Why Churches Must Prepare Now

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's a Wall Boiler show taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with Tim Barton. Interesting show for you today. We've talked uh self-defense a lot. We've talked Second Amendment a lot. Uh today we're going to kind of combine that with the need for churches to be prepared, especially in the wake of what happened in Minneapolis. So John Bradshaw will be our special guest joining us today. But Tim, this is a topic that uh is needed, and a lot of our churches, I think, will enjoy listening to this.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Yeah, Rick, there's a lot going on. We we've been talking about this a lot off-air. Uh in fact, tomorrow uh we're gonna be hanging out together, uh, us and some of our friends, uh, doing some filming for upcoming 250th stuff. Um, and uh all of us have been people that have been talking about uh strategically um the way we need to be thinking through some of what's going on. You know, obviously, as uh as Christians, as leaders of organizations, as members of churches, um, it it seems like there are things changing in our culture, especially what we saw with uh the church in Minnesota. When when when people now feel like for whatever reason it's appropriate to go into a church to hold a protest. And even though for some people that might not seem like overly aggressive or weird, it's obviously inappropriate, it's obviously illegal. But when we're in the world where there are people that are shooting up churches and now there's people trying to normalize protesting inside of churches, it's it's a very different world that we are living in. And as we're navigating for all of us, uh for Wall Builders, Patriot Academy, uh, you know, our friends, these other organizations we'll be with tomorrow, of how we're handling security of uh of strategically what we're thinking through. There's so many people out there now that are having to think different. Obviously, Rick, what you guys have been doing with constitutional defense. Y'all have been training people for years on how to defend themselves, but but now how do we think through it if we're part of a church, if we're part of businesses and organizations, what do we do? And that's when I said, man, I got a friend in Arkansas who did literally started a business doing this very thing. We need to get him on. He's brilliant on this. So uh he's on the other line, and I'm excited to get to him and to hear some insight from him on how we navigate some of these things going forward.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Looking forward to it, man. We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back. John Bradshaw is our guest today. Stay with us, you're listening to the Wall Builders Show.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

This is Tim Barton from Wall Builders with another moment from American history. Founding fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson originally worked closely together, but later became ardent opponents. This troubled Dr. Benjamin Rush, the sign of the Declaration, who knew both of them very well. In the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5.18 tells us that God has given each of us the ministry of reconciliation. Dr. Rush believed it and set out to bring the two back together. It took a while, but Adams and Jefferson once again became close friends. And looking back on his role in helping bring about this reconciliation, Dr. Rush stated, it will give me pleasure as long as I live to reflect that I have been in any degree instrumental in affecting this reunion of two souls destined to be dear to each other and motivated with the same dispositions to serve their country, though in different ways. For more information about Dr. Benjamin Rush and his other remarkable achievements, go to wallbuilders.com.

Start With Leadership And Policy

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. Thanks for staying with us. John Bradshaw with us, founder and chief consultant of Valor Defense Consulting. John, thanks for coming on, man. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Well, we've been talking a lot on the show, not just about the Second Amendment itself and the right of self-defense, but the importance of churches actually taking this serious. And of course, the thing in Minnesota where the um you know the group uh uh uh anti-ICE folks busted into the church and basically took over the uh took over the building for a little while there, um, has a lot of people talking about this. Well, you've been doing this for a while, and uh so you train churches on how to do this. Tim said, Man, we got to get John on and talk about what they do and why more churches need to be doing this. So appreciate you coming on and talking about it. Tell us what, you know, if a church doesn't even have a any kind of a uh security team or anything like that, where do they start?

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Well, uh it has to be backed by leadership. Uh leadership has to have a vision uh of duty of care, uh, duty of care for their congregants, duty of care for a place where people can come and worship without uh the fear of an incident occurring. And if it were to occur that there are protocols and there are safety measures in place that allows them to to be able to respond in an appropriate manner and keep uh the congregate safe. And so I think that it has to start at a leadership level uh and drive a culture of safety. And I think that you you have to look at well-documented policies and procedures. You will you have to make a plan and then you have to train that plan. And so we can do all the training in the world, but if it is not geared towards church ministry, church safety, uh, with a heart for people, and we don't do that according to the policies and procedures, then you can't have one without the other. Um the policies and policies and procedures drive the training, and then the training is what allows a church to execute on what should be done clearly, with intent, and solve problems.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Are you finding more churches interested now that that that weren't before? Um, and if not, like what's the wake-up call? What does it take for for a pastor to finally say, you know what? I think we ought to do something here.

