Getting Started

How to Get Started

• Identify a small group of people within your congregation who are willing to take on developing a Resilience Plan. A group of 4-6 is ideal for many churches, but a group of 2-3 works well too, especially for smaller congregations.
• Identify one or two people to lead the group
• The leaders should begin to familiarize themselves with the templates and resources which you can find here
• Contact the Diocesan Disaster Coordinator for assistance

Your Planning Team

The first step in developing a plan within your congregation is to identify a small team of people to do the work, and to identify one or two leaders for that team. You probably have people within your congregation who would make good team members, including

• Active or former first responders from police, fire and emergency medical services
• Active or retired military personnel
• People involved with the Red Cross or who have been leaders in mission trips to help hurricane survivors or assist in other disasters
• People who have worked in local, county, state or other emergency preparedness and crisis response efforts

Consider identifying one or two team leaders and letting them recruit the other members of the team.

Another idea: Some congregations have created a new position within the church called “Safety Warden” or “Preparedness Warden.” The idea is to avoid laying responsibility for safety and resilience planning on the already-busy vestry members. By identifying someone to lead the effort, including leading the team for planning, you expand your capacity as a congregation. And increasing capacity is actually an important part of becoming a more resilience community.