Mark E. McDowell

SOUTH POINT, Ohio – Houses of worship are coming under fire with reports of violence, shootings and other attacks in the U.S. in recent years. In an effort to enhance protection for faith leaders, Ohio University Southern hosted a Safety in the Sanctuary workshop Monday night, with more than 70 area religious officials and faith-based workers participating.

The session, held at the South Point First Church of the Nazarene, attracted participants from nearly twenty area churches and synagogues. The session focused on assisting those who work in houses of worship increase their knowledge about situational awareness.  

Mark E. McDowell of Ashland, a retired police major and area church deacon, presented the workshop as part of the Workforce Success initiative of the Southern Campus. He said people need to be more responsive to their surroundings to ensure their own safety, no matter where they are. McDowell utilized the Homeland Security technique of “Run, Hide, Fight” in teaching the workshop. “Unfortunately, in today’s world, we must start preparing ourselves on what we would do in the event of a critical incident or active shooter,” McDowell said. “We are training people they do have options to increase their survival,” he said.

 “The Southern campus offered this training in response to a need for local safety training for our faith-based workforce,” said Sarah Diamond Burroway, director of External Relations at the Southern Campus. “Many houses of workshop don’t have access to trainings that are held outside our local community and this workshop was on a very timely topic,” she said.

Experts say most attacks at churches are typically not about religion. Officials with the Center for Homicide Research say church shootings are horrific because of who and what they target but are, in general, relatively rare. Still, area religious leaders said they want to be prepared.

“As pastors and church leaders, we want to have a plan of action and a safety program rehearsed and in place,” said Rev. Rob Hale, pastor of the Ironton First Church of the Nazarene. “I know all of us would not want to be forced to determine a plan of action after (an incident),” Hale said.

Learning how to act in the event of a critical incident is something all houses of worship such as temples, mosques or churches need to consider. Statistics show that most victims of church shootings likely know their attacker. The Center for Homicide Research shows nearly half of the offenders were affiliated with the church and nearly one fourth of the incidents involved "intimate partners," such as wives, girlfriends and husbands.

Rev. Robert Carter, pastor of the South Point First Church of the Nazarene, said the safety team at his church participated in the training because they want to be prepared in the unlikely event that “violence would seek us out.” He said the safety training “will help us create a culture of confidence, not fear.”

The Southern Campus strives to identify training needs across the area to create trainings specific to the needs of employers and employers, said Dean Nicole Pennington. “We want to collaborate with all sectors of the labor force through our Workforce Success initiative to provide trainings for Tri-State area employees,” she said.

For more information about customized trainings available through Workforce Success at Ohio University Southern, contact Sarah Diamond Burroway at 740-533-4593 or via email at burroway@ohio.edu.