Securing the Sanctuary-Christian Warrior Training

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.American Christians have been hearing fragments of the Nigeria story for years. A kidnapped schoolgirl. A burned church. A Christmas massacre. What most believers in this country do not have is a clear picture of what is actually happening, who is driving it, and where it is headed. This article is built to fill that gap.Nigeria is currently the deadliest country in the world for Christians. Open Doors, in its 2026 World Watch List, reports that of the 4,849 Christians killed for their faith over the past reporting year, 3,490 of them were killed in Nigeria. That is more than seventy percent of the global total coming from a single country. The violence is not limited to one region or one group. It runs from the northeast, where Boko Haram first emerged, through the Middle Belt, where Fulani militia attacks have emptied entire villages, into the northwest, where ISIS-linked groups now move freely, and across the borders into Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Cameroon, and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.This is a long article. I wrote it that way on purpose. A pastor, a security team leader, or a congregant who wants to understand this situation should be able to come back to a single piece and have the picture in front of them.The Scale of the ProblemNigeria is the most populous country in Africa with roughly 220 million people, split about evenly between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. The Middle Belt sits between the two halves and has become the fault line where most of the killing occurs. The country sits at the southern edge of the Sahel, the arid band that runs across Africa from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east. Every major jihadist movement currently operating in Africa touches that band somewhere.The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa documented 79,323 people killed across Nigeria between October 2019 and September 2025, of whom 42,033 were civilians. Forty-four percent of the civilian killings were attributed to Fulani militias, compared to twelve percent for Boko Haram and ISWAP combined. In the states where attacks occur, Christians were killed at a rate approximately 4.4 times higher than Muslims relative to their share of the population. The count was 22,835 Christian civilians killed against 10,519 Muslims.The numbers do not capture the displacement. Since 2019, more than 2.2 million Nigerians have been driven from their homes by the farmer-herder violence alone. That figure does not include the millions more displaced by Boko Haram, ISWAP, and the kidnapping gangs that now operate across large portions of the country. Entire Christian farming villages have been burned. Survivors are pushed into displacement camps with conditions that are hard for most Americans to picture.The Nigerian federal government has refused for more than a decade to name what is happening. In December 2025, Abuja finally classified Fulani militias, bandits, and armed gangs as terrorists under a new counterterrorism doctrine. Most Nigerian Christians view the move as too late and too narrow.Who the Fulani AreTo understand the Middle Belt, you have to understand who the Fulani are. The American press almost always reduces them to a single word, “herdsmen,” which leaves out everything that matters.The Fulani, also called Fula, Fulbe, or Peul, are one of the largest ethnic groups on the African continent. Estimates place their population between 25 and 45 million, spread across at least twenty countries, with the largest concentrations in Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Niger, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso. About 17 million Fulani live in Nigeria. They are the largest nomadic pastoral community in the world. Roughly a third of them still live as traditional herders moving cattle across the Sahel. The rest are semi-settled farmers, traders, scholars, merchants, and in many countries, the ruling class.The Fulani were among the earliest sub-Saharan African peoples to convert to Islam, centuries before most of their neighbors. That early conversion shaped their identity and gave them a sense of religious superiority over the surrounding peoples they regarded as pagans. From the 1700s into the 1800s, Fulani clerics led a series of holy wars across West Africa. The most significant was the jihad launched in 1804 by Usman dan Fodio, a Fulani preacher who declared the existing Hausa kings insufficiently Islamic and called the population to revolt. His jihad swept through what is now northern Nigeria and built the Sokoto Caliphate, one of the largest Islamic empires Africa has ever seen. That caliphate lasted until the British arrived in the early 1900s.The Sokoto Caliphate is not history to the people in the region. The Sultan of Sokoto is still recognized as the traditional religious leader of Sunni Muslims across northern Nigeria. Many of Nigeria’s most powerful political figures have been Fulani or Hausa-Fulani, including former president Muhammadu Buhari. The Fulani are not a marginal people. They are historically the dominant political force in the north. Elements within the Fulani community view the Christian Middle Belt as territory that was not fully conquered during the original jihad, and there are factions now working to finish what Usman dan Fodio started.The Fulani are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim. Settled, urban Fulani tend to be more devout and more supportive of religious activism. Pastoral Fulani have historically been less rigorous in their practice. That pattern has shifted in the past decade.How the Herder Conflict Became a Religious CampaignFor generations, Fulani cattle herders and settled farmers across West Africa clashed over grazing land, water, and crop damage. These disputes were local and seasonal, and they were usually resolved through traditional mediation. Something changed in the mid-2010s.A few factors hit at the same time. Climate pressure pushed pastoral Fulani further south into the Middle Belt looking for water and grazing. The collapse of Libya in 2011 flooded the Sahel with military-grade weapons from Gaddafi’s armories. Boko Haram’s rise in the northeast made Islamist violence regionally normal. And the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, a Fulani herders’ organization, has been accused by Nigerian Christians, law enforcement sources, and international observers of financing weapons distribution and coordinating attacks on Christian villages. In February 2026, nine Fulani leaders linked to Miyetti Allah were arraigned in Abuja on 57 terrorism counts for the June 2025 Benue massacre.Portions of the Fulani were radicalized inside that environment. Jihadist ideology teaches that Christians are infidels who must be subjugated, killed, or forced to convert. That ideology found receptive ground among some of the armed herders. Attackers began chanting “Allahu Akbar” as they raided Christian farming villages. In December 2023, Fulani militants attacked at least 25 Christian communities across three local government areas in Plateau State on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and killed nearly 200 men, women, and children. The Nigerian Red Cross counted 84 communities affected and 29,350 people displaced. In June 2025, an attack on Yelwata village in Benue State killed between 200 and 270 people. In the first two weeks of 2026, Fulani militants killed at least 12 Christians in Plateau, 13 in Benue, and 10 in Taraba State. On January 18, Fulani militants stormed three churches in Kaduna State during Sunday services and abducted 177 Christians. Kaduna State officials initially denied the attack had happened and only admitted it two days later. The captives were released on February 5 after a joint security operation.The Nigerian government’s response to attacks like these has followed a consistent pattern. Denial. Reclassification as banditry. Arrests made, then released without charges. Very few prosecutions. Families in the Middle Belt no longer trust that anyone will ever answer for the slaughter of their children.Boko Haram, ISWAP, and the SahelThe Fulani militia violence did not develop in isolation. It grew up alongside two formally designated terror organizations that have made Nigeria one of the most dangerous countries in the world.Boko Haram emerged in Borno State in the northeast around 2002. The name is usually translated as “Western education is forbidden.” By 2009 the group was in open armed rebellion against the Nigerian state, bombing churches, kidnapping schoolgirls, and massacring Christian villages. The 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from Chibok drew brief international attention. Most of those girls never came home.In 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. A faction formally rebranded as the Islamic State West Africa Province, known as ISWAP. ISWAP is now the more capable of the two groups. It has used drones against Nigerian military bases, seized weapons from government forces, and operates across the Lake Chad Basin where the borders of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon meet. After Niger exited the Multinational Joint Task Force in March 2025 and Chad threatened withdrawal, ISWAP exploited the gap and increased attacks on Nigerian military installations in Borno and Yobe states.A separate ISIS affiliate operates further west. It was originally called the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and is now known as the Islamic State Sahel Province, or ISSP. ISSP operates mainly in the tri-border region where Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger meet. Since 2024, it has pushed south along the Niger-Nigeria border into Sokoto and Kebbi states in Nigeria’s northwest. That is the region where, on Christmas Day 2025, American forces conducted airstrikes under President Trump’s order. The group that was struck was Lakurawa, an ISIS-linked faction that had moved into the northwest from the Sahel.The Sahel itself has become the global center of jihadist terrorism. The Global Terrorism Index reports that in 2024, more than half of the 7,555 terrorism deaths recorded worldwide occurred in the region. In 2025 the global total fell to 5,582, with the Sahel still accounting for nearly half. That is the third consecutive year the region has held that position.The military juntas now ruling Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have expelled French and American forces, turned to Russian mercenary groups for security support, and watched as jihadist groups expanded their control. Al-Qaeda’s Sahel affiliate, JNIM, launched its largest offensive in more than a decade in late April 2026, attacking security forces across Mali, killing the Malian defense minister, and capturing Kidal, the country’s northernmost regional capital. On January 30, 2026, ISSP militants attacked the international airport in Niger’s capital and the adjoining air base. JNIM struck the same airport again on June 18.The DRC and the Spread EastwardThe same ISIS movement that drives the violence in West Africa has also taken root 2,000 miles to the east in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A group called the Allied Democratic Forces, originally a Ugandan insurgency, pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2018. It is now known as the Islamic State Central Africa Province, or ISCAP.ISCAP operates in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in eastern Congo. It has massacred churchgoers during services, beheaded villagers who refused to convert, and imposed jizya, the Islamic tax historically demanded from Christians and Jews living under Islamic rule, on entire farming communities. In 2025 alone, the group killed at least 967 civilians, most or all of them Christian villagers. In February, fighters abducted 70 Christians from the village of Mayba, marched them to a Protestant church in Kasanga, and executed them with machetes. In July they killed 43 people at a church in Komanda. On September 8, they infiltrated a funeral wake in Ntoyo village in North Kivu and killed more than 60 mourners.Along the Niger-Burkina Faso border, jihadists have announced publicly that every male 15 and older who refuses to convert must pay 50,000 CFA francs in jizya. Christians have been told they will live as slaves if they pay, and that those who refuse may leave the village with nothing but the clothes they are wearing. In Mali’s Mopti region, an armed group imposed a monthly payment of 25,000 CFA francs on every Christian over 18 in the village of Douna-Pen, which is more than half the monthly income of most families in one of the poorest countries on earth.This is the same playbook ISIS ran in Iraq and Syria. It has been exported to Africa, and the African affiliates have proven harder to dislodge than the original.Where This Is GoingA few trends will determine what happens next.The first is the collapse of Western security support across the Sahel. The United States withdrew from Niger in 2024. France has been pushed out of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Russian private military contractors have stepped into some of the space, but they have focused on protecting the juntas that hired them rather than rolling back jihadist control. Regional counter-terrorism cooperation has fragmented.The second is the evolution of the United States response. In late 2025, the Trump administration redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. On Christmas Day 2025, American forces struck ISIS targets in the country’s northwest. On January 22, 2026, AFRICOM Deputy Commander Lieutenant General John Brennan arrived in Abuja to launch a joint working group established in response to that designation. Whether any of this translates into protection for Middle Belt villages is a different question. Airstrikes work against fixed positions of formally designated terror groups. They do not work well against dispersed Fulani militia fighters who live among civilian populations.The third is the junction forming between ISSP in the Sahel and ISWAP in the Lake Chad Basin. Analysts with the Soufan Center and other counter-terrorism organizations have been tracking the growing connections between these two ISIS provinces. If they succeed in linking operationally across the northern half of West Africa, the result will be a continuous jihadist corridor stretching from the Atlantic coast to Lake Chad.The fourth is the ideological trajectory of the Fulani militias. What began as resource disputes has moved into identity-based violence with explicit religious framing. Attacks timed to Sunday services, coordinated assaults on Christmas, and the targeting of church leaders are not features of a grazing dispute. They are features of a religious war.The fifth is demographic. Nigeria’s population is projected to pass 400 million by 2050. If current patterns continue, the Middle Belt Christian population will either be displaced, converted, or killed over the course of a generation. Some Nigerian bishops and African scholars are using the word genocide. Others dispute it. Arguments over terminology do not save lives.A Biblical LensScripture does not promise that the faithful will be spared.Jesus told His followers plainly in John 15:18-19, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” That verse is not a metaphor. It is a description of what following Christ has always cost.The author of Hebrews describes those who came before us in Hebrews 11:37-38, “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” Our brothers and sisters in Nigeria’s Middle Belt villages are standing in that line. They are part of the body of Christ.Scripture also gives us the response. Paul commanded the church in Galatia in Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” That burden-bearing is not optional. It is what the law of Christ requires.ConclusionThe persecution of Nigerian Christians is the deadliest ongoing attack on the body of Christ in the world today. It is driven by Fulani militia violence, Boko Haram, ISWAP, and the broader Sahel-wide expansion of ISIS-affiliated groups. It has roots going back to the Sokoto Caliphate of the 1800s. It has been shaped by the collapse of Libya, the radicalization of portions of the Fulani population, and the indifference or complicity of the Nigerian federal government. It is spreading, not contracting, and the entire arc of jihadist violence across Africa, from Senegal to the DRC, is part of the same network.Pray for the Nigerian church by name. Support the organizations reaching Christians on the ground with aid and protection. Keep pressure on Washington to maintain the pressure on Abuja. Share this with your pastor and your team.Leave a comment below and tell me what you have seen about Nigeria in your own church conversations. Then share this article with your pastor or team leader so they have it as a reference the next time the topic comes up. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.Words can’t do justice when trying to describe what Stephen Willeford did that day. I have become friends with Stephen since this interview and what I have found out about him is amazing. Come join me as we talk about how he interrupted the worst church shooting in modern American history. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.An insurance underwriter put it in writing this summer: “It is a hard no, even if just in classroom. We do not intend to cover being told it is ok to use any weapon or how to use one.”Not live fire. Not force on force. Not putting a gun in anyone’s hand. Being told. A church security instructor standing in a classroom, explaining when the law allows a man to defend his congregation, is conduct that carrier will not touch. That sentence came from RSUI’s underwriter, relayed to me in writing by my broker on July 10, after I asked whether the weapons exclusion on their quote could be amended. I have the email. I will show it to you in the video that goes with this article.That quote is the end of the story. Here is the beginning.Five clean years, then one honest answerGraves and Associates has carried professional liability and general liability since July of 2021. Five years, zero claims, premiums paid on time. This spring the renewal quote came in at $3,621 and I did what I teach every one of you to do with any contract: I read the whole policy before signing. I found a terrorism exclusion that appeared to apply across every insuring clause, no cyber coverage at all, and a business activities description that did not clearly include the instructor training courses I plan to launch. So I asked six questions in writing before binding. Would a negligence claim be covered if a church I trained were attacked. What does the terrorism endorsement actually restore. Does the policy cover instructor certification.The carrier’s answer was to pull the renewal entirely. Their stated reason, word for word: “Given the significant changes to the risk profile, including hands-on training, potential safety and evasion guidance, general security advisory services, and product sales, together with our review of the additional website, the account unfortunately now falls outside of our underwriting appetite.”Safety and evasion guidance. Teaching people how to not die put me outside their appetite. They offered me an extension to August 1 for another $157 so I could go find somebody else.Everybody said noMy broker marketed the account to the standard carriers: Liberty Mutual, The Hartford, Nationwide, Guard, Travelers. Every one declined. The nature of the business was outside their appetite. She went to the surplus lines markets, the specialty carriers that exist specifically for hard risks. Higher premiums, declines, or blocked submissions. A firearms industry program I applied to directly denied the application. By July 15 my broker told me plainly that she had reached the end of the companies she could approach. The one general liability quote she could secure came from RSUI, and it carried the weapons exclusion you read at the top of this article. When I asked if the exclusion could be removed for classroom instruction with inert training aids, laser trainers and blue plastic guns, nothing that fires anything, the answer was the hard no.Some of you are thinking there must be more to it. A claim, a lawsuit, something in the file. There is not. Five years, zero losses, and the loss runs to prove it. What changed was that I told the truth on a renewal application about where this ministry is headed. Honesty is what triggered all of it, and I would do it again, because a policy bound on an incomplete application is worse than no policy at all. Buried in the conditions of that same policy was an application warranty stating that any misrepresentation or non-disclosure renders the policy null and void and relieves the carrier of all liability. Plenty of trainers in this industry are paying premiums right now on policies their carriers would void the day a claim arrived, because the application never mentioned what they actually teach.The part that should make you angryThe insurance industry does not treat church violence as a fringe concern. Carriers that serve churches publish active shooter preparedness guidance. They distribute security checklists. They recommend congregations assess their vulnerabilities and train their people. The industry’s own risk materials tell churches to prepare for exactly the attack my courses address.Then the trainer shows up to buy coverage and the same industry says no. They will insure the church that receives the training. They will publish the checklist telling the church to get it. They will not cover the man who provides it, and one of them will not even cover him for talking about it in a classroom. I spent almost thirty years in law enforcement and I have sat across the table from people doing things they knew were indefensible. They at least had the decency to look uncomfortable. This industry put its position on letterhead.How it got solved, and the disclosure that goes with itWhat cold submissions could not do, a relationship did. Most of you know I work with Right To Bear, and I will say plainly what I say every time: I am an affiliate, they sponsor this ministry, and there is a link below. Weigh that however you want. The facts are the facts either way. When I told them what was happening, their owner connected me with his brokerage, Moultrie Insurance, a firm that lives in the self defense world and was not scared of the words church security. Within weeks Moultrie placed what six months of shopping could not: general liability through Kinsale, an A rated carrier, and professional liability through Lloyd’s of London, written for a company whose application says in plain language that it teaches active shooter response and instructor courses. Classroom based, laser trainers and blue guns, no live fire, no simunition, all of it disclosed and all of it on the record.The price of being insured honestly is about $9,000 a year, roughly two and a half times what the old policy cost. That is the market telling you what this work is worth to insure when the carrier actually knows what you do. I will take accurate and expensive over cheap and void every day of the week.Two questions to send your broker this weekIf you train church security teams, or you are the safety director who brings trainers in, do not assume your coverage works. Claims made policies plus application warranties mean the policy you are paying for is only as good as what your application disclosed. So send your broker two questions in writing and keep the answers.Does my policy contain a weapons exclusion, and does it apply to instruction? Not range work, instruction. You now know at least one carrier reads that exclusion to bar being told how to use a weapon in a classroom.Does my carrier know exactly what I teach? Active shooter response, defensive tactics, firearms content, all of it, in writing, on the application. If the answer is no, fix it before you teach another class, because you will not find out what that omission costs until the worst day of your career, and by then the answer is already written into Condition 4.I got my answers the hard way so you can get yours with an email. Send it this week. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.Please watch the video. I am looking for info from followers on the shooting at a church in Kearns, UT today. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.In this video, I walk through what I carry to church and why I have chosen each piece of equipment. If you carry a firearm as part of a church safety team or simply as a concealed carrier attending church, I think you need to look seriously at whether your equipment matches the threat you believe you may have to face. I cover my normal handgun setup, a smaller concealed carry option, communications, less lethal options, body armor, medical gear, and the equipment I keep available if an incident requires me to move from a handgun to a rifle. You can carry capable equipment without walking into church looking like you are headed to a SWAT callout. The goal is to blend in during normal church activities while having the equipment, training, and options necessary to protect the congregation if something happens.Gear Mentioned in the VideoFirearms and Firearm Equipment* Glock 45, 9mm* Glock 20, 10mm, my normal church carry handgun* Glock 43X, discussed as a smaller concealed carry option* .300 Blackout rifle/carbine* Speer Gold Dot 9mm ammunition* Trijicon SRO red dot optic* Aimpoint COA red dot optic, on the Glock 43X* Radian barrel and compensator* Radian Magwell* Streamlight TLR 1 HP X weapon light* Palmetto State Armory Dagger magazines, 15 round magazines used with my Glock 43XHolsters and Load Carrying Equipment* T.REX Arms inside the waistband holster GET 15% off with code CWT* T.REX Arms Bailout Bag / Active Shooter Bag GET 15% off with code CWTT.REX Arms discount: Use code CWT for 15% off eligible equipment.Body Armor* Premier Body Armor GT plates* Premier Body Armor soft body armor* T.REX Arms concealable hard armor / covert plate carrier* Security identification placardsCommunications* PocLink radioLess Lethal* POM MK 3 pepper sprayMedical and Support Equipment* T Rex Arms Med Pouch (use code CWT for a 15% discount)Clothing and Footwear* Poncho button down shirt* KÜHL hiking pants* Altama shoesThe specific clothing is less important than the concept behind it. I want clothing that allows me to blend in with the congregation while still being able to move, run, access my firearm, and carry the equipment I need without advertising everything I have on me.The video goes into considerably more detail about how these pieces work together and why I have different options available depending on what happens. My basic approach is simple: armor, bag, and carbine. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.christianwarriortraining.comPaid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.This week’s Roll Call Briefing examines a planned hostage attack against a Florida church and the warning signs investigators uncovered before the suspect could act. We also cover the shooting of a family returning home from church, several developing terrorism concerns, violent incidents affecting churches, and how safety teams should respond when an armed suspect takes hostages.* A Florida suspect who allegedly cased a church and planned to take hostages* A family’s vehicle struck by gunfire while they were returning home from church* ISIS claims involving the deaths of Christians in the Congo* Pro ISIS requests for explosives, poison, and drone instructions* Iranian cyberattacks against American water systems* A bomb threat, suspicious death, and sex offender case involving churches* Recognizing leakage and pre-attack reconnaissance* Understanding hostage and barricaded incidents* Psalm 144:1 and the responsibility to prepareDOWNLOAD THE ROLL CALL BRIEFING HANDOUT 👇

