Preparedness Guide
Preparedness Guide
Keeping Your House of Worship from Becoming a Target
By JT Henry | Part of the Securing the Sacred series
Protect the welcome. Prepare the people.
A house of worship is a place where people gather to find belonging, comfort, and connection. Protecting that environment takes thoughtful preparation—without allowing fear to define the experience.
Preparedness Guide helps faith leaders, staff, and volunteers connect everyday hospitality with practical safety measures. From the parking lot to the gathering space, it explains how to recognize concerns, identify vulnerabilities, organize responsibilities, and build a coordinated preparedness program.
Inside, you will explore:
- Threat awareness: Recognizing concerning behavior, documenting observations, and knowing when to seek help.
- Environmental design: Using lighting, landscaping, sightlines, and maintenance to support a welcoming, attentive property.
- Layered protection: Understanding how deterrence, detection, delay, denial, and response work together.
- People and planning: Establishing safety teams, reporting procedures, emergency plans, and congregation training.
- Partnerships and resources: Working with responders and locating assessment tools, guidance, and potential funding opportunities.
The guide includes a property survey, observation and reporting card, concern intake form, action worksheet, and a phased implementation roadmap to help leaders turn reading into practical next steps.
Written for congregations across faith traditions, this resource approaches preparedness as an act of stewardship: caring for people, strengthening coordination, and preserving the openness that makes a community worth protecting.
Begin building a more prepared community—while keeping welcome at its heart.
Digital PDF eBook with printable worksheets for internal congregational use. Educational guidance; no security measure can guarantee prevention.