Originally published on LinkedIn · June 2022.
I have worked in church security since 1991 — the year a law enforcement officer friend of mine who served as his church’s security coordinator passed away. Since then I have directly advised over 350 churches and consulted with thousands more, combining 27+ years of corporate converged security experience across multiple industries with that church security focus.
Definitions First
Before we can build a program, we have to agree on what we are building. Here are the definitions I use:
- Pastor: One called to equip people of faith to fulfill the church’s mission.
- Church: Both a social gathering of like-minded believers AND a corporation with inherent security and safety challenges that cannot be ignored.
- Security: Prevention, detection, and response to crime or policy violations.
- Safety: Prevention, detection, and response to accidents.
- Converged Security: Collective authority and operational activities of all things security — physical, cyber, personnel, medical, and more — working together under one framework.
Security is different than safety. A church needs both. You cannot achieve one without the other.
My Critique of Checklists — and Why I Made One Anyway
I am not a fan of checklists that end up in a binder on a shelf, never updated and never used for training. I have seen too many of them. But I also recognize that a well-designed, functional checklist — when used as a living tool rather than a filing exercise — gives leadership a structured way to understand where they are today and what needs to improve.
That is the intent of McConnell’s 2022 Church Security Functional Checklist. It is designed to help a church assess its current security maturity level across converged security domains: physical security, personnel security, cyber security, medical response, crisis response, and more. It is available in PDF or spreadsheet format — contact me directly to request a copy.
A Starting Point, Not the Whole Answer
This tool is a starting point. It gives you a baseline. What you do with the baseline is where the real work begins. The checklist will show you gaps you didn’t know you had — and some you knew about but hadn’t quantified. Use those gaps to build a prioritized action plan, get leadership buy-in, and start improving systematically.
There are many trusted church security professionals who can help churches go beyond the baseline. I am happy to make referrals and connections. The church security community is collaborative — we are not competing with each other, we are trying to protect the same people.
See also the church security comparison documents on this site for additional free resources.