TFWM Audio Newsletter Articles: September 2012 is by Presidential Proclamation, Emergency Preparedness Month. So what does this have to do with our church?
The Church has since its founding been actively involved with caring for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and all who are hurting physically and spiritually. Still the concept of Preparing for emergencies may seem a little strange to many of us. However, as the old saying goes “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
7 comments:
It's pretty important for all institutions to plan for emergencies. I'm being a hypocrite here, because I don't have a fire escape plan for my own home or anything like that, and I know that that's bead an I should and blah blah blah. But, this is bigger than that. It's something different when other people's lives are being put at risk. I am essentially alone, I don't live with family or anything, so I am only putting myself in harms way with my lack of plans. But, if your church serves as a homeless shelter or the like, you could be putting a hundred people at risk. And that's counterproductive. You are trying to save them from what's out there in the world, but really you are exposing them to something entirely different- the dangers within your own building.
I agree that emergency plans are incredibly important. For individuals and especially for institutions that have many people depending on them. A church is a great example because the most of the people that they would be helping, or those attending would see that institution as a rock as something steady and true that will keep them safe. It is also smart to think of less grave things, like thankfully if no one gets hurt in a fire, they thought of their church records. But it can be more than that as well, for the individual and the institutions, being aware of your surroundings and those in it should always be top priority. Because you can plan for a lot of things but not for the stupidity of someone else.
This is an interesting article and I never thought that churches are the place that people go when they are in trouble but it is totally right. This also makes me think if theaters are ready and useful in a similar way. I would think that a theater would be a good place for people to go to if there was an emergency since usual there is a lot of space, lot of seats, and can provide every ones basic needs for a sort time. I wonder if any theater is used in this way. I hope that theaters read this and take this to heart and start to think of the what if this happened and what would they do. I hope that other group also take this on.
YES!!! This article takes an extremely important issue, safety in large gathering spaces (among other things) and makes it very relevant to a particular industry that might not normally think of it. Mixed in with all of the points about keeping the mission of the church running in a disaster is the more "theatrical" issues, which I hope stick with some of the readers. Most churches, except for extremely large theatrical ones, don't have emergency action plans or trained ushers- that's a huge problem!
I think there is also a lesson that theaters could take from this- that of knowing what would happen if something effected the way you usually operate. We have less need to keep on working, whatever the cause, as church's provide critical support while theaters (despite our grandest thoughts) do not. But what would happen if we were (hypothetically) stranded at the theater in a snowstorm without power? Do we have emergency supplies handy?
I am withholding so many jokes about the Rapture.
We focus a great deal on the safety of a building and the patrons would attend it. The preparedness for emergencies in a place of assembly should always be considered. You have the responsibility (and liability) of protecting your patrons.
It's not just churches, either. There are so many "places of assembly" and general rules that apply to safety, but there are also additional factors to consider.
Actually, what this brings to mind for me is the warehouse. We are currently utilizing the warehouse as a performance space, but I'm fairly sure we do not have emergency plans or equipment available for use. There are many items to consider to produce a site specific production, including patron and participant safety.
Having been very involved in my church for all of my life, I have seen the ways that we prepare for emergencies, the way we handle emergencies, the way our congregation reacts to emergencies, and even how non-church members rely on churches in emergencies. For many locations, a church may be the only place around that has the capability of housing many many people at one time, is well connected with community leaders and is "open" almost all the time. At most churches, something is going on throughout any time of the day, and someone can always be found. A few years back, a large pipe exploded in San Bruno, California- a few towns over from mine. My church jumped into action, following our emergency reaction plan and many employees checked in, or came into work, and organize the community. We also subsequently handled the massive funerals for the victims and dealt with briefing numerous TV stations. Point is, many people overlook churches as important emergency contact places, but most have a very well established emergency plan. And as this article suggests, if they don't, they should- just as any other public institution should.
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