Rising Incidents And The Wake-Up Call

The Turnkey Toolkit Explained

SPEAKER_01 6:00

No, no, absolutely. I think uh for sure the church never really needed um, you know, to move in this direction. This was a corporate type um corporate type setting that these things were done in. But whenever you look at um, you know, there's 1,384 hostile acts against churches that have been documented since 2018, bomb threats, gun-related incidents, and other violent crimes um or threats of crime. And so, yes, uh churches are for sure moving more towards the idea that we need a plan in place, we do need some training. The question is, is uh what type of training? And that's kind of where we come in, you know, uh what needs to be documented? And you know, with Valor Defense Consulting, uh what I did whenever I founded the company was is I I had a 23-year military career where I was an infantry uh instructor, uh combat infantry soldier. Um I worked for the Department of Emergency Management, working directly with uh FEMA and the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management uh to manage all of our state active duty response and building protocols, building policy, um, training those policies and protocols and leading people to execute properly was a huge part of my job in all of those things. And so I just took that experience and the wisdom from from a long career doing it and said, you know what, how does how does this apply to the civilian you know sector? Um and you know, churches, whether it's a business, a church, um, whoever it might be that does not have a plan. So we built out a toolbox. Uh, and one of those toolboxes is specifically geared towards churches, and we're talking very in-depth policies and procedures that are rooted in it, doesn't matter which state you're in, we're gonna extract the local statute, laws, and regulations. You know, you can't have you can't you can make plans that don't take all that in consideration, but if you execute those plans, who's to say you're right? So we pull all of that and we formalize it for the state. And then we also have about 17, 18 different forms that go with that, a priority of work um plan that goes with it, and how like a timeline to execute all of the things and implement all the things that are in the toolbox. And so pretty much when they buy the toolkit, they have everything laid out in front of them that they need to have. The only thing they need to do is get it together a small working group, pastor, elders, maybe whoever they want to lead a church safety team ministry and formalize a little bit of it to them where their specific physical infrastructure lies and their own constraints and limitations. But it's pretty much turnkey.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

I love, I love the fact that you're, you know, it's much more than just um, you know, tactical uh, you know, shooting training that that you your experience of being able to go in and analyze the systems themselves. And and I'm assuming for other states too, because I know you do this all over Arkansas. Um can we get you into Texas and other places? There's so many churches I know that are looking for, you know, so a lot of these church teams, you know, some of them will come down to our place at Patriot Academy and they'll do the tactical training and and and learn how, you know, uh those those basic skills, but to have somebody come into their church and help them really do a fully comprehensive plan, that's hard to find. Um, and I'm assuming you travel outside of Arkansas for that as well.

Authority, Trespass, And Force Continuum

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Yes, sir, I do. And typically what it looks like is a church calls and says, hey, you know, we have a bit of a security team most of the time, but it's really a rough plan. It's nothing that's really solidified where they have uh fully developed anything out. Well, our toolbox is the pretty much everything they need to formalize their church safety program. I mean, the executive leadership is going to do fill out a memorandum that's all they got to do is plug and play a few things in there. This says we are formalizing our safety program. These people are gonna be agents of the church and they have the authority to act on behalf of the church to trespass someone, handle a medical emergency, um, escort someone out off the premises if necessary, if that's what they would like them to be able to do, or to call law enforcement under any circumstances, or if there is a threat, you know, respond uh appropriately to that threat, given the forced continuum, meet threat, would like threat. Um, you know, we don't want to escalate anything. Um, you know, we want we don't want to be put in a place where we have to take a life, but in the protection of innocent people, we we must do what we have to. And that kind of goes back to the just war theory, and we won't have to dive off and all that just yet.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

But uh, that's good stuff, man. That's uh just having that mindset, critical, critical, critical. We don't we don't teach it enough anymore. So I just love the fact you mentioned it. Sorry, I interrupted you. Go ahead.

