Central Arkansas pastors will soon gather for their third annual meeting with the North Little Rock Police Department, but this time, they won't be talking about community relations.
They'll be learning how to keep their churches safe.
Since a Texas church shooting left 26 people dead Nov. 5, Police Chief Mike Davis has received calls from pastors across the city asking for advice or requesting off-duty officers.
"We've been trying to have this conversation for a few years," Davis said. "It's hard for people to wrap their minds around the need to have security inside a church."
A few hours after Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Thomas Sewell began receiving text messages from members of Central Baptist Church in North Little Rock. By the end of the week, there were a dozen more.
The student minister leads his church's security team. On Sundays, some male church members patrol the hallways, lock low-traffic doors and monitor entrances. The church has multiple off-duty police officers in the congregation, but after the shooting, leaders reached out to the North Little Rock department and Pulaski County sheriff's office requesting more.
In the weeks that followed, patrol cars arrived in the parking lot. Uniformed officers joined the congregation inside the church.
Preparing for the Dec. 6 seminar, Davis went back to a slide show he'd used for a presentation in 2013. The first slide reads: "Church Safety and Security: No Longer an Option."
"That's how I feel about it, but some people feel a church is the last place a gun should be," he said. "I get that. I hate it, too, but you need to have a plan in place."
For some churches, that could mean coordinating with members who have a concealed-carry permits and the appropriate training, Davis said. For others, it might mean keeping track of domestic disputes in the congregation and stationing people at entrances during church services, the chief noted.
Before Nov. 5, Levy Baptist Church in North Little Rock kept its doors open. Now, pastor Steven Tiner said, every entrance is locked and manned by a greeter who watches for suspicious people making their way inside.
After the Texas shooting, men in the congregation began approaching him, saying they had concealed-carry permits and wanted to take their firearms to Sunday service. The list of members who have permission to do so has since expanded to include 20 percent of the congregation's 180 members.
On Monday, many of those members drove to White Hall for a "Last Resort" seminar at Family Church. Joining about 250 people in the pews, they learned how to coordinate with emergency workers, arm members of their congregation safely and respond to an active-shooter situation.
"The Scripture says Jesus sent us out among wolves," Family Church pastor Stephen Harrison said. "So we know not everyone's a sheep."
Fifteen years ago, a man arrived at his church draped in a Confederate flag and holding a gun. He made it into the sanctuary before anyone noticed he was there, Harrison said.
More recently, a man walked in disguised as an elderly woman. He wore a wig and walked with a cane. After he was arrested, he told officers he had gone there to "take care of someone," Harrison said.
Both times, police arrived before anything happened. But in the weeks that followed, the congregation was concerned. It wanted a plan.
"It's difficult," Harrison said. "You want to protect your congregation, but you also want to have your doors open to people who have issues, who have problems."
After the Texas shooting, some approached him to request metal detectors at the doors. Others were concerned about keeping the church open to all. One member of the congregation told Harrison the church no longer felt like a safe place.
The pastor has been struggling to find a balance. He thinks of himself as the shepherd in the book of Psalms, guiding his sheep with a staff while defending them with a rod. He's been looking beyond his church for help.
"They don't teach you this stuff in Bible school," he said.
Metro on 11/29/2017