Who We Are

The Oklahoma Church Security Association is an unincorporated association of retired military, law enforcement and criminal justice professionals who provide high quality, professional security training to small to medium sized churches at no charge.

All of our instructors have to be qualified to teach their subject or skill in any venue not just churches.  All have to have previous experience as an instructor.  All have to have served under arms at some point in the lives and have a separate source of income sufficient that they can afford to donate their time to the ministry. 

All of our board members have to be ordained or otherwise called to leadership in their individual communities of faith.

We are a truly non-denominational ministry.  Our director attends a conservative Presbyterian like Reformed church.  Our hand to hand instructor is a Free Will Baptist pastor and leader in his regional association.  Our firearms instructors are Pentecostal deacons.  Our medical instructors are Southern Baptists.  

The Oklahoma Church Security Association was born out of a pressing need to provide adequate training for church security volunteers in churches that cannot afford to hire professional security or pay to properly train their volunteers.  It was also born out of the realization that the secular security training available in most communities is not well suited to the needs of churches.

The OCSA trains no more than fifty people from approximately five to ten churches per year.  This allows us to spend time with the individuals and tailor our training to their capabilities and their church’s special needs.

We reserve the absolute right to train or refuse to train anyone at our sole discretion. 

The OCSA is not affiliated with any denomination and is not a 501(C)3 entity.  Despite what the AI summary shows in Google WE ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY OTHER ORGANIZATIONS INLCUDING THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHURCH SECURITY AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT OR ANY OTHER STATE OR NATIONAL ORGANIZATION.

 

About Our Program

Our training program lasts a year and is divided into two parts, unarmed and armed.  We meet either one Saturday or one long evening per month. All students go through the first six months of unarmed training.  We will not do stand alone firearms training. This first course of instruction consists of: (1) Basic Security Concepts and Biblical basis for church security, (2) Situational Awareness based upon the USMC “Left of Bang” principles, (3) Verbal De-escalation based upon the “Blue Shield Tactical” law enforcement officer training method , (4) Greeter Usher Skills, (5) CPR-AED based upon the Oklahoma State certification requirements,  (6) First on Scene Trauma Care based upon the USDOD - USMC Tactical Combat Casualty Care protocols. 

The second course of instruction is open only to students who are invited and qualify to participate. It includes: (7)  Individual student handgun skills classification and qualification, (8) Tactical handgun skills I.  Students who complete this unit will successfully fire the minimum handgun qualification for Oklahoma law enforcement officers, (9) Tactical handgun skills II.  Students who complete this unit of instruction will successfully fire either the current handgun qualification for FBI Agents or in the alternative a course of fire designed for difficult situations applicable to the needs of the student, (10) Empty hand techniques.  Students who complete this unit of training will learn simple physical compliance skills, (11) Live Scenario Training.  This unit consists of live security scenario training working with a full congregation in a typical small church building using non lethal weapons, (12) Shoot No Shoot training using a live action law enforcement level FATS (Firearms and Tactics Simulator) facility. 

The OCSA offers no certifications of any type.  However some of the individual units of instruction may qualify for external certification or continuing education credits for law enforcement and professional security officers.   

 

About Our Instructors

Bill Kumpe: is the director of the OCSA.  He teaches basic security concepts, legal issues, situational awareness and verbal de-escalation.  Kumpe is a veteran of the US Navy who holds a BS in Criminal Justice and a Juris Doctorate.  For nearly twenty years he served as local counsel for several national Christian civil rights defense law firms as well as maintaining his local private practice.  Kumpe is also a licensed armed private investigator and a certified law enforcement level verbal de-escalation instructor.  He is the author of “Deadly Minutes Versus Precious Seconds, A Primer On Armed Church Security.”   

Tom Schulze: is the chaplain of the OCSA. He teaches hand to hand skills.  He is a medically retired veteran of the US Army Airborne.  Schulze holds degrees in mathematics, physics and education.  He also holds a terminal degree black belt in his martial arts discipline.  He is the pastor of a long established church in his community and in his spare time teaches school, runs a cattle ranch and serves as president/moderator of his denominations regional association.

Charles Glenn: is the chief firearms instructor for the OCSA.  He is a medically retired US Army Master Sergeant.  Aside from his military credentials Glenn also holds degrees in history and education.  He is an NRA certified handgun instructor and a rated International Defensive Pistol Association competitor.  In his spare time he practices Brazilian Jujitsu.  

 
Others: To protect their privacy these instructors names are not published.  Our assistant firearms instructor and range safety officer is also an NRA certified handgun instructor and retired US Army First Sgt.  Our CPR/AED instructor is a retired big city EMT Fire Captain who now teaches in higher education.  Our advanced trauma instructor is a retired US Navy Fleet Marine Force Hospital Corpsman who did nine combat tours and when not deployed taught Tactical Combat Casualty Care for the Marine Corps.

 

Our Core Values

The code of conduct for the OCSA instructors and volunteers is taken from the ancient Code of Chivalry:

1. To fear God and protect His Church

2. To serve the Lord in valor and faith

3. To protect the weak and defenseless

4. To give aid to widows and orphans

5. To refrain from unnecessarily giving offense

6. To live by honor

7. To refuse monetary reward

8. To fight for the welfare of all

9. To obey civil authorities whenever possible

10. To guard the honor of fellow warriors

11. To avoid unfairness and deceit

12. To keep the faith

13. To speak the truth at all times

14. To persevere to the end

15. To respect the honor of women

16. Never to turn your back upon a foe

17. To avoid unnecessary publicity and attention

Every few training cycles, and more frequently lately, someone is offended by material presented in our training. This is problematic because, unlike the culture around us, we refuse to allow ourselves to be muzzled by the politically correct and easily offended.

The offense often occurs because the person does not have a military or law enforcement background and is unable to understand the actual process of protecting themselves and more importantly someone else from someone who wants to do them harm. They’ve usually never been in a real fist fight, never heard a shot fired in anger, never lived or worked in a violent neighborhood and have no earthly idea what the real world is like outside their cocoon. They find the violence and force shocking and simply cannot mentally process it without making unfounded judgments.

They may also be highly disturbed by the massive cognitive dissonance between their carefully cultivated assumptions and reality without the modern cloak of political correctness, woke-ness and double speak/double standards which destroys their carefully nurtured normalcy bias. And, when they cannot refute the facts, they may even take offense at the manner of presentation because the truth disturbs them so deeply.

And finally, many may be afraid of simply hearing such information because in today’s woke culture, just listening to opposing opinions on the sacred issues of race, mob violence, political and judicial corruption, etc. is enough to convict you in the eyes of the mob. Like a dark ages monk, when the theology of wokeness and political correctness is challenged they must cover their ears and run from the room lest they hear heresy and be damned for it.

And so, once again, it behooves us to make a clear statement of our core values:

1. We are not a militia in the modern pejorative definition of that term. We train churches and church security volunteers how to be safer in a very dangerous world. That's it.

2. We reject racism in the historic use of that term. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines racism as: “a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” The proposition is illogical on its face and no right thinking person can take it seriously. Like Dr. Martin Luther King we believe that every person should and will be judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin. And following Dr. King’s logic which was deeply rooted in the classic natural law theories of Augustine and Aquinas we will criticize and oppose bad behavior for its own sake.  But, if the person or community committing the bad behavior insists upon defining themselves primarily by their race (the definition of real racism) and demanding that the conversation about their behavior be defined in racial terms we will oblige them and call them what they want be called both in praise and criticism.

3. We reject anti-semitism. Though we may theologically disagree with our Jewish neighbors, we firmly believe that God's covenant relationship with Israel and the Jewish people has never been revoked and that anyone who mistreats them offends both God and man. Further, if called upon, we will defend them as though they are our own flocks.

4. We reject violence as a political tactic. There is a name for people who attempt to influence government, courts and the culture by violence and threats of violence. They are called terrorists. We refuse to call the perpetrators of the current turmoil “peaceful protestors” while they resist arrest, burn down neighborhoods, attack police stations and court houses, block streets and highways to intimidate motorists and kill policemen and first responders.

5. We are not “anti-government.” While we are often highly critical of government figures and policies, we are not anarchists and reject the notion that the government can or should be overturned by mob violence or force of arms either by the left or the right.  We do however firmly believe in the right of citizens to criticise the government and to change that goverment when it no longer represents the natural law of God as taught by the Holy Scriptures and explained by Blackstone, Cicero, Augustine and Aquinas.

6. We do not tolerate anti-government militia members, racists, anti-semites, so called sovereign citizens, radical political activists and gang members in our training. We go to great length to check the background of each person we accept into our training and refuse to admit people from these groups. And, if one slips through we will ask them to leave the moment they identify as such or try to recruit during our training.

It is sad that such a statement has to be made publicly but the times we live in are so extreme that basic values have to be spelled out very clearly if we are to avoid unwarranted assumptions.  St. Augustine said, “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.” That is exactly what we try to do, just tell the truth. And if the truth disturbs you, that is your problem not ours.

 

The OCSA Story

Over a decade ago one of my best business clients came to me with a shocking problem. A violent mentally ill fugitive from justice was threatening his pastors life and the church. The client retained me to form and help manage a professional security firm to protect his church and pastor.

My experiences in this matter led me to write a book, “Deadly Minutes Versus Precious Seconds, A Primer On Armed Church Security.” The book was a modest success which in turn led to speaking engagements at local and regional churches.

While conferring with the churches where I was speaking a giant problem became apparent. Most church security training was woefully inadequate. When the churches bothered to train at all it usually consisted of either government sponsored “run, hide, fight” programs which are practically, tactically and ethically inappropriate for churches, civilian concealed carry training which is useless in church security situations or highly profitable quickie commercial seminars that motivated many but left them with no real skills.

I felt the call to do more but needed help. At the end of one of these speaking engagements I was approached by a tall lanky man with a quiet, gentle demeanor but body language that said this can be one tough customer. He is the pastor of a regional church, a medically retired paratrooper and a terminal degree black belt. He said he wanted to help. We began praying for a firearms and tactics instructor. Soon after, a local pastor friend introduced me to another local pastor, a medically retired FBI Academy trained former big city SWAT team leader and trainer. Together, we instituted the training program now used by the Oklahoma Church Security Association.

Since that time, the OCSA has trained over 500 people from over fifty local churches.