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.christianwarriortraining.comPaid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.What Is In This Week’s Briefing✅ Current threat level determination and the reasoning behind holding at Orange✅ Alert posture for the week, including staffing and protocol guidance✅ 3 intelligence items covering a mass shooting stopped by armed citizens, a foreign paid-attacker network now operating in North America, and juvenile self-radicalization targeting schools✅ 4 church incidents from the past 3 weeks, each with the security lesson attached✅ Training focus with 5 leader prompts you can read straight off the page at roll call✅ Briefing intent with this week’s Scripture for your team✅ Personnel assignment grid and the daily checklistWhy The Paywall Is BackThe Roll Call Briefing has always been a for those that are gracious enough to support CWT. If it weren’t for them, we could not do any of this. I opened it up in April because the threat picture at that time involved specific dangers I wanted in front of every church in the country, whether they paid or not. Those threats have passed. New ones have taken their place, but the picture is more settled, and the reason I opened the gate no longer applies. So the paywall returns.Understand what you are and are not losing. The underlying information is still free. Every incident in this briefing appears in the Saturday Church Crime Newsletter at no cost to you. What the paid briefing gives you is the format: a finished, printable sheet you can put in your team leader’s hand before he steps in front of his people to brief a shift. That work takes hours every week, and it is what the subscription pays for. It helps pay for the analysis and personnel who help me put this all together. The Training Stays FreeThe free training at christianwarriortraining.com is not moving behind a paywall and never will. Every intelligence analysis we publish carries a training element you can take straight to your team, and every year we release a training matrix you can use to schedule your people out for the full year. If your budget is tight, use those. They are there for you.If your church is getting value out of these briefings, forward this to your pastor or your team leader. Then drop a comment below and tell me what your team is working on this month.DOWNLOAD THE ROLL CALL BRIEFING SHEET BELOW👇

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.Download the Briefing Here ↓This week, ISIS claims more than 100 people killed or wounded, including 80 Christians, while eight separate incidents were reported at American churches.We also look at new attack material aimed at lone actors, four threats against U.S. churches, two shootings on or near church property, and how church safety teams can protect outdoor gatherings from vehicle attacks. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

CWT publications and videos like this only happen because of paid subscribers. Without them, this all disappears. You Are a Ministry First: Church Security Without FearFear is a terrible commander. When fear leads, it distorts everything. It turns every stranger into a suspect. It slowly and quietly transforms the people of God into a team of threat assessors rather than ambassadors of the Gospel. And if we are not careful, fear can reframe the entire mission of the church away from what Christ called us to do and toward what we are terrified might happen.This article is a pushback against that fear. Not a dismissal of it. Not an excuse to be careless. A pushback grounded in data, in Scripture, and in a story that happened just this week at one of our campuses that reminded me exactly why we do what we do.What the Numbers Actually SayThere are approximately 350,000 to 370,000 churches in the United States. Every single week, millions of believers gather across those congregations for worship services, many of them holding multiple services on a single Sunday. If we assume each congregation meets at least once per week, that is a minimum of 19,656,000 church services every year in the United States.Now let’s look at the threat against that backdrop.Between 2000 and 2025, researchers tracking violence at religious institutions recorded 246 shooting events across churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples combined, with 402 victims total. From 2000 to 2024, a separate dataset recorded 379 incidents and 487 deaths at religious congregations, most of them involving a single victim.Let that sink in. Nearly twenty million church gatherings every year, and across a quarter century, fewer than 500 deaths total across every type of religious institution in the country. When you narrow the lens to Christian churches specifically and compare the number of incidents against the number of services held, your odds of being in a church service where a shooting occurs are roughly 1 in 6,552,000.That number is not designed to make you feel invincible. It is designed to put reality back in its proper place. One of the enemy’s most effective weapons is not a firearm. It is intimidation. It is making the threat feel so large and so inevitable that the church begins to operate out of dread instead of faith.Prepared, Not ParalyzedHear this clearly, because this is not an argument against training. The odds are absolutely in your favor that your congregation will never face a serious threat. But if your congregation does face one, the odds will not matter much in that moment. That is why we train. That is why we build teams, run drills, study behavior, and take this work seriously. The people sitting in those pews trust us with their lives, and we owe them our very best preparation.So yes, train hard. Be vigilant. Know your exits, know your sight lines, know your people. Build a team that can respond with speed and decisiveness if the moment ever demands it. But do not let the training become the mission. Do not let preparedness become paranoia. There is a critical difference between a church that is ready and a church that is afraid, and that difference shows up in how your team treats every person who walks through the door.The Story That Started This ArticleThis past Sunday, something happened at one of our campuses that I have not been able to stop thinking about. A young man walked in and caught the attention of our security team. Something felt off about his demeanor and the way he was carrying himself. The team noticed and made contact. But instead of leading with suspicion, one of our guys looked at this young man and said simply: “You look like a man who needs a hug.”That is church security done right. That single approach, calm and compassionate and confident, accomplished two things at once. It made contact with someone who had been flagged as a potential concern, and it opened a door.It turns out this young man is not a threat at all. He is a young father with an infant at home and a marriage that is falling apart. He came to church because something drew him there, and I believe that something was the Holy Spirit. He did not know where else to go. Our team surrounded him with love and connected him with our men’s group. We welcomed him into the community.That is not a security failure. That is a ministry success, and it only happened because our team understood that their job is bigger than threat response.You Can Do BothOne of the lies that creeps into security culture is the idea that you have to choose between being a security team and being a ministry. Either you are watchful or you are welcoming. Either you protect the congregation or you love the stranger at the door. That is a false choice, and experienced teams know it.The same awareness that allows a trained team member to identify a behavioral anomaly also allows them to recognize someone who is hurting. The same calm that keeps a person steady under pressure is the same calm that communicates safety to a broken young man who walked into your building desperate for help. Security team members are not bouncers. They are not law enforcement officers on loan to the church. They are members of the body of Christ carrying a responsibility that is both physical and spiritual. Sometimes that responsibility looks like stopping a threat. More often than we might expect, it looks like being the first person who made a desperate human being feel seen.Your team needs to understand both, and your training program should reflect both.What the Word SaysGod anticipated our fear. He did not ignore it or dismiss it. He addressed it directly.“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” — Isaiah 41:10 (ESV)That verse is not a promise that nothing bad will ever happen. It is a declaration about who holds us when it does. Our security ultimately rests not in a team, a protocol, or a statistic, but in the sovereignty of the God we serve. We prepare because we are stewards. We train because lives matter. But we do not live in fear, because a church that operates out of dread has already lost something essential before a single shot is ever fired.The congregation is not a fortress to be defended. It is a place where broken people come looking for hope, and your security team is often the first face they see.The ChargeStay trained. Stay alert. Stay ready. But stay ministry-minded. Remember that the person walking through your door who looks different, acts nervous, or sets off your radar may not be a threat at all. They may be exactly who the church was built for.You can protect your congregation and still be the hands and feet of Jesus. You can run a serious, capable security operation and still be the person who looks a struggling young father in the eyes and says, “You look like a man who needs a hug.” That is not weakness. That is the Gospel lived out in real time by people who took their calling seriously enough to show up, get trained, and stay ready for whatever walks through the door.Train like a warrior. Love like a shepherd. Never let fear define what your church is supposed to be.Did this article challenge the way you think about your role on your security team? Leave a comment below and share it with your pastor or team leader. This is a conversation the whole church needs to have. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

