ReadyCity Training Program Guide

Get Started | Overview

ReadyCity Overview describes the training needed for your Christian Community to be spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically prepared to respond to emergencies both large and small. Discover what it takes to unify the Christian leaders in your community to respond to the emergency in your city. Learn how it all works and what it takes to become a ReadyCity.

Getting Started | Biblical Readiness

Biblical Readiness is the foundation for becoming ready to respond spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically to crisis needs in your city. Biblical Readiness training provides you with an in-depth understanding of the foundations of Biblical Readiness - spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. Learn what Biblical Readiness is, assess how Biblically Ready your Christian community currently is, and learn the principles that will strengthen your city’s Biblical Readiness.

Getting Started | Unified Leadership Development

When an emergency occurs or there is a disruption to the normal operations of Christian organizations, organized teams will respond in accordance with established plans. Public emergency services may be called to assist. Contractors may be engaged and other resources may be needed. Learn about the basic functions of the City Emergency Leadership Team to leverage your existing Christian resources and volunteer potential for mobilizing your city for community ministry.

Getting Started | Resource Management

A small church can have a big ministry. Learn how to assess your Church’s resource capacity to respond in the community along with some practical steps in getting any church, no matter its size, ready to respond in emergencies. Download the Capacity Assessment Worksheets to discover what your church already has available to respond, the potential risks in your community and the organizational information that can be utilized in times of crisis to bring a Biblical Response.

Planning l Identifying Community Resources

Have you recognized, as Nehemiah did, the need for collaboration among pastors, resources and Christian organizations in your city? Recognizing the need for collaboration is just the beginning. As you are working to develop Biblical Readiness as a ReadyCity, certain tools are available to identify resources in your community that can be utilized in developing a network of Christian organizations and increasing the response capacity of your city. Resource Management is vital to developing response plans as a ReadyCity. Knowing what the Christian organizations in your city have available for use in times of emergency is the goal behind the capacity assessment, which is discussed in this resource.

Included Documents:

• Training Content
• ReadyIndy News Release

Planning l Risk Assessment

Knowing the risks that your community faces and the impact that those risks would have on your church are the first steps to being able to develop effective response plans. Assess what risks your Church faces using the Risk Assessment Template. Identify what the potential impacts on your ministry would be using the Impact Analysis Template.

Planning l Response Plan

Once a church has evaluated their capacity, identified their church’s risks and the impact of those risks on their church operations, the next readiness step is to develop what is known as Emergency Response Plans. An Emergency Response plan is a series of plans that detail how the ReadyCity will respond to the needs that arise from a crisis or disaster. The plans that are discussed include:

• Emergency Operations Plan
• Ministry Continuity Plan
• Emergency Operations Center Plan
• Emergency Response Plan

Implementation l Equipping the ReadyCity

Does your city know what it means to be Biblically Ready? Do they understand the emergency plans that your city has set in place? If there is a fire in your church would your employees know what to do? Are they familiar with the system that would alert members to evacuate, shelter or lockdown? Do they know who is in charge during an emergency? Do they know who is authorized to speak with the news media? Are members familiar with their responsibilities for building and information security? Can they carry out their assigned responsibilities during an emergency or church disruption? Equipping Your Church shows you how to equip your church members, through the Readiness Campaign, to develop Biblical readiness and to be ready to respond within 90 days.

Implementation | Activation

When is it appropriate to share Christ in emergencies? What is an effective way to share Christ when people are facing crises? Are there federal rules against proselytizing if we are responding to a disaster? These and many more questions will be addressed in Using Biblical Readiness as Outreach. Using the creation of prayer-care-share teams, discover ways that you can be effective at sharing the gospel in times of crisis.

Exercise | Is Your City Ready

Evaluating the effectiveness of your current program is essential to knowing how Biblically Ready you really are. Making sure volunteers know what to do and finding any areas that can be improved are vital to the success of your ReadyCity’s Biblical Response. We recommend doing this evaluation through a series of questions and scenarios known as a “table top exercise.” Through these exercises, Is Your Church Ready to Respond will help…

• Clarify roles and responsibilities of your leaders
• Reinforce knowledge of procedures, facilities, systems and equipment
• Improve individual performance as well as organizational coordination and communications
• Evaluate policies, plans, procedures and the knowledge and skills of your emergency team members
• Reveal weaknesses and resource gaps
• Comply with local laws, codes and regulations
• Gain recognition for the emergency management and ministry continuity program
• Introduce a tabletop exercise