If your church is victimized by an active shooter - or, to be more accurate, a “killer” - it will be a long time, if ever, before they recover. The memory of such a tragedy will stay with them until their dying day.
My grandmother can confirm this. In June of 1980, she was seated inside her church in Daingerfield, Texas. While singing a hymn with the other 350 members, an angry gunman stormed into the sanctuary. He was wearing an army helmet, two bulletproof vests, and a pouch around his neck containing 400 rounds of ammunition.
He was carrying two rifles and two handguns. When he entered the sanctuary, he shouted, “This is war!” He then opened fire on the 350 worshipers, injuring 10 and killing five.
"Be on your guard against men; they will harm you in a house of worship." Jesus (Matthew 10:17)
My dear grandma carried this scene in her heart for another 34 years, until she finally passed. I well remember her telling me: “Jimmy, I don’t think about getting shot while I’m at home. And I don’t think about getting shot when I go out to eat. But when I’m at church, I always think about getting shot.”
The pain that accompanies such a traumatic event is extremely difficult to get rid of.
The pastor may repeatedly say that no one should live in fear; but his words will fall on deaf ears. The memory of what was witnessed will have worked its way deep into the heart, and only with much prayer, and a lot of counseling, will it slowly decline (maybe).
My friend Jeff was at the same church shooting as my grandma. His 7-year-old sister was shot to death in the tragedy. He saw her lifeless body lying on the floor. His mother would later say that every time they would go out to eat, they stared at people, wondering if they were there to kill them.
I have spoken to many others who have endured the pain of witnessing a shooting. I learned the following:
For some reason unknown to me, divorce sometimes breaks out. I have known this to happen on several occasions. The pain endured by married couples is sometimes too much to bear, and they turn on each other.
Suicide sometimes occurs. Some people simply cannot handle what they witnessed. My friend Russell was inside the sanctuary of a church when he witnessed a shooting. It would haunt him for the rest of his life. Thirty-four years after the tragedy, he killed himself.
Fear among the members when they gather for services. I have spoken with survivors of shootings who have great difficulty each time they attended church. My grandma (mentioned above) once told me that when at church, she always watched the doors and windows, fearful that another shooter would barge in and bring down hell…
Abandon the church. American church-goers believe that houses of worship are safe places, and when that belief is rocked by a shooting, it will be too much for some of them. They will no longer attend worship.
In 50 years of ministry, I have seen people leave the church over the smallest matter: the color of the carpet, or because the megachurch down the street has a more “exciting worship service.” The skin of many church-goers is very thin. A shooting in the church will simply be more than they can handle.
So why do I mention all of this? The answer is simple: we must do all that we can do to protect our flock. We must train and be ever-vigilant to take on the wolf when he/she crosses our path. Stopping a killer will save our friends from a lifetime of pain.
Pastor: if you do not have a safety team, it is high time for you to awaken from your sleep. You saw what happened a few days ago at Joel Osteen’s church, did you not? Who knows what would have happened if those two officers had not been there?
It will be a very long time before the people who witnessed that horror will recover.
And some will not…
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WHITE HOUSE issues warning to churches