It is free to you, but there is a real cost to put all of this together and it gets more expensive everyday. Upgrade your subscription, but only if you can afford it.TERRORISM AND INTELLIGENCEIslamic State Is Treating Churches as a Standing Target Set on Three ContinentsIndago’s Islamic State assessment for the week ending July 20 identifies attacks on religious sites as a coordinated strategy running across Nigeria, Syria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The assessment states that detained Islamic State members in Syria gave confessions outlining plans to bomb Christian churches and Shia shrines to deepen societal divisions, and that affiliates in West and Central Africa are systematically targeting Christian villages and burning homes alongside military assets. The report places churches on its priority target watchlist for Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, and the DRC, citing demonstrated planning and execution capability against Christian places of worship. It also assesses that Islamic State in Syria has shifted away from targeting armed opposition factions and toward religious minority sites in order to maximize sectarian friction in the post-Assad security vacuum.[Source: Indago Situation Report, Islamic State Weekly Update, 20 July 2026]🛡️ My thoughts: this is something that I assessed long ago, but it’s nice to see another intelligence organization back it up. Many of you are running missions in these areas. You need to have a plan and you need to have safe houses that you can go to in the event of an emergency. I suggest that you get training in survival, evasion, resistance and escape before you go to one of these countries to help Christians.ISIS-K Poster Names the US Capitol and Ties the Call to the World CupOn July 14, the Islamic State Khorasan-linked al-Azaim Media Foundation released a poster depicting the United States Capitol and the Eiffel Tower as targets, carrying the message “Kill Them. Seize Them. Besiege Them” drawn from a Quranic verse. The release was timed to France’s Bastille Day and to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Indago assesses the poster as direct incitement to attack soft targets in the United States and France during high-profile events, and notes Islamic State media has been calling for attacks on World Cup host cities and venues since June 18. The National Counterterrorism Center listed the same poster in its terrorist publications compendium for the week of July 16 through 22. Indago names lone-actor vehicle ramming, knife, and explosives attacks against crowd gatherings as the highest-probability threat vector.[Source: NCTC Counterterrorism Digest, 16 to 22 July 2026, and Indago Islamic State Weekly Update, citing MEMRI JTTM]🛡️ My thoughts: this message is inciting lone actors within the United States. We saw that in New York City this week when a man did exactly what ISIS asked them to do. He poured gasoline and used fireworks as an IED to attack a federal building there. What if he decided to go after a church instead of the federal building? Would you be prepared for that? Some church security trainers are saying that I am over stating these threats. Ezekiel 33 tells us to sound the trumpet when we see danger. I am doing that now, and I think those trainers need to change their attitude and do the same. The chances of an attack at your church are very minimal, but it’s not zero. We know it will happen to somebody, I pray that they are prepared.Federal Data Shows Homegrown Islamic State Supporters Are Staying Home and Planning HereThe NCTC spotlight this week summarizes research from the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center on American Islamic State supporters. The United States has federally charged 272 people with Islamic State-related crimes since 2014. Defendants ranged in age from 17 to 56 with an average age of 27, 83 percent held United States citizenship or permanent legal resident status, and 91 percent were male. Cases per year have been climbing since 2023. Roughly 35 percent of defendants in the post-caliphate period attempted to travel overseas, and no traveler has successfully reached a destination since 2019. The spotlight highlights the January 2026 indictment of Christian Sturdivant, 18, arrested in December 2025 after authorities determined he allegedly planned to use knives and hammers in a New Year’s Eve attack on a grocery store and a fast-food restaurant in North Carolina.[Source: NCTC Counterterrorism Digest, 16 to 22 July 2026, citing NCITE and the US Department of Justice]🛡️ My thoughts: you should see a theme here. The danger to our church and synagogues is growing. Look at the information they put out and use that to help you in your threat assessments in your situational awareness while you’re working.Seven Federal Agencies Updated a Warning That Iranian Cyber Actors Are Inside US Utility ControlsThe FBI, CISA, NSA, EPA, Department of Energy, US Cyber Command, and Treasury updated a joint cybersecurity advisory on July 22 covering Iranian-affiliated cyber actors exploiting internet-connected programmable logic controllers across United States critical infrastructure. The advisory names Government Services and Facilities, including local municipalities, Water and Wastewater Systems, and Energy as affected sectors. Investigators found that after the actors extracted device project files, they modified and deleted program logic and manipulated the data shown on operator displays, and that the changes disabled shutdown and alarm logic so systems could enter unsafe conditions without alerting operators. The July 22 update expanded the manufacturer scope beyond Rockwell Automation to include Schneider Electric and Siemens controllers. The agencies state the targeting escalated in response to hostilities between Iran and the United States and Israel.[Source: Joint Cybersecurity Advisory AA26-097A, updated 22 July 2026]🛡️ My thoughts: you should be very concerned about this report. It is a signal that they can shut off our power and water. Are you prepared for this? What if your region suddenly has no electricity? Our societal contract will start breaking down. Food and water shortages will occur. Access to medicine and health will be declined. I suggest you have 90 days of food and water on hand in a team of people that know how to survive. The government has been warning us and we should be listening and not dismissing it. The Bible tells us this is coming. Be a good steward to your people.Three European Cases This Month Involve Minors Building Devices and Selecting Religious TargetsMunich prosecutors charged a 15-year-old Islamic State sympathizer from Augsburg, Germany with plotting a terrorist attack on a synagogue and with illegal handling of explosives, and stated the teen had obtained a large quantity of explosive material. In October 2025 that same teen detonated a homemade device that blew off two of his fingers and injured an associate. In Italy, the Polizia di Stato announced on July 17 the arrest of a 17-year-old Italian girl in Pavia for participation in an association with the purpose of international terrorism, after a search of her home recovered detailed instructions for making an explosive belt along with conversations with presumed Islamic State associates. In the United Kingdom, Kingston Crown Court convicted 16-year-old Yusuf Shah on July 15 of collecting terrorist materials and providing instruction in the preparation of acts of terrorism, with authorities stating he had expressed support for al-Qa’ida and the Pakistani Taliban on social media beginning at age 13.[Source: NCTC Counterterrorism Digest, 16 to 22 July 2026, citing the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office, Polizia di Stato, and the UK Metropolitan Police]Islamic State Fighters Hit a Girls’ School at 1:30 in the Morning With Inside HelpOn July 19, Islamic State West Africa Province fighters attempted a mass abduction of students at the Federal Government Girls College in Monguno, Borno State, Nigeria. The assault came at roughly 1:30 a.m. against a facility being used as a hostel. Nigerian troops foiled the attack and rescued 46 students, though reporting states some were fatally struck during the firefight. Indago assesses the operation involved suspected collaborator assistance and signals intent to run complex, multi-element operations against soft civilian infrastructure. Nigerian forces separately arrested a suspected Moroccan Islamic State operative embedded with ISWAP on July 14 following a failed attack at Cross Kauwa, and Operation Hadin Kai troops arrested a woman at a Borno checkpoint on July 13 who had concealed 17 flashlights and 19 batteries inside her clothing intended for Boko Haram and ISWAP.[Source: Indago Islamic State Weekly Update, citing Channels Television, and NCTC Counterterrorism Digest, citing The Sun Nigeria]The Islamic State’s Own Weekly Ledger Counts Christians as Two Thirds of Its VictimsIssue 556 of the Islamic State’s Arabic weekly newspaper al-Naba, dated 2 Safar 1448 and covering roughly July 9 through July 15, opens with a full-page infographic tallying the group’s claimed results. It claims 21 operations and more than 34 killed and wounded for the week. It sorts those casualties into three categories of its own choosing: 23 it labels Crusaders, a term it applies both to Christians and to the armies of Christian-majority governments, 10 it labels infidels and apostates, and 1 it labels Shia. It also claims 3 officers killed, 12 vehicles burned or disabled, and 4 military positions burned. Operations break down as 13 in West Africa, 5 in Central Africa, 2 in Mozambique, and 1 in Iraq, with casualties concentrated at 19 in Central Africa and 13 in West Africa. By the organization’s own bookkeeping, Christians account for roughly two thirds of everyone it claims to have killed or wounded that week.[Source: al-Naba issue 556, page 2 infographic, translated from Arabic]Islamic State Named the Christian Villages It Raided and Described Cutting Captives’ ThroatsAl-Naba 556 details raids on named Christian villages across two continents. In Borno State, Nigeria, fighters raided the village of Kautama on a Thursday, burned a vehicle and a number of homes, and took a motorcycle and other property. In Adamawa State they raided the village of Sura on a Monday, killed two Christians, and burned a vehicle, a motorcycle, and 10 homes. West Africa totals for the week include 3 Christians killed and 15 homes burned. The group separately states that on a Wednesday it shot and killed a member of a Christian organization after having captured him earlier on the road between Gubio and Kareto in Borno. In eastern Congo, fighters captured 5 Christians from around Beni village and killed them by cutting their throats, and the same day raided the Christian village of Mangina, killing at least 4 more and burning a home. That Mangina raid converts to July 14, the same date and the same village where Open Doors reported 6 killed including a church elder and a worship leader, covered in the International section below. Throughout, the publication calls these civilians “the fighting Christians,” which is the wording the organization uses to reclassify noncombatants as legitimate targets.[Source: al-Naba issue 556, pages 4 and 5, translated from Arabic]The Islamic State Published a Full Page on the Religious Merit of Standing GuardThe back page of al-Naba 556 is an infographic devoted to the virtue of sentry duty, assembled entirely from classical hadith and scholarly commentary. It compiles narrations holding that a night spent on watch outweighs a month of fasting and night prayer, that the eye which keeps watch will not be touched by fire, that a guard standing post in a land of fear is better than the Night of Decree, and that a man who guards other people in a place where the enemy is feared earns the standing of one stationed at the frontier. The page carries no operational content and makes no claims of attacks. It exists to make guard duty feel spiritually valuable to the people performing it.[Source: al-Naba issue 556, page 8 infographic, translated from Arabic]🛡️ My thoughts: That is dedication. Are you dedicated to protecting your church? We need to be more dedicated to our mission than the enemy. VIOLENT CRIMEFive Shot Outside Detroit Church During Funeral — Detroit, MichiganFive people were shot outside Greater Love Tabernacle Church on Plymouth Road on Detroit’s west side on Friday, July 17, 2026. Police Chief Todd Bettison said a physical fight broke out at about 5:48 p.m. during a funeral at the church, and one man involved in the fight produced a handgun and fired into the crowd. Officers were already posted in the area because Detroit police had received information about threats of violence tied to a separate visitation at the O.H. Pye III Funeral Home across the street. An officer who responded to the fight witnessed the shooting and returned fire, striking the shooter. Four victims and the suspected shooter were struck in the lower extremities, all were expected to survive, and the suspect was taken into custody.Source🛡️ My thoughts: Watch the video above for my thoughts. Gunfire Interrupts Funeral at Little Rock Church, Two Charged — Little Rock, ArkansasLittle Rock police responded to a shots fired call at Fellowship Christian Church, 8923 Sunset Lane, at about 2:10 p.m. on Saturday, July 18, 2026, during the funeral of 18-year-old Dillan Cheeter. Detectives already near the scene heard the gunshots and saw a vehicle leave northbound toward Baseline Road. Officers followed and stopped the vehicle, which carried 21-year-old Maddison Jackson and an unidentified minor. Jackson was charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm, unauthorized use of another person’s property, furnishing a handgun to a minor, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and the minor was charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm and possession of a handgun by a minor. No one inside the church was injured, though mourners jumped over pews and ran for the doors, and the building was held as a crime scene. Cheeter had been fatally shot on July 5 in the 5100 block of Asher Avenue.Source🛡️ My thoughts: Are you seeing the potential threats that funerals can have at your church? What are you proactively doing to protect your church during funerals? You need to determine how the person died, do they have family conflicts? If the dead is a gang member or criminal, expect rivals to come to take out friends that will show up. Man Found Dead Behind Frayser Church, Death Investigated as Homicide — Memphis, TennesseeMemphis police responded to a call just after 4 p.m. on Monday, July 20, 2026, in the 3700 block of North Watkins Street in the Frayser neighborhood, near Pursuit of God Church. Officers found a man behind the church, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the call came in as a report of a suspicious person. Investigators have not said how the man died, and the department is working the case as a homicide. No suspect has been named, and anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 901-528-CASH.Source🛡️ My thoughts: We don’t know how he died. What we do know: people that are fleeing danger often go to a church to seek refuge. We see this almost every week here. A 4k video system helps with security by having active monitoring AND it helps document crimes on the property and helps law enforcement find out what happened and who the perpetrators are. Man in Crisis Detained Outside Catholic Church — Laredo, TexasLaredo police responded to a call outside St. John Neumann Catholic Church at 102 West Hillside Road on Sunday, July 19, 2026. Officers said the call involved a man in crisis outside the church. Police detained the man and found no weapons. Authorities said the entire incident took place outside the building and that nothing occurred inside the church. The scene was cleared, and police have not released additional details.Source🛡️ My thoughts: Not really a violent crime, but I’m putting it in here so you understand people in crisis come to the church for help. I see it at my church a couple of times a year. We need to help them. Sometimes we can’t and we need to call the police to help them. Just have a plan and keep this in your scenario line up. Man Charged With Terror Threats Against Willow Creek Community Church — South Barrington, IllinoisRyan Kang, 26, of Vernon Hills, Illinois, was charged with two counts of terrorism by false threat, a Class 1 felony, after police say he posted threats of violence on social media. The Vernon Hills Police Department opened the investigation after multiple people, including members of Kang’s own family, reported the posts. Deputy Police Chief Shannon Holubetz said the threats referenced school shootings, bombings, and acts of interpersonal violence, and were directed at Vernon Hills High School, Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, and several out-of-state residents. Police said Kang admitted to authoring the posts and that investigators determined he did not have the means or ability to carry out an attack. Kang was arrested on Saturday, July 18, 2026, and the department announced the charges on Tuesday, July 21. Willow Creek leadership said South Barrington police notified the church on Saturday and that there was no risk to Sunday services or other scheduled events.Source🛡️ My thoughts: take these threats seriously! If somebody says that they’re going to do something to you, take it as a real threat. That means you have to respond to it in an appropriate way. Do not dismiss it and tell yourself that the person never really would do something. They absolutely would! That’s why they said it. If you dismiss that you are putting your people at risk.SEX CRIMESChurch and School Leaders Charged in Pawleys Island Sex Offender Case — Pawleys Island, South CarolinaGeorgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver announced criminal charges on Monday, July 20, 2026, against former Pawleys Island Community Church pastor Don Williams, his wife and church guest services director Ginny Williams, and Pawleys Island Christian Academy director Jennifer “Niki” Howard, and re-arrested Warren Perry, the registered sex offender whose probation violation arrest opened the case. Don Williams and Howard are charged with obstruction of justice, unlawfully placing a child at risk, and criminal conspiracy, and Ginny Williams and Perry are charged with obstruction of justice and criminal conspiracy. Weaver said Perry had worked at the church since roughly 2020 and was serving as a custodian seven days a week at the academy, which enrolls children from six weeks old through kindergarten. Investigators obtained sworn statements, search warrants, and photographs placing Perry in close proximity to children, and Weaver played video at the press conference of Don Williams telling a deputy that Perry had never been around minors. All three church and school leaders resigned on July 17, Perry was denied bond on July 21, Howard was granted bonds totaling $75,000, and four lawsuits have since been filed against the church and the academy.Source🛡️ My thoughts: I really need to do a more in-depth article and video on this incident. What this church leadership did is more common than you think. There’s nothing in the Bible that tells you to hide any crime. To do so is unconscionable. If you find out, there was a sexual assault involving your church, your first call is to 911. Do that before you notify anybody at the church. Will they be upset with you for calling before telling them? Sure! But you’re protecting everybody by not giving them a chance to cover up the crime.Pastor Held on $17.5 Million Bail in Child Sexual Abuse Case — Monterey County, CaliforniaThe Monterey County Sheriff’s Office arrested Emmanuel Marchica, 51, of Hollister, California, on Friday, July 10, 2026, and released details of the case publicly the following week. Deputies said the investigation began July 5 after a report of ongoing sexual abuse of a child, and detectives identified several additional victims through witness interviews before serving multiple search warrants. Marchica was booked on felony counts including lewd or lascivious acts with a child, sexual penetration of a child, oral copulation of a child, and annoying or molesting a child. The sheriff’s office said Marchica was serving as a pastor and holding regular religious services at a community gathering center in the Hidden Valley community of San Benito County, and that he previously owned bakeries in Prunedale and Monterey and gyms in Sand City, Seaside, and Prunedale where he offered physical therapy and massage therapy and worked as a jiu-jitsu instructor. Investigators said one victim was allegedly molested during one of those therapy sessions, that victim disclosures date back to 2012, and that they believe additional victims exist. Bail was set at $17.5 million.Source🛡️ My thoughts: more than likely, there will be more victims. If this person served at your church, you should start searching for victims and help them get justice.Christian Preschool Employee Charged With Soliciting a Minor — Easley, South CarolinaThe Easley Police Department arrested Heather Nichole Hill on Friday, July 17, 2026, on one count of criminal solicitation of a minor and eight counts of disseminating obscene material to a person under 18. Police confirmed Hill was employed at Siloam Christian Preschool on Siloam Road in Easley, South Carolina. A judge set bond at $10,000 on each charge, and jail records show she was released Sunday on a surety bond. The preschool said in a statement that its leadership team and church officials met Sunday afternoon and terminated her employment, and that the preschool and church contacted the Easley Police Department and pledged full cooperation. Police said the investigation is active.SourcePastor’s Wife and Son Charged in Abuse of 14-Year-Old Living in Their Home — Poplarville, MississippiThe Pearl River County Sheriff’s Office arrested Dawson James Brown, 27, and his mother Sabrina Brown, 54, on Friday, July 17, 2026. Investigators confirmed Sabrina Brown is the wife of a pastor at New Heights/College Heights Baptist Church in Poplarville, Mississippi, that Dawson Brown is their son, and that the victim was living with the Brown family at the time of the alleged offenses. The investigation began on or about June 30 after a referral from the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services following an anonymous report that the girl was pregnant, and investigators estimate she became pregnant in October or November 2025, when she was 13. Dawson Brown is charged with one count of statutory rape, two counts of sexual battery, and one count of human trafficking, and Sabrina Brown is charged with conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence, attempted tampering with physical evidence, and felony child neglect. Court documents allege Sabrina Brown instructed the girl on fabricating and submitting a false DNA document to investigators. The girl’s mother, Kendrell Bowden, 32, was arrested Tuesday, July 21, and the sheriff’s office said the investigation remains active and additional arrests are possible.SourceARSON AND SUSPICIOUS FIRESDennysville Church Fire Ruled Arson — Dennysville, MaineA fire at the Dennysville Edmunds Congregational Church at 17 King Street was reported shortly before 8 a.m. on Monday, July 20, 2026. The Maine Office of State Fire Marshal said the fire started outside near the rear of the building, and the Dennysville Fire Department knocked it down fast enough to hold the damage primarily to the exterior. A passerby saw the smoke and called 911. No one was inside the church at the time, and no injuries were reported. On Tuesday, July 21, the fire marshal’s office determined the fire was intentionally set and classified it as arson, and investigators have not publicly identified a suspect. Anyone who saw activity near King Street before 8 a.m. Monday is asked to call the fire marshal’s office at 207-973-3700.Source🛡️ My thoughtsINTERNATIONALWoman Stabbed During Rosary Before Mass, Man Charged — Tramore, IrelandA woman in her 50s was stabbed inside Holy Cross Church in Summerhill, Tramore, County Waterford, at about 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. Parish priest Fr Richard O’Halloran said the rosary was being recited ahead of 10 a.m. Mass with roughly 50 to 60 people present, and the woman was in the main body of the church when she was attacked. She received a single knife wound and was taken to University Hospital Waterford with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Gardaí arrested a man at a nearby house and seized a knife for technical examination. Niall Cummins, 36, of the Willows, Clarinwood, Tramore, appeared at Waterford District Court on Wednesday, July 22, charged with Section 3 assault causing harm and with possession of a knife at the church, and the court heard he made no reply after arrest and caution. The Diocese of Waterford and Lismore commended the parishioners who assisted the victim.Source🛡️ My thoughtsSuspected Boko Haram Fighters Abduct Pastor’s Wife and Three Children — Borno State, NigeriaGunmen suspected to be Boko Haram or Islamic State West Africa Province fighters stopped a commercial vehicle near Kareto village in Mobbar Local Government Area, Borno State, at about noon on Saturday, July 18, 2026. Community sources said the attackers ordered the wife of Rev. Moses G. Guguma and her three children off the vehicle, allowed the driver and remaining passengers to continue, and moved into the bush with the captives. Guguma leads a Church of Christ in Nations congregation in Damasak, about 156 kilometers north of Maiduguri along the road the family was traveling. Sources said the pastor’s wife had recently been discharged from a hospital in Maiduguri after a prolonged illness before making the trip. Damasak has been repeatedly attacked and occupied by Boko Haram and ISWAP in recent years, security agencies had issued no official statement at the time of reporting, and the family’s whereabouts remain unknown.SourcePlateau Pastor Reports Death Threat Letter — Plateau State, NigeriaRev. Ezekiel Dachomo, regional chairman of the Church of Christ in Nations for Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, said in a statement posted to his X account on Friday, July 17, 2026, that he and members of his church received a letter threatening to kill them. Dachomo said the letter was written in both Hausa and English, warned that he would soon be attacked and killed, and that copies had been handed to heads of security agencies in Plateau State. He tied the threat to the July 11 attack on the Kum and Wereng-Camp communities in Riyom Local Government Area, in which nine members of a single family, including a two-month-old infant, were killed. Punch reported that it could not independently verify Dachomo’s claim that those victims were his relatives. Dachomo has been a prominent public advocate for victims of attacks on Christian communities in Plateau State.SourceChurch Elder and Worship Leader Among 20 Killed in Three Attacks — Beni Territory, Democratic Republic of CongoOpen Doors reported that three attacks in Beni Territory, North Kivu Province, between July 12 and July 16, 2026, left more than 20 people dead. An Open Doors field contact confirmed an attack on the rural commune of Mangina on July 14 in which six people were killed, including a church elder and a worship leader, six more were injured, one person is missing, and two houses were burned. News outlets reported that Allied Democratic Forces fighters attacked an area west of the city of Beni on July 12, killing seven civilians and three Congolese Armed Forces soldiers, and that 10 more people died in a separate attack at Mangina on July 16. Open Doors said movement restrictions tied to an Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC are making information difficult to verify. The ADF is an Islamist group with ties to the Islamic State and has targeted Christian communities in North Kivu and Ituri with massacres, kidnappings, and the destruction of churches.SourceCross-reference: the Islamic State claimed the July 14 Mangina raid in al-Naba issue 556, describing the village as Christian and stating its fighters killed at least 4 there and burned a home. See the Terrorism and Intelligence section above.Copyright © 2026 Keith Graves. All rights reserved. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this work possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription. You Voted, I listened780 people voted, with an overwhelming 85% voting to combine the roll call bulletin and the crime bulletin into one product. Find the Roll Call download below. ROLL CALL BRIEFING DOWNLOADTERRORISM AND INTELLIGENCEIran War Resumes and Widens as Its Proxies Strike Jewish Targets in the WestThe war between the United States and Iran has resumed and is widening. After the June memorandum of understanding collapsed, the United States launched fresh airstrikes on Iranian military sites, and Iran answered with missile strikes on American installations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Jordan. Israeli intelligence reported an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump, who answered with a public warning of overwhelming retaliation. The danger reaches well beyond the battlefield. Since March, an Iranian proxy front called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, or HAYI, which United States prosecutors tie to the Revolutionary Guard and the Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, has claimed roughly 20 attacks on Jewish targets across Europe, among them a synagogue bombing in Liège, Belgium, arson against Jewish sites in London and Rotterdam, and the stabbing of two Jewish men in London. In May, federal authorities charged a Kataib Hezbollah commander, Mohammad al-Saadi, with plotting to bring the campaign into the United States, including an attack on a New York City synagogue. This is a campaign against worship sites and against people in the West seen as aligned with Israel, and it relies on the same arson and small-arms methods a church security team already trains to counter.🛡️ My thoughts: the expansion of the war cannot be understated. More than likely, we will continue it threat level orange for quite a while. I fully expect that synagogues will continue to be attacked. If you are a synagogue, and watching this, I would be at red the highest level. If you are a Christian Church openly supporting Israel, you should be a red also. Islamic State Is Calling for Attacks on Christians and ChurchesIn Mastung, Balochistan, Pakistan, on July 9, the group’s Pakistan branch claimed a targeted shooting at a cricket ground that killed two Christian men, Ayush Masih, 21, and Domnik Masih, 24. Islamic State doctrine, restated across its recent output, frames Christians as targets for forced conversion, taxation, or death, and the group has repeatedly urged followers to burn churches and synagogues in the West. Its Easter propaganda this year did exactly that, calling on supporters across the United States and Europe to set them on fire. The incitement grew louder after the May 18 shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, an attack by two young white supremacists that killed three people, including the mosque’s security guard, and wounded another. In the days that followed, Islamic State supporter networks online called for retaliation against Christians, with one user urging an attack on a church and another threatening to kill Christian men. The realistic threat here is an inspired individual or small group hitting a soft target, which is what your team should be preparing against.🛡️ My thoughts: ISIS does not have enough logistical support in the United States to carry out an attack. However, they are heavily relying on lone actors to attack churches in synagogues. They are pumping each other up on the dark web and on telegram channels. Expect continued attacks and assaults from these people.ISIS Detainees Confess to Church Bombing and Planned Attacks in Damascus, SyriaDetainees held in Syria confessed to involvement in the Mar Elias Church bombing and to other planned attacks, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA. One detainee said an ISIS operative had outlined a plan to attack Mar Elias Church by opening fire on those inside. The confessions were reported by state media this week. The disclosures point to continued ISIS targeting of Christian sites in the country. Syrian authorities said the investigation was ongoing.🛡️ My thoughts: You need to watch these types of attacks. Even though this may not concern us because it is in the Middle East in a country we probably don't care about, it shows you exactly how they are going to carry out and attack here in the United States if they want to make it happen. Study these, and then put them in your scenario portfolio to play out in future training.Jihadist Groups Have Begun Using AI Tools to Plan AttacksA study from the University of Cambridge found that both factions of Boko Haram, the Islamic State affiliate ISWAP and the JAS faction, have built commercial AI chatbots into their operations for attack planning, explosive device design, weapons troubleshooting, and operational security. The know-how was passed in person by Islamic State operatives moving through Libya, Iraq, and other nodes, and dedicated AI units now sit inside ISWAP’s command structure. The finding is significant for two reasons. It shortens the distance between a group deciding to attack and being able to plan and build for one, and the groups leading this adoption are the same ones calling for and carrying out attacks on Christians in Africa and abroad.Weapons Staged at a Paris Synagogue as Threats to Worship Sites Stay HighFrench counterterrorism prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation after authorities found a loaded rifle and a handgun staged in a vehicle outside a synagogue in Sarcelles, near Paris, and evacuated 300 people from the neighborhood. United States and allied agencies spent the week reminding first responders that congregations and the people who lead them remain deliberate targets. With the World Cup Final on July 19 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the America 250 events, and the Jewish fast of Tisha B’Av on July 22 and 23, large public gatherings and religious sites stay at heightened risk through the end of the month.🛡️ My thoughts: the attack continue to be thwarted. This is a win for the good guys. It some point they are going to break through though. Use this as an example of the things that you need to look for while you stand post outside. Anything suspicious should be checked trust your instinct. It is usually the Lord talking to you and not your “instinct.” I was a successful police officer because I listened to the voice in my head. At the time, I did not realize it was the Lord talking to me. I absolutely realize it now, though. Trust those thoughts.VIOLENT CRIMESuspicious Device Placed at Church During Sunday Service in Alabaster Township, MichiganTawas City police were called to Alabaster Bible Church on Benson Road in Alabaster Township, Michigan, shortly before 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 12, after a report of a possible bomb inside the building. Witnesses said a person walked into the church during the service, set a bag down near the entrance, and left immediately. Congregants who looked inside reported seeing what appeared to be a small box with wires and a possible triggering device, and called 911. The Michigan State Police bomb squad examined the package and determined it did not pose a threat. Police said there was no ongoing danger but asked anyone with information to come forward, and the investigation remains open.Source🛡️ My thoughts: this is an interesting case. This could just be a mentally ill person, or it could be a person thinking it's a funny joke. It could also be a test to see how we respond. Never discount incident like this. If this happens at your church, treat it like it is a real device.Fleeing Car Crashes Into Church After Gunfire in New Castle, PennsylvaniaA disturbance involving gunfire in Union Township ended with a fleeing car crashing into Trinity Episcopal Church in New Castle, Pennsylvania. One person was sent to the hospital as a result of the crash. Local reporting described the sequence as an escape attempt that ended at the church building. The incident was reported this week.Source🛡️ My thoughts: how often are you seeing me publish a violent crime that happens elsewhere that ends at the church? It's pretty frequent, isn't it? You should take notice of this is our planning on what to do if a similar incident happens to your church. I use Tactical visualization. Basically, I look at an incident like this and start thinking about what I'm going to do. When I'm driving, I just start thinking of incidents like this and thinking of how I'm going to respond. As an example, I always looked at a 711 on my beat when I was a younger officer and think about how I would respond if I saw an armed robber coming out as I was driving by. I thought about what to do hundreds of times over the next several years. Sure enough, one day I drove by and an armed robber was running out of that 711. He went exactly to the place I thought and my Tactical visualization that a suspect would go and I cornered him. I did everything that I had planned out over the years. It went off flawlessly with nobody being hurt. I don't know how that would've ended out. Had I not use Tactical visualization. It is a wonderful tool that has been used for over a century.SEX CRIMESFormer Youth Pastor Arrested on 90 Counts of Child Molestation in Bossier Parish, LouisianaThe Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested David Mercer, 72, of Folsom, Louisiana, following an investigation into multiple child sex offenses spanning decades. Mercer was booked into the Bossier Parish Maximum Security Facility on July 11 on 90 counts of forcible fondling and molestation of a juvenile, and was held on a $2.5 million bond. Investigators say Mercer served as a youth pastor in northwest Louisiana and in southeast Missouri during the 1990s, and that the alleged offenses date back more than 30 years. Detectives from multiple jurisdictions are working the case as additional victims are identified. The investigation remains active.Source🛡️ My thoughts: there are more victims and what they found. Expect more victims to come out as they read the news story. I need you to see if this Pastor ever served at your church. If he did, you need to immediately start looking for victims within your church. It is better for you to get ahead of it. You're going to do that by making an announcement to your church that he served there and was arrested. Then ask if anybody knows if anybody in the church that was a victim. The Bible is clear on your duty to do this. The Bible doesn't say protect your church, the Bible says to help the week and the defenseless and to seek justice. THE LORD EXPECTS THIS OF YOU! If you have victims in your church, then you helped them get Counseling and you put them in touch with the Police Dept. Registered Sex Offender Arrested After Volunteering at Church With Children in Pawleys Island, South CarolinaThe Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office arrested Warren Spence Perry, 70, on a probation violation after a complaint filed Monday, July 13, revealed he had been volunteering at Pawleys Island Community Church, which also operates a school and a daycare. Perry’s probation stemmed from a prior child sex offense that barred him from proximity to children. Deputies investigated after the complaint identified him working in a volunteer role at the church. In the days that followed, angry church members confronted their pastor during a heated meeting over claims that leadership had known of Perry’s record and allowed him to serve. The church issued a public statement in response to the arrest.Source🛡️ My thoughts: more than likely, this guy came to the church for the specific reason of trying to find victims. You need to take my course on protecting children in the church. The link is above. It is free. It tells you exactly how to stop groomers in their tracks at your church.Pastor’s Son Charged With Child Sexual Abuse in Tacoma, WashingtonA man identified in police records as Stabbert, the adult son of a longtime Tacoma pastor, has been charged with sexually assaulting two children in incidents dating as far back as 1997. According to Tacoma police records, several elders at Fellowship Bible Church reported that Stabbert had confessed to abusing at least two victims. Police records also indicate the church had been warned repeatedly about the alleged abuse over a period of years. Stabbert was a member of the church at the time the reports were made. The case was filed this week.Source🛡️ My thoughts: Hiding crimes like this is a SIN. The Lord does not command you to protect the church. HE demands that you protect children. "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible."Ephesians 5:11-13 (ESV)ARSON AND SUSPICIOUS FIRESMan Charged Federally in Firebombing Spree Targeting a Church and Mosques in Queens, New YorkFederal authorities arrested Yogesh Sayrange, 36, on July 9 in connection with a string of arson attacks across Queens and Brooklyn over roughly two weeks. Officers responded to a 911 call at Iglesia Bautista El Mesias Church in Ozone Park around 11:35 p.m. after Sayrange allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at the building. Prosecutors say he is linked to at least seven acts of arson, including firebombings of mosques that authorities are investigating as anti-Muslim attacks. According to federal prosecutors, before one attack Sayrange asked men nearby whether they wanted the device thrown at them and threatened to cut a man’s head off. He faces federal arson charges.Source🛡️ My thoughts: let me get this straight, they're investigating it as anti-Muslim attacks, but not as an anti-Christian attack for attacking the church? Sorry for the rant, but I hope you see what is happening here. Landmarked Brooklyn Church Demolished After Arson Fire in Brooklyn, New YorkThe FDNY and NYPD are investigating the June 19 fire that destroyed the South Bushwick Reformed Church, a landmarked wooden sanctuary built in 1853, as arson, with a person of interest seen leaving the property just before the blaze. Citing public safety, New York City’s Department of Buildings ordered the structure torn down and rejected the congregation’s plans to stabilize and rebuild part of it. The city demolished the original church over the following two weeks and began razing the attached Fellowship Hall on July 14. Pastor James Steward, who had first vowed to rebuild, said a full demolition would likely strip the site of its landmark protection and could leave the church forced to sell the land to a developer. The city intends to bill the congregation for the demolition, a cost expected to run well past what it has raised.Source🛡️ My thoughts: NYC forgot about 9/11 and elected a Muslim man, Mamdani. Mamdani’s administration tore down a historic church and is going to charge the church instead of letting them rebuild it. We were told in the Bible that this would happen. It is just sad to see in real life. 2 Timothy 3:12 (ESV) “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”Ethiopian Orthodox Church Heavily Damaged in Fire in Rosemount, MinnesotaFirefighters responded Monday, July 13, to a fire at the Debre Bisrat St. Gabriel and St. Arsema Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church at 3285 144th Street West in Rosemount, Minnesota. Rosemount police said crews found extensive damage to the building. The Rosemount Police Department announced the fire in a public post and said the cause was under investigation. No injuries were reported in the initial accounts. The investigation was ongoing as of this week.SourceINTERNATIONALNine Killed, Including an Infant, in Overnight Attack in Plateau State, NigeriaSuspected gunmen killed at least nine members of one family, including an infant, in a late-night attack on two communities in Plateau State, Nigeria. The assault targeted residents in their homes during the night. Local authorities and community members reported the killings this week. The attack is part of a continuing pattern of deadly raids on farming communities in the region. Nigerian security forces have been under pressure to respond to the violence.SourcePastor Dies After Kidnapping Ordeal in Benue State, NigeriaA pastor in Benue State, Nigeria, died after surviving a kidnapping ordeal, allegedly succumbing to injuries from torture during his captivity. The cleric had been abducted roughly two weeks earlier alongside two other people. He was released before his death. Church and community members reported the death this week. Kidnapping for ransom continues to strike clergy and worshippers across Nigeria.SourceTwo Killed in Clashes at Church During Political Violence in Kisumu, KenyaTwo young men were killed in violent clashes connected to political tensions in Kisumu, Kenya, with the confrontation unfolding at and around St. Stephen’s Church. Authorities said the deaths followed a Sunday confrontation between rival youth groups, and that one of the injured victims later died in the hospital. Police reported that eight suspects would face charges in connection with the violence. Community and political leaders condemned the rising unrest in the city. The investigation continued through the week.SourcePastor Stabbed by Three Assailants During Morning Run in Cape Town, South AfricaA pastor in Cape Town, South Africa, was stabbed by three assailants while out for an early morning run on Table Mountain. He was identified as the victim of the attack in local reporting. The assault occurred during his routine run on the mountain. Authorities were notified of the stabbing. The incident was reported this week.SourceHistoric Tehran Church Threatened With Seizure and Demolition in Tehran, IranSt. Peter’s Presbyterian Church in Tehran, Iran, has been threatened with seizure and demolition by Iranian authorities, with members of its congregation facing the prospect of imprisonment. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps moved at the end of June to confiscate assets tied to the church and has treated employees and members as trespassers on the property. United Nations human rights experts urged Iran to reverse the seizure and to return the site to the recognized religious minority community. Christian organizations issued appeals and prayer requests over the case this week. A Presbyterian church in Mashhad was demolished in June 2026 after being similarly targeted.Source This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.This week I want to highlight a good Christian family with a great clothing brand: “Jesus Camo.” I love this stuff and the money supports a great family doing this as a side hustle. I’m not making any money, but you are getting 25% off because you are a CWT follower! Use code “CWT25” to make that happen. 🟢 This week’s Roll Call Briefing includes:✅ Current threat assessment and why the alert level remains High (Orange)✅ World Cup and Fourth of July security concerns, including drone threats✅ ISIS propaganda, Iranian proxy activity, and attacks targeting Christians worldwide✅ Five major church violence incidents and the lessons every safety team should learn✅ New sexual abuse case and what church security should be watching for✅ This week’s team discussion: protecting your pastor during the post service meet and greet✅ Prayer, Scripture, and practical action items your team can use before Sunday This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Producing intel like this each week is time consuming and costly. If this material helps you, please consider upgrading your subscription if you can afford it.This week’s Roll Call Bulletin keeps the alert level at Orange and focuses on ISIS calls for attacks on churches, drone threats against soft targets, Iran-linked threats against synagogues, improvised incendiary devices at gatherings, and ISIS recruitment of Gen Z through gaming and social media. The training focus is trusted insiders, with a hard look at supervision, child safety, accountability, background checks, restroom sweeps, and making sure no one is ever alone with a child.✅ ISIS-linked networks are calling for attacks on churches✅ FBI warns drones could be used against soft targets and crowds✅ Iran-linked networks remain a serious threat to synagogues✅ Improvised fire and explosive devices remain a concern at gatherings✅ ISIS is targeting young people through gaming and social media✅ Training topic: trusted insiders, supervision, accountability, and child safety This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

