November 2025, emailed bomb threats closed polling places in seven New Jersey counties, and some voters were sent to other locations. A juvenile was arrested in connection with the threat against a school polling place in North Brunswick. The Current Threat Environment In mid-October, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began investigating more than 100 suspicious letters mailed to election officials and congressional offices. Election offices in Louisiana and Oklahoma were evacuated after staff opened envelopes containing white powder, and states from Idaho to Florida reported letters that were either received or intercepted. Preliminary tests in several states found no hazardous material. The FBI has asked anyone with information about threats against election workers or polling locations to contact a local FBI field office. No reporting reviewed for this brief identifies a specific threat against churches serving as polling places. The concern for host churches comes from the political climate and the record above: angry individuals, campaign disputes that spill into the voting line, hoax threats, and confrontations over who is watching the polls. Federal Agents and Monitors at the Polls Federal law bars troops and armed federal agents from places where an election is held. On February 25, 2026, Heather Honey, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official, told state election officials there would be no ICE presence at polling locations this election. A DHS statement after that call said ICE is not planning operations targeting polling locations, but that a person who posed an active public safety threat to a polling location could be arrested in a targeted enforcement action. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said agents would be at a polling place only if there is a threat to that polling place or they are serving a warrant on someone they have been tracking. The Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division plans to send about 1,000 personnel to polling places, up from 714 in 2024 and roughly 289 in 2022. In an October court filing, a government official stated that FBI and ICE employees will not serve as monitors, that the monitors will include Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) personnel, and that monitors are prohibited from carrying guns and limited to observing and taking notes. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has sued for records on the program. Political parties and advocacy groups will also have poll watchers at many sites, and several religious groups have trained volunteer “poll chaplains” who wear vests and badges outside polling places, including training on how to respond if ICE agents are spotted. On Tuesday, a host church may have unarmed DOJ monitors, party poll watchers, advocacy volunteers, local police, and campaign workers on its property at the same time. Some voters are upset by immigration enforcement and others support it, and either reaction can start an argument in the parking lot. A voter who sees a federal identification card on a DOJ monitor may assume the person is ICE and post about it. Election officials check credentials and decide who belongs a… 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

Help us protect the Body of Christ by upgrading your subscription. For the price of a cup of coffee each month, we can do more to help us all. Most church security team members get their training in whatever order it shows up. A free class comes along, somebody signs up, and three years later the team has a member who has been through a carbine course but has never applied a tourniquet. Police academies and the military do not train that way. They run recruits through a pipeline, a set sequence of courses where each one builds on the last, and nobody moves forward without the foundation underneath. Church security teams should do the same. I recommend a ten-step pipeline for church security team members. Unarmed team members complete steps one through five and step nine. Armed team members complete all ten. Nobody carries in the name of the church until they have finished the firearms steps, passed an interview and a background check, and shot the qualification course. Step One: Free Online Training at Christian Warrior Training Start with the online courses at Christian Warrior Training (CWT), found at courses.christianwarriortraining.com. They cost nothing, and they cover the church-specific material most outside courses never touch, including recognizing threats, securing the parking lot, and team communication. Very few firearms instructors can tell you how to position a team in a sanctuary during a Sunday service. Finish the online material first so every class you take afterward has a church setting to fit into. Steps Two Through Five: Training for Every Team Member Step two is Stop the Bleed. The course runs about 90 minutes, it is often free, and it teaches direct pressure, wound packing, and tourniquet application. A person shot in a major artery can bleed to death before an ambulance reaches the parking lot. Every team member should be able to put a tourniquet on someone else and on themselves, and every team should carry the kits. You can find a class near you at stopthebleed.org. Step three is a de-escalation course. Most of what a church team handles is a person who is angry, intoxicated, in a mental health crisis, or fighting over custody in the lobby. Most of those situations end with words. A good de-escalation course teaches how to approach, where to stand, what to say, and when to stop talking and call the police. Look at Verbal Defense and Influence or the courses offered by the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI), and ask your local police department whether it opens its crisis intervention training to civilians. Step four is constitutional law. A church security team member is a private citizen with no police authority. A team member who does not understand that may detain someone for filming the building from a public sidewalk, grab a protester’s sign, or search a bag without consent, and any of those can bring a lawsuit or criminal charges against the team member and the church. A class in constitutional law, combined with your state’s laws on trespass, citizen’s arrest, and use of force, teaches team members the limits of their authority. Community colleges offer these classes, many police departments cover the material in their citizen’s academies, and an attorney who handles civil rights or self-defense cases can teach a session for your team. Step five is pepper spray training. Oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray gives a team member an option between words and a firearm, and for unarmed members it is the one tool in the pipeline. Carrying a canister without training is a mistake. A proper course covers drawing and deploying from a holster, hitting a moving target with an inert training canister, decontaminating the person you sprayed and yourself, and the legal standard for using it. Some courses include an exposure so you learn what the spray does and that you can keep working with some of it on you. OC sprayed indoors drifts, gets into the ventilation system, and affects children and older people sitting nearby, so decide as a team, before Sunday, where you will and will not deploy it inside the building. Steps Six