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.

The Charleston shooting happened during a Wednesday night Bible study that had no security detail.

The Texas shooting happened at a church that was familiar to the shooter and had no security plan.

On Tuesday, Smith covered five color-coded levels of awareness. Worshippers should always be at the second-lowest level, or yellow, which means they are cognizant of their surroundings and paying attention, he said.

“The most important thing is seeing things before they materialize,” he said. “If attacked, it should not come as a total surprise. Your response should be pre-planned.”

Smith said churches should have not only a security plan but also a trained security team.

“As a security team, you need to make sure your personnel are assigned all the time (not just on Sunday),” he said.

Orange is the level of awareness at which something of interest has been identified, while red is the level “where most individuals become victims,” he said.

Smith also offers a 16-hour course for pastors and lay leaders who have a state firearms permit. He hopes to offer that in Westmoreland County in June or July.

Another three-hour course is scheduled for 6-9 p.m. Dec. 9 at the Fairfield Township Volunteer Fire Department.

Stephen Huba is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-1280, shuba@tribweb.com or via Twitter @shuba_trib.

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