Beyond Guns: A Ministry Mindset

Greeters, Parking Lots, And Prevention

SPEAKER_01 11:00

No, you're good. Uh, but yeah, once once we start the formalization process of documentation, uh, then it kind of goes into okay, we can do a physical security infrastructure assessment where we come down and valor defense uh consultants will look at your um physical location, the infrastructure that's in place, any physical infrastructure that needs to be put in place, uh, whether it be three 3M um, you know, shatterproof resistant uh film, or it be CCTVs, or it be um, you know, medical emergency kits, um fire extinguishers, whatever it might be. Uh, but we don't just look at it from a threat response. We look at everything through the lens of all things safety. So I have been doing church safety team uh leadership since 2016 uh at our church in Arkansas at Christian Ministries, and I've been training those guys. And we have handled more medical incidents or uh a domestic situation where we de-escalate, de-conflict, uh have some conversation, pastoral care, um, you know, or we are uh dealing with, you know, a child that ran ran off, and now we're gonna find this child. And normally it's we haven't ever had a major issue with anything um significant happen, but there are you can't just look at it through the lens of okay, I've got a firearm, we've got a church safety team. No, that's not how that works. It's and that's most churches, right, man?

SPEAKER_03 12:27

I mean, I mean, you've probably found that. That's most churches. They, oh, we got a few guys that, you know, they they they they were on the police force 30 years ago, you know, or uh, or or we have a guy that was in the army for four years and and as you know better than I do, uh most uh law enforcement and former military guys don't have the training that that you're talking about. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Uh giving these guys uh and it's I'll tell you some of our best guys that I've seen go through uh training and um lead church safety teams do not have a background even. Uh they have great leadership skills, uh, but they may not have a background in military or law enforcement of something of that nature. Uh and so, you know, it kind of takes that tactical aspect out where, you know, from being a bouncer type door kicker, you know, very aggressive type uh behaviors, and not to say that all are, because I've met a lot that are not, but you know, it's a ministry team.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

Um I have seven broken you don't start the class watching Roadhouse. That's not the beginning of the of the no, no, no, no.

Train The Whole Church, Not Just Security

The Missing Piece: Post-Event Operations

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Um no, we want we want to minister to people's hearts, but we want to, as protectors, uh, be uh within a moment's notice of being able to flip the switch and release what we've been holding back under a disciplined control to protect people. Um but we have a heart for people, we want people to come and worship and meet Jesus, and you know, we want to reflect Jesus uh in our lives uh and be the like that he's asked us to be, um, you know, through deconfliction, through honest empathy, uh genuine empathy with people. Um, and that will handle the majority of your issues, unless somebody is just dead set and intent on coming and doing harm to people. Um, but you know, once we kind of get everything locked in with the uh uh formal physical security assessment, you have a toolkit, we start customizing everything to everything's documented across the board. We we then have to start training our team members and the staff and the ushers and all the volunteers of the ministries. So so many times I've been in churches and they're like, Yes, we've done this training right here with you know all 20 of our church safety team guys. That's great. And I love all of that. And that's you're they're ahead of some people. But what they haven't done is pulled their pastors in, their associate pastors, their ministers, uh, their youth ministry, um and their volunteers, their nursery leadership, and ushers um, or parking lot um, you know, control guys that are out, you know, moving traffic around. It is a team effort all the way around. Um, the church safety team uh gets uh training that's a little more specific in the uh use of force uh in de-escalation from a act of threat or a threat analysis standpoint a little bit more than everybody else. Um, but you know, you have to involve everybody. So if you are in a leadership position or a ministry leader position within the church, uh executive leaders, uh deacons, what have you, we would like to see all of them in training. Um it all works hand in hand. And what we train as a response, here's the big thing, Rick, that people don't do. They don't think about the post-event that happens. So we respond to an event well, but then what do we have after that? Well, we have to um secure the facility in the short term, long term, you know, before and after police leave, depending on whether or not the facility is still usable or not, or it's a crime scene. Do we have a um do we have a co-op plan? You know, do we have a plan to where we're gonna meet if we can't use this church? You know, do we have a plan on how to handle all the insurance and and all of the um social media presence, um, reporters? Um, do we have pastoral care for the individuals involved that were innocent people? Uh there may be, and nobody really likes to talk about it, but but there may be some funerals to go to. There may be some hospitals to go visit. And there's a post-operations piece that people miss.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Man, that's so good. That that removes so much uncertainty, right? And and just the case, because there's already the chaos and the and everything. And so to even think through well ahead of time um those logistics, I would think would give so much comfort to a uh pastoral team and and and to the folks on the team. And you mentioned something else too, even the parking lot, you know, the parking attendants, because you know, I think back to that that white settlement shooting um where Jack Wilson took down the the the dirt bag, but the dirt bag was literally in a trench coat in the summer with the with the weird beard and all that. If you'd had a trained, you know, parking attendant and and and the guys outside, that guy would have never been, you know, your de-escalation training that you do would have taken care of that before they he got to the to the people in the church. You know what I'm saying? So that's what I love. Your your comprehensive approach is what's needed.