Through Eight: Armed Team Members Step six is a concealed carry course. It belongs in the pipeline for its use of force instruction. A good course spends hours on when you can legally use deadly force in your state, what happens after you do, and how to handle the police when they arrive. Many states, including Idaho, no longer require a permit to carry, and people in those states should take the class anyway. A team member who carries without understanding use of force law is a liability to the church and to themselves. Choose an instructor who teaches use of force professionally, such as a current or retired police trainer, or a course where an attorney teaches the legal portion. Step seven is a basic pistol course. It covers safe handling, marksmanship fundamentals, loading, unloading, and clearing malfunctions. Experienced shooters often want to skip this step, and they should take it anyway. People who have shot for years often carry bad habits nobody ever corrected, and a basic course is the cheapest place to find them. Step eight is an advanced pistol course from a recognized instructor or training organization. In this course a team member learns to draw from concealment, shoot under time pressure, shoot with either hand, move, and reload while moving. I teach the Bill drill constantly: draw and fire six rounds into the A-zone of the target as fast as you can, with a goal under two seconds. Armed people in real incidents miss far more often than they expect, and the drill shows a shooter exactly where their skill stands under time pressure. Before you pay for a course, ask the instructor about their background, who trained them, and whether they have taught armed citizens or only police. Steps Nine and Ten: Putting It Together Step nine is Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) at the basic level. Stop the Bleed teaches you to treat a wound. TCCC teaches you to treat casualties while a threat may still be present, including when to move a wounded person, how to keep an airway open, and how to sort several injured people by priority. The military developed TCCC, and the basic course runs about one day. If you cannot find a TCCC class locally, take Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC), the civilian version, which covers the same core skills. Unarmed team members should take this course too, because during a mass casualty event at a church they will be treating most of the wounded while armed members deal with the threat. Step ten is force-on-force training. Students face role players who fight back, using marking cartridges or training guns, in scenarios that require them to decide whether to talk, spray, shoot, or treat. This step tests everything that came before it. A team member who shoots well on a static range will often make poor decisions the first time a role player argues, moves, or reaches into a jacket, and force-on-force lets them make those mistakes where nobody gets hurt. Run the scenarios inside your own church when you can, with a dedicated safety officer, every participant searched, and no live weapons or ammunition in the building during training. What the Bible Says Israel had a training problem after Joshua died. The generation that fought for the land was gone, and the next generation had never been in a battle. Judges 3:1–2 says the Lord left certain nations in the land “to test Israel by them,” and then gives the reason: “It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before.” Each generation had to be taught to fight. When David was gathering men while hiding from Saul, 1 Chronicles 12:2 records that the Benjaminites who joined him “could shoot arrows and sling stones with either the right or the left hand.” Nobody is born shooting with the support hand. Those men built that skill through repetition before they ever reached Da… 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 We rely on PAID subscriptions to run Christian Warrior. There are downloads for paid subscribers below. 🛑Downloads at The Bottom of This Page👇 Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) A mother and her 2-year-old daughter were found shot to death inside a car in the parking lot of Milford Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia, on Sunday morning, October 25, 2026, about 15 minutes before the 11 AM service. The Cobb County Police Department (CCPD) says the gunfire came from inside the vehicle and that no suspects are outstanding. The mother’s family says police told them she shot her daughter and then herself. CCPD has not stated that publicly. Nothing reported so far points to an attack on the church or its congregation. The case puts a death scene in a church lot at service time, and it shows what a safety team faces when a person in crisis ends up on church property. Church Security Threat Level System (CSTLS): HIGH (Orange). This incident does not change the level. What Happened CCPD says officers responded at about 10:45 AM to 1030 Milford Church Road SW, the address of Milford Baptist Church in unincorporated Marietta, after a report of a woman shot inside her vehicle. Officers found an adult woman and her juvenile daughter, both with gunshot wounds that police say came from inside the vehicle. Both were beyond lifesaving measures. A source told 11Alive the car was near a woodline in the church lot. The church website lists its Sunday service at 11 AM, so the call came about 15 minutes before people were due to be seated. CCPD says no suspects are outstanding and the Major Crimes Unit is investigating. Police say next of kin have been notified. The child’s age of 2 comes from sources who spoke to Atlanta station WSB-TV and from family, since police have not released ages. The case number is 26069291, and anyone with information can call the Major Crimes Unit at 770-499-3945. What Is Confirmed and What Is Not CCPD has confirmed the time, the location, the two victims, the direction of the gunfire, and that no suspects are outstanding. The department’s public statement does not say what led to the shooting and does not describe it as a murder-suicide. The mother’s great-uncle told a reporter that police told the family she shot her daughter and then herself. The Cobb Courier quotes a CCPD spokesperson on the call and describes a suspected murder-suicide. Until police say so officially, murder-suicide is the working account from the family and local reporting. The great-uncle also said the mother had talked about suicide before and that the family did not know how serious things had become. Family members gave the mother’s name to reporters. CCPD has not released names, and this article leaves them out. The family says the mother was 31 and had moved to the Atlanta area from Augusta. Accounts differ on her connection to the church. 