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A group of about 30 church leaders gathered Tuesday night in Bolivar to plan for something that was unthinkable only a few years ago — a shooting in their congregations.
"We are facing things we never thought we'd face before," said Pastor Paul Lint as he opened the church security training course with a prayer.
Lint, pastor of Beacon Independent Baptist Church, said he decided to host the three-hour course after learning about it from a congregant whose brother is a firearms instructor in Georgia.
The instructor, Rodney Smith, founded the Georgia Firearms and Security Training Academy in July 2015, a month after the deadly church shooting in Charleston, S.C.
Since then, he has taught security courses in more than 50 churches, most of them in Georgia.
Recent church shootings in Tennessee and Texas make such training all the more necessary, Smith said.
"You've got to have a plan of attack," he said.
Smith, a Westmoreland County native who lives in Flowery Branch, Ga., said churches have to overcome their resistance to securing their worship services.
"We're trying to make you like a SWAT team or a security team," he said.
Smith said the Charleston and Sutherland Springs, Texas, shootings hold lessons for all churches.
Continue Reading: Westmoreland church leaders learn how to prepare for a shooter