Scenario Training And Tabletop Drills

Medical, De‑Escalation, And Tactics

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yes, sir. And and I'll tell you, I did a training this uh past Saturday with a couple of churches up in uh in Little Rock, Arkansas. And um we had quite a few members from two different churches there. And the pastor of one of those churches, um, and I won't I won't throw it out there who it is, but um it's his story to tell uh if he wants to get specific with who he is, but um, he said he was actually visiting that church the week prior, and he sat in the pew right there where that guy was at. Oh you know, that gentleman was wearing a fake beard, he had a hat on, he had a trench coat on, he looked extremely suspicious, nervous. Exactly. Yeah, uh, had a shotgun under his coat. And you know, nobody, uh, when that pastor went down there to that church the week before, not one person in that church greeted him. Not one person was personable. Um, and and it was one of the things I was pointing out whenever he kind of stopped and asked if he could, you know, let let the class know about this. It we want to be the most personable people, almost to the point of annoyance. And and here's the thing yes, I care. I don't want to, we're not faking the funk. All right, you need to care. All right, that's what that's what Christ-like people do. We care about people, we love people. But at the same time, if you're suspicious, uh you're the first person I'm going to. As soon as I see you, I'm I'm moving straight to you, and we're gonna have a conversation about, hey man, welcome to church. Glad to see you. My name's John. What's your name, buddy? You know, and and it's gonna be with a smile on my face, and we're gonna be excited about having you there. Uh, but the moment I see that there's an issue, that that switch flips. And um, they could have prevented that at the doors, if not in the parking lot, had they had a little bit of training.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

And exactly what you just described. And man, I'd I'd love to go through your training because you're saying so much of what we believe as well. It it, you know, it because because nine out of ten times it's just somebody that's that's awkward or weird or whatever. That's right. And approaching them like what you just said doesn't run them off or or make them feel unwelcome. But then that one, and I say nine out of ten, ninety-nine out of a hundred probably, but um, but when it is that situation, uh, you're now able to deal with it outside and and as a professional. So uh, man, I I am so excited about what y'all are doing. I I I hope we have a lot of pastors that that listen from across the country. I hope you get a ton of calls because the need is huge and there's so few people doing uh what you're doing. And and uh in fact, you're the only guy I know that's doing the comprehensive approach that is so desperately needed. You know, we do a lot of good firearms training at at Patriot Academy and and individual training. So, and like I said, some security teams will come together, but nothing like what you're talking about with the comprehensive, specifically tailored to to that church. Or and I I want to make sure we we mention it's not just churches, you do businesses and and schools and and and all kinds of other things too.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

So I want to make sure people familiar with it institutions, everything.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

Yeah, yeah. FowlerDefense Consulting.com. Is that the easiest way to get get to you?

Comprehensive Services And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Yes, sir. That is correct. Or you can hit us up on our social media at the same Valor Defense uh Consulting LLC, um, Instagram or Facebook. Um and just kind of recap. I mean, so we're we're gonna build policies and procedures. We're gonna do physical security infrastructure assessments if you would like. And then we kind of create a shopping list for people and they can pick and choose what they'd have us to do. Um, you know, but you know, when it comes down to actually training these things, we train the procedures and we do scenarios, uh, realistic scenarios, um, practical exercise type stuff, tabletops, which is undervalued in my opinion. Um, takes less time, simple. Uh, it's it's cost effective. It doesn't really cost anything to sit around to talk about how things should unfold. Um, but when it comes to actual training, we're we're gonna do things like legal use of force training, um, talk through the the use of force continuum, the legal requirements in order to use force at all levels, threat recognition and analysis. Uh, we're gonna do things like de uh de-escalation and uh conflict resolution and how to use your words to uh talk people down and to calm the situation, um, if it's possible to do so. First aid CPR, we have first aid CPR instructors so we can certify people in uh pediatric and adult, CPR, AD, and first aid. Um, also the tactical medical response, which looks a lot different than you know, CPR, AD, first aid, uh, because it's you know, hemorrhage control and airway stabilization. If there's a shooting event or a threat going on, and uh we have casualties that we can safely care for, um, you know, uh we're trying to prevent the loss of life uh as quickly as possible. And active shooter response and prevention. Um, again, that's proactive drills, um, response strategies. We do firearms training as well, uh, basic and advanced handgun and uh defensive rifle, uh combat rifle type classes. Uh, we teach defensive tactics. You know, we can talk about uh weapon. All day, uh, but that force continuum starts at verbal and your own physical presence. And then as you go forward, you know, you match force with force, threat with threat. Um, there's a couple different levels in between deathly force and verbal and just being present. And so, how do we manage all of that in there if we've got to go hands-on, such as weapon retention if we have a weapon on us? Um you know, so it's it's more of um kind of a jujitsu style kind of class, um, just dominant positions, some some locks and holds, and and how to escort people and maintain control of your weapon. We teach close quarters weapons uh training, uh so how to clear a building. Um as a team, as individual um safety team members. You know, most people don't know what it is to pie a corner or to do a um, you know, um an assessment of a doorway or a room before they go into it to do a soft assessment versus a dynamic entry where they just jump off in this room. Um and so we've trained a lot of those things. Um we do the the post-event procedures for the leadership, uh, to how to manage the post-event operations that need to go into play. So we do a little bit of everything. Uh and the hopes is that somebody calls us and yep, we want to make sure we get, you know, a very good, like you said, comprehensive approach and response to how we should be doing things.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

So love it. Love it, man. Every bit of it. That's awesome. So good. ValorDefense Consulting.com. ValorDefense Consulting.com. I know I know most of our listeners are going to be thinking about this for their church, and that's great. But maybe you got a business or others as well. You need to get John in. Uh this is good stuff, man. And I and I hope you guys grow like crazy and uh and can meet this need because we're big believers in Proverbs 2712. A wise person foresees danger and takes precaution. A simpleton or a fool walks blindly on and suffers the consequences. So if you're wise out there, you're gonna call John and take some precautions. Hey, man, God bless you. Appreciate you coming on.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Hey, Rick, thank you so much for having me, man. Have a blessed day, brother.

SPEAKER_03 23:57

You too. Stay with us, folks. We'll be right back with Tim Barton.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

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SPEAKER_03 25:07

Welcome back to the Waffle Show. Thanks to John Bradshaw for joining us. And what man, I honestly, Tim, I I I'm I'm blown away, man. This guy has obviously created the system rather than just the skills so that a church can prepare ahead of time. I I can't think of a church that doesn't need this, big or small.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

You're exactly right. Because I I mean, literally, this I was thinking even yesterday when I went to church, we have a a sheriff who is in uniform at the church. Obviously, there's you know, half the men in the church are probably armed. But as he was saying, you know, what do you do after it happens? Or the does the staff know, does a team know? And I thought, man, you know, even for our church, I'm not sure that anybody other than a few high-level people even know what the plan is. And so what he's laying out is something that makes sense for every church, certainly, but not just even churches, for organizations, for the follow-up. He he's just thought through this so well that it's not just how do you stop a bad guy, it's the de-escalation, it's, you know, as he mentioned, the first day, the control of the bleach. There's there's so many additional parts. I think this is something valuable for everybody listening, whether it's for your church, your organization, where you work, et cetera. Such a good organization. So, man, check out their website. Find out what you can do to bring him in to help equip your people to be ready, if God forbid something happens, but also how to prevent it from happening in the first place. We're out of time for today, folks.

SPEAKER_03 26:35

That website again, valordefenseconsulting.com, valordefenseconsulting.com. Appreciate you listening today. You've been listening to the Wall Boiler Show.