11Alive found no indication of a specific connection. The great-uncle said she had been homeless and living at the church, which he did not learn until after the deaths. A woman who knew the mother described a church transitional program for single mothers and said the mother was working two jobs, struggling to find daycare and housing, and had received some help before the shooting. WSB-TV reported that the pastor and people who knew her said she was working to build a better life. The accounts agree on financial hardship. They differ on housing and on whether the church had a formal relationship with her. Why This Applies to Your Church The danger in this case came from inside one vehicle. Nothing reported suggests the shooting was aimed at the congregation. The deaths still happened where children and families walk in on a schedule your team cannot change, and police were called about 15 minutes before the service started. Churches that run benevolence, recovery, housing, and single-parent ministries serve people under heavy pressure. Some of those people will be in danger from their circumstances, and the people closest to them can be in danger too. In many churches a person sitting alone in a car can go unnoticed for an hour, because volunteers park and walk inside. Your safety team may be the first to find a scene like this in your own lot. What Your Safety Team Can Do * Walk the lot before the doors open. Start at least 45 minutes before your first service. Two team members walk the full lot together, plus any neighboring lot your people use. Look into every vehicle with someone inside, with fogged windows, or with bedding or belongings stacked inside. Check the edges of the lot, including any tree line, since the car in this case was near a woodline. Report what you find to the team leader. * Know how to check on a person sitting in a vehicle. Two team members approach together. One speaks and the other stays back and watches the person’s hands. Stay out of reach of the door, and do not open it or reach inside. Say something like, “Good morning. Looks like you’ve had a rough start to the day. Can I help you with anything?” Then listen. If you see a weapon, back away to cover and call 911. If the person says they are thinking of hurting themselves, ask directly whether they have a plan, stay where you can see them, and call 911. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline takes calls and texts at 988. Name the pastor or care staff member who comes to the lot before you ever need one. * Plan for finding a death scene on church property. Call 911 and give the lot location and a description of the vehicle. Do not touch or move anything. Two team members hold the area at a distance and keep people out. A third meets police at the entrance. Someone redirects arriving families, children first, to another entrance and away from the lot. The pastor decides what happens with the service once police release the area. * Bring your security leader and your care ministry leaders together this week. Include the leaders of benevolence, recovery, housing, and single-parent ministries. Agree on how a care leader tells the safety team that a person is in trouble: a first name or description, the vehicle, and the day the person is expected. Ask your church’s attorney what care staff may share. * Plan for the aftermath. Name who calls a counselor or pastor for members and volunteers who saw the scene. Name who contacts the team members who found it within 24 hours. Choose one spokesperson for reporters, and tell the team not to photograph or post the scene. What the Bible Says Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (ESV). The verse tells us where the Lord is while we are still trying to understand what happened in that car, and it gives us no reason to judge a mother who was carrying more than anyone around her knew. The people of a church are placed beside the brokenhearted, and a team watching a parking lot is part of that. Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (ESV). The burdens in this case were specific. She was working two jobs and trying to find housing and daycare. James 2:15-16 gives the test for carrying them: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (ESV). A church that runs a benevolence program already answers that question with food and housing. The safety team adds attention, because the person who needs help the most is sometimes the one sitting in the lot who never walks in. Mark 10:14 records Jesus saying, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (ESV). A 2-year-old died on church property, and her family is burying her in Augusta. We pray for them, and we make sure the next child who arrives at our church walks in through a door that is safe and free of anything a child should not see. Romans 12:15 tells us to “weep with those who weep” (ESV), and for now that is what Milford Baptist Church and the family need from the rest of the church.

The price of a cup of coffee each month allows me to teach Christian warriors that cannot afford this training. Drone Warfare and the Threat to Your Church I have been warning church safety teams about drones for roughly two years. Some people have listened. Others have told me to stay in my lane, that this is a problem for another country, or that their church has no reason to prepare for it. I recently sat down with Matt, a former Air Force Joint Terminal Attack Controller who now works in drone training and production with Valdi Labs and Watchfire. He is also a Christian and serves on his church security team. He understands the military capabilities, and he understands the responsibility of protecting a congregation. His warning was blunt. When I asked about people dismissing the threat, he said, “You’re going to get your people killed, flat out.” That is a hard statement. But before you dismiss it, listen to the training experience behind it and ask yourself a question: If a suspicious drone appeared over your church this Sunday, would your team know what to do? 👉 Shop my plain clothes armor combo at T.Rex Arms (15% off for CWT subscribers) A Cheap Drone Can Defeat an Experienced Team One of the strongest moments in our conversation came when Matt described acting as an opposing drone pilot during military training. He explained that he could not pick up a rifle and expect to defeat the highly trained special operations personnel he was working against. With an inexpensive drone, however, he had been able to defeat entire SEAL teams in simulated engagements. These were training scenarios. He was talking about simulated casualties, and he made that clear during the interview. The lesson was how quickly a threat from above could expose weaknesses in people who already had years of tactical experience. Train Before Your First Encounter According to Matt, the teams changed how they moved and responded as the training progressed. They learned to take the drones seriously, and they adapted. Their first exposure happened during training, where mistakes could be corrected. That is what I want for our church safety teams. Learn now, while you have the opportunity. Your first discussion about a drone response should happen around a training table, not in the parking lot while families are arriving. 