Faithbridge Church started worrying about safety after the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
It then hired safety consulting firm SafePlans for annual training sessions.
This time, the firm’s president, Brad Spicer, wanted the message to be carried to more churches and invited representatives from houses of worship across Harris and Montgomery counties.
Seventy-two people from 41 different churches showed up.
“They got to put it into practice and in different enough environments,” Spicer, a former Missouri state trooper, said. “So they can go back to their own unique churches and put that into practice.”
One person who attended was Warren Rumpel with WoodsEdge Community Church. He said he appreciated the information on the run-hide-fight concept, which establishes a hierarchy of what to do in an active shooter situation.
“We’ve been more of a church that does the lockdown procedure,” Rumpel said. “And we feel that the run-hide-fight procedure is a good implementation that we’re going to take back to our church.”
SafePlans’ Spicer said it’s important to prepare your environment before a shooting. In the case of churches that could be to have a greeter at the door or a parking attendant to be on the lookout.