If these videos help you, please consider upgrading your subscription to help us keep CWT up and running.Today a police officer in Montreal shot and killed an innocent man during an active shooter call, and church security people are already lining up to criticize her. I am going live to say what most of them do not want to hear: a lot of you would have done the exact same thing. I will break down what happened, why that officer fired on the wrong man, and how the same selection and training failures are sitting on church security teams right now. We will end in the Word on the one thing that keeps you from killing the wrong person.What we will cover* What happened in Montreal this morning, and what the official statements are careful not to say* Why that officer shot the wrong man, from thirty years of reading footage like this* The hard reason this keeps happening: wrong people in the role, never trained* Why owning a gun is not the same as being ready to use it* The church security people criticizing this officer who would get the same result* What you are really doing when you fill a slot instead of building a protector* “I would rather be shot than shoot the wrong person,” and why discernment is built, not issued* Hebrews 5:14, and how trained discernment is the difference between saving a life and taking the wrong oneCopyright © 2026 Keith Graves. All rights reserved. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

This is not possible without paid subscriptions. Please consider upgrading your subscription only if you can.This week’s Christian Warrior Training Roll Call Briefing is a lighter week overall, but there are still several items church safety teams need to understand before Sunday. We cover the continued HIGH, Orange threat level, a foiled drone and gunman plot tied to public events in Washington, D.C., fresh ISIS messaging around FIFA World Cup activity, suspicious activity reports from churches, and practical training on barred or unwanted persons on church property.✅ Threat level remains HIGH, Orange, with continued concern through major summer events✅ Foiled drone and gunman plot targeting public gatherings in Washington, D.C.✅ ISIS messaging calling for attacks connected to FIFA and World Cup related activity✅ Weaponized drone concerns moving from foreign battlefields toward domestic soft targets✅ Las Vegas churches shared suspicious activity reports involving the same scouting subject✅ Louisiana church reported a visitor photographing and filming church property✅ Massachusetts youth leader received antisemitic hate mail addressed to him by name✅ Nashville church security guard assaulted by a previously barred subject✅ Illinois church discovered a hidden phone used to spy on a woman changing✅ Virginia church anniversary tent collapse shows why safety teams must prepare for weather and medical emergencies✅ Training focus: managing barred, unwanted, and trespassed subjects at church This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokThis week’s Roll Call Briefing is out, and it’s a heavy one. Here’s what your team needs to know going into Sunday:🔸 We’re holding at Condition ORANGE, and I’m extending it through the end of July. I explain why, including a federal bulletin that went to law enforcement but not to you.🔸 A brand new ISIS media unit fixated on cathedrals, the Pope, and homegrown American attackers🔸 ISIS formally renews its ultimatum against Christians in Africa🔸 An ISIS supporter charged in New Jersey after discussing attacks on places of worship🔸 Why your church’s World Cup watch party is a soft target🔸 The 764 network: an extremist threat hunting the kids in your youth group🔸 Five incidents this week, including two parish festivals hit on the same night and two threats stopped because somebody reported what they saw🔸 Training focus: rammings don’t end when the vehicle stopsThe full briefing PDF is free for every church. Download it, print it, and run your team through it Sunday morning. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Compiling this data and presenting it to you is only possible through paid subscriptions. If this helped you, please consider upgrading your subscription.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokEvery few months someone sends me a statistic about church shootings. Sometimes it is accurate. Often it is not. The numbers get recycled, sources get dropped, and security teams end up training against a threat picture that does not reflect reality.This database exists to fix that. Christian Warrior Training has compiled 30 verified active shooter and deadly force incidents at houses of worship in the United States from 1999 to 2026. Every entry is sourced. Every weapon caliber, service phase, casualty count, and motive category has been checked against primary reporting. Where data was not publicly confirmed, it is listed as unconfirmed rather than estimated.About This DatabaseThe primary scope of this database is Christian churches and Christian ministry facilities. It also includes LDS meetinghouses, Unitarian Universalist congregations, and Jewish synagogues. This is not a theological statement. It is a tactical one.The LDS Church and the UU Church are included because their members gather in similar ways, at similar times, for similar purposes to Christian congregations, and because attacks on their facilities follow the same patterns of pre-incident indicators, service phase vulnerabilities, and security responses documented throughout the rest of this database. Every tactical lesson from the Grand Blanc LDS attack applies directly to your Sunday morning service. The Knoxville UU attack teaches the same parking lot dispersal lessons as Burnette Chapel Nashville.Synagogues are included for the same reason, and because the Michigan worship-site cluster of 2025-2026 cannot be understood without Temple Israel.One additional observation worth making before we get into the data. Christian congregations account for 77% of the incidents in this database. That reflects both the volume of attacks and the sheer number of Christian churches in America. There are approximately 355,000 Christian congregations in the United States compared to roughly 3,700 synagogues. On a per-congregation basis, synagogues face a significantly higher rate of targeted attack. Both communities are under real threat with different threat profiles.What rarely gets discussed is the steady drumbeat of violence against Christian congregations that receives almost no national coverage. Pittsburgh gets weeks of headlines. Sutherland Springs fades in days. Burnette Chapel barely registers nationally at all. Your congregation is not less of a target because fewer people are talking about it.Finding 1: The Dominant Weapon Is the HandgunHandguns account for 57% of all incidents in this database, 17 of 30. The 9mm is the single most common caliber, followed by .45 ACP, .40 S&W, and .22-caliber pistols.Rifles account for 30% of incidents, 9 of 30, and produced the two highest casualty events in the database. Sutherland Springs in 2017, 26 killed and 22 wounded, was a Ruger AR-556 in 5.56mm with 15 thirty-round magazines. Tree of Life Pittsburgh in 2018, 11 killed and 6 wounded, the deadliest synagogue attack in American history, was an AR-15 style rifle combined with three handguns. When a rifle comes through your door, the body count potential is in a different category from a handgun.Shotguns appeared in 3 incidents. Both the Knoxville 2008 and White Settlement 2019 shotguns were 12-gauge, sawed-off, and concealed under clothing. The White Settlement attack is instructive and critical at the same time. Jack Wilson made an exceptional shot, six seconds, from over 45 feet, to stop Keith Kinnunen. That shot is worth studying. What is also worth studying is how Kinnunen got to the point of making that shot necessary. He entered the building in a wig and a long overcoat concealing a sawed-off shotgun. He was observed by the security team inside, who began tracking him. They did not stop him at the door. He reached the pew, stood up, and killed two deacons before Wilson responded. One man’s marksmanship does not redeem a perimeter that failed. The lesson from West Freeway is not to have a Jack Wilson on your team. It is to build a perimeter that stops Kinnunen before he reaches the pew.The rifle percentage is increasing. In 1999-2009, rifles were 2 of 13 incidents, about 15%. In 2020-2026, rifles are 4 of 10, 40%. The handgun remains the dominant platform, but any security team that is not training for a rifle threat is training for yesterday’s problem.Finding 2: Transition Moments Are When Your Guard Is Down47% of incidents in this database struck during a transition moment. When you apply the full definition of what a transition is, that number tells the real story.A transition moment is any period of ritual shift, movement, or reduced collective attention within or around the service. It includes the obvious ones: post-service parking lot dispersal, the pre-service foyer, between services, post-service fellowship meals. It also includes moments most security teams do not think about as transitions because they happen inside the sanctuary while the service is technically underway.Communion distribution is a transition. When deacons move to the front, every eye follows the elements. The congregation is not watching the doors. Keith Kinnunen knew this. He rose from his pew at West Freeway the moment that window opened.The closing prayer of a Bible study is a transition. Dylann Roof sat with the Wednesday evening group at Emanuel AME for a full hour. He waited until they stood, closed their eyes, and bowed their heads. He chose that moment deliberately.A children’s musical is a transition in attention. Jim Adkisson entered Tennessee Valley UU during a performance of Annie Jr. with over 200 people in the sanctuary. Every eye was on the children on the stage. His first shot was mistaken for a sound effect. That is not a coincidence. That is a man who understood where the congregation’s attention would be.The pre-service foyer is a transition. Scott Roeder killed Dr. George Tiller at Reformation Lutheran in Wichita while Tiller was serving as a greeter before service began. The post-service luncheon at Geneva Presbyterian in Laguna Woods was a transition. The hallway at Lakewood Church between services was a transition. The parking lot of an LDS meetinghouse during a funeral in Salt Lake City was a transition.Thirteen of the 30 incidents in this database occurred at one of these windows. Your security posture should not track the order of service. It should be consistent from the moment the parking lot opens until the last car leaves, with specific attention on every moment your congregation is moving, gathering, or engaged in a ritual that directs their attention away from the doors.Finding 3: Anti-Religious Hate Is the Leading Motive CategoryAnti-religious hate is the largest single motive category at 33%, 10 of 30 incidents. This category is broader and more varied than the racial hate framing that dominates the national conversation, and it is worth understanding precisely because the threat profile is different from every other category in this database.Anti-religious hate attacks are directed at congregations because of who they are as a gathered community of faith. The specific form of that hatred varies. Larry Ashbrook at Wedgwood Baptist in 1999 hated Christians. Matthew Murray at New Life Church in 2007 hated Christianity, having grown up in a deeply religious household and turned that experience into contempt. Jim Adkisson at Knoxville UU in 2008 hated liberals and targeted that congregation for its beliefs. Dylann Roof at Charleston in 2015 was a racial hate crime targeting a historically Black congregation. Emanuel Samson at Burnette Chapel in 2017 targeted that congregation in racial revenge for Charleston. David Wenwei Chou at Laguna Woods in 2022 targeted a Taiwanese congregation. Thomas Sanford at Grand Blanc LDS in 2025 hated Latter-day Saints specifically. Robert Bowers at Pittsburgh in 2018 hated Jews. John Earnest at Poway in 2019 hated Jews. Ayman Ghazali at Temple Israel in 2026 targeted Jews.These are not the same motive. But they share a structure: the attacker selected the target because of its identity as a gathered community before God. That is what makes this category distinct from domestic violence, where the church is simply the location of someone the attacker knows, or mental health crisis, where the congregation itself may be secondary to the attacker’s internal state.For your security team, anti-religious hate attacks tend to be operationally deliberate. Roof sat with the group for an hour doing surveillance. Murray attacked two locations the same day. Sanford brought a vehicle, a rifle, and a gasoline accelerant. Ghazali loaded a truck with commercial fireworks and gasoline, sat in the parking lot for over two hours, and called his ex-wife before driving through the entrance. These are not impulsive acts. They are planned. The pre-incident window is longer, the observable indicators are different from a mental health crisis, and the operational preparation tends to be more sophisticated.A Word on Mental Health and Spiritual WarfareMental health is the second-largest motive category at 27%, 8 of 30 incidents. The behavioral indicators that researchers and law enforcement label as mental health warning signs are real and observable. Withdrawal from normal life, escalating agitation, expressions of hopelessness or grievance, dramatic behavioral changes in the days or weeks before an attack.But if the Bible is true, and it is, then the clinical framework does not have the full picture. Scripture documents demonic activity that produces observable behavioral disturbance in people. Mark 5, Luke 8, Matthew 8. Paul writes about spiritual warfare as a present operating reality, not a historical artifact. What the clinical world calls a mental health crisis may in some cases have a spiritual root that no diagnostic manual can identify.Both frameworks are observing the same behavior. A man who is in a documented mental health crisis, withdrawing from relationships, expressing grandiose or paranoid beliefs, deteriorating in the weeks before an attack, needs to be reported and intervened with regardless of whether you understand what is driving that behavior as a neurological condition or as spiritual oppression. The reporting pathway is the same. The urgency is the same. The outcome of failing to act is the same.Finding 4: Domestic Violence Runs Through One in Six AttacksThe Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center published a case study in April 2025 using Sutherland Springs as its primary subject. Their conclusion: the attack was the endpoint of years of documented domestic violence, not a sudden break or an ideological act. The attacker had a history of violence against his wives, against children, against animals. He should not have legally owned a single firearm. He owned several because a military records failure allowed him to pass background checks he should have failed. The Secret Service reported that 41% of all mass attackers have at least one documented incident of domestic violence in their backgrounds.Five of the 30 incidents in this database follow the domestic violence pattern directly. Greater Oak Baptist Hopkinsville 2001, an estranged husband targeted his wife during the altar call. Ministry of Jesus Christ Baton Rouge 2006, an estranged husband shot four in-laws at the church and then killed his wife at a separate location. First Baptist Sutherland Springs 2017, the church was targeted because his wife’s family attended. Richmond Road Baptist Lexington 2025, a man with prior domestic violence charges drove 16 miles to the church after shooting a state trooper.Your congregation almost certainly has people in it right now who are in or leaving dangerous relationships. Building a culture where that is visible, and where there is a clear pathway to report a threat and get help, is not only pastoral work. It is security work.Finding 5: Most Attacks Happen Inside the Building83% of incidents in this database, 25 of 30, occurred primarily inside the building. Three occurred primarily outside, including the Salt Lake City LDS funeral parking lot shooting. Two began outside and moved inside.The parking lot matters enormously. White Settlement, New Life Colorado Springs, Burnette Chapel Nashville, CrossPointe Wayne, and Salt Lake City all demonstrate what the exterior threat looks like. But when the attack begins, the data says it will most likely begin inside your sanctuary. Your team needs to be positioned, trained, and armed to respond there.Finding 6: Armed Security Determines the OutcomeThis is documented across multiple incidents in this database, not inferred.New Life Church, Colorado Springs, 2007. Armed volunteer Jeanne Assam stopped Matthew Murray in the foyer before he reached the sanctuary. Two killed in the parking lot. Zero inside the building.Burnette Chapel, Nashville, 2017. Unarmed usher Robert Engle was pistol-whipped but retrieved his own firearm and held Emanuel Samson at gunpoint. One killed in the parking lot. The attack was contained.West Freeway Church of Christ, White Settlement, 2019. Jack Wilson, a former reserve deputy and firearms instructor, stopped Keith Kinnunen six seconds after he opened fire. Two killed. Zero additional casualties. Wilson had been training that security team for 18 months before the attack.CrossPointe Community Church, Wayne, Michigan, 2025. A church deacon struck the attacker with his truck in the parking lot. Armed security killed him outside. Zero congregation fatalities. Approximately 150 people inside.Chabad of Poway, California, 2019. John Earnest’s rifle jammed after his first magazine. Congregants rushed him and he fled. One killed, three wounded. The congregation’s physical response to the malfunction saved lives.Congregation Beth Israel, Colleyville, Texas, 2022. Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker threw a chair at the hostage-taker and led three congregants to safety through the door. He had completed four security training courses from the FBI, ADL, Colleyville PD, and Secure Community Network before that day. Training saved him. Not a firearm. Training.Now look at the incidents where no equivalent response was available. Charleston 2015: 9 killed. Sutherland Springs 2017: 26 killed, 22 wounded. Tree of Life Pittsburgh 2018: 11 killed, 6 wounded. Grand Blanc LDS 2025: 4 killed, building destroyed.The difference is not luck. The difference is preparation.State DistributionTexas leads the database with 5 incidents across the study period. Michigan follows with 4, including three worship-site attacks in a nine-month window that has no parallel in the American record. Georgia has 3. The full Michigan Threat Intelligence Bulletin covering the 2025-2026 cluster, the suspect profiles, and tactical recommendations for congregations in the region is available free at ChristianWarriorTraining.com.Southern states remain concentrated in this database, consistent with national research on worship-site violence. But the data now spans 18 states from Pennsylvania to California, from Utah to Minnesota. No region is exempt.What Your Security Team Should Take From ThisThe probability that any given congregation faces an active shooter event in any given year is low. But probability is not the right framework. When the event happens, it happens to real people in a real sanctuary. The question is not whether it is likely. The question is whether you are ready.Ready looks like a trained, armed security team that covers the interior and the parking lot, maintains full posture through every transition window, and has positioned someone in the lot during every arrival and departure period. A perimeter that catches the man in the wig and the overcoat before he reaches the door. A congregation that knows how to report a threat. A pastor who understands that the man in spiritual distress he has been counseling may need a security contact as well as a pastoral one. A culture where domestic violence is visible and where someone in a dangerous relationship has a pathway to safety before that relationship produces a security event for the whole church.Ready looks like Rabbi Cytron-Walker, who went through four security trainings and knew exactly what to do when a man with a gun sat down in his synagogue. Ready looks like Jack Wilson, who started training 18 months before he needed it.Nehemiah organized his people so that half worked and half stood guard. Both were ministry. Both were necessary. Neither group stopped.That is still the model.Sources: U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (2025 Sutherland Springs Case Study), Violence Prevention Project, Faith Based Security Network, Lifeway Research, FBI field office public statements, CNN, ABC News, NBC News, Detroit News, CBS News, Salt Lake Tribune, Gephardt Daily, Wikipedia incident articles. Data confidence: High for all high-profile incidents. Moderate for mid-tier incidents where caliber data remains publicly unconfirmed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