👉 Get self-defense legal protection from Right To Bear ($200/year) The Attacker Does Not Have to Walk Through Your Doors Most church security planning concentrates on threats at ground level. We watch the entrances, identify suspicious behavior, position people in the parking lot, and prepare to respond to an armed attacker. Those responsibilities remain essential. A drone introduces a different problem. The person controlling it can be away from the church, outside the area your team is watching. Your people may see the aircraft without ever seeing the operator. Matt also explained how operating through a screen or goggles can distance a person from the immediate human consequences of an attack. His assessment was that this changes the psychological barrier for someone willing to commit violence. We do not need to predict exactly who will use that capability against a church to recognize the gap in our preparation. A plan built entirely around someone approaching on foot leaves a threat from above largely unaddressed. Observation Can Come Before an Attack Matt described three broad drone roles: intelligence gathering, direct attack, and dropping a payload. Church safety teams should understand those categories without assuming they can reliably identify a drone’s purpose from the ground. A drone watching entrances, parking areas, or the movement of people could be gathering information. It could also have an innocent explanation. You need observation, documentation, and judgment to distinguish concerning activity from ordinary drone use. Recognize and Report Suspicious Activity Pay attention to behavior. Repeated appearances during services, persistent observation of particular areas, or activity that coincides with other suspicious conduct deserves attention. Record what you actually observed rather than turning your suspicions into facts. An aircraft does not have to be visibly carrying something to warrant a report. At the same time, failing to see a payload does not establish that the aircraft is harmless. Your team needs a process for communicating uncertainty and escalating a credible concern. 👉 Order my book The Church Security Leader on Amazon Glass and Open Spaces Create Vulnerabilities Churches love glass. We have large lobby windows, bright entrances, and open gathering spaces. During the interview, Matt raised the possibility that an attack could exploit those features. Closed doors are useful, but the building’s construction and the location of your people also belong in the discussion. He also emphasized cover, concealment, and the danger of people remaining exposed or gathering together during an attack. Those are lessons your team should consider when reviewing outdoor activities, arrival periods, and dismissal. Plan Where People Will Move Ask where people could move if a threat appeared above the parking lot. Look at the routes to protected areas, the amount of glass along those routes, and the needs of children, older members, and people with limited mobility. A direction that sounds simple in a meeting may become difficult when several hundred people try to follow it. People may also stop to record an unfamiliar drone instead of moving away from danger. Your response plan needs clear instructions and people who can deliver them calmly. Watching a threat develop through a phone screen does nothing to protect a congregation. Understand the Limits of Your Response The interview included discussion of military counterdrone techniques and training. Churches need to distinguish those discussions from what they are authorized to do. The FAA states that shooting at an aircraft, including a drone, is illegal under federal law. A drone hovering near your property does not give your team permission to shoot it down. If its operation poses an immediate threat, contact local law enforcement. Protecting people, communicating the threat, and coordinating with responders should be the foundation of your plan. Do not build it around a volunteer improvising a counterdrone response. A Drone Can Also Help Protect the Church We spent a substantial part of the interview discussing how churches can use drones for observation. I believe church safety teams should seriously consider a trained drone operator as part of their program. At the property where we recorded, we were discussing approximately 35 acres. Three people in the parking lot cannot watch every part of that property at once. A drone can help an operator observe areas that would otherwise require someone to walk or drive out to investigate. That can give your team information before it sends a person into an uncertain situation. It can also support the people already watching entrances and interacting with arriving families. 👉 Take the free Drone Room Clearing training Inspect Uncertain Areas Without Sending Someone Inside I described the training we have available at courses.christianwarriortraining.com on using an Avata 2 drone to inspect a church interior. Being able to look into an area remotely can reduce unnecessary exposure. It does not mean a camera has established that every room, hiding place, or part of the building is safe. A pastor should not be walking through a church alone to inves… 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. THERE ARE DOWNLOADS FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BULLETIN. Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) Online supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are calling for attacks on Christmas markets and Christian communities this season, and one user recommended vehicle ramming for attackers who cannot get guns or explosives. No church, city or date is named in the reporting, so churches should hold their Christmas events and put vehicle barriers and approach-route control in place before the first one. Key Judgments * Highly Likely: ISIS supporters will keep posting target lists and attack advice aimed at the holiday season through December. * Likely: Churches will stay on those lists, and outdoor events with crowds near open streets or parking lots are the easiest targets for a vehicle attack. * Possible: A lone offender will attempt a vehicle ramming or a shooting at a holiday gathering in the United States this season. What the Reporting Says A restricted government document circulated this week describes two online posts from 13 October. In the first, one pro-ISIS user posted a list of targets for mass-casualty attacks by lone offenders. The list emphasized US citizens and Jewish and Christian communities, and it named Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands as countries where such targets can be found. Target types included civilian and commercial infrastructure, religious landmarks, large crowds and government institutions. The user told readers to pick the targets they considered the highest priority in their own region or country. In the second post, several pro-ISIS users in an online forum ranked targets from highest to lowest priority. One user listed schools, Christmas markets, gatherings of LGBTQIA+ people, sports stadiums and political events. One user advised that an attacker who cannot get weapons or explosives should drive a vehicle into a crowd, citing earlier truck attacks in Belgium, France and Spain during the winter holidays. The government analyst noted that the first post appeared a few hours after a similar one, and expects more of this incitement as the holidays approach, in Europe and in the United States. The same document says Salafi-jihadist messaging has broadly encouraged supporters to attack Jewish and Christian communities this winter with weapons, explosives or vehicles. Neither post names a specific church, city or date in the United States. These are anonymous users on online forums, and the document describes their posts as incitement. Nobody has claimed a plan. Vehicle Attacks on Holiday Events On December 19, 2016, a truck was driven into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin and 13 people were killed. On December 20, 2024, a rental car was driven into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. At least five people were killed and more than 200 were injured. Police stopped the driver within three minutes, and in that time the car still injured more than 200 people. A barrier that goes up after the vehicle arrives does nothing, so everything that stops a vehicle has to be in place before the crowd gathers. This post has bonus content for paid subscribers. Upgrade to get full access. Recent Attacks in the United States Three attacks since the start of 2025 show how vehicles and rifles get used. On January 1, 2025, a man in a rented pickup truck drove around a police barricade onto Bourbon Street in New Orleans and into a crowd, killing at least 14 people. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found an Islamic State flag on the truck and called it a terrorist attack. The truck traveled three blocks before a heavy lift vehicle in its path stopped it. On September 28, 2025, a suspect drove a pickup into the front of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, during a service with hundreds of people inside. He then shot at worshipers and set the building on fire. Four church members were killed and eight were injured, and police shot the suspect in the parking lot within minutes. The FBI called it an act of targeted violence. On March 12, 2026, an armed suspect drove a vehicle through the doors of Temple Israel, a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, and into a hallway, where the vehicle caught fire. Security officers at the synagogue shot him. One officer was struck and not seriously hurt, and no children or staff were injured. The building houses an early childhood center. Investigators were still working on a motive in the first reports. Motives differ across these cases. In each one a vehicle was used to reach a crowd or break into a building. In New Orleans a barricade that left a route around it did not stop the truck, and at Temple Israel armed security stopped the suspect inside the doors. Church Events at Risk Churches hold outdoor events in December: live nativities, tree lightings, caroling, parking-lot markets, parades and any event that closes a street. Each one puts a crowd in the open, next to a road or a parking lot. Shootings are the other concern. On 11 October, a 19-year-old was arrested in Illinois and charged with plotting a mass shooting at a Hindu temple near Aurora. Police recovered a rifle, loaded magazines, ammunition, a gas can and a tactical vest. A document on his devices referenced violence against South Asians and white supremacist ideology, which the government labels racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE). Investigators have not confirmed the planned location. The government analyst’s comment on that case is that churches and other religious sites remain targets of opportunity around major holidays for violent extremists from across the ideological spectrum. This post has bonus content for paid subscribers. Upgrade to get full access. Barrier Placement for Outdoor Events You are setting up for the Sunday tree lighting. The crowd will stand on the grass between the sanctuary and the street, and the parking lot entrance is twenty yards to the left. A driver who wants to reach that crowd needs a straight path and enough room to build speed. Your job is to take both away. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends establishing clear standoff zones, which means distance between a crowd and any place a vehicle can travel, and evaluating vehicle barriers. CISA divides barriers into passive types such as fixed bollards, fences and jersey barriers, and active types such as retractable bollards. It also recommends looking at traffic patterns around the venue and reducing vehicle speed and access. * Walk every approach route. Two weeks before the event, walk every road, driveway, alley and parking lot entrance that a vehicle could use to reach the crowd. Mark each one on a sketch of the site, including curb cuts and gaps in fences or landscaping. * Move the crowd back. Set up the stage, seating and standing area as far from the nearest vehicle route as the site allows. Use the sketch to choose the spot before you set anything up. * Block each route. Put a barrier across each marked approach. Ask city public works or the police department whether the city lends barricades for events, and request them in writing as soon as the event date is set. Heavy fixed objects such as concrete jersey barriers stop vehicles better than cones, sawhorses or plastic barricades. * Leave one staffed gap. Fire and ambulance crews need a way in. Keep one opening, assign one team member to stand at it, and give that person a phone and the direct number for the police dispatcher. The team member’s job is to open the gap for emergency vehicles and call for help, not to stop a vehicle with their body. * Slow the traffic. Ask the police department to close the street in front of the event, or at least to post an officer or signs that cut vehicle speed during the event. * Get a second opinion. CISA has security advisors … 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. Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) At about 11:13 p.m. on Friday, 16 October 2026, a gunman in a white sedan fired on a group leaving a building in the 4000 block of West 26th Street near Pulaski Road, in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. Four men, ages 19 to 56, were shot in the arms, legs, hand and foot. All four were treated at Mount Sinai Hospital and are in good condition. The sedan fled south on Pulaski Road. National Broadcasting Company (NBC) Chicago reports the building is the New Life Center, a church, and that two of the wounded were church staff and one was a volunteer. The church runs a street outreach program that works with youth in gangs. Police have not released a motive or said who the target was. What Happened Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers were called to the 4000 block of West 26th Street at about 11:13 p.m. Friday. According to police, four men were leaving a building when a white sedan pulled up beside them and someone inside opened fire. The car then drove off southbound on Pulaski Road. The shooter never got out of the car. The wounded were a 56-year-old man shot in the leg, a 26-year-old man shot in the foot, a 25-year-old man shot in the hand, and a 19-year-old man shot in the arm. The 19-year-old drove himself to the hospital. All four were treated at Mount Sinai Hospital, about two miles away, and police list all four in good condition. No arrests have been made, and Area Four detectives are investigating. NBC Chicago is the only outlet so far that identifies the building as a church. According to NBC, volunteers from New Life Center had taken teenagers to Feed My Starving Children that evening to pack meals for families in other countries. When the group got back to the church, the shooting started. NBC reports that two church staff members and a volunteer were wounded, and that it was unclear whether the fourth man was part of the group or a bystander. Church leaders released a statement calling the violence “heartbreaking and unacceptable,” and said their staff and “Peacekeepers” work every day to mentor youth, interrupt violence and build relationships in the community. Who New Life Centers Serves New Life Centers of Chicagoland is the youth and community ministry of New Life Community Church, a