We rent a church building to conduct our services. Who has liability and authority if our security team carries?

Legal & Second Amendment
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Like the title states, our church (tenant) rents from a larger church (landlord). We have a security team comprised of several members who provide eyes-and-ears coverage during worship services and gatherings.

Our intention is to allow CPL’d security team members to carry during their shifts, but there are questions regarding liability and authority to grant permission.

Does the pastor or board of the property owning church get to make the call (pastor/board, landlord) or does our pastor and/or board get to make the call (pastor/board, tenant)? Does it matter that we are renting a church building? What if we rented an auditorium or conference room?

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Welcome to the forum. You will probably have to check in your state.

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I would start with the renter’s agreement if you have one in place.

This could also be a question for your church insurance company.

I was once a member of a much smaller church but with a nice facility. Another congregation offered to temporarily rent one of the halls and that’s when questions arose internally about insurance. The other group ended up not going through with it so I didn’t learn how to handle such a case.

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I would start here

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@Steven625 Welcome to the community!

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