If this debrief helped you, please consider upgrading your subscription.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokA Kill List Targeted Churches. Here’s How We Stopped It.On July 10th, 2025, a 277 page email landed in hundreds of inboxes across the Treasure Valley of Idaho and across the country.It named police officers.It named judges.It named church members.It listed home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, children, and workplaces. Then, in plain English, it told people to “go hunt and kill.”My church was not named in the original document, but we became involved soon after. Friends of mine were named. People I do life with on Sundays were named. Churches in our area were named. The threat was real, and the response had to be immediate.What happened over the next 48 hours is the reason no one in this story was murdered.That did not happen because we got lucky. It happened because churches in our area had already built the relationships, the intelligence network, and the law enforcement connections needed to respond before the threat reached our doors.What HappenedThe couple behind the email was Jonathan and Jolene Harms of Boise, Idaho. They had previously been members of Table Rock Church in Boise and had been excommunicated. They were angry about it, and they believed they had a divine commission to bring judgment against the people who had removed them.On July 10th, they put that belief into a 277 page manifesto and emailed it to hundreds of people. The document named more than 20 victims by name, home address, phone number, and email address. It named their children. It named their workplaces. It named churches.The document specifically condemned several churches, including Table Rock Church in Boise, Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis, Faith Community Church in Boise, The Well Reformed Church, and Main Street Church in Boise.My church was not on that original list. That changed later when intelligence developed that Harms associates were being directed toward additional churches, including ours.By the time that happened, the system was already moving.The Police ResponseThe Harms had already been on law enforcement’s radar before the July 10th email. Jonathan Harms had been placed on a brief mental hold in May, and two church leaders had already obtained civil protection orders against the couple.The July 10th email violated those orders directly.Boise Police Department moved quickly. On July 12th, two days after the email went out, Boise PD served arrest and search warrants at the Harms residence on East Highland Valley Drive. Officers knew the couple had weapons, so they staged the crisis negotiation team and the special operations group.Jonathan Harms came out of the house and complied. He was taken into custody without incident. Inside the home, officers recovered a substantial amount of firearms and ammunition.Jolene Harms was arrested separately by Garden City Police Department on a related telecommunication harassment charge after sending a message threatening a Boise police officer’s children.That should have ended the threat.It did not.Jolene was released on bond, and over the following weeks both Harmses kept going. They sent certified letters to victims in violation of protection orders. They continued posting the manifesto online. They added new threats. The escalation continued.In September, both were arrested again on expanded charges. Their bonds were set at $15 million each. As a retired police officer, I can tell you that a $15 million bond for a threat case is something I have never seen before.They later represented themselves at trial. After two weeks of proceedings, the jury deliberated for about five and a half hours. Jonathan Harms was convicted on 62 counts. Jolene Harms was convicted on 60 counts. The charges included first degree stalking and witness intimidation.Each now faces more than 200 years in prison.That is the public record side of the case.Now let me explain what happened on the church side.The Church Intelligence GroupWithin minutes of the July 10th email landing in inboxes, the document was in the hands of the Treasure Valley Church Security Intelligence Group.For the last several years, a number of churches in the Boise area have been meeting regularly to coordinate on security. We call it our intelligence group.The men who serve as intelligence officers at each church know each other. We have each other’s phone numbers. We have each other’s email addresses. We have a standing agreement.If a threat lands at your church, you push it out to the group.If a threat lands in the group, every church gets it.That is why the response moved so quickly. When the manifesto hit one church inbox, the intelligence officers did not have to figure out who to call. They already knew. Within minutes, every intelligence officer in the network had a copy.We worked the document together.We pulled out names.We pulled out addresses.We cross referenced the named victims with church membership rolls.We identified threat indicators inside the manifesto.Then we built an intelligence bulletin and pushed it to area church security teams immediately.The church security response happened independently of the police investigation, but it was informed by the same urgency: protect the people who had been named, assess whether our churches were exposed, and harden our defenses before anyone showed up. We were not interfering with law enforcement. We were not duplicating their job. We were doing the work churches need to do to protect their own people, assess the threat, identify who may be affected, and harden their defenses.The reason we were able to move that fast is simple.The relationships already existed.There was no learning curve in the middle of the crisis. The system was already running before the threat arrived.The Trespass OrderThe Harms going to jail did not end the threat.Jolene was out on bond. The manifesto was still circulating online. Their associates, whom they referred to as disciples, were still active.Then word came to my church through a reliable source that those associates were being directed to our services.We were not in the original manifesto. We had not done anything to the Harmses. But we were part of the intelligence group, and now we were on the list of places where bad things could happen.We did not wait.Our church secured a trespass order against Jolene Harms. The sheriff’s department delivered it, and she was barred from all church property.A few days later, Jolene called the church to ask why. She got a direct answer.We knew what was happening, and she was not welcome at our church.The phone call ended.No associates ever showed up.Whatever they had planned never came through our doors because we acted before they arrived.A trespass order does two things.The first is obvious. It legally bars a known threat from coming onto your property. If that person comes back, they can be arrested. Your team does not need to debate it at the door. You do not need to improvise. The law has already been put in motion.The second thing is less obvious, but it is just as important. A trespass order tells the threat actor and anyone working with them that your church is awake, organized, and willing to use the legal tools available to protect your congregation.Bad actors looking at a church as a soft target are looking for confusion. They are looking for hesitation. They are looking for a congregation that will not act.A trespass order sends a different message.Not here.Lessons for Your ChurchThere are five practical lessons every church security team should take from this case.1. Build a Regional Church Security Intelligence Group Before You Need OneDo not wait until a manifesto lands in your inbox to figure out which churches near you have security teams.Find the churches in your area. Reach out to the men responsible for security. Start a meeting. Once a month is enough to begin.Talk about what you are seeing. Talk about people moving between churches who concern you. Talk about protocols. Talk about weak points. Build trust over time.When a real threat arrives, the call needs to go out immediately. That only happens if the relationships already exist.2. Your Church Needs an Intelligence OfficerThe intelligence officer position at your church is not optional.This is not a volunteer who checks the news on Sunday morning. This needs to be a man assigned to the role, with the time and tools to do the job.His responsibilities should include monitoring open source threats, watching social media accounts of known persons of concern, maintaining a working relationship with local law enforcement, and pushing alerts to your team and to peer churches in your area.There is another piece to this.When another church’s intelligence officer calls you, answer the phone.Over the years, I have personally called churches that were named in threats to warn them, and those calls have gone unanswered. That is a failure on the receiving end.If you are the man at your church who would receive that kind of call, decide now that you will answer it.3. Build Direct Relationships With Law EnforcementThe reason we were able to get fast, candid communication from officers about the Harms case is that those relationships had been built long before July 10th.Take a patrol officer to coffee.Invite officers to your security team meetings.Walk them through your church layout.Give them your contact information and ask for theirs.Your first real conversation with local law enforcement should not happen during a crisis.4. Ask Law Enforcement to Create a Church and Synagogue Liaison PositionEvery police department and sheriff’s office in this country should have an officer assigned as a liaison to churches and synagogues in their jurisdiction.This does not need to be complicated. It can be an additional duty.There is likely a Christian officer in nearly every department who would gladly take this responsibility. The agency loses nothing. Churches gain a direct conduit into the department.If you are a chief of police or sheriff reading this, designate that officer. Have him meet with church security leaders quarterly. The return on investment is a network of trained eyes across your city.5. Use the Civil Legal Tools Available to YouChurches need to be proactive when credible threats develop.A trespass order is one of the cleanest tools available. Most jurisdictions allow a property owner, including a church, to issue a trespass notice through law enforcement. Once that order is in place, a violation becomes a criminal offense.Know how this process works in your county before you need it.Know who handles it.Have your church’s authority to issue trespass notices documented in writing.When the time comes, you should be able to act the same day.What the Bible SaysThere is also a theological question here, and churches need to answer it from Scripture rather than emotion.Some Christians will hear about a trespass order and wonder whether a church should ever bar someone from the property. They may ask whether it is right to use civil authority against an individual.The answer is yes.Ecclesiastes 4:9 through 12 says:“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow... And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him, a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”That is exactly what a church security intelligence group is meant to do.A single watchman at a single church can be overwhelmed. A network of watchmen across multiple churches, working in coordination with law enforcement, becomes a threefold cord.The Harms could threaten one church. They could not outrun a network of churches and a police department that already knew how to work together.First Corinthians 12:24 through 26 says:“But God has so composed the body... that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together.”When one church in our region came under threat, the rest of the churches did not say, “That is their problem.”We worked the document.We pushed the alert.We prayed.We protected one another.That is how the body of Christ should function.The harder passage, and the one that speaks directly to the trespass order issue, is Nehemiah 13:7 through 9. Nehemiah discovered that Tobiah had been given a chamber in the courts of the house of God. Scripture says Nehemiah became angry, threw Tobiah’s household furniture out of the chamber, ordered the rooms cleansed, and restored them to their proper use.Nehemiah did not negotiate with Tobiah. He did not leave the threat in place because removing him felt uncomfortable. He used the authority God had placed in his hands to remove an enemy presence from the place where God’s people gathered.That is the biblical principle behind a trespass order.When a church identifies a credible threat and uses lawful civil tools to keep that threat off church property, it is not being unloving. It is not being unchristian. It is protecting the congregation God has placed under its care.The Bible does not require God’s people to leave the door open to those who mean them harm.The System Worked Because It Was Already BuiltThis case did not end in tragedy because a system was already in place when the threat arrived.The Treasure Valley Church Security Intelligence Group existed before July 10th.The relationships with Boise Police Department existed before July 10th.The intelligence officers at the affected churches knew their job before July 10th.Boise PD had been watching the Harms long enough to know what they were dealing with.When the threat continued after the arrests, individual churches took proactive defensive action and used the civil legal tools available to them.None of that happened by accident.It was paid for in months of meetings, phone calls, coffee with officers, and the discipline of intelligence officers building their networks one contact at a time.A lot of that work does not look like security work when you are doing it. It looks like fellowship. It looks like coordination. It looks like another meeting on the calendar.But on July 10th, that work was the difference between a kill list distributed into a vacuum and a kill list distributed into a system that closed in around the people responsible inside 48 hours.What Your Church Should Do This WeekIf your church does not have an intelligence officer, fill that position this week.If your region does not have a church security intelligence group, start one.If your relationship with local law enforcement is limited to traffic stops, fix that this month.If you have credible intelligence on a named threat coming toward your church, do not wait. Use the sheriff. Use the trespass order. Use the civil tools God has placed in your hands for exactly this kind of situation.The Harms will likely spend the rest of their lives in prison.The people they targeted are still walking around.That is the goal of church security.Keep our people walking around.Pray for the Harms. Pray that they repent, turn to Christ, and submit themselves to the Word of God. Then get back to work protecting the congregation God has placed in front of you.If this article was useful, send it to your pastor, your security team leader, and the man at the next church over you have been meaning to call.Then leave a comment and tell me what your church has done to build relationships with other congregations and local law enforcement. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

