Brotherhood Mutual Helps Churches
Prepare for the Possibility of a Violent Incident
Fort Wayne, Indiana, May 9, 2007—Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company, one of the nation’s exclusive insurers of churches and related ministries, is helping their customers plan for the potential of a violent incident at their churches.
New concerns about violence in otherwise peaceful settings once again surfaced with the April 16 shooting deaths of 32 students at Virginia Technical University.
“Such tragedies are difficult to prevent,” says Mark Robison, Brotherhood Mutual president. “Our church customers may never have to deal with an incident like that at Virginia Tech, but such incidents have happened in churches and they should think seriously about how they would respond.”
Emergency preparedness for churches used to mean having a plan for responding to reports of fires and severe weather. No more. Churches must be prepared to deal with crises created by violent people, such as a Wisconsin man who killed seven people and himself during a March 2005 church service. While such events seem unthinkable, they’re happening with increasing frequency in businesses, schools, and churches.
Brotherhood Mutual, like many other insurers, offers insurance coverage to protect churches financially if a violent incident does occur. “Coverage, however, doesn’t prevent violence,” says Robison. “Developing a plan of action is the only way to lessen the risks of injury and death if a violent incident does happen at church.”
To help customers create a violence response plan, Brotherhood Mutual has developed online resources that include suggestions from nationally recognized security consultants who have dealt with large-scale acts of violence. They include:
- Preparing for the Unthinkable—Violence at Your Church
- When the Unthinkable Happens: Surviving a Violent Attack at Church
- Planning Communication for a Potential Traumatic Incident
- Media Relations: Dealing with the Media during a Traumatic Incident
Just like other organizations, churches should consider how they would handle the following issues:
- evacuate people
- alert authorities
- secure the building
- respond to injuries
- inform victim's families
- communicate with their organizations, communities, and the media.
In many ways, developing a violence response plan is identical to creating a disaster response plan for weather-related events. The only difference is the type of threat.
Brotherhood Mutual employs about 220 people at its headquarters in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It’s one of the nation’s leading insurers of churches and related ministries, protecting more than 30,000 customers nationwide. It designs property and liability insurance to help ministries run safely and effectively.