multi-site Chicago church that started in 1986 with 18 members in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. The church founded New Life Centers in 2005, and the church describes it as a ministry that connects young people and their families with Christ and community through restorative justice, safe spaces and life-on-life relationships. The Friday trip was a New Life Centers youth outing, run by church staff and volunteers. The ministry runs youth programs, a food pantry, and a street outreach program in Little Village, Pilsen, Brighton Park, Humboldt Park and Midway, and it is part of the city-funded Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P) network. A 2024 report in La Raza described the Little Village outreach program this way: most of the young people it works with already belong to gangs or have criminal records, and many are on probation. The same report said the organization has informal agreements with local gangs that allow its mentors to work with young people involved in violence, and that its Peacekeepers work Wednesday through Saturday from 4 p.m. into the early morning. That is ministry work, and it is the kind of work the church is supposed to be doing. It also changes the threat picture for the building, the staff and anyone standing on the sidewalk outside it. Police have not given a motive. I spent years working gangs in California, including time as a gang sergeant, and this shooting has the look of a gang shooting. A car pulls up at night, someone fires into a group on the sidewalk, and the car leaves on the main road. Little Village has long been split between rival street gangs, and Chicago police have tied past killings in the neighborhood to that conflict. Whether the target was someone in this group or someone standing near it, the people who got hit were church staff and volunteers who had spent the evening serving kids. Lessons for Church Security Teams Look Around Before the Kids Get Out All problems begin in the parking lot, and this one began on the sidewalk outside the church at 11 o’clock at night. The group in Little Village had just come back from an evening trip with teenagers, which churches do every week. The adults already on the trip can cover a night return by keeping their heads up from the time the van turns onto the street. Start watching before the van stops. As you drive up, the driver and the trip leader should be looking at the street and everything around the building for anything out of the norm. If something does not fit, keep driving and come back around. When you do stop, the trip leader or another adult gets out first and looks around for threats before the children come out. In a city like Chicago, many of those kids will meet their parents on the sidewalk or walk home on their own, so the adults keep watching the street the whole time the kids are outside. I have been at a location when a drive-by was about to happen, and you can see it coming. Some people call it a sixth sense. I believe it is the Lord telling us that danger is approaching. When you see a slow-moving car with a couple of people in it and that warning comes, grab the kids and get them behind cover until the car is gone. Know Where Your Cover Is The shooter in Little Village never got out of the car. A white sedan pulled up beside the group, someone fired from inside, and it drove away. When you move children behind cover, you need to know ahead of time what will stop a bullet where your vans pull up. A brick wall, a concrete planter and an engine block will stop handgun rounds. A hedge, a car door and a glass entry will not. Walk the spot where your vans unload with your team and point out the cover. Then teach your people to capture the description. Someone in Chicago gave police a white sedan headed south on Pulaski. Color, make, body style, number of people, any plate letters and the direction of travel go to 911 and to the team leader as soon as it is safe. Outreach to Gang Members Brings Their Conflicts With Them A church running gang outreach, reentry ministry or a violence intervention program has a different threat picture than a church that does not. The people you serve have enemies, and their enemies know your schedule. If a young man in a rival gang knows a target comes to your youth center every Friday night, he knows where to find him. Keep the ministry going, and have your security team and your outreach staff sit down together and plan for it. Have outreach leaders tell the team leader, without giving out private details, when a client has an active conflict or has recently been shot at. Do not let groups gather on the sidewalk before or after programs. Ask your local police district for a briefing on current gang conflicts near your building, and ask what times and blocks are seeing shootings. Schedule program end times and pickups so people are not standing outside at the same hour every week. Bleeding Control at the Door and in the Van All four men in Little Village were shot in an arm, a leg, a hand or a foot. Those are extremity wounds, and extremity bleeding can be stopped with a tourniquet and direct pressure before the ambulance arrives. A person can bleed to death from an arm … 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

These debriefs are made possible by paid subscribers. Please consider upgrading your subscription. Status as of Friday, October 16, 2026. Information is preliminary. Bend Police scheduled another press conference for this afternoon and said more information about the community member who stopped the suspect would likely be released today. Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) On Thursday, October 15, a man sitting in a pickup in the Silver Rail Elementary School parking lot saw the suspect carrying a long gun toward the building and confronted him. The suspect fired multiple rounds into the truck, went over the school fence, and shot through the locked doors of the school’s secure entry vestibule. Witnesses place him in the special education area of the building. He killed three children and a teacher and critically wounded a child and a second teacher. An armed parent, reported to hold a valid concealed handgun license, saw him enter, followed him inside, and shot and killed him. Bend-La Pine Schools bans concealed handgun license holders from carrying on its school grounds, and Oregon law makes carrying there a crime. The only legal way to have a gun on that campus was unloaded and locked in a vehicle, and a parent who went to the car, loaded the gun, and came back inside to stop the suspect would still have broken the law. Bend Police officers arrived about three minutes after the first 911 call and found the suspect already dead. An armed parent carrying his firearm against Oregon law stopped this attack before police arrived. What Happened Silver Rail Elementary is a kindergarten through fifth grade school at 61530 SE Stone Creek Lane in southeast Bend with about 450 students and 40 staff. Shortly before 1:00 p.m. Pacific time, a man was sitting in his red Toyota Tacoma idling in the school parking lot when he saw the suspect carrying a long gun toward the building. The man confronted him. The suspect fired multiple rounds into the truck, putting at least five holes in the passenger side door and bed and shattering the rear passenger window. Reporting citing The Oregonian says the suspect then threw the gun over the school fence, climbed over after it, and moved toward the building. The driver called 911 at 12:59 p.m. and reported being shot at multiple times by a person with a long gun. Bend-La Pine Schools equips its buildings with secure entry vestibules. A visitor enters a locked outer area, signs in with photo identification, and is buzzed through a second electronic door. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the suspect forced his way in by shooting at the locked doors, and The Oregonian reports he shot the locks out of the vestibule. Within the next minute, dispatchers received dozens of 911 calls that a shooter was inside, and at 1:00 p.m. dispatch sounded an alert tone to all law enforcement. A fifth-grade teacher, Kathy Sheil Smith, told KPTV she saw the gunman approaching the grounds with a long gun, called the school’s main office to report it, and moved her students into a corner of the room, where they stayed quiet. The school was directed into lockdown at 1:01 p.m. By that point the suspect was already inside. Witnesses told the Bend Source the gunman went into the special education area of the school, where at least three more shots were heard. The first Bend Police officers arrived at 1:02 p.m. Moments later an officer reported that the suspect had been shot by a community member who had seen him enter the school, pursued him inside, and engaged him. The initial emergency medical services radio dispatch said the shooter appeared to have been neutralized, possibly by a father at the school. Officers entered, confirmed the suspect was dead, cleared the building for other threats, rendered aid, and evacuated the school room by room. Three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and one teacher were killed. A 7-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend with critical injuries. Police said all victim families have been notified. No victim names have been released. Bend Police sent a public alert at 1:17 p.m. telling people to avoid the area, and about 10 minutes later announced that families should report to Journey Church, 61303 S Highway 97. All students and staff were transported to the church, and reunification ran until about 5:45 p.m. Nearby Caldera High School and Jewell Elementary also went into lockdown. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Portland field office is assisting, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were reported en route, and federal officials told NBC News the Oregon State Police may become the lead investigating agency. Chief Krantz said investigators will remain at the school for several days. All Bend-La Pine Schools are closed today. Suspect Information Police have identified the suspect only as a 16-year-old male. He was killed at the scene. Police have not released his name, a motive, whether he attended Silver Rail, or whether he knew anyone there. Chief Krantz declined to name the weapon or the number of rounds fired, citing the investigation. The Associated Press, citing a law enforcement official briefed on the case, reported the weapon was a pump-action shotgun purchased by the suspect’s mother. Multiple law enforcement sources told CBS News the weapon was a shotgun. Bend Police have not confirmed either report. Who Stopped the Shooter A community member stopped the suspect before police arrived. Bend Police describe the person as a community member who saw the suspect enter the school, pursued him into the building, and engaged him. The Spokesman-Review, carrying reporting from The Oregonian, reports the community member is the parent of a student or students at the school, and the first emergency medical services dispatch described the person as possibly a father at the school. Fox News reported he holds a concealed carry permit. Police have not yet released his identity, permit status, weapon, carry method, or the number of rounds fired. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek publicly thanked the community member for intervening and acknowledged the emotional burden that person now carries. What Oregon Law and the School Policy Say Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 166.370(1)(a) makes it a Class C felony to intentionally possess a loaded or unloaded firearm in or on a public building, and Oregon’s definition of a public building includes schools. ORS 166.370(3)(g) gives concealed handgun license holders an affirmative defense to that charge. Senate Bill 554 (2021), now codified at ORS 166.377, lets a district school board adopt a policy that the license holder defense “does not apply to the possession of firearms on the grounds of the schools controlled by the board.” A board that adopts one must post a clearly visible sign at all normal points of entry to its school grounds and list the covered grounds on its website. When a license holder carries on school grounds covered by such a policy, Oregon law treats it as a Class A misdemeanor instead of a felony. Newsweek reported the penalty as up to one year in jail. The exact maximum for a Class A misdemeanor in Oregon is 364 days in jail under ORS 161.615 and a $6,250 fine under ORS 161.635. ORS 166.370(3)(j) still allows a firearm on school property that is unloaded and locked in a motor vehicle. Bend-La Pine Schools adopted Board Policy KGBB, “Firearms Prohibited,” in December 2021. It reads in part: “No person on grounds of the schools controlled by the Board of Directors for Bend-La Pine Schools Board (including in school buildings), will possess any firearm, except when said firearm is possessed by a person wh… 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

For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can help better protect the Body of Christ. Foreword This incident happened at a political protest, and I am asking you to set the politics aside. Whether you support or oppose the No Kings movement has no bearing on what happened in that street. We are reviewing it because the people on that safety team operated a lot like church safety teams do. They were volunteers. Some carried guns and some did not. They worked in pairs, talked on radios, and were responsible for thousands of people who had no idea who they were or what training they had. When one of them fired, he did it in a crowd, on partial information, under the same pressure armed church volunteers train for. We are looking at the mechanics of what happened and what church safety teams can learn from them. What Happened On the evening of June 14, 2025, a No Kings march in downtown Salt Lake City drew between 10,000 and 18,000 people, depending on the report. The organizers fielded a volunteer safety team in yellow vests that, according to charging documents, handled medical care, crowd management and de-escalation. At least two of those volunteers were armed, and one of them was Matthew Scott Alder. Richard Whitney, who organized the team, testified that he paired Alder, who was armed, with Nathan Bergstrom, who was not. Shortly before 8 p.m., the team’s radio carried a report of a “gun, AR-15” and a person in all black with a Confederate flag. Both descriptions referred to Arturo Gamboa, 24, who was openly carrying an AR-15-style rifle, which is legal in Utah. Bergstrom testified that Gamboa was “fishing in a bag” in an alley and acting “more than suspicious.” He said, “I thought it was somebody that was about to commit a mass shooting.” A