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Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokWho Needs to Read This With YouLast week’s incident review of the San Diego mosque attack was for your security team. This is the companion piece, and it is for your pastor, your youth ministry leader, your children’s ministry director, and the parent who is wondering what their fourteen-year-old has been doing on his phone for the last six months.The two attackers left behind a document of roughly forty pages laying out exactly what they believed, who they followed, where they learned it, and what they thought they were accomplishing. That document is the most useful thing on the table right now, because it is the same playbook radicalizing other young men inside the same online networks at this very moment. If you can recognize the ideology, the symbols, and the language, you can spot it earlier in the children around you and intervene before this walks into someone else’s parking lot.I am going to lay this out plainly, including the actual words these networks use. Some of those words are slurs and some are coded language a normal adult would never recognize. You need to see them, because your youth leader is going to hear them coming out of a teenager in your congregation, and right now most adults in the church world do not know what they are listening to.What They Actually BelievedThese attackers were not random and they were not aimless. They had a stated belief system and they wrote it down across roughly forty pages. The label that fits what is on the page is white supremacist accelerationism, with a heavy incel layer running underneath it.White supremacist accelerationism holds that the existing political and social order is too far gone to reform, that white people are being deliberately replaced through immigration, and that the only path forward is to provoke societal collapse and a race war through acts of violence. The older attacker writes in the document that he is “an Accelerationist” who believes “accelerating towards the destruction of our current political system and towards an all-out race war for the purpose of a societal collapse is the only real way forward.” The younger writes that “the only solution to the current state of the world is to accelerate towards the complete and utter collapse of society” and that he wants to “burn this earth down and rebuild it into a new and better society.” Both name the same canon of books they want followers to read: Brenton Tarrant’s manifesto, James Mason’s Siege, William Pierce’s The Turner Diaries, and Hitler’s Mein Kampf. That is the modern white supremacist terrorist reading list, and it is openly traded in their networks.The incel layer is the misogynist subculture they fused with the racial ideology. The older attacker identifies with online incel networks dating back to 2022, venerates Elliot Rodger and what he calls “the Incel saints,” and writes a long section directly attacking women. The younger attacker writes a similar section. This fusion of white supremacist accelerationism with the incel subculture is the same pattern that drove the Buffalo grocery store attack and the Allen, Texas mall attack.The recruitment is happening on platforms your kids are already using, and the document is open about that.The Saint CultureThis is the single most important concept for a youth pastor or parent to understand, because it is the cultural marker that tells you a young person has crossed from edgy internet humor into actual radicalization.These networks elevate past mass killers to “sainthood.” They literally use the word. They build shrines to them, write hymns about them, post their photos as memes, and rank them by body count. The older attacker’s document includes a list of roughly thirty so-called saints. The younger attacker’s section lists about twenty more. Both authors place the Christchurch mosque shooter at the top, calling themselves “Sons of Tarrant.”If a child in your youth group ever says the word “saint” alongside the name of a mass killer, that is the warning sign. If you see the name “Brenton Tarrant,” “Patrick Crusius,” “Payton Gendron,” “John Earnest,” “Dylann Roof,” “Elliot Rodger,” “Robert Bowers,” “Anders Breivik,” “Stephan Balliet,” or “Brandon Russell” appearing on a teenager’s phone, social media, or notebooks in a reverential way, you are looking at active radicalization. These are not edgy jokes. Inside these networks they are religious figures.The “Sons of Tarrant” framing the San Diego attackers used is itself an attempt to launch a new recruitment brand. Their goal, stated openly in the document, was to convince other young men to follow them. The document is a recruitment instrument as much as it is an explanation, and that is why it is being mirrored across these networks now.Where They Live OnlineThe radicalization ecosystem for the San Diego attack and most attacks like it sits inside two platforms: Discord and Telegram. Both have voice chat, video chat, encrypted servers, and the ability to live-stream to small private groups in real time.The image below is a screenshot from the San Diego live-stream itself.***VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED**** [IMAGE 1]: Screenshot from the live-stream on Discord. The interface shown is Discord’s mobile voice and video channel screen. One participant has the camera on, showing what appears to be the interior of the attack vehicle. A second participant is listening with their camera off, identified by an anonymous handle and a hooded-figure avatar. The green border around the active speaker tile is Discord’s standard speaking indicator.This is what radicalization looks like in 2026. It is not a hooded man in a basement reading books. It is a teenager on his phone in his bedroom, on a Discord voice channel with eight or ten other young men who go by anonymous handles, listening to music and trading propaganda edits while one of them eventually decides to act and the rest watch it happen live.Discord is the daily-driver platform. Voice channels, video, screen share, small-group chat. The networks operate as private servers that are nearly impossible for an outsider to access, recruit through smaller public servers, and graduate promising members into the inner servers. The San Diego attackers were streaming the attack itself to a Discord channel of fellow believers when they were stopped.Telegram is the propaganda and reading library. Encrypted broadcast channels with thousands of subscribers, archives of every manifesto, edited videos of past attacks set to music, PDFs of every banned book, and step-by-step ideological training. Counter-terrorism researchers refer to the network of these channels as “Terrorgram.” The older attacker writes that he found his radical reading material on Telegram.There are several other platforms in the ecosystem your youth leader should at least know by name: 4chan and its successor boards (Sharty, Soyjak.party, 8kun, EndChan), where memes and propaganda are workshopped before being pushed to Telegram and Discord; Roblox and Steam group chats, where teenagers are first approached; and various less-known video-game-adjacent chat networks where children as young as twelve are pulled in by older operators. The 764 network specifically operates across many of these platforms.If a young person you know is suddenly spending six to ten hours a day on Discord, has multiple accounts under anonymous handles, refuses to let any adult see their server list, and has a Telegram app they did not have a year ago, that is the ecosystem. Not all of those kids are radicalizing. The ones who are, are in it.The Symbols You Will SeeThese are the visual markers a youth leader, parent, or security team member needs to recognize on a phone case, a hoodie, a notebook, a school binder, or a Discord profile picture. They are not subtle once you know them, but they look like meaningless internet art if you do not.[IMAGE 2]: The Sons of Tarrant cover from the San Diego manifesto, showing the Black Sun (Sonnenrad) symbol with dog tags featuring the Kolovrat at center.The Black Sun, also called the Sonnenrad. Twelve lightning-bolt-shaped rays arranged in a circle around a center. Originally an SS occult symbol installed in the floor at Wewelsburg Castle by Heinrich Himmler. It is now the single most-used white supremacist symbol on earth and was central to the Christchurch attacker’s iconography. The San Diego attackers used it as the centerpiece of both their group logo and their second manifesto cover. If you see this symbol anywhere, it is not a coincidence and it is not aesthetic. It means what it means.The Kolovrat. An eight-armed Slavic sun wheel that looks like four or eight swastikas linked in a circle. Used inside the dog-tag center of the Sons of Tarrant logo. Sometimes claimed as a “pre-Christian heritage” symbol but in modern use it is a coded white supremacist mark.The swastika, often hidden. Direct swastikas are common in these networks, but they also get embedded into other imagery to dodge platform moderation. In the San Diego manifesto, swastikas are placed inside the eye sockets of a skull mask on one of the cover images. Look for it in skull eyes, in geometric patterns, inside other symbols.The skull mask and Atomwaffen aesthetic. Balaclavas, skull-printed face coverings, all-black tactical kit, propaganda imagery built around faceless armed figures. This look comes from the Atomwaffen Division and its successor groups. It is the visual language of accelerationist terrorism. If a teenager is suddenly drawn to this aesthetic in his profile pictures, his clothing, or his art, that is a flag.[IMAGE 3]: The “MisanthropistCEL” manifesto cover, showing the so-called fashwave or neon-fascist aesthetic. Cyberpunk grid background, glowing skull in a tactical helmet with swastikas embedded in the eye sockets, banner reading “Accelerate your hate.”Fashwave, also called neon-fascism. Vaporwave 1980s aesthetics, hot pink and electric yellow gradients, computer grid backgrounds, anime-style mascots, all combined with Nazi symbols and slogans. Phrases like “Accelerate your hate” are signature. This is what the propaganda actually looks like in 2026. It is designed to look cool to a fourteen-year-old, and it works.[IMAGE 4]: The “Death to the World” cover, showing the Black Sun with a radioactive trefoil at the center, signaling nuclear accelerationism.The radioactive trefoil paired with white supremacist symbols. This signals what the networks call “nuclear accelerationism,” the wish for nuclear war as a tool of societal collapse. The combination of the Black Sun and the radiation symbol is a specific marker of this faction.SS lightning bolts and runes. The double-lightning ⚡⚡ of the SS, the Othala rune, the Sig rune, the Tiwaz rune, the Algiz rune. These appear in usernames, profile pictures, and tattoos. Single thunderbolt and arrow combinations are also used as coded versions.The Celtic cross and the sun cross. An equal-armed cross inside a circle. Historic Christian symbol that has been appropriated as a white nationalist mark and is now a primary identifier in these networks.The numbers. 14 stands for the so-called “fourteen words,” a white supremacist slogan. 88 is HH for Heil Hitler. 1488 combines them. 109 refers to a debunked claim about how many countries have expelled Jews. 13/50 or 13/52 is a racist crime statistic trope. If a young person uses any of these numbers in usernames, gamertags, or shorthand, that is not a coincidence.The Language You Will HearThis is the section to read most carefully. Symbols can be hidden. Language is harder to hide, because teenagers talk. Every term below appears in the San Diego manifesto. Every one of them is in active use in these networks today. If you hear any of these words coming out of a young person in your congregation, you have your warning.Saint. Used as a title for past mass killers, as covered above.Sons of Tarrant, SOT. The new self-applied brand from the San Diego attackers, named after the Christchurch killer. May not stick. The category will.Accelerationist, accelerate. Used as both ideology label and command. “Accelerate your hate.” “Total Dropout Revolution.”Day of the Rope. A genocidal scenario from The Turner Diaries in which “race traitors” are mass-hanged. When a teenager uses this phrase, he is referring to a specific fantasy of mass killing.Helter Skelter. Charles Manson’s framing for the race war. Now used by these networks to mean the same thing.ZOG. Stands for Zionist Occupied Government, an antisemitic conspiracy term for the United States and Western governments generally.Groyper. A specific subset of the far-right online movement, named for a frog meme. Not all groypers are violent. The pipeline from groyper humor to accelerationist violence is documented.Chud. Originally an insult thrown at right-wingers, now reclaimed inside these networks as a badge of honor. The older attacker uses it this way explicitly in the manifesto.Goyim, goy, shabbos goy. Antisemitic conspiracy language treating non-Jews as a despised category and using “shabbos goy” to mean a non-Jew who serves Jewish interests in their worldview.NPC, normie, sheep, goyslave. Terms for anyone outside the network. Dehumanizing by design.Race traitor, race mixer, cuckservative. Slurs aimed at white people who do not share the ideology.Foid, femoid. Incel terms for women, designed to dehumanize.Hypergamy, looksmatch, Chad, volcel, incel. The incel vocabulary. If a young man in your group starts using these terms, the incel layer is active.Hyperborea. An esoteric Nazi reference to a mythical white-origin homeland. Code for the ethnostate end goal.Screw your optics, I’m going in. The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s last words on social media before the attack. Now a venerated quote in the networks, repeated in the San Diego manifesto.The slurs themselves. I am listing these because your youth leader needs to recognize them when they come out of a teenager’s mouth: kike (anti-Jewish), nigger (anti-Black), spic (anti-Hispanic), chink (anti-Asian), f****t and fag (anti-gay), tranny (anti-transgender), shitskin (anti-non-white), muzzie and goatfucker (anti-Muslim). Every one of these appears repeatedly in the San Diego manifesto. Every one is in active use in these networks. A young person picking up the language is the audible warning siren.The music and reading list. Genres named in the manifesto: Nightcore (legitimate genre, weaponized by these networks for propaganda edits), Hardtekk (same), and what they call “Incelcore” (a fringe subgenre that is itself a radicalization vector). Bands named in the manifesto: Blackmagick SS, Edelweiss, Curta’n Wall, and the broader NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal) scene. Books named: The Great Replacement by the Christchurch attacker, Siege by James Mason, The Turner Diaries by William Pierce, Mein Kampf, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Industrial Society and Its Future by Ted Kaczynski. If you find any of these in a young person’s possession, that is not curiosity reading. That is the syllabus.Warning Signs in a Young PersonPulling this together into a practical checklist your youth leader can use.Look for the symbols above appearing on his phone case, his clothes, his binders, his social media profile pictures, his gamertag, or his bedroom walls.Listen for the language above coming out of his mouth, in person or in his text messages if a parent has access. One slur dropped at school is one conversation to have. The full vocabulary appearing across weeks is the warning.Watch for changes in online behavior. Six to ten hours a day on Discord. Telegram appearing on his phone. Multiple anonymous accounts. Refusal to let any adult see his screen or his server list. Switching to anonymous handles that include numbers like 14, 88, 109, or 1488.Watch for music shifts into the genres named above, and for any name on his playlist that appears in the manifesto’s musical references.Watch for reading material from the named books, especially if he is trying to hide them.Watch for the “saint” language about any past mass killer.Watch for sudden interest in the skull mask aesthetic, the all-black tactical look, or anime characters being used in profile pictures that have been edited with Nazi symbols.Watch for the misogynist incel vocabulary in conjunction with any of the above. The fusion is what produces attackers.Watch for fixation on collapse, on race war, on the Christchurch attack specifically, or on the Buffalo, Pittsburgh, El Paso, Charleston, or Poway shootings.None of these individually is proof of anything. Two or three together is a conversation. Several together is a serious problem that requires the parents, the pastor, and likely outside resources.Biblical PerspectiveThe church has always had a charge over the minds and hearts of its young. Scripture does not leave it ambiguous.Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (ESV): “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”This is the foundation, and it is the thing every parent and youth leader in the church needs to take seriously right now. The instruction is not to outsource the formation of a child’s worldview to a Sunday morning hour and hope it holds. The instruction is constant. When you sit, when you walk, when you lie down, when you rise. The reason this commandment is given in such intense terms is because the alternative is not nothing. The alternative is that someone else fills that space. In 2026 the someone else is a Discord server, an algorithm, a Telegram channel, and a thirty-year-old in another state with a handle and an agenda. If the home and the church are not actively forming the young person’s mind and heart, that vacancy gets filled by the people on the other side of this article.Proverbs 4:23 (ESV): “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”This is the charge to the young person himself, and it is also the charge to the adults responsible for him. The heart is not a neutral space. What goes in shapes what comes out. A young man who pours six hours a day of accelerationist propaganda into his heart will eventually pour something out, and that something will not be small. The vigilance Proverbs commands is active work, not passive hope. A youth ministry that takes this verse seriously is a youth ministry that knows what its kids are watching, listening to, and reading, and is prepared to step in when something poisonous shows up.The men who attacked the mosque in San Diego were the product of a vacancy that something else filled. The work this article is asking your church to do is the work of refusing to leave that vacancy in your own young people.What to Do When You See ItIf a young person in your congregation is showing the signs above, do not panic and do not confront him with an accusation in front of his peers. That will end the conversation and push him deeper into the network. The network rewards being misunderstood by adults.Do bring his parents in privately. They likely do not know what they are looking at. Use this article to walk them through what you are seeing.Do bring your pastor in. This is a spiritual problem before it is anything else.Do ask the young person open questions. What are you reading. What are you listening to. Who do you talk to online. Who are these people. Do not show alarm at the first answer. Listen.Do offer a real, present, named relationship with a man in the church who can take the time to actually know him. Most of these young men are not radicalizing because they hate. They are radicalizing because they are lonely, mocked, drifting, and finally find a network online that tells them they are special, that their grievances matter, and that they can be heroes. The church can offer something truer to that hunger than Discord can, but only if the church actually shows up.Do escalate to law enforcement if you see any of the following: explicit threats against a specific person or place, weapons in combination with the ideology, expressions of intent to act, planning behavior, a manifesto being drafted, or a reference to a specific date. The local FBI field office handles domestic terrorism tips at 1-800-CALL-FBI and at tips.fbi.gov. They take these calls seriously and have a clear process for them.Do not assume someone else will see it. The mother of the older San Diego attacker called police roughly two hours before the attack, and the warning still did not reach the parking lot in time. If the warning is in your hands and you do not act on it, no one else is going to.Final AssessmentThe men who attacked the mosque in San Diego were not anomalies. They were the visible tip of an online network that is recruiting teenage boys in every state in this country right now, including in the children sitting in your pews on Sunday morning. The ideology has a name, the symbols are identifiable, the language is documentable, and the platforms it lives on are not secret.The church’s youngest people are inside the targeted age range. The church’s security teams will eventually face the graduates of these networks at their own doors. The work of identifying the early signs and intervening before a teenager becomes the next so-called saint is the work of pastors, youth leaders, parents, and security teams together. It is not separate work from church security. It is the upstream half of it.Share this with the youth ministry leader in your church this week. Read it with your pastor. Sit down with your own teenager. The conversation is uncomfortable. The alternative is worse.Leave a commentIf you have seen any of these signs in a young person you know, or if you have a question about identifying something specific, leave it in the comments. Share this article with your youth leader, your pastor, and your team leader. The next teenager headed down this road may be one your church can still reach. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokWhy We’re Covering a Mosque ShootingWe are covering this because Christian congregations need to take this seriously for their own sake. Two attackers targeted a mosque here. The threat to the church runs the other direction just as hard. Jihadist organizations have spent years calling on followers to attack Christians at worship, and they have done it here in the United States. If you run a security team and you watched this thinking it cannot reach your church, you are thinking the same way every undefended target thinks right up until it becomes one.Three men were murdered outside a mosque on Monday morning. Some of you already know what the comments will say when I cover this, so I will say my piece first.I see three men who did not get a chance to come to Christ. They were made in the image of God, and two teenagers full of hate ended their lives in a parking lot.The Bible is direct about what that means.Genesis 1:27 (ESV): “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”Genesis 9:6 (ESV): “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”Every man killed Monday carried that image. We do not get to treat the loss as smaller because the name on the building was different than ours.Study this. Then go look at your own parking lot.The History of This SiteThe Islamic Center of San Diego has a history that goes well past Monday, and this audience needs it on the record. Two of the September 11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, lived in this Clairemont area in early 2000 while they were inside the country preparing for the attack that killed nearly 3,000 Americans. The 9/11 Joint Inquiry found, based on FBI reporting, that San Diego imam Anwar al-Awlaki, who later became one of al-Qaeda’s most effective recruiters and was killed in a 2011 American strike, became their spiritual advisor and held closed-door meetings with them during that period. The record places al-Awlaki’s own mosque most precisely at the nearby Masjid Ar-Ribat al-Islami, and the connection to the Islamic Center of San Diego runs through the hijackers living in this community and the assistance the 9/11 Commission documented them receiving inside San Diego’s Muslim community while they were here.The mosque’s current imam and director, Taha Hassane, drew national criticism for his response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. In a sermon on October 20, 2023, reported by the Washington Free Beacon and other outlets, Hassane said that when people are occupied the resistance is justified, and that the one defending himself is not the terrorist. The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Rabbi Abraham Cooper condemned his sermons and posts on the attack. His wife, Lallia Allali, resigned from a University of San Diego position and a San Diego Union-Tribune advisory board after posting an antisemitic image online following October 7. Those are the documented facts about the institution and its leadership. Read them and weigh them as you see fit.What HappenedOn Monday, May 18, 2026, at about 11:43 a.m., the San Diego Police Department received reports of an active shooter at the Islamic Center of San Diego, the largest mosque in San Diego County, in the Clairemont neighborhood. The property also houses the Al Rashid School, which teaches children from age five. Officers reached the scene in about four minutes and found three men shot dead in front of the mosque. One was the mosque’s security guard. The other two were staff members of the school.The warning had come in roughly two hours earlier. At about 9:42 a.m., the mother of the 17-year-old attacker called police to report her son missing. She said he was suicidal, was last seen in camouflage, and that her vehicle and several of her firearms were gone. She believed he was with another teenager. Officers were already working that information, using license plate readers and checking locations she identified, when the call came in from the mosque. They moved straight to it.As officers ran an active shooter response through the mosque and the adjoining school, gunfire was reported a few blocks away. A landscaper working in the area was shot at and survived, with a round reportedly deflected by his helmet. Less than a quarter mile from him, police found a vehicle stopped in the middle of the street with the two attackers dead inside from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The 17-year-old and the 18-year-old had taken weapons from a parent’s home. Anti-Islamic writing was found in the vehicle, hate speech was written on one of the firearms, and a suicide note contained writings about racial pride. The police chief said there was no specific threat to the Islamic Center in the note, that the language was general hate speech, and that the case is being investigated as a hate crime. No officers fired a shot. Every child on the property was evacuated safely, and no children were among the dead.All three victims were killed outside. Not one person inside the mosque was shot, and the school full of children came out alive. The fight happened at the perimeter, it was met at the perimeter, and it never got past the man standing at the entrance.Lessons for Church Security TeamsThe Fight Is in the Parking LotEverything in this attack happened outside the building, and that is not an accident of this case. It is the pattern. The attackers came across the lot and to the entrance, and that is where the killing took place and where it stopped. Treat the parking lot as the incident itself, not the lead-up to it. If your security plan only starts working once someone is through the front doors, your plan starts too late. The men who died Monday died in the open, and the people who lived were the ones behind a defended threshold. Your team’s attention, your camera coverage, and your first decision point all belong in the lot, not the lobby.Visible and Uniformed, Not PlainclothesThe man who slowed this attack was posted and visible at the place the threat had to come through. There is a strong pull in the church security world toward concealed, plainclothes teams, and I have never understood it as a deterrent, because deterrence requires being seen. The person planning to walk onto your property runs his own assessment from the lot before he commits. If he looks across that lot and sees nothing, he reads a green light. If he sees a posted, uniformed presence watching him, he has to account for it, and a large share of these attackers break off or fall apart once the math changes on them. You do not deter anyone from the third row in street clothes. You deter from the curb, in the open, while he is still deciding. If it does go to gunfire, the uniform still works for you. A uniformed figure holding his ground carries an authority that a man in a polo drawing a pistol does not, and that weight is real in a chaotic event. It also keeps your own people from being shot by responding officers, who are far less likely to mistake a clearly identified security member for the attacker.Armed Is Not the Standard. Winning the Two-Second Problem Is.The guard was armed, and that is the entire reason I keep preaching the Bill Drill. It is the single best drill you can run to prepare for exactly what that man faced. Square up on the target, set a timer, draw, and put six rounds in the A-zone of an IPSC target in under two seconds. That standard is not arbitrary. Average human reaction time is already around a second and a half. The attacker has the initiative and you are reacting to him, so by the time your brain registers the threat and your hand moves, most of your two seconds is already spent. If you cannot draw and deliver six accurate rounds inside that window, you are shot before you ever solve the problem. Carrying a gun into the sanctuary does not make you ready for this. Being able to win that two-second problem on demand makes you ready. Run it cold, on a timer, until two seconds is real and not a hope.Plan for Two, Because the Second One Is the AccelerantTwo attackers acting together is rare, and the research record barely holds examples. In the modern record of mass school shootings, only two were carried out by two gunmen, and the rest were lone actors. Outside schools, the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks and the 2015 San Bernardino attack are about the only paired mass attacks that come up. The pattern inside that short list is the part worth teaching. When two people do this together, it is never two strangers who met that morning. It is a bonded pair: two best friends, a married couple, an older man and the teenager he pulled in. This case fits the same mold, two teenagers who dressed alike and built it together. The second person is not a bystander to the planning. The second person is the reason it moved from talk to action. Most of these individuals never do it alone. Build your response for more than one attacker, more than one point of entry, and more than one direction of fire, because the lone gunman you train for is not the only thing that walks across the lot.The Warning Existed and Never Reached the TargetA credible warning was in the system roughly two hours before the first shot. A mother told police her suicidal son was gone with her car and several guns and was likely with another teenager. Police believed her, and they were already hunting the vehicle when the shooting started. It still arrived. That gap, between a known and believed threat and the specific place that threat was driving toward, is the hardest problem in this entire incident. Your team cannot assume that because someone in authority knows, the warning will reach your parking lot in time. Build your own detection and your own decision-making as if no one is going to call ahead, because on Monday, no one did.SB 1454 and the Right to Defend Your Own CongregationThere is a legal layer here that California security teams need to understand. SB 1454 took effect January 1, 2025, and it removed the long-standing exemption that let churches and other nonprofits run their own security outside state regulation. Under it, paid unarmed security personnel must register through the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, the church becomes the registered employer, and armed personnel must operate under a Private Patrol Operator license with a state firearms permit and a concealed carry license. The bureau has declined to state plainly that volunteer church security is exempt. Set the policy fight aside for a moment and look at the security cost. The pressure this law creates is pushing some churches to strip the word Security off the shirts and go plainclothes to stay clear of the bureau. That buys a legal cushion and a tactical defeat at the same time. The man in the parking lot Monday was deterred by what he could see, not by what the building was licensed to do. A church should solve a licensing problem through the licensing process, not by erasing the one thing in the lot that makes an attacker reconsider. When the state makes it harder for a congregation to protect itself at the door, the congregation does not become safer. It becomes the target that comes out alive only by accident.Biblical PerspectiveSet aside who was standing where on Monday and look at the ground itself. These attacks are decided outside, at the approach and the door, in the few feet of pavement a security member is given to cover. That is the ground Scripture speaks to, and the passage for it is not the one most people reach for.2 Samuel 23:11-12 (ESV): “And next to him was Shammah, the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the men fled from the Philistines. But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines, and the LORD worked a great victory.”Shammah is barely a footnote in the account of David’s mighty men. What he is remembered for is simple. Everyone else ran from a fight over a field that did not look worth dying for. He took his stand in the middle of it and held. The ground you are given to hold is rarely dramatic. It is a door, a walkway, a stretch of asphalt between the cars and the entrance. It will not look like much until the morning it is everything. When that morning comes you will not choose the ground and you will not get a warning you can count on. You will get the post you were given and the decision to stand on it. The text does not say Shammah held because he was the strongest man in the field. It says he took his stand and the Lord worked the victory through it.1 Corinthians 16:13 (ESV): “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”That is Paul’s closing charge to believers, and it is the charge to the man who stands at the door of his own church. Be watchful is the parking lot. Stand firm in the faith is the conviction underneath the resolve, something settled long before the threat appears. Act like men is the decision made in the handful of seconds you will have and not a second more. Be strong is what you put the work in to build before it is ever asked of you. This is written to you, for your church and your people. When you walk your lot, walk it as a man who has already decided he will not be the one who runs.Final AssessmentThree men were murdered at a mosque with a documented and troubling history, by two teenagers who built a hateful plan together and died by their own hands before anyone but the man at the door could stop them. Those two facts sit in the same incident and neither one cancels the other. The history of that institution is real and it is on the record. So is the fact that the men killed were a guard and two school staff, and that the people the attackers most wanted to reach, the children, walked out alive.For church security teams the instruction is narrow and hard. The fight is in the parking lot. Visible presence deters and concealment does not. An armed guard is only as good as his ability to win a two-second problem under stress. Plan for more than one attacker. And do not assume a warning will reach you in time, because in this case it did not, even with police already hunting the car.This review is about three deaths and not the children inside because the fight stayed outside and never got past the entrance. That is the doctrine in one line: armed, posted, and visible at the perimeter, with people trained to win the first seconds. Build your team to that standard so that when it is their door, the line holds.Leave a commentIf this was useful, leave a comment with what your team would do differently after reading it, and share it with your pastor or your team leader. These conversations are how congregations get ready before the morning it counts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokWEEKLY ROLL CALL BRIEFING · WRCB-26-19 Week Ending May 15, 2026 · Threat Level: YELLOW (Elevated)This week the Roll Call holds the line at YELLOW. AQAP released a new English-language Inspire video calling Muslims in the West to remain in place and conduct lone-wolf attacks. A federal court sentenced a Michigan man to 20 years for ISIS support and possession of a TATP bomb the FBI pulled off the street in 2017. Three church-targeted criminal incidents broke open in three different states, including direct threats sent to a church youth group in South Carolina. The training focus this week is vehicle and pedestrian protection, driven by the Millbrook crash that took a driver’s life when his pickup ran through the front of a church on Friday morning.We also announce the launch of the Christian Warrior SAR Bulletin, a new weekly product covering Suspicious Activity Reports submitted through the CWT portal. First edition publishes this Sunday.LINKSSubmit a Suspicious Activity Report → alert.christianwarriortraining.com Saturday Church Crime Newsletter → christianwarriortraining.com Christian Warrior Training → christianwarriortraining.comFOR SAFETY MINISTRY TEAMSThe Weekly Roll Call Briefing is a written intelligence product for church safety team leaders, published each week for use at Sunday team meetings. Take the briefing into your meeting, work through the discussion prompts together, and dismiss to posts.SHARE THIS WITH YOUR TEAMLeave a comment below. Forward this episode to your pastor and your team leader. If your church does not yet have a safety ministry, this is a good first conversation to start. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokIf this information helps you, please consider a paid subscription. If I can get 10% of subscribers to do a paid subscription, I can do even more to protect churches in the U.S. and abroad. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokROLL CALL BRIEFING DOWNLOAD BELOW👇A majority wanted the new format, but I heard from a few that it was hard to print. I get that, so I changed it slightly to make it easier to print. please take the poll so I know which way to go. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect all churches.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokSaturday night in Washington, D.C., a 31-year-old man named Cole Tomas Allen tried to walk into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. He charged the Secret Service checkpoint, opened fire, and put a round into a federal agent’s chest plate. The agent survived because he was wearing his vest. Allen was tackled, handcuffed, and is now in custody.The President and First Lady were inside that ballroom. So were members of the Cabinet, senators, and journalists. Allen wanted them. He did not get them. He got stopped at the door.Let’s set the politics and press coverage aside. The Hilton was a hard target with professional security at the entry point. Allen was a determined lone actor and the team at the door shut him down. That is what your team is supposed to do at your church on Sunday morning. The reason this matters for every church in America is what Allen would have done if that checkpoint had not been there.The ShooterAllen is from Torrance, California. He has no criminal record. He earned a mechanical engineering degree from Caltech in 2017 and a master’s in computer science from Cal State Dominguez Hills in 2025. He worked the past six years as a tutor at C2 Education and was named Teacher of the Month in December 2024. He looked like a quiet, employed young man. No flags.He legally bought a .38 semiautomatic pistol in October 2023 and a 12-gauge shotgun in August 2025. He stored both at his parents’ house without their knowledge. His sister told federal investigators he had been making increasingly radical statements over the last several months, talking about doing “something” about the issues in today’s world. He trained at the range regularly. None of his coworkers, students, or parents saw it coming. Before the attack he sent a written manifesto to family. His brother in Connecticut called New London PD. The warning came in minutes before he charged the checkpoint.Federal law enforcement and the President publicly confirmed Sunday that Allen’s social media accounts contained anti-Christian rhetoric, and that his writings reflected what the President called a “religious” motive that was “strongly anti-Christian.” The specific posts have not been released yet.There is one detail in this profile that I want every pastor and youth ministry leader in America to read twice. During his undergraduate years at Caltech, Cole Allen was listed as a member of a Christian fellowship group on campus. He sat in those rooms. Somewhere between 2017 and Saturday night, that young man’s heart turned far enough that he loaded a shotgun and drove across the country to kill people he believed were the enemy. We will come back to that.Why This Matters for Your ChurchThe Washington Hilton on Saturday night was a hard target. Magnetometers at the door. Secret Service inside and outside. Local police, federal agents, K-9 teams. Allen still tried it because the President was inside. He did not succeed because the team at the door did its job.Now think about a lone actor with the same hatred Allen had who does not have the appetite to charge a Secret Service line. He looks at the federal building downtown. He looks at the Hilton. Then he looks at the small Baptist church on the corner with two greeters at the door, the parking lot wide open, and the front doors propped during the service. He picks the church.That is the operational logic of every lone wolf attack we have studied. A hard target pushes the threat to a softer one. The threat does not go away. It moves. A man willing to die rushing the President’s security detail Saturday night is a man willing to walk into a worship service Sunday morning and not stop until the magazine runs dry. The team at the door is what stands between him and that morning.The Lord told us this directly. “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16, ESV) Wisdom and watchfulness are not optional for the people of God. They are commanded.The Pipeline Pointing at UsFor more than a year on this platform we have documented left-leaning influencers, podcasters, and online voices openly calling on lone actors to target churches instead of regular Americans. The framing is always some version of the same instruction. Don’t hurt regular people. Hurt the Christians, the conservatives, the politicians. The message is published. The audience is real.That message is operationally identical to the lone wolf doctrine ISIS publishes in al-Naba and pushes through its supporter networks. Different ideology. Same instruction. Same target. Pick the soft target. Pick the symbolic target. Pick the people who will not fight back. Both pipelines now point at the same buildings, and yours is one of them.Cole Allen attended a “No Kings” rally earlier this year and family identified him as a member of a group called The Wide Awakes. He spent his radicalization online, in the same digital space where the church-as-target message circulates daily. We may never see the specific posts that pushed him over the line. We already know the soil he grew in.The Insider and the Young BelieverThis is the section I want every pastor reading this article to take to his next staff meeting.Cole Allen was once part of a Christian fellowship group. He was in our world. Then somewhere along the way he was pulled into nihilism, political rage, and hatred deep enough to put a gun in his hand. That did not happen overnight. It happened over years, in lonely hours, in his social media feeds, while no one in his church world was watching for it.The insider threat to the American church is not always the visitor at the door. Sometimes it is the young man who used to come on Sunday and stopped, and nobody followed up. The young woman whose worldview hardened semester by semester at college and her parents thought it was a phase. The teenager who is six hours a day on platforms designed to feed him rage and despair, and whose youth pastor is one of three adults in his life with the standing to ask hard questions.Our youth ministry leaders need training. Not retreat-planning training. Training in how to recognize the early signs of ideological capture in a young believer. Sudden shifts in language and worldview. Withdrawal from fellowship. New online identities. Dark humor about violence. Contempt for the church they grew up in. Following voices online that tell them the system has to burn. These are warning signs and they are showing up earlier and louder every year.The security team at the door is the last line. The youth pastor in the small group room is the first one. We need both. The team that watches the parking lot is doing the visible work. The leader who notices a kid drifting and walks toward him with the gospel is doing the harder work, and the more important one. We are losing young people to the algorithm faster than we are reaching them with the word, and the consequences of that are no longer theoretical.If your church does not have a youth ministry plan that addresses online radicalization, build one. If your youth leaders cannot tell you what their kids are watching, what platforms they are on, and who they are following, that is the gap. Close it.The Lesson for the DoorA few things to take to your team this week.The lone wolf does not announce his timing. Allen’s family had minutes of warning and only because he sent a manifesto first. Most attackers do not send one. The team on duty is the warning system.The lone wolf picks the soft target. If your church is the softest building on the block, that math goes against you. Magnetometers are not realistic for most congregations, but visible badges, locked side doors, a posted greeter team, and a security presence in the parking lot send a message to a man scanning targets that this church will cost him.The lone wolf studies you before he comes. If a stranger has been on your property three Sundays in a row sitting in the back, watching the room, and leaving before the sermon, your team should know about it by Sunday number two.The lone wolf is sometimes someone we used to know. Watch the parking lot. Watch the youth lounge. Watch the kid who used to come and stopped. Stay in relationship long enough that his family or his friends would call you before they call the police.The WordThe world this morning is loud. The political fights are pulling at the heart of every believer who watched what happened in Washington Saturday night. The temptation is to live there, in the rage and the noise, and let the next attack pull us out of joint all over again.The Apostle Paul wrote this to Christians who lived in the middle of empire, persecution, and uncertainty. It is the right word for the church security team this Sunday morning.“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”Colossians 3:1–2, ESVWe will guard the door. We will train the team. We will watch the parking lot, watch the youth lounge, and watch our brothers and sisters who are drifting toward danger. We do that work with our hands. Our minds and hearts stay set above. The Lord owns the day. We do this work because we belong to Him.Stand at the door. Stay alert. Keep your eyes on Christ.Did this article reach you? Share it with your pastor and your team leader. Drop a comment below. What is your church doing to train youth ministry leaders on online radicalization? We learn from each other in this space. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please consider upgrading your subscription to help those churches that cannot afford this.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokROLL CALL BRIEFING DOWNLOAD BELOW👇I have a class coming up in the next few weeks. If you are in the general area, come join me and make your security team great again. Don’t forget to follow me on whatever social media platform you are on.BRIEFING DOWNLOAD BELOW THE POLL👇 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this possible. Please conside upgrading your subscription to help those churches that cannot afford this type of training and intelligence.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokI’m Coming to Florida: Christian Warrior Academy, May 2, 2026Christian Warriors, if you are anywhere in the Southeast and you have a church security team, or you are trying to build one, I want you in Inverness, Florida on Saturday, May 2, 2026.I am teaching a full-day Christian Warrior Training course at Cornerstone Baptist Church from 9 AM to 4 PM. This is not a meet-and-greet. This is a brain dump. Seven hours of church security work pulled from my 29 years in law enforcement, including narcotics and SWAT, and from everything I have built training teams across the country.What We’re CoveringYou are going to walk out with the framework, the doctrine, and the practical steps to go home and fix what needs fixing on your team.We will work through recognizing pre-attack indicators before a situation turns violent. We will build out what a comprehensive church security team actually looks like, including roles, assignments, and accountability. We will go deep on access control, surveillance, and how to monitor a service without turning your church into a fortress.We will talk through use-of-force, legal exposure, and liability, which is where most teams get themselves in trouble. We will discuss how to actually coordinate with local law enforcement so that when something happens, they are not walking in blind. And we will talk about the culture piece, because a church that feels like an airport checkpoint has lost something important.Who Needs to Be TherePastors. Elders. Security team leaders and members. Ushers and greeters, because they are your first line of contact. Volunteers who want to serve this way. Faith-based school staff. Ministry leaders. And any law enforcement partners who want to understand how to better support the churches in their jurisdiction.Whether you are starting from zero or you have a team that has been running for years and needs a tune-up, you will leave with work to do and the tools to do it.Why I’m Telling You This DirectlyI do not get to the Southeast often. I am based in the western United States and my travel schedule is what it is. I do not know when I will be back in Florida to teach a full-day course like this. If you have been meaning to come to a CWT training in person, this is your chance.I am going to make it worth your time.The DetailsEvent: Christian Warrior Training - Securing Sacred Spaces Date: Saturday, May 2, 2026 Time: 9 AM to 4 PM Location: Cornerstone Baptist Church, 1100 West Highland Boulevard, Inverness, FL 34452 Host: Right To Bear AssociationRegistration: This will not be televised, in person only.Use promo code CWT to attend for FREE.Seats are limited. Register now, then make your travel plans.Bring Your TeamIf you are a team leader, do not come alone. Bring your second. Bring your whole team if you can drive in together. The training compounds when more than one person from the same team hears the same material at the same time. You will leave the parking lot already building your plan.Nehemiah 4:9 tells us, “And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.” Prayer and preparation. Both. Always.I will see you May 2 in Inverness.Remember your ABCs. Always Be Carrying (seriously, I’m going to ask you what you’re carrying).Leave a comment below if you are planning to come — I want to know who to look for. And please share this post with your pastor and your team leader. Someone in your network needs to be in that room. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Christian Warrior Training is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokI have a class coming up in the next few weeks. If you are in the general area, come join me and make your security team great again. Don’t forget to follow me on whatever social media platform you are on. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

