How can my church prepare?

I’ve had a crazy week as I’ve tried to locate CERT (Community Emergency Response Training) classes or even Red Cross classes, but I hit some roadblocks that were unexpected. And yet, there was a light in the darkness that turned out to provide some exciting events for individuals in 2024 that I hope to be able to post on soon.

In addition, I realized that now more than ever churches need to come together and get some coordinated efforts towards preparing for the difficulties that our own government is warning us are about to unfold. If you live in the area of Palatka and you’re looking for someone to run point on helping implement preparedness in your congregation, feel free to text me on facebook. If you are outside of Central Florida, I would still be more than willing to have a chat with individuals in your church to help get people prepared.

So, how can you help get your church prepared? I got a list for that!

• Every church needs to establish their own security team of volunteers, ideally men, who get together once a month to do dry run practices and discuss any better ways to beef the security of the church so that the women and children inside will always feel safe. Institute background checks for every individual who comes into close contact with the children, women and elderly to ensure that no unsavory incidents occur since a person in “authority” could easily assault someone innocent.
• Most churches have numerous closets or extra rooms, and I would encourage you to devote one specifically for shelf stable foods. If all you can dedicate is one closet, then so be it but a room is even better. If you are able to use a room, purchase heavy duty shelving to set up around the perimeter of the room and if you are able to get a donated fridge/freezer combo or an upright freezer that would help even more. The main purpose of this project is to feed the people within your church who are current members, this is not for the individual who randomly shows up at your church for handouts. Don’t worry, I’ll touch on that too.
• Have once a month community potluck where individuals within the church cook and bring their dishes to help feed those in the community who might be struggling to make ends meet. Obviously, you want the individuals within your church to get a plate in case they are in need but don’t feel comfortable telling you about their financial strife, but the main focus is the community. Have this location be in a gymnasium or if the temperatures allow, set up a large tent outside and erect tables and chairs for guests. This will be a wonderful opportunity to present the Gospel to your community, so whether you do that in prayer before eating or when you give 15 minutes (or so) talk on the Gospel and why your church chose to reach out to the community, is completely up to you.
• Create a children’s closet or even dedicate a room for this project, but a room is always ideal. If you have the finances, you could even purchase a little shed and have it set up nearby with a sign above indicating what the building is designed for. There are some stores that hold going out of business sales and you can pick up hanging racks for a fair price, but Home Depot and Lowes would most likely carry similar items as well. Within churches, there are usually families outgrowing numerous articles of clothing, especially shoes.
• Dedicate part of your unused church land towards a community garden for church members to be able to grow extra vegetables and fruits to help supplement their current groceries. I’m going to suggest, that you not make this a community garden for just anyone who walks off the street but rather dedicated members of your church who may have multiple little mouths to feed. However, if someone from your community approaches you seeking to grow vegetables too, you should consider setting aside a location for non-members to garden too. A recommendation I would give, is for you to get on your local registered offenders list and be sure to make volunteers aware of any nefarious individuals that are close by and may show an interest in getting close to the youngest gardeners.
• Offer to host classes to the community for free that teach skills which will benefit the community and the attendee’s own family as well. These classes could be on CPR/First Aid, Canning, Food Dehydration, Community Emergency Response, Gardening and numerous other educational experiences to help further the strength of the community.
• Host a practice session or monthly session for individuals within the church who would like to get together and train with boomsticks so that if the event ever rises, your church can meet it head on. If you are blessed that you have your own practice range and can offer it to the church, great but there are ranges within your area as well. I don’t want to go further down this one because if ya know, ya know. I’ll leave it there for legal purposes.
• An increase that I’ve seen being set up in churches, especially in urban areas is a business attire closet with the purpose of loaning out clothing to individuals who may have fallen on hard times and are trying to climb back up and simply need borrow some clothes for an interview. As our economy see hundreds of folks let go from jobs, it’s imperative that we try to meet as many needs as we can head on. The closet would provide for both genders and for the sizes of whatever clothing is donated. If you can contact local donation organizations in your area and inform them that you will take any modern business wear that they are unable to sell and who it will be used for.
• Create a group within the church of elderly ladies who would be willing to watch well behaved children for an hour or two while young mothers are able to get a doctor appointment out the way, grocery shop in peace or even do some last-minute Christmas shopping. As I recommended before, for the safety of the children you will no doubt want to do background checks on all who will be interacting with the kids so that you put safety measures in place.
• Establish a women’s bartering group within your church so that you can trade with one another and further reduce your waste going to the landfill and you can stretch your finances further. If you are able to get a box of apples that you turn into applesauce which you then trade frozen deer sausage, it’s a good bargain.

Now is the time to stat considering what you can do to get your church into the mindset of preparing for what’s coming. While we are not guaranteed tomorrow, we know that it makes sense to prepare and get things set up to care for those that out live us.