second volunteer, Aaron Ferdig, drew his own handgun. The radio then carried “gun, gun, gun,” and Alder fired three rounds. Alder later told investigators he saw a man “ducked down as he was loading his rifle” and believed a mass shooting was about to happen. One round hit Gamboa and another hit his rifle. Arthur “Afa” Folasa Ah Loo, 39, was walking into the march about 160 feet from Alder, according to prosecutors. A police officer testified that cell phone video shows Ah Loo falling after the third shot, and he died at the hospital. Gamboa never fired his rifle. Police booked him on suspicion of murder and later released him, and Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill declined to charge him, saying Gamboa was lawfully allowed to carry the rifle and broke no law. Accounts of what Gamboa did with the rifle still conflict. Police first said witnesses saw him raise it and run toward the crowd. Video later published by Fox 13, and a friend who watched a balcony video, show the rifle pointed at the ground until the shots started. At the October 13, 2026 preliminary hearing, Third District Judge Derek Williams found enough evidence that Alder acted recklessly and ordered him to trial. The judge noted that three or four people stood between Alder and the man he was shooting at. Alder has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Neal Hamilton, argues the third round struck a gate box and ricocheted into Ah Loo, while the prosecution’s firearms expert testified that the recovered bullet was “nearly pristine,” which makes a ricochet less likely. A pretrial conference is set for December 11. Lessons for Church Security Teams Reading a Gun in Context Whether a visible gun signals a threat depends heavily on where you are. In Utah, a man walking down a public street with a rifle on his back is breaking no law, and Gill said exactly that when he declined to charge Gamboa. Texas allows open carry of long guns, and Florida’s open carry rules changed after a 2025 appeals court ruling. In most of California and New York, a man pulling an AR-15 out in public is so far outside the norm that it draws an immediate police response. Your team needs to know your state’s carry laws and what is normal in your community before deciding what a rifle in the parking lot means. Even where open carry is common, deadly force is justified by behavior: the person has the ability to kill, the opportunity to do it, and is acting in a way that shows they are about to. Bergstrom read “fishing in a bag” as the start of a mass shooting. That called for a radio report and closer observation. Train your team members to name the specific act that moved a person from suspicious to an imminent threat before they draw. Backstop At the hearing, Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney Josh Graves, who is no relation to me, argued that a backstop is of “vital importance” when shooting into a large crowd and that each shot should be a conscious decision. Every police firearms instructor in the country teaches the same thing. At 160 feet, a change of one degree in muzzle angle moves the point of impact almost three feet. That is my own arithmetic, offered as an illustration and not a figure from the testimony. Most church volunteers qualify with a handgun at seven to fifteen yards on a static range, if they qualify at all (you absolutely need to qualify; my qualification video is on courses.christianwarriortraining.com). In a sanctuary, the area behind an attacker holds pews, families and the hallway to the nursery. Walk your room with your team and identify the angles where a shot has no safe backstop. Then rehearse what each team member does from those spots, whether that means moving for a clean line, closing distance or holding fire. Radio Reports Whitney described the radio traffic in order: “gun, AR-15,” a man in all black with a Confederate flag, then “gun, gun, gun,” then gunfire. By the time Alder had eyes on Gamboa, three transmissions had already told him what he was looking at, and two volunteers had drawn their weapons. Once one person calls out a gun, the transmissions that follow tend to repeat and build on it. Teach your team to report what they observe in plain terms and leave the interpretation to the team leader. “Male, black hoodie, rifle on his back, walking east past the north doors” gives the next person facts to act on. “Active shooter” gives them a conclusion before they have seen anything. Have your team practice observation reports on the radio during regular Sunday services and review them in the debrief afterward. Written Policy for Armed Volunteers Sarah Parker, a national coordinator for the 50501 Movement, told the Associated Press that organizers asked all attendees, including safety volunteers, not to bring weapons. Police said the event permit did not provide for armed security. The organizer of the safety team still knew Alder was armed and paired him with an unarmed partner. Ah Loo’s widow has since sued the rally organizers, calling Alder an “untrained volunteer.” If your church allows armed team members, put that decision in writing. Have it approved by your elders, checked against your state’s law and your insurance carrier, and tied to a training and qualification standard you can produce on paper. Then make sure your team follows that policy on Sunday morning, because a written policy the team ignores gives no legal protection to the volunteer or the pastor who signed it. Legal Defense Coverage Alder is facing a criminal trial, and the organizers are facing a civil lawsuit. Anyone who carries on a church safety team could end up in the same position, whether the charge comes from a genuine mistake or from political pressure on a prosecutor. Keep serving. The church needs you on that post. Understand that a legal defense can be very expensive, and plan for it now. Right To Bear is the legal defense coverage I recommend for church security teams and concealed carriers. If you sign up through the Christian Warrior Training partner link, you get 10 percent off the Security Plan for the life of your membersh… 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

AJ was armed when he came face to face with the active shooter at the Twin Falls In-N-Out. He was shot, his arm was shattered, and when he tried to return fire, his gun went click. There was no round in the chamber. In this interview, the former police officer walks me through the attack, the actions his wife and friend took to keep him alive, and his ongoing recovery. We examine what went right, what went wrong, and the lessons every concealed carrier and church safety team should hear. 0:00 Coming Up 0:49 Back at the Twin Falls In-N-Out 1:57 The Interview 7:11 The Day of the Shooting 19:20 The Click: No Round in the Chamber 25:13 Saving AJ: The Tourniquet and the Drive to the Hospital 34:37 Lessons: What Went Right, What Went Wrong 45:48 Remembering Lt. Stephen Williams 53:39 The Road Back 57:00 A Call From In-N-Out 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. 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 p… This is a public episode. 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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… 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 m… 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 cau… 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