Gentle Response LLC

Beginning as a mission and ministry for church staff and volunteers, GENTLE RESPONSE is so much more than just another lecture presentation and slide show! It is a training program specifically designed to help a person develop stress inoculation, muscle memory, self confidence and confidence in other colleagues.
I spent 20 years as a police officer and I am a Certified Crisis Intervention Specialist. My team and I are based in Michigan but travel around the country.
My team and I have worked and trained with staff from a variety of backgrounds and career fields, such as schools, medical facilities, state agencies, churches and other non profits, businesses, law enforcement, security, etc. This training is very applicable, and scenarios customized, to ANY organization that has staff and volunteers who interact with people, and who may encounter a difficult person in a stressful, confrontational situation.

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Gentle Response LLC

On Sunday, Jan 18th, a bunch of people, along with a former CNN news guy, barged into a church in MN and caused a huge disruption in the middle of service. Then the former CNN news guy had the gall and audacity to try to act like a journalist and "interview" the pastor.

All those people are in violation of MN law, and it is also unlawful to disrupt a religious service here in MI. I hope they will face the full weight of prosecution, because I have already seen another video put out by a single guy disrupting a church service, and I am sure others will copycat this incident. It never fails, especially when people see little to no consequences.

How can we safely and effectively de-escalate a mob, or anyone who may be a lone-wolf disruptor? You "can't", but you can mitigate the response they are looking for.

Trying to de-escalate a person who has an agenda to create chaos and drama because they want an audience is pretty much impossible, but if you take away the "audience" by not reacting and responding angrily, they have nothing to put on social media or turn over to the media outlets.

There will obviously be the initial shock of the sudden disruption, and your body will give you an adrenaline dump. Slow yourself down, take a breath to calm down, and assess the situation: Is there active violence and imminent danger of great bodily harm or death? If yes, then go to work and stop it. Every church active shooter incident I can think of did not start with any type of disturbance; the suspect went straight to being violent.

But if there is no active violence, continue to scan and be alert, but recognize sooner than later that all that is going on is a disruption that is geared towards getting you so offended and frustrated that you end up saying or doing something that escalates the situation, and gives them something to harp about on social media and general media outlets.

It's the same thing with these "1st amendment auditors" who are hoping that someone will become so frustrated and offended that they explode, even assault the "auditor". Just ignore them, and they will walk away.

Scale that up to dealing with a mob or a person disrupting a church service. Going hands-on to remove a disruptor dramatically increases the risk of a civil lawsuit because civilian volunteers do not have the legal authority to physically assault anyone for just being a disruption.

It's sickening what is happening, but slow down, take long, slow, deep breaths, assess the situation, and ignore them. They want an audience and a response, just don't give it to them.

Your main goal may be to keep parishioners from losing their cool and doing or saying something that plays into the disruptors' plans. You may be crowd control for your own congregation.

" If you stay calm, you are wise, but if you have a hot temper, you only show how stupid you are." - Proverbs 14:29 GNT
If you stay calm, you will have better situational awareness and thus be wise about what you do or say next. If you get overly frustrated, offended, and impatient, you will say or do something to escalate the situation.

#ChurchSafety #CHURCHSECURITY #churchministry #PersonalSafety #ministry #deescalation