The best way to help Christian Warrior Training in its mission is to upgrade your subscription.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokI have two classes coming up in the next few weeks. If you are in the general area, come join me and make your security team great again. Don’t forget to follow me on whatever social media platform you are on. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

If this roll call briefing helps you, please consider upgrading your subscription to help us protect churches everywhere.Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Threads | TikTokI have two classes coming up in the next few weeks. If you are in the general area, come join me and make your security team great again. Don’t forget to follow me on whatever social media platform you are on. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

If you find this briefing helpful in defending your church, please consider a paid subscription.Weekly Roll Call Briefing — April 3, 2026 | Paywall Removed at Condition REDWe are at Condition RED heading into Easter weekend, and this week’s Weekly Roll Call Briefing reflects it.The briefing covers active IS targeting of churches confirmed in the 2026 DNI Annual Threat Assessment, Iran-linked attacks on Jewish institutions already underway in Europe, a 16-year-old arrested in the UK with a suicide vest and homemade explosives, weaponized commercial drones in active cartel use, and eight violent incidents against churches across the United States this week including a deacon beaten nearly to death and an Easter Sunday shooting threat against a Black congregation in Florida. The Training Focus this week is securing outdoor events and baptisms, with Easter sunrise services and public gatherings directly in view.The Roll Call Briefing is ordinarily part of the paid subscriber package. While we are at Condition RED, we are removing the paywall. Your safety team leader needs this information in hand before Sunday, and that matters more than the subscription wall right now. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

We removed the paywall during the current increased threat level. Paid subscriptions make all of this possible. Please consider upgrading to paid.The infographics for this week’s training are below for your use.Paywall note: I removed the paywall on this week’s Roll Call Briefing because of the current situation with Iran and the elevated threat environment for churches. I want every church to have access to this information.This post includes a video of me delivering the briefing, plus the downloadable PDF below. Use whichever works best for your team: watch the video together, review the PDF together, or do both.Normally, this weekly roll call briefing is an added benefit for paid subscribers. Most of this information is available across the site, I’m simply packaging it in one place to make it easy for Safety Ministry leaders to brief their teams. I will not put critical intelligence behind a paywall. We also provide free training to churches, you can access it anytime by using the Training link above.DON’T FORGET TO JOIN OUR WARRIOR BIBLE STUDY EACH WEEK. SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THEM BY EMAIL.INFOGRAPHICS👇 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

We removed the paywall during the current increased threat level. Paid subscriptions help us keep Christian Warrior running.The infographics for this week’s training are below for your use.Paywall note: I removed the paywall on this week’s Roll Call Briefing because of the current situation with Iran and the elevated threat environment for churches. I want every church to have access to this information.This post includes a video of me delivering the briefing, plus the downloadable PDF below. Use whichever works best for your team: watch the video together, review the PDF together, or do both.Normally, this weekly roll call briefing is an added benefit for paid subscribers. Most of this information is available across the site, I’m simply packaging it in one place to make it easy for Safety Ministry leaders to brief their teams. I will not put critical intelligence behind a paywall. We also provide free training to churches, you can access it anytime by using the Training link above.DON’T FORGET TO JOIN OUR WARRIOR BIBLE STUDY EACH WEEK. SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THEM BY EMAIL.INFOGRAPHICS👇 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

If this assessment helped you, please consider a paid subscription. It helps us in our mission to protect churches.Attack at Michigan Synagogue: What Churches Should Learn From Today’s IncidentToday a serious attack unfolded at a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The incident occurred at Temple Israel, one of the largest Reform Jewish congregations in the United States. The synagogue sits on a large campus and includes an early childhood center and preschool, meaning young children were present on site during the incident.According to early reporting, a suspect rammed a vehicle into the building and entered armed with a rifle. The vehicle caught fire after the crash and there were reports of possible explosive materials associated with the vehicle. A security officer was struck by the vehicle during the attack and transported to the hospital.Security personnel engaged the attacker and stopped him. The suspect is dead.Most importantly, no children from the preschool or early childhood center were injured.That detail alone changes how churches should look at this incident.This was not simply an attack against a worship service. This was an attack against a religious campus with children present.There is another detail worth noting. The FBI Detroit field office had posted earlier this year about conducting active shooter preparedness training at the synagogue in January. That shows the congregation was not ignoring the threat environment.Preparation does not guarantee an attack will never happen. What preparation can do is increase the chances that the attack is stopped quickly.Based on the early information available, that appears to be what happened here.Share this bulletin to other Christians. What Churches Should Learn From ThisThere are several lessons churches should take from this incident.First, the attack did not begin as a typical active shooter scenario. It began as a vehicle assault. The attacker used a car to breach the building before the shooting began.That means churches need to think about vehicle access to their buildings.A simple question every church security team should ask right now is this:How close can a vehicle get to your main entrance?Many churches spend time thinking about armed threats but very little time thinking about vehicles. Yet vehicle attacks are becoming increasingly common around the world because they are easy to execute and difficult to stop without physical barriers.Second, this incident highlights the risk associated with church campuses that include childcare or preschool programs.Temple Israel has a long running early childhood center serving young children. Many churches operate similar programs. These ministries are wonderful and necessary, but they also create a different security environment.A church with a nursery, preschool, or daycare is not simply a place of worship. It becomes a mixed use campus that may be occupied throughout the week.That leads to the third lesson.This attack happened during weekday operations, not during a Sunday service.Many churches build their security plans around Sunday morning crowds. But offices, counseling sessions, preschools, and ministry programs often operate during the week with far fewer security personnel present.Those weekday hours can become a vulnerability if churches do not plan for them.Another lesson from this incident appears to be the role of immediate armed response. Security personnel at the synagogue confronted the attacker and stopped him. While one security officer was injured when struck by the vehicle, the attacker was prevented from continuing deeper into the building.That likely prevented a far worse outcome.This reinforces something I have said for years when working with church security teams:Police are minutes away.Security teams are already there.Finally, this incident shows the danger of layered attacks.The attacker used a vehicle. There was gunfire. There was fire from the vehicle crash. There were reports of possible explosives.Church security planning needs to recognize that incidents rarely unfold exactly the way we imagine them.Prepared teams think through multiple possibilities instead of preparing for only one scenario.The Larger Environment We Are Living InIt is important to understand that this attack did not occur in a vacuum.Right now the world is experiencing a period of heightened hostility toward both Jewish and Christian communities. Extremist rhetoric has become increasingly open about targeting religious groups.In recent months there have been repeated calls from various extremist actors encouraging attacks against Jews and Christians. These calls circulate widely online and often inspire individuals who want to act on their own.Religious institutions have become symbolic targets.Earlier this week I warned that we were in an environment where an attack was likely to occur. Unfortunately, today we saw one.Churches need to recognize that the threat environment has changed. That does not mean believers should live in fear. It does mean churches should take security seriously and prepare wisely.JOIN US FOR OUR WARRIOR BIBLE STUDY. SIGN UP HEREWhat the Bible Says About Times Like ThisScripture teaches that followers of God should not be surprised when opposition arises.Jesus said in John 15:20:“If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”Christians throughout history have faced hostility simply for following Christ. The Bible does not hide that reality.At the same time, Scripture calls believers to remain alert and watchful.1 Peter 5:8 says:“Be sober minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”Being watchful is not about fear. It is about awareness.Believers are called to keep their eyes open, understand the times they are living in, and respond with wisdom.Jesus also spoke about discerning the times in Luke 12:54–56. His point was that people can often read the weather but fail to recognize what is happening around them spiritually and culturally.Christians today should avoid that mistake.The world may grow more hostile to people of faith, but that does not change the mission of the church. It simply means churches must pursue that mission with both faith and discernment.A Final Thought for ChurchesToday’s attack should not be viewed as a problem unique to synagogues.It should be viewed as a warning for all religious institutions.Churches are open places by design. That openness is part of their ministry. But openness does not mean ignoring the realities of the world.Security teams exist so congregations can gather, worship, and serve others safely.Events like today’s remind us why that work matters. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

If you find that this helps you protect your church, please consider a paid subscription. It helps us make content like this to help protect churches. Why I’m Reposting This InterviewTwo years ago I interviewed a retired Joint Terrorism Task Force investigator who spent years working Hezbollah cases. With the current tensions involving Iran and its proxy networks, the information in this interview is still highly relevant.Many of you joined the channel after this was originally published, and this conversation explains how these networks operate and why churches should understand the threat environment.What This Interview Covers✅ How Hezbollah cells operate inside the United States✅ How terrorist networks fund themselves through criminal activity✅ Why churches can become symbolic targets✅ How surveillance and reconnaissance often happen before an attack✅ How sleeper cells are structured and activated✅ Why situational awareness inside churches mattersIf you are responsible for protecting a church or serving on a safety team, this interview will give you a better understanding of how these networks think and operate. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Help us protect churches by upgrading your subscription. It is how we keep CWT running!LINKS FOR GEAR AT BOTTOMonight I will be hosting a short live session to discuss the current conflict involving Iran and what it could mean for churches here in the United States.International conflicts often create ripple effects at home. When tensions rise between the United States and hostile regimes, security agencies begin watching for retaliation, proxy activity, and lone actor threats. Churches are sometimes included in these concerns because they are open gatherings with predictable schedules.During this livestream I will walk through the latest developments, discuss the realistic risks churches should understand right now, and look at what Scripture teaches about protecting the innocent. We will also spend some time looking at Romans 13 and what it means when the Bible speaks about restraining evil.The goal of this discussion is awareness and discernment so that churches can remain open, continue worshiping Christ, and operate with wisdom during uncertain times.GEAR LINKS* My “homework” bag that holds my PDW & has body armor inside* T shirt body armor under $300* My encrypted comms* My Glock 45 MOS* My recommended rifle I do recommend putting a different brace on it This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

The roll call briefing is a benefit to those that are gaciously providing a paid subscription to help CWT reach more people. There is no paywall this week due to terror developments.Paywall note: I removed the paywall on this week’s Roll Call Briefing because of the current situation with Iran and the elevated threat environment for churches. I want every church to have access to this information.This post includes a video of me delivering the briefing, plus the downloadable PDF below. Use whichever works best for your team: watch the video together, review the PDF together, or do both.Normally, this weekly roll call briefing is an added benefit for paid subscribers. Most of this information is available across the site, I’m simply packaging it in one place to make it easy for Safety Ministry leaders to brief their teams. I will not put critical intelligence behind a paywall. We also provide free training to churches, you can access it anytime by using the Training link above.DON’T FORGET TO JOIN OUR WARRIOR BIBLE STUDY EACH WEEK. SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THEM BY EMAIL. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Christian Warrior is made possible thanks to paid subscribers. Without them, none of this would be possible. Thank you!What We Covered in This Live SessionIn this briefing, we discussed:* The recent Iranian fatwa calling for violence against Americans and what that means in practical terms.* The risk of lone actors responding to ideological calls for violence.* Hezbollah’s presence inside the United States and the possibility of proxy activity.* Recent violent incidents in D.C. and Austin and why we monitor without speculation.* Why churches remain potential symbolic and practical targets.* The difference between structured terrorist networks and unstructured homegrown extremists.* Why we should expect an increase in isolated attacks during periods of international conflict.We also covered practical posture adjustments for churches:* Reviewing safety team roles before every service.* Increasing visibility at controlled entry points and in parking areas.* Securing side and rear doors.* Conducting exterior sweeps during transition times.* Confirming radio and backup communications.* Maintaining a calm, professional presence.* Communicating clearly with the congregation about security.Finally, we addressed the biblical foundation for preparedness, including:* Psalm 144, training under God’s authority.* Ecclesiastes 3, recognizing the season we are in.* Mark 13:33, remaining watchful.The goal is not fear. The goal is readiness, discernment, and faithfulness without turning the church into a bunker. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

This newsletter happens because of paid subscriptions. If this helps you, please consider upgrading your subscription.OPERATIONAL ADDENDUM-Weekly Roll Call BriefingWeek Ending March 6, 2026Threat Level: HIGH (ORANGE) – MaintainedSituational UpdateOvernight developments confirm active military conflict between the United States and Iran. Israeli leadership losses are being reported and Iran has launched missile strikes at regional targets.At this time, there are no confirmed, specific threats directed at U.S. churches.This addendum supplements the March 6 Weekly Roll Call Briefing. The original guidance remains in effect.What This Means for Church SecurityWar involving Iran does not automatically translate into domestic attacks. However, historical patterns show elevated risk in four areas:• Proxy network activation or sympathizer activity• Lone actor radicalization influenced by online messaging• Cyber disruption or infrastructure interference• Demonstrations tied to Middle East escalationThis is an awareness adjustment, not a panic adjustment. Do not do anything that impedes new people coming to worship at your church. We must be open and welcoming and not turn our churches into a bunker. New people will be turning to Christ this week and we will not impede that.Operational Reinforcement for This WeekMaintain HIGH (ORANGE) posture.• Confirm exterior coverage before, during, and after services• Verify radio function and backup communication plans• Monitor parking areas and perimeter behavior more closely• Document suspicious surveillance or drone activity• Ensure leadership contact lists and law enforcement coordination are currentNo additional restrictions are required at this time unless local conditions dictate otherwise.Leadership ReminderCalm leadership is critical. Congregations will hear headlines. Safety teams must not mirror anxiety. We remain disciplined, observant, and steady.The original roll call briefing remains active and should still be used for team discussion. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Paid subscribers make this article possible. It cost lot of money to keep CWT moving and you make that possible! Christian Warrior Training is banned from posting on YouTube for another week. I can’t post this video there, but the information is very important. Please pass this on to others so they can learn from this incident. A Potential Active Shooter Stopped at the Door: Sacramento, Ash Wednesday 2026On Ash Wednesday in East Sacramento, a 20 year old man returned to St. Mary’s Church during a school Mass with a loaded handgun. Earlier that day he had dropped off a younger sibling. He came back armed.An off duty Sacramento police detective was on campus as a volunteer parent observer. He was not there casually. He had an assignment. While monitoring the area, he saw the young man attempting to enter the church during the service.The detective intervened before the suspect could gain entry. A loaded handgun was recovered. Additional ammunition and a camouflage jacket were later located. After the arrest, investigators found handwritten notes at the suspect’s home that referenced violence and contained threats. Prosecutors described the evidence as preparation for a violent incident.No shots were fired. No one was injured. The incident ended at the threshold.That is the detail that should hold your attention. It ended at the door.The detective did not stumble into success. He was functioning under a defined role. He was present with purpose.Churches often confuse attendance with security. A few men standing near the back wall is not a plan. Assignment creates clarity. Clarity creates attention. Attention prevents tragedy.If you want to replicate this outcome, you must formalize responsibility. Who is covering exterior approach. Who is observing the parking lot during children’s programming. Who is watching the vestibule. Who is mobile inside the sanctuary. If no one owns it, no one truly watches it.This was not luck. It was structure.Situational Awareness Is a DisciplineMost people miss two critical steps in prevention. They fail to recognize the anomaly, or they recognize it and hesitate.Situational awareness is not a personality trait. It is trained pattern recognition. It means understanding what “normal” looks like for your church so that “not normal” stands out immediately.In this case, a young man attempting to enter a school Mass while armed did not fit the setting. Something about the approach, posture, timing, or behavior triggered attention. That early recognition changed everything.Your team must be trained to identify approach behavior, not just weapons. Purposeful movement toward an entrance. Unusual clothing for the environment. Scanning behavior. Repeated attempts to enter. Lingering without a clear social reason. Hands concealed when engagement would normally be casual.If your team waits to see a firearm, you are already behind.Early Action Beats Perfect InformationThe intervention happened before entry. That is decisive.Many teams hesitate because they want certainty. They want to be sure they are not overreacting. They do not want to appear rude. They do not want to escalate.Meanwhile, the person with intent is closing distance.A calm, direct engagement at the door can prevent an active shooter event. A simple, confident contact closes the gap. It buys time. It forces conversation. It disrupts momentum. In many cases, it exposes intent.You do not need theatrical commands. You need composure and proximity. Two trained people approaching early is often enough to stop the progression.The best place to win is outside the sanctuary.The Door Is a Line of DecisionOnce an attacker enters a crowded worship space, your options narrow and your risks multiply. Children panic. Parents freeze. Sound and movement create confusion. Friendly fire becomes a concern. Medical response becomes chaotic.Every church security plan should treat the primary entrance as a decision point. Exterior observation feeds vestibule control. Vestibule control protects the congregation.This does not require a fortress mentality. It requires discipline.The Sacramento incident reinforces something simple: layered coverage works. Exterior awareness, interior readiness, defined roles, and the willingness to act when something does not look right.Acts 20:28 and the Weight of Attention“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” (Acts 20:28, ESV)Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders were not casual. “Pay careful attention” is active language. It implies vigilance, sobriety, and personal accountability.A church safety team operates under that same principle of careful attention. You are not elders in the formal sense, but you are entrusted with oversight in a physical dimension. You cannot protect the congregation if you are distracted, careless, or passive.Notice the order in the verse. “To yourselves and to all the flock.” Self governance comes first. A distracted man cannot guard others. A prideful man cannot make clean decisions. A fearful man will hesitate when action is required.Careful attention is not suspicion. It is stewardship.The congregation gathers to worship Christ freely. Your role is to remove unnecessary risk so they can do that without fear. That is not a lack of faith. It is obedience to the responsibility you have been given.Shammah and the Refusal to Abandon PostIn 2 Samuel 23, Shammah stands in a field when others retreat. The text says he took his stand and defended it, and the Lord brought about a great victory.This is not a romantic image. It is a picture of responsibility. Others ran. He did not.A safety team member may never face a lethal encounter. But if that moment comes, your congregation needs to know that someone will not run from the door.Standing does not mean recklessness. It means measured courage. It means training ahead of time so that fear does not dictate behavior in real time.The Sacramento detective stood in the gap at the entrance. Because of that, the congregation never knew how close they were to disaster.That is the kind of quiet faithfulness churches need.Final AssessmentThis could have been a potential active shooter event interrupted before it began. It was stopped because a man had an assignment, maintained situational awareness, and acted early.Churches should study this incident carefully. Not to sensationalize it. Not to turn worship into paranoia. But to understand how thin the line can be between normalcy and chaos.The difference is often one alert, disciplined person at the door. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

