Churches should prepare before disaster strikes, TBM leaders recommend_111504

Posted: 11/12/04

Churches should prepare before
disaster strikes, TBM leaders recommend

By Teresa Young

For Texas Baptist Communications

SAN ANTONIO–When a disaster hits, will your church be ready?

Texas Baptist Men's Disaster Relief and Victim Relief ministries representatives raised the question at a workshop during the Baptist General Convention of Texas' annual session, and they offered tips on how a church can become prepared.

“We tend to think of disasters as a major event over a large area, like hurricanes, tornadoes or floods and things that happen somewhere else,” said TBM Executive Director Leo Smith.

“But we really need to think closer to home.”

Smith mentioned four church disasters in recent years to which Texas Baptists responded–a gunman who wreaked havoc at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth and bus crashes at Metro Baptist in Garland, Memorial Baptist in Temple and First Baptist in Eldorado. Being prepared for such events is key to picking up the pieces and healing afterward, he said.

“There is a need to think through these things before they happen,” Smith said. “When it hits, it's pandemonium, so you need to have a plan in place.”

Gene Grounds of Dallas, executive director of Victim Relief Ministries, said asking questions and playing through worst-case scenarios in advance are paramount for churches to be prepared to deal with disasters.

“There are so many things that are out of your control, so you need to have plans,” he said. “Church tragedies have a personality all their own, and churches tend to want to take ownership of everything quickly.”

Smith and Dick Talley of Dallas, ministry logistics director for TBM, said churches are in unique positions to respond to disasters that may hit their community, such as providing temporary shelter and meals for those displaced from homes, serving as a distribution center for food and supplies, providing temporary child care while families seek the help of social service agencies and offering a gathering place for counseling and relief.

To serve such roles, Talley said churches must prepare ahead of time by taking stock of their resources on hand and arranging for resources outside the church body.

Grounds encouraged churches to form a disaster and victim relief ministry team, and train leaders and key personnel how to deal with disasters affecting either the church family or the community.

It is important to know where to find emergency exits, breaker switches and phone numbers for entities that may be needed in disasters, he stressed.

Having a “crisis closet” with necessary items also is helpful, he added.

Making the church aware of who is on the crisis team and what procedures will be in case of a disaster are vital, said Smith.

"Have a plan of action that is approved by the church," he said. "You hope you'll never need it, but you'll be grateful to God if something ever happens that you had a plan."