In July 2025, Kentucky Sustainable Living held their annual Homesteading & Preparedness Festival. (If you happen to live in the area, I highly recommend attending!) On the first day, while wandering “vendor row”, the wife and I met and spoke with Scott Willey of Paladin Tower Tactics. Among the stuff on his table, the flyer for his Church Security 1 class really caught my eye. It is an eight-hour long class that is intended to prepare the student “for the Gunfight, the Legal Fight, and the Spiritual Fight.” Prior to this, I had never had any professional firearms training other than the basic safety and CCW class I took when I purchased my first handgun. It was extremely basic training consisting mostly of “point this end at the target, pull the trigger, and don’t let go.”
Recent reports in the news about deliberate acts of violence targeting religious sites, particularly Christian Churches and Jewish Synagogues, was fresh in my mind. The Family Research Council reported 415 acts of violence against churched in 2024, which was actually down from 485 reported in 2023. I spoke to Scott about his course and his military and law enforcement background, but what really struck me is that he is also a pastor of a church in Middle Tennessee. He explained that his course is way more than just how to point and shoot, he believes that protecting your church is biblically commanded.
“Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not He who weights the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?” (Proverbs 24:11-12)
I took two copies of the flyer and told him that I would speak to our pastor about it.
Our pastor was very receptive to the idea, and we brainstormed about who in the church would be a good fit for a position on a potential team. Being in rural Western Kentucky, it is a given that multiple people in the congregation carry already, but being ready, willing, and able to face a threat is not something that every person is capable of. Scott points out that multiple active shooter incidents in the US occurred in locations where armed law enforcement officers were present, but that they took no action or delayed actions that resulted in additional victims.
Over the course of a few weeks, we finally got some volunteers, and I communicated with Scott about a potential schedule. A couple of other churches had scheduled a class on November 1, 2025. Myself and the father/son duo that also volunteered registered and planned on attending. Once payment was received, we each received an email containing the Training Packet that included a class overview, a link to a gun safety video that we were expected to watch, and a list of what we were required to bring. Number 1 on the list was a Bible, a small notepad, and a writing instrument. Each student supplies a minimum of three hundred rounds of ammunition (I personally used slightly less than that, but I took four hundred rounds) and three magazines or speed loaders/speed strips/moon clips. Trigger finger release holsters are prohibited. .22 caliber weapons and “pocket pistols” are also not allowed. Each student must also bring a magazine holder that can be worn on the belt in addition to hearing and eye protection.
The training packet also contains a form that each student must fill out that includes personal information, emergency contact information, and a section to list what weapon you will be using. Once that is received, an e-mail containing map coordinates is sent. There is no mailing address at the site, however latitude and longitude coordinates can be entered into a navigation app. We had no problem finding the site.
Scott offers a chance to arrive the night before and participate in a night of Christian Fellowship. I highly recommend this. His facility in Middle Tennessee sits on 280 acres of hilly, forested land. Do not arrive in a Prius, I had to use four-wheel drive because of the wet conditions. The campsite has three RV/Camper sites with full hookup capabilities. In fact, the septic system had just been installed, so we did not have to utilize the outhouse. Each participant is required to provide and prepare his or her own meals.
Training Day started at 8:30 the next morning at the range, which is on another part of the property. Our team were the only ones that arrived on Friday night, but the other students rolled in between 8:00 and 8:30. On this day, all the attendees were all male, but women are more than welcome to participate as well. It was a chilly, windy, and wet morning with thick cloud cover and a steady drizzle falling. There is a large steel carport with picnic tables to protect us from the elements. Scott recommends wearing clothing that provides concealment of your weapon since much of the training consists of drawing from concealment. I wore a short-sleeved T-shirt with a long-sleeved T-shirt over it and then a flannel shirt on top. I also had a lined rain jacket that I could remove, as needed.
After a prayer to guide and protect us, and maybe a break in the weather, Scott gave a very thorough safety briefing which included safe gun handling procedures and details on what would happen if someone got hurt, including the meetup point for an ambulance. He also instructed us on what to say if we had to call 911, being sure to mention “accident” and “accidently” during the call so as not to initiate a tactical response from the county sheriff’s department. God watched over us, and no one was injured. Except for egos, but more on that later.
None of the students that I spoke to, except for a recently retired LEO that was a self-described “political refugee” from a blue state, had ever had any formal, professional handgun training. The rest of the morning consisted of learning and/or improving on grip, stance, trigger control, trigger discipline, drawing from concealment, and going through drills that are part of the FBI Field Agent Qualification Test. The range was set up with a paper target for each student to use for his training exclusively. Short orange cones were set up at 3, 5, 7, 15, and 25 yards from the targets. There were also steel targets set up that we shot at a few times. We did get a break in the weather, and the sun even made a brief appearance, so God answered that prayer for us.
After a short lunch break, Scott conducted a Bible study session that used passages of Scripture to explain the origin and roles of Gatekeepers. I will not quote each passage just so I can increase my word count, but you can read them yourself.
2 Timothy 3:16
Romans 15:14
1 Corinthians 10:1-11
Genesis 8:21
1 Chronicles 26 all verses
1 Chronicles 23 all verses
1 Chronicles 9:17
Numbers 25 all verses
1 Timothy 3:8-12
I must say, the Bible study was my favorite part of the day. This is why Scott has described this course as “Raising Up the Gatekeepers.”
The afternoon consisted of more drills, including shooting with only your dominant hand and safely switching to your nondominant hand, which is something I had never attempted. We finished the day by taking the FBI Field Agent Qualification course. If you have never had formal handgun training and are only experienced in shooting at a range, the test is difficult. Especially in rainy, windy conditions. It is a timed, fifty-round test.
I did not find out everyone’s score, but many of us did not pass. I will not publicly embarrass myself but let us just say I was humbled. So much so that I decided that I should not carry a weapon in public. But I quicky realized that was Satan’s way of making me think that I did not need to protect my church and fellow parishioners, and I quickly decided that I would commit to additional practice and training. I have ordered FBI QIT-99 targets for myself and my team members to practice with. We have two locations that we can use to set up a safe range, and I will be building target stands that can withstand the weather.
Scott finished the day by telling us not to be discouraged in our performance on the test. He had explained that morning that we would find the training stressful. There was the social stress, emotional stress, cognitive stress, and physical stress that we would experience throughout the day. He recommends dry firing and drawing from concealment for five minutes every day, a minimum of fifty rounds of live fire practice on our own at least once per month and to take additional training once per quarter of the first year, as finances allow.
I can confidently say that I am planning on additional training with Scott and Paladin Tower Tactics, and I recommend him to all SurvivalBlog readers.
Scott holds training at his facility in Middle Tennessee and in 2025 traveled throughout Tennessee as well as Maryland, Texas, and Florida. He has upcoming training scheduled in Alaska. Scott also offers two additional Church Security sessions. Church Security 2 teaches students to be “thinkers before shooters.” It covers conflict resolution, de-escalation, team tactics, and room clearing through force-on-force training with live role players. Church Security 3 includes an in-person security evaluation in your church and additional training on-site. He also offers additional pistol and rifle training courses for both civilians and law enforcement. The cost of each class is $315.
In full disclosure, I paid for this training out of my own pocket — although my church offered reimburse me. I did not receive any type of compensation or consideration from Paladin Tower Tactics or Scott Willey for this review.
“Blessed be the LORD my Rock who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.”
Psalms 144:1
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