Protecting the flock
The path that carried a woman into a career in church security consulting.
Tara Koetter watched as a man walked to the altar area where her preacher was at the pulpit.
He opened his duffel bag and pulled out a gun.
Koetter asked her pastor if the man’s presence was part of some sort of simulation, and when the clergy leader said it wasn’t, she drew her own gun, which she is licensed to carry.
“I asked the man to put the gun down, and he wouldn’t do it. I told him I hoped he knew Jesus,” Koetter said.
Then she woke up and realized it was all a dream — one so detailed and evocative that it continues to resonate today.
Koetter said the recent mass shooting at a Texas church brought the dream scenario to mind and reminded her how church security became such a passion for her that she started
“The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.”
her own church security consulting business, Sheepdog Security and Investigative Services LLC. “The dream was so vivid. It shook me up,” she said during a recent interview.
Eight days after having the troubling dream, Koetter was at a leadership meeting at her Norman church, where the pastor asked for someone to find out about the church’s security needs.
The dream seemed to make sense then. Koetter, seeing herself as a “protector of the sheep,” volunteered to help with the church security assessment and never looked back.
The Norman wife and mother of four said she came up with the name for her company based on the idea of the sheepdog protecting the sheep “because the wolf is coming, and we need to protect the flock.” The business is based on Scripture in Proverbs that advises believers to be prudent and take precautions in the face of danger.
The Nov. 5 shooting at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, alarmed Koetter as it did the rest of the nation. She said she is grateful that she became CLEET trained and certified and has taken numerous hours of training and classes on church security. She said her nephew survived a deadly workplace shooting in another state several years ago, and this also fueled her efforts to get educated on workplace and church security.
Koetter said the shooting at the Texas church was heartbreaking, and she would rather her services and the services of others in the church security field not be necessary, but recent shootings show that security concerns are warranted.
“I’m not looking in any way to profit from a tragedy, but now that churches are paying attention, I want to get as much information to them as possible,” she said.
Scripture serves as guide
The Associated Press reported that 26 people were shot and killed and another 20 people were wounded at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. The assailant — a man dressed in black tactical-style gear and armed with an assault rifle — opened fire inside the church in what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history.
Koetter said she is hoping such shootings don’t deter people from attending church.
“Jesus likens all of us to sheep, and He is the Shepherd. Churches are filled with sheep, and sheep are peaceful and they’re very trusting,” she said.
“What a tool of the enemy to keep people away from their family of faith. People go to church because they need hope and they need help.”
Koetter said she counters fearfulness with the Scripture in 1 Timothy 1:7 that says “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.”
And, she said preparedness will go a long way toward alleviating angst.
There’s a Scriptural basis for taking church security measures, which is a way to prepare for any eventuality.
She said a church security ministry should take her business’s founding Scripture to heart.
“To me, that says, ‘Be wise. Be aware.’ If a wolf is trying to slip through, we will be wise.”
Koetter said some people of faith say they trust God to protect them, but she reminds them that even Jesus took precautions with his safety before the time to complete his Earthly ministry had come. She said in John 7:1 says that Jesus changed his route because he knew Jewish leaders in a certain area were looking for a way to kill him.
Also, Koetter said Scripture in 1 Peter 5:8 admonishes believers to be “sober and vigilant” because their adversary, the devil, seeks to devour them.
The Norman woman said some adjustments should be made to adjust to today’s troubled times.
“We have to adjust our thinking to accommodate what we’re seeing in the world. We have to plan accordingly.”