I’ve been thinking a lot about the two women who were abducted at gunpoint from Broad Street United Methodist Church in Statesville. Thank God they survived. May they know again – and soon – the peace that ought to come with working in a church.

But I’ve also been thinking about other houses of worship, all of which face the risks of the real world every day. I hope that this terrible incident reawakens the faith community to the need to re-examine safety and security procedures and master a sacred balancing act: We must make sure that our doors are always open, at least in a spiritual sense, to strangers. But we must do so in a way that insures the safety of those who work and worship in our houses of worship.

In the dozen years I spent covering the faith beat for The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, I wrote dozens of stories about churches victimized by a variety of crimes. I wrote just as many stories about faith leaders struggling to know how best to respond. Do we limit weekday access to one door and keep the others locked? The one door designated for visitors, do we keep it locked during regular hours and require people to buzz in? Violence at worship is too horrible to even imagine, but it has happened in isolated instances around the country. Do we hire security guards on Sunday morning? Do we train our ushers to keep an especially sharp eye out for anything out of the ordinary? Do we train church members to walk the grounds? Do we have a good enough alarm system to keep unwanted visitors out at night? Here at Myers Park, we can tell you about the homeless woman who took shelter a night or two with us. Are there enough walkie-talkies for staff during the day, so that those in even the most distant corners of the campus have the means to communicate? Does the receptionist at the front door have a panic button to press in an emergency? If not, should she?

A committee of wise and devoted volunteers is studying all facets of security at Myers Park United Methodist, including the crucial matter of what it will cost to insure safety and security. I’m confident we’ll do the right thing, even if the work here is tricky. We have dozens of ways to get in and out of our buildings. We are at the crossroads of a busy intersection. Our campus is used for good and righteous reasons seven days a week, at all hours.

But the issue is tricky everywhere. And even while no two situations are alike, every house of worship no matter the location or size should be studying all aspects of this issue as it specifically relates to them.
About all we have in common is that no church is safe from unwanted visitors.

Indeed, size and location matter in terms of how to address safety. A one-person church office in a rural setting that gets few knocks on its door might consider keeping it locked at all times. But what about a busy urban church that gets a lot of walk-ins, including those in search of food or other help? Should that church keep its door open to the lost and hurting? Or should it make strangers identify themselves first before allowing them in? I remember looking up from my desk one evening at 5:30 p.m. and staring into the desperate eyes of two homeless people who had wandered upstairs in search of aid. Another time, after hours in the lobby, a gentleman seeking money almost refused to take no for an answer. And what about at night, when the staff is gone, but folks are coming for Bible study, choir practice and the like?
How should entering and exiting be handled then?

No one said that being God’s hands and feet in a complicated world was going to be easy.

As those two dear servants of God regain their peace of mind in Statesville, may their ordeal inspire the rest of us to work that much harder to bring peace to our faith homes. May that be the legacy of a terrible day at Broad Street United Methodist Church.