It was a violent weekend for people of faith. That means we can’t quit.

Evil is on the rise. That means good men and women must be too.

It was a rough weekend for people of faith – to say the least.

• A gunman killed two people in a Texas church before a church member shot him.

• In suburban New York City, a maniac burst into a rabbi’s home and stabbed five people during a Hanukkah celebration.

• A video of the Christmas execution of 11 Nigerian Christians was released by a jihadist group in West Africa. The details are horrific.

And these are just the ones we know about.

What can we say in response to all this? As we take in the enormity of the hatred and violence, words fail us. Silence is appropriate.

But we cannot remain in this state.Too many people depend on us to prevent future atrocities.

We must acknowledge that we live in a dangerous world. But also that we must live in this world. We can’t hide under our beds. What to do?

• We must view security as a process of continuous improvement – a journey, not a destination.

• We must be mindful of our own personal security, not getting lost in our phones, but aware of our surroundings.

• We must look out for one another. Whether it’s a Christian, Jew, Muslim or “none of the above” in the crossfire, we must stand up for our fellow citizens and stand against our culture of violence.

As former President George W. Bush said, in a way that only he could: “Fighting evil, it’s hard work.”

Let’s stay at it.

Vaughn Baker is president of Strategos International, a Kansas City, Mo.,-based firm that provides security training, consulting and executive protection services.

Baker has 20 years of experience in law enforcement including patrol, investigation, SWAT and special operations. He has trained thousands of school, health care, government, law enforcement and military personnel in security practices. Baker has also developed specialized intruder response curriculum for schools and churches, including some of the nation’s leading training on behavior pattern recognition. He is the author of The Church Security Handbook and, with Mark Warren, Active Threat.

In addition, he served as deputy director of training and as an instructor for the Surefire Institute, a California-based tactical lighting manufacturer and tactical training company.

He is also the director of security for a church of more than 7,500 in the Kansas City area, a position he has held for more than a decade. Connect with Vaughn Baker on LinkedIn.