Security is Sacred: The Growing Need for Access Control in Places of Worship

Houses of worship, whether they be churches, temples, synagogues or mosques, and the buildings around them are meant to be safe places for members and visitors to practice their faith in worship, study and fellowship activities. These religious spaces are also often utilized by community groups when services and church-related meetings and activities are not taking place.  

There was a time when churches kept their doors open 24/7 with the goal of offering safe sanctuary whenever it was needed. Unfortunately, however, to ensure the security of members and visitors, as well as the buildings themselves, that is no longer an option.  

Typically, churches secure their doors – both outside and inside – using traditional locks and keys. But, with many different people needing access at different days and times, including staff, committee members, volunteers and more, it becomes hard to keep track of keys, and they can be easily lost or shared, as well as expensive to constantly replace.  

To accommodate the community groups who utilize churches at very specific days and times, either additional keys must be provided, or a church staff member must be present to unlock and re-lock the building and rooms each time groups meet. And, frequently churches use their spaces for daycare facilities and religious education classes for children and youth and bear the important responsibility of ensuring that the areas being used can only be accessed by authorized individuals.  

With matters of security becoming more and more pressing and expensive, a growing number of places of worship are turning to VIZpin’s Smartphone-based Access Control as a highly cost-effective and secure solution to address their access needs. Anyone who requires access (to any door inside or out of church buildings) can be granted access at anytime based on their particular needs without ever having to be given a physical key. And when schedules and situations change, a VIZpin administrator can quickly and easily login to the cloud-based portal to revise schedules or revoke access from anywhere.  

Churches also utilize the convenience and security VIZpin’s first-in feature* offers. When church spaces need to remain open for public events, specific doors can remain locked after a credentialed user enters, and then the doors will automatically relock when the event ends.  

For more details on how VIZpin is being used as a safe, affordable and convenient access solution for places of worship,  download the case study, “VIZpin Allows Our Lady of Perpetual Help to Make a New Chapel a Safe Place to Pray Any Hour of the Day”.  

 

*First-in feature requires a door strike rated for continuous duty