The Holidays Are the Busiest Season for Church Safety Teams. Is Yours Ready?

By Adam Shrider | Gatekeeper Defense Training LLC

For most churches, the stretch from Thanksgiving through New Year's is the busiest time of the year. Christmas Eve services. Candlelight services. Children's programs and cantatas. Food drives, community dinners, and outreach events. More people come through the doors in these few weeks than almost any other time on the calendar.

That's a blessing. It's also the season when your church safety team is stretched the thinnest — and when planning matters most.

What Changes During the Holiday Season

• Bigger crowds and more unfamiliar faces. Visitors and once-a-year attendees don't know the building, the exits, or the normal flow of a service. Your team doesn't know them either, which makes it harder to notice what's out of place.

• Extra services and events. Back-to-back services, special rehearsals, and weeknight events mean more hours to cover with the same number of volunteers.

• New volunteers stepping in. Greeters, ushers, parking teams, and sometimes safety team members are added to handle the load — often with little time to train them.

• Earlier darkness. In Central Florida it's dark before 6 PM in December. Evening services mean dark parking lots, walkways, and building entrances.

• A heavy emotional season. For many people, the holidays bring grief, family conflict, and financial stress. Those pressures don't stay at home — sometimes they show up at church.

Don't Hand a New Volunteer a Radio and Hope for the Best

The holidays are when churches recruit the most new volunteers. That's a good thing — but a willing heart isn't the same as a prepared one. Before a new volunteer serves on Christmas Eve, they should know:

• Their specific role, post, and limits — what they are expected to do and what they are not

• Who they report to and how to communicate (radio procedure, hand signals, code words)

• Who calls 911, and what information to give

• Where the medical kits, bleeding-control supplies, and AED are located

• How to handle the most common issues: a medical emergency, a disruptive person, a lost child, a custody dispute

• The evacuation and lockdown plan for that specific service

A Simple Holiday Readiness Checklist

• Walk through each special service in advance — expected attendance, entry points, where the crowd will gather

• Assign posts for every service, including the parking lot and children's areas

• Hold a short briefing before every service, even if it's five minutes

• Check exterior lighting and plan coverage for dark parking lots

• Confirm children's check-in and pickup procedures are being followed — busy nights are when they slip

• Stock and check medical and bleeding-control kits

• Do a quick after-action review after each event: what worked, what didn't, what to fix before the next one

Train Before the Crowds Arrive

The time to prepare your team is before the busiest services of the year — not after. We offer training built specifically for church safety teams:

• Church Safety Team 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 — progressive firearms training for armed volunteers

• Stop the Bleed — bleeding control for every volunteer, armed or not

• Use of Force Training — understanding when force is justified, and when it is not

• On-Site Training — we come to your church and train your team in your own building

See upcoming dates on our training calendar, or call 407-594-5811 to set up training for your team.

Watch and Pray

"But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat." — Nehemiah 4:9

Nehemiah didn't choose between faith and preparation. He did both. This season, as your church opens its doors wider than any other time of year, make sure the people standing at those doors are ready.

Called to Protect. Trained to Act.