This newsletter is made possible by paid subscriptions. If you find this useful, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription.A bus was driven into an office building in Idaho that was set to house federal agencies, including ICE and DHS. Gasoline was poured inside. This was not vandalism. It was a domestic terror attack directed at a symbolic target.A lot of people were surprised this happened in Idaho. They associate this kind of activity with larger cities. That assumption is dangerous.What concerns me more than where it happened is what happened before it.In the days leading up to the attack, I was watching Idaho 50501 on Facebook. The tone was shifting. People were openly discussing the building. They were naming ICE. They were saying something needed to be done.When someone raised concerns about St. Luke’s Hospital employees being affected, anonymous accounts claiming to work there responded by encouraging action anyway. That tells you something about where the emotional temperature was.This was not subtle.The language moved from disagreement to urgency. From frustration to moral justification. Once that shift happens, the risk level changes.After nearly three decades in law enforcement, I can tell you this: violence rarely begins with the act. It begins with permission. Groups give themselves permission first. They justify it. They convince each other it is necessary. By the time someone drives a vehicle into a building, the groundwork has already been laid.The Idaho attack did not appear out of nowhere. It formed in public view.Churches need to understand that.Churches Need an Intelligence Officer, Not Just a Security TeamMost church security teams focus on the physical environment. Doors. Cameras. Medical kits. Radios. Armed volunteers. All of that is necessary.Very few teams assign someone to monitor the information space.That is a mistake.If no one on your team is responsible for tracking local activist groups, then no one is watching the early indicators. You are waiting for something to show up in your parking lot instead of recognizing it while it is still forming online.Groups that oppose ICE have already targeted churches in other parts of the country. Sometimes it is because ICE agents attend the church. Sometimes it is because a church publicly supports law enforcement. Sometimes it is nothing more than a rumor or a social media post that creates an association.Real association or perceived association does not matter. If activists believe your church is connected, that belief can be enough to justify protest or disruption in their minds.That is why every serious church security team should designate one person as an intelligence officer.This does not mean infiltrating groups. It does not mean engaging in arguments. It means monitoring publicly available information.That person should:Monitor local activist pages and groups.Track tone shifts in rhetoric.Document repeated references to specific facilities.Note calls for “direct action.”Watch for event timing tied to your service schedule.This role should report regularly to the security director and senior leadership. A short weekly brief is enough. The purpose is awareness, not alarm.We already teach pre attack indicators at the individual level. Before someone throws a punch, their body shifts. Their jaw tightens. Their stance changes. The same principle applies in the digital space.Before someone drives a bus into a building, the language shifts.Opposition turns into agitation.Agitation turns into justification.Justification turns into a call for action.If you are not watching that progression locally, you are blind to the early stages of a threat.Assigning an intelligence officer is not paranoia. It is stewardship.Digital Pre Attack Indicators Churches Should Not IgnoreIf you assign someone to monitor local groups, you need to be clear about what they are looking for.Not every angry post is a threat. Not every protest leads to violence. The goal is not to overreact. The goal is to recognize escalation.There are patterns.First, repeated naming of a specific church or facility. When a building goes from being part of a general complaint to being identified by name, that is target fixation. In Idaho, the building housing ICE was no longer an abstract symbol. It was a location people were discussing directly.Second, language that shifts from disagreement to urgency. Words like “something needs to be done” are not instructions by themselves, but they create psychological permission. When multiple people reinforce that language, the tone changes.Third, moral justification. When people begin framing action as necessary, righteous, or unavoidable, the barrier to violence lowers. In the Idaho case, even when concerns were raised about St. Luke’s employees being affected, some accounts claiming to work there encouraged action anyway. That tells you the justification had already taken hold.Fourth, event specific timing. If discussion begins tying action to dates, service times, or known gatherings, your risk posture changes immediately. That is no longer abstract frustration. That is planning language.Fifth, doxxing or attempts to identify staff and members. Once names and faces are circulated with hostile commentary, the situation has moved into a more serious phase.An intelligence officer should not guess at intent. They should document patterns. Screenshot posts. Record dates. Track progression. If escalation continues, that information can be shared with law enforcement partners in a clear and organized way.This is how you stay ahead of the curve.Waiting for a threat to show up at the door is reactive. Watching escalation develop in public is proactive.The Responsibility of the Watchman, Ezekiel 33:6Ezekiel 33 describes a watchman assigned to stand guard over a city. His job was simple. If he saw the sword coming, he was to blow the trumpet and warn the people.Verse 6 is direct:“But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned… his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.”The watchman is not responsible for stopping every attack. He is responsible for seeing and warning.That distinction is important for church leadership and security teams.No church can prevent every hostile act. You cannot control the national climate. You cannot control activist movements. But you are responsible for whether you are paying attention.If escalation is visible online in your own community and no one on your team is assigned to monitor it, that is not a technology problem. It is a leadership decision.God takes the role of the watchman seriously. The watchman is not dramatic. He is not reactionary. He is observant. He is disciplined. He understands that danger often appears in the distance before it reaches the gate.The Idaho terror attack should not be viewed as an isolated event in a quiet state. It should be viewed as a reminder of how violence forms. It develops in language. It grows in groups. It becomes justified long before it becomes physical.Churches that want to remain open, faithful, and steady must also be alert.Assign someone to watch.Blow the trumpet when escalation appears.That is not fear. That is obedience. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.christianwarriortraining.comPaid subscribers make this Christian Warrior possible! Thank you! The Weekly Roll Call Briefing is designed for use immediately before Sunday services. It gives Safety Team leaders a clear, structured brief they can deliver in 10 to 15 minutes to set posture, priorities, and expectations for the day.Much of the information covered in the briefing appears throughout the week in individual updates and reports. Paid subscribers receive that material consolidated into a single roll call PDF, paired with a companion video, and organized specifically for pre service use. The briefing integrates threat posture, biblical perspective, current intelligence, and a focused awareness or training emphasis, all in one place.The result is not more information, but better alignment. Teams walk in informed, disciplined, and working from the same page, rather than reacting to fragmented updates or last minute conversations.DOWNLOAD THE ROLL CALL PDF👇

Breaking news like this is made possible by paid subscriptions.A Florida Case That Exposes a Deeper ProblemOn February 4, 2026, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of a fourteen year old in Wimauma, Florida, after investigators uncovered online discussions about carrying out a shooting at a nearby church. The suspect did not name a specific congregation, but authorities confirmed the intent was local and credible.The investigation revealed that the juvenile had been participating in online extremist forums associated with violence and satanic themed ideology. During a lawful search of the residence, deputies recovered firearms and ammunition, including a weapon accessible from a parent’s nightstand. Electronic devices tied to the suspect also contained child sexual abuse material, resulting in additional felony charges.This case fits what I’ve been warning about for a long time. Lone wolf actors remain the most serious threat to churches. They don’t belong to a clean organization, they don’t follow a single ideology, and they are often radicalized alone online.When Ideology Stops Making SenseOne of the most telling aspects of this case is that the suspect is of Hispanic origin while associating with neo Nazi ideology. That contradiction is not accidental. It signals that ideology was not functioning as belief, but as provocation.In modern online extremist spaces, labels are often borrowed for their shock value rather than their meaning. Neo Nazi symbols, satanic language, and calls for violence get blended together in ways that have no theological or political coherence. What binds them is not doctrine, but rejection. Rejection of moral order. Rejection of restraint. Rejection of inherited identity.This pattern aligns closely with nihilistic radicalization. In these environments, meaning is not discovered or built. It is burned down. Violence becomes a way to feel significant. Transgression becomes a substitute for purpose. For adolescents, whose identities are still forming, that pull can be especially strong.The presence of both mass violence threats and sexual exploitation is not coincidental. When moral boundaries collapse, they tend to collapse together.Why Intelligence Stopped This Before Violence DidThis case was interrupted because information was identified, connected, and acted on early. It was an intelligence success, not a reaction success.Churches often think of security in physical terms. Cameras. Doors. Armed volunteers. Those are necessary, but they are no longer sufficient on their own. Many modern threats begin online, long before a person ever walks onto church property.An intelligence function inside a church does not mean surveillance or vigilantism. It means disciplined awareness of publicly accessible information. It means recognizing when extremist conversations reference local places, churches, schedules, or events. It means knowing how to document concerns and pass them to law enforcement before a threat matures.Federal agencies see the national picture. Churches see the local one. When those two perspectives connect early, prevention becomes possible.This case underscores a reality churches must accept. Threat actors no longer fit neat demographic or ideological categories. Behavior, escalation, and online activity are more reliable indicators than labels.A Biblical Lens on Corruption and ResponsibilityScripture speaks with clarity about what happens when the young are led astray, and it does so with urgency.In Matthew 18:6, Jesus says, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”That is one of the strongest warnings Christ ever issued. It is directed at those who corrupt, exploit, or deliberately mislead the young. The severity of the language reflects the seriousness of the offense. God does not treat the destruction of innocence lightly.This case reflects multiple layers of that warning. A minor immersed in violent, morally inverted online communities did not arrive there by accident. Scripture repeatedly teaches that when truth is absent, something else fills the void.Proverbs 22:15 reminds us that folly is bound up in the heart of a child. Wisdom must be taught, guarded, and reinforced. When it is not, other influences rush in. Judges 21:25 describes a society where everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The result was not freedom, but chaos and cruelty.The discovery of child sexual abuse material alongside threats of violence shows how far a person can drift when moral anchors are cut loose. Scripture does not separate these evils. Both reflect a rejection of God’s order and a devaluing of human life.What Churches Should Take From ThisChurches are called to protect the vulnerable, teach truth, and remain watchful. That includes spiritual care, moral clarity, and practical awareness of the environments shaping the next generation.Security ministries that integrate intelligence awareness with physical preparedness are not abandoning trust in God. They are exercising stewardship. Watching early is often what prevents acting late.Jesus’ warning about the millstone is not only judgment. It is a reminder that God sees corruption clearly and holds people accountable for the damage they cause. It is also a call to the Church to take its role seriously in a world where many have lost their way. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

If you want to support this ministry and its work, a paid subscription goes a long way. I went live tonight to give a brief situation update following the unrest in Minnesota and the disruption of a church service in Saint Paul last Sunday. With another Sunday approaching, I wanted to help Christians and church leaders think clearly about what’s happening, what may come next, and how to prepare without fear.The live covers recent reporting, biblical guidance on gathering and obedience, and practical steps churches can take right now. This was not meant to create panic, but to provide clarity and wisdom for those heading into Sunday services. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Christmas is often remembered as quiet and peaceful. Scripture tells us that on the night Christ was born, while others slept, shepherds were awake and keeping watch. Their vigilance was not symbolic. It was necessary.In this episode, we look at why God chose to announce the birth of His Son to men who were already standing watch, and what that means for those who serve quietly and faithfully today.This conversation is for those who stay alert while others rest, who carry responsibility without recognition, and who need the reminder that watchfulness and faith are not in conflict.Key Themes Covered:• The overlooked detail of the shepherds keeping watch at night• Why God meets people in the middle of faithful responsibility• Watchfulness as obedience, not fear• The balance between vigilance and trust in God• Why Scripture defines limits on the weight we carryScripture Referenced:Luke 2:8Matthew 2:13–14Hebrews 6:10Psalm 127:1John 1:5Ephesians 5:181 Peter 5:8Key Takeaway:You are called to be faithful, not to carry what only God can carry. You stand watch, but you are not the Savior. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Because of paid subscribers, I’m able to provide churches that can’t afford this kind of intelligence and training with the resources they need to protect their congregations.BackgroundOn Sunday, 28 September 2025 during the morning worship service, a gunman attacked the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints (LDS) meetinghouse on McCandlish Road in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan. The township is a suburb roughly 50 miles north of Detroit. This summary pulls together information from police statements and vetted news reports. Reports consistently note that the attack occurred at approximately 10:25 a.m. local time and involved both gunfire and an intentional arson attack. The assailant was a 40‑year‑old male from Burton, Michigan. Law enforcement officials state that he drove a vehicle through the church’s front entrance, opened fire on congregants and then set the building on fire. Responding officers shot and killed the suspect at the scene.Incident Overview* Attack method – According to Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye, the perpetrator rammed a vehicle into the front door of the LDS meetinghouse, exited the vehicle with a semi automatic rifle and began firing on the worshippers. Police say the attacker then deliberately ignited a fire, which quickly engulfed part of the building and impeded escape. Flames and smoke could be seen for hours, and first responders had to extinguish the fire before fully searching the churchwcvb.com.* Response – Officers were on scene quickly. They engaged the gunman, fatally shooting him. The Grand Blanc Township Police Department posted on social media that “there are multiple victims and the shooter is down. There is no threat to the public at this time. The church is actively on fire.” The statement indicated that the shooter acted alone and that there was no ongoing threat to the community.* Casualties – Early reports from WXYZ Detroit indicated at least two fatalities, including the suspect, and nine injuries, several of which were critical. Follow‑up local reporting confirmed that one congregant was killed and nine others were hospitalized, with police cautioning that additional victims might be found once the building was safe to enter. Law enforcement and fire officials later reported that the fire hindered escape and that they expected to discover more victims after the fire was extinguished.Suspect and Tactics* Identity – Police initially withheld the suspect’s name but described him as a 40‑year‑old man from Burton, Michigan. Chief Renye said the man used a semi automatic rifle during the attack and drove his vehicle through the church’s wall. He was shot and killed during the police response.* Vehicle ramming and arson – The attacker used the vehicle both as a breaching tool and an incendiary device. After crashing through the entrance, he lit the building on fire using accelerants (exact method not yet publicly released). Witness accounts and police statements emphasize that the fire prevented people from leaving and complicated rescue.* Search warrants – Police executed search warrants at the suspect’s home in Burton. There are reports that the FBI sent approximately 100 agents to assist with searching the residence. Investigators are collecting electronic devices, explosives‑related materials and writings to determine motive and whether anyone assisted him. Law enforcement has stated that there is no evidence of additional suspects, and they consider the attacker to have acted alone.Investigation and Motive* Motive – As of late September 2025, investigators had not publicly identified a motive. Chief Renye told reporters that police did not yet have a motive for the fire or shooting. The attack occurred a day after the death of LDS President Russell M. Nelson; however, officials have not connected the two events and continue to explore possible ideological, personal or mental‑health factors.* Federal assistance – The FBI, ATF and state police are participating in the investigation. FBI Director Kash Patel stated that federal agents were on scene assisting local authorities and condemned violence in houses of worship. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is tracing the firearms and examining the arson elements.* Search for additional victims – Because of the extensive fire damage, police and fire officials expected to locate additional victims once they could safely search the building. As of the most recent updates, only one congregant fatality had been confirmed, but officials warned that the toll might rise.Implications for Church SafetyThis incident illustrates several challenges for security teams protecting houses of worship:* Vehicle as a weapon: The attacker used a vehicle to breach the building’s entrance. Churches should consider bollards or other physical barriers to deter vehicle‑ramming attacks.* Dual‑threat tactics: Combining armed assault with arson trapped victims and complicated response. Fire detection, suppression systems and multiple exits can reduce casualties during arson‑involved attacks.* Rapid response capability: Police neutralized the shooter quickly; however, internal church safety teams should have medical kits, fire extinguishers and evacuation plans to manage the first critical minutes before law enforcement arrives.* Interagency coordination: The incident required coordination between local police, fire departments and federal agencies. Churches should build relationships with first responders to improve response times and information sharing.* Mental‑health and threat‑reporting: Authorities continue to examine the suspect’s background for warning signs. Congregations should encourage members to report concerning behaviour so potential threats can be assessed before violence occurs.Biblical Foundations for Preparedness and VigilanceEzekiel 33:6–7 (ESV)“But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.”Explanation: God’s standard for the watchman is clear: warn the people, or be held accountable. Church safety ministries act in that role today, called to recognize danger and protect the flock.Nehemiah 4:9 (ESV)“And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.”Explanation: Nehemiah shows us that prayer and preparedness work together. Trust in God must be accompanied by wise action, such as guards and readiness.Proverbs 22:3 (ESV)“The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”Explanation: Wisdom means anticipating danger and taking steps to avoid harm. For a church, that means developing training, plans, and watchfulness.Luke 21:36 (ESV)“But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”Explanation: Jesus ties prayer directly to vigilance. Being spiritually and physically alert equips believers to stand strong when trials come.Scripture calls us to pray, remain vigilant, and take responsibility as watchmen for the church. Preparedness is not fear. It is faith in action, ensuring that the body of Christ can gather safely to worship Him. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Help me provide free training and intelligence to people like you. A paid subscription helps me help those that cannot afford quality training.I went live to address the assassination of Charlie Kirk, breaking down what really happened, debunking conspiracy theories, and explaining what this moment means for America, for Christians, and for our churches. I also shared my perspective as a former sniper and team leader on why this was the work of a Lone Wolf actor, and why that makes the threat even more dangerous. If you missed it, you can watch the full replay now. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Help me support churches around the US with critical info like this. A paid subscription makes this happen.On August 2nd, I’ll be teaching a full-day Christian Warrior Academy class in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and I want you to see exactly what to expect before you show up.What you’re about to watch is a sneak peek—an hour-long video of the active shooter segment from a previous class I taught in Chino Hills, California. IN PERSON ONLY! IT’S NOT ONLINE➡️ Click here to register for the Coeur d’Alene training – only 150 seats leftPlease only register if you plan to attend in person.This is a live class only. There will be no livestream or replay.What You’ll See in This VideoThis segment focuses entirely on active shooter threats in church environments. I cover:* Immediate response tactics when seconds count* Weapon selection and gear considerations* Why training matters more than fancy equipment* Hostage scenarios in children’s ministry areas* How to handle it when the police aren’t there yet—and may never make it in timeYou'll also see how we conduct realistic scenario training, why your team needs to move beyond theory, and how to build protocols that actually hold up when it matters most.This is not a theory-based class. It's rooted in the kind of tactical experience that only comes from decades in law enforcement and church safety leadership.Why the Full Class Isn’t OnlineThe Christian Warrior Academy covers tactics, team formations, and vulnerability points that shouldn’t be in the open. I don’t want bad actors studying how we operate. This one-hour preview is what I can safely share to help you decide if this training is for you.If you want the full experience, I’ll see you August 2nd in Coeur d'Alene.This Class Is Free—Here’s WhyThis training is made possible by the support of Right to Bear, Candlelight Church, and the generous individuals who have chosen a paid subscription to Christian Warrior Training. Their support allows me to keep producing multiple resources a week to equip safety ministries like yours. And for that, I’m grateful.If you’ve benefited from this work, and feel led to help others get trained for free, your subscription makes it happen.Ready to Train?➡️ Register here for the Coeur d’Alene classOnly register if you can attend in person. This class will not be recorded or streamed.Train hard. Lead well. Protect the flock.In His Service,Keith GravesChristian Warrior Training This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Help me support churches around the US with critical info like this. A paid subscription makes this happen.In this live broadcast, I break down the alarming revelation that Iran directly warned President Trump it would activate sleeper cells inside the United States if airstrikes were ordered on its nuclear facilities. That threat is no longer hypothetical. After the U.S. launched "Operation Midnight Hammer," striking key Iranian nuclear sites with B-2 bombers and bunker-buster bombs, the Department of Homeland Security issued a terrorism advisory warning of likely cyberattacks—and the potential for violence on U.S. soil.This isn’t just a military matter overseas. Churches, synagogues, and government-linked targets here at home are now under elevated threat. DHS specifically warned that religious rulings from Iran could trigger independent violent extremists or Iranian proxies already inside our borders. If you’re part of a church security team, law enforcement, or just someone paying attention—watch the full debrief, and take steps now. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe

Help me support churches around the US with critical info like this. A paid subscription makes this happen.🔴 A Church Was Just Attacked—This Is Why We TrainThis morning, a gunman entered CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan and opened fire during the service. One of the church’s security guards was shot in the leg, but despite being wounded, he returned fire and stopped the attacker with the help of another church member who used his truck to intervene. The suspect was killed. No congregants were harmed, but this incident is another urgent reminder that churches are being targeted—and it’s only escalating.In this livestream, I break down what happened, why I believe this is the kind of lone-wolf violence we’ve been warning about, and what it means for your church. The threat level in the U.S. is severe right now, especially with war breaking out with Iran and potential activation of sleeper cells. But no matter the source, churches need to be ready. This is not a time for hesitation—it’s a time for courage, training, and biblical vigilance. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.christianwarriortraining.com/subscribe