To worship and protect: New class leads churches through security training

ALEX PERRI/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO

Sgt. Johnathan Duke assists Aaron Reynolds, pastor of Sonlight Baptist Church, with a virtual reality headset during the church safety class. The class also included time on the gun range.

ALEX PERRI/THE OGLETHORPE ECHO

Sgt. Johnathan Duke shows Aaron Reynolds, pastor of Sonlight Baptist Church, how to use the virtual reality gun at the Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Office as part of the first church safety class. The Sheriff’s Office hopes to hold classes for other churches.

Members of the Sonlight Baptist Church gathered Saturday morning at the Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Office to learn about church safety, a concern that members said they’ve had to take more seriously in recent years.

“We live in Oglethorpe,” said Sgt. Johnathan Duke, training coordinator with the Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Office. “We don’t really anticipate anything bad happening. We’re a pretty safe community. We like it that way, but there’s always the potential.”

Duke spearheaded the class with the assistance of Capt. Todd Tetterton, breaking the day into multiple parts. Those included a safety presentation, a visit to Sonlight Baptist Church in Colbert, a law enforcement virtual reality session and an optional trip to the gun range for those who brought firearms. 

Church members learned how to engage an active shooter, tips for proper gun use and strategies for securing their premises. While on site at Sonlight Baptist Church, members of the church security team learned things like where to station team members during Sunday service and which doors to lock or keep open to optimize both crowd flow and safety. 

Aaron Reynolds has been the pastor at Sonlight Baptist for the past three years and said he has seen his congregation grow in his time there. But with that growth, he said he also feels a responsibility to ensure everyone’s safety.

“We firmly believe that people are (in church) because God has put them under our care,” Reynolds said. “So we want to be wise in the way that we protect them, and that means doing our due diligence. We want to minister to people, but that means protecting people, also.”

Duke gave practical tips during his presentation, like encouraging gun-toting security team members to practice their draw in their church clothes and to stay away from shoulder holsters. He also plugged them into virtual reality headsets that law enforcement officers use as a part of their training.

In one virtual scenario, Duke had Reynolds practice engaging a person with a knife who was trying to get inside the church’s doors. With the headset on and a virtual gun by his side, Reynolds got to see how he would react if a similar scenario happened on the job. 

Other members practiced engaging in virtual scenarios with people who were drunk, angry or threatening violence against them. 

Though the various virtual scenarios may seem far-fetched for a place like Oglethorpe County, Duke said he plans to continue offering this class to other churches in the area — just in case.

“I think safety is always important,” Duke said. “It’s always better to be prepared, even if you never need any of the skills or knowledge. It’s better to have it and know it than it is to be unprepared for a situation.”

Billy Ogle, a deacon at Sonlight Baptist Church and a member of the security team, said recent events have inspired the congregation to take security protocols more seriously. 

“For the past 2½ years, we tried to have somebody outside being more observant than we used to be, and with all the shootings in the media, it got a little more intense, so we saw a need for it,” he said.

After Saturday’s training, Reynolds is taking no chances when it comes to church safety.

“We realized we probably assumed our safety more than we actually assured it,” he said.

Alex Perri is a master’s student in journalism at the University of Georgia. She previously worked at the Transylvania Times in Brevard, North Carolina.