Armor bearers keep pastors safe

On Sunday mornings, while members of the congregation at the Faith and Power Worship Center in Apopka, Fla., close their eyes and bow their heads in prayer, one man keeps his head up, his eyes open.

He is minister David Sepulveda. And he is armed.

“It’s not there for everyone to see,” he said, “but it’s there.”

Sepulveda is the “armor bearer” of senior pastor Matthew Shaw.

An armor bearer – a Biblical reference to the one who carries the spear and shield of a warrior – is traditionally the person in the church who assists the pastor in everything from adjusting the temperature in the sanctuary to picking up visitors at the airport to running interference for the minister.

But the armor bearer’s duties also have, in recent years, come to include protecting the safety of the pastor. When a gunman burst into the Greater Faith Christian Church in Lakeland, Fla., on a recent Sunday and shot pastor William Boss and associate pastor Carl Stewart, the two men who subdued him were described as armor bearers.

“If it came to that point, then the armor bearer is the last line of defense before they get to the pastor,” said Shaw. “As long as he is on duty, he needs to have his eyes open and seeing what is going on in the house. He keeps his eyes on the pastor.”

Sepulveda’s day job is working as an Orange County, Fla., deputy sheriff. But on Sundays, for the past 10 years, he has been the spiritual bodyguard of pastor Shaw.

During the service, Sepulveda is seated behind Shaw, his attention directed at the congregation in the pews.

“I’m looking for new people coming into the sanctuary. I see what clothing they are wearing, if they have their hands in their pockets. I look at their ankles – a bulge could be firearm,” said Sepulveda, 46, who has served as an armor bearer for more than half his life.

In many churches, the armor bearer is not armed and is not responsible for protecting the minister. He is more of an unpaid personal assistant.

“The term ‘armor bearer’ was basically a person who assisted the pastor,” said the Rev. Willie C. Barnes, pastor of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Eatonville, Fla. “What it has evolved into is men and women who are prepared to assist and deter any kind of attack.”

In most small churches, the responsibility for church security falls to the deacons, ushers and greeters. While larger churches can afford private security and off-duty police officers, small churches rely on the keen eyes and quick responses of a few men trained to intercede.

Greeters are instructed to watch for people entering the church who behave oddly or look suspicious. Ushers are trained to deal with those who become disruptive.

Often, it is someone who arrived at church intoxicated, high or angry. Without disrupting the service, ushers will escort the person outside the church.

“The key to security of a church is not about bodyguards. It’s about layers of security – from the guy directing traffic to the greeter to the deacons who might help them to their seats,” said James Sang Lee, the former security director for Northland, a Church Distributed, who now heads his own faith-based security company.

Rarely are they required to intercept someone who is violent or threatening – nor are they expected to put themselves in danger.

“You can’t tell people to put themselves in harm’s way,” said, the Rev. O’Hara C. Black, pastor of Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla.

At the same time, Black said, nearly every congregation has men with military and law-enforcement experience whose training and background have prepared them to step in when there is trouble inside the sanctuary.

“I consider that my role – to make sure the man of God is protected,” said Sepulveda, who served in the Army and nearly 10 years in law enforcement. “Before he would die, I would die. That is my job.”

At the Faith and Power Worship Center, trouble has to pass through the discrete but discerning eyes of greeters and ushers who are instructed to sense danger from the averted gaze, the sweaty-palm handshake, the shirking of an embrace.

If trouble makes it past those full-body screeners, there’s Sepulveda.

“If lethal force is required,” said pastor Shaw, “we have a person there who is armed and dangerous.”