Editor: Brian Bakeman, 1501 NW 24^th St, Oklahoma City OK 73106

Phone: (405) 530-2067; Email: bbakeman@okumc.org; Website: www.okumc.org

 

 

 

 

By Rick Carlin

 

According to a recent article, across the country there have been 45 acts of arson and 14 violent or threatening incidents in which the suspect brought a knife or gun to church or opened fire at the church, since January. There is a prevailing false sense of security within congregations and this only adds to the danger. How would your church respond to an act of violence?

 

Some churches are afraid to admit or discuss safety concerns for fear they might scare away members and visitors. Some churches do not take any precautions, and some that do have safeguards, hide them from the congregation. The best course of action is communication. Let the members know what safeguards are in place. Security should be a long term activity, not a reaction to yesterday’s headlines. The problem is that security can be a hard sell to people who believe “It can’t happen here.”

 

Some suggestions to make your church safer are:

Form a team or committee to evaluate

o The current security

o Which safeguards are working

o Which safeguards are lacking

o Input from law enforcement or a security company

Regulate who can move about the worship space

o During the service

o During the offering

Train people to be more watchful – layered approach including

o Outside greeters

o Foyer-level greeters

o Sanctuary ushers

o Pastoral security

Implement child care check in/out procedures

o Determine who can and cannot pick up a child

Have a written plan in place

o Line out responsibilities and procedures

o Specify how to deal with a disruption and who deals with it

Provide local law enforcement with a copy of the plan

Practice the plan (safety drills)

 

Someone who does not know the procedures and processes will stick out and draw attention to themselves. Eighty per cent of the people who commit crimes against churches have paid them a visit, so a friendly greeting and a watchful eye could prevent a crime.

 

This information is not meant to scare but to help create awareness so that you will feel as safe in your house of worship as you do in your own home. I will be sharing more information on this at the financial workshops in August.

 

 

 

The final numbers are in and contributions during Annual Conference brought in $52,062.16 for missions. Also, $24, 803.08 will go to the Foundation office to help relieve seminary debt and $27,259.08 will be used to support the work in Liberia. Thank you to everyone who helped support these outreach ministries.

 

Thank you also for the contributions to the Peace with Justice Offering last month. We have collected $3,311 so far with half of those funds staying here in the Oklahoma Conference to fund the work of our Peace with Justice Committee.

 

Giving for the month of June dropped just slightly over June of last year with 40.91% of apportionments paid year-to-date compared with 43.95% last year. The Lawton District has the highest paid percentage at 48.84% of their apportionments paid while the Clinton District get the most improved as they did 2.72% better than last year.

 

For those churches that have begun work on their 2010 budgets, we should be sending by August 1^st the 2010 apportionments and the assessments for the Conference Ministry Center and for the St. Paul Seminary at OCU. For those churches that have not paid off the Conference Ministry Center assessment, the amount due for the year will begin to show up on the Conference web site starting in January.

 

 

Here is the August schedule for the workshops this year. Our agenda will focus on the new end-of-year reports and the recent changes approved at Annual Conference for calculating the decimal and how all that affects apportionments as well as the redesigned compensation forms. Bring your questions and join in the conversation about the ministry of finance and the mission of the church.

 

I have also asked Rick Carlin, our conference insurance program administrator to spend some time talking about how to minimize risk in our local churches including fidelity losses that have been plaguing so many of our churches the past couple of years. I hope many pastors, chairs of finance, financial secretaries and treasurers will try to make one of the four workshops across the state.

 

Dates         Church                      Location

August 1     First UMC                   McAlester

August 8     First UMC                   Claremore

August 22   Faith UMC                  Woodward

August 29   Church of the Servant  Okla. City

 

The workshops are all on Saturday and will begin at 10:00 am. There is no cost for the workshops, but so that we provide sufficient food for lunch, reservations are critical for good stewardship. Jan Polson at the conference office will handle reservations and you can email her at jpolson@okumc.org or you can call her at 405.530.2064.

 

Pick the workshop most convenient for you and please call or email as soon as possible when you can attend. I look forward to working with you and helping to answer any questions you might have.