In the week since the shootings, Brotherhood Mutual Insurance has not had an increase in inquiries about improving security measures, said Mitzi L. Thomas, the vice president for marketing. In fact, she said, the biggest rise in the number of inquiries the insurance company received was not after an attack on a church, but after a gunman went on a rampage on the campus of Virginia Tech in 2007, killing 32 people and wounding 17. The gunman then killed himself.

“What happens in churches is that you have maybe one or two people who have a law enforcement or military background who realize there’s a vulnerability,” Ms. Thomas said. “But getting that translated to the church leadership, who are more about ministry and being open, there’s a gap there.”

Little of the money from the Department of Homeland Security grants has gone to churches. A vast majority of the more than $175 million that has been given out in the program since 2005 has gone to synagogues and other Jewish institutions, according to Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the program for the department. The grants, a maximum of $75,000 each, can be used only for physical security improvements like cameras or bollards, not for salaries for guards, Mr. Lemaitre said.

Jewish groups lobbied for the creation of the grant program and have provided advice to Jewish organizations on how to apply, said Nathan J. Diament, the executive director at the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, which represents Orthodox Jewish institutions. But “this could be a source of resources for the black church community,” he said, “there’s no question about it.”

In Philadelphia, Bishop Morris said that a meeting had been scheduled for churches in the region in a few weeks, and that security would be on the agenda. “We’re going to kick it around and see what can be done,” he said, “especially in smaller churches.”

Bishop Morris said he could remember only one time the Mount Airy church had a brush with potential danger, when a suspect in a double-murder case attended a service in 2004. A minister preaching that morning was also a Philadelphia police lieutenant, and he learned from a deacon that someone had recognized the suspect.