OKC Church Hosts Workplace Safety Seminar For Public

A northeast Oklahoma City church is responding to the mass shooting in Texas earlier this month, by hosting a Homeland Security presentation on workplace safety for the community. After a lone gunman walked up to First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas and opened fire, killing more than two dozen people, clergy everywhere were faced with a tough decision on security.

Pastor Chuck Little from Greater First Deliverance Temple in Oklahoma City tells News 9 it is much better to be safe than sorry.

“One of the old mothers here at the church, when she went fishing, I would say, ‘Mom, aren’t you afraid to go out there by yourself?’ She said, ‘No, I take the Lord and Smith and Wesson.’”

The discussion to bring in Oklahoma’s Homeland Security experts to lead a workplace safety talk was already in the works when the Texas shooting occurred, but that tragedy sped up the timeline significantly.

Little says, “We have been seeing in the society where it’s been happening in the movies, in the theaters, but when they bring it to the house of worship it’s just mind-boggling.”

Little and the leadership team at Greater First Deliverance Temple say they do feel prepared to defend themselves if they ever fall under attack.

“There’s many people that carry arms,” Little says. “Ours are all licensed and they are officers, but you have to have a plan. We don’t want the Wild, Wild West to be going on.”

Little says plans can always be improved, and he has invited church leaders from around the community to come to the workshop and learn for themselves.

“We wanted not just to work on our church. We wanted other churches to be knowledgeable as well,” he says.

The seminar will be held Tuesday, November 21, from 6-8 p.m., at the Greater First Deliverance Temple, located at 2101 N Bryant Avenue. It is open to the public.