After a gunman tried to shoot him, this pastor wants to make his church safer. But ‘we don’t have the money,’ he says

Security is challenge for religious communities across the US as churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship face threats or attack in a nation with more guns than people.

In the years Pastor Glenn Germany has been leading the small congregation at Jesus’ Dwelling Place, keeping the Pennsylvania church’s doors open has been a struggle. Germany, a full-time bus driver and full-time pastor, knows how important this church is to its community. In addition to religious services, the church – in the North Braddock borough southeast of Pittsburgh – provides its primarily low and fixed-income congregants with housing advice, domestic violence and mental health awareness programs, and seminars on everything from improving health to credit scores. To keep it all running, Germany and his family give more than $1,000 out of pocket every month. And now, it seems there’s another critical expense, though one this small church hardly could afford: security. It’s been exactly two weeks since an armed intruder walked into Jesus’ Dwelling Place, pointed a gun at Germany’s head and pulled the trigger, the horrific scene captured via a livestream of the Sunday service. When the gunman tried to fire, though, his weapon jammed, giving the pastor and a cameraman enough time to rush and subdue the suspect until authorities came. Police have not shared what may have motivated the gunman to target the pastor. Germany has said the shooter told him “spirits” got into his head. Then less than a week later, parishioners in south Louisiana helped remove a 16-year-old boy who walked into a Catholic church armed with a gun. The two incidents came roughly three months after law enforcement killed a woman who opened fire inside Lakewood Church in Houston; a 57-year-old man and the shooter’s 7-year-old son were wounded.