Shooter assaulted church filled with children for VBS

A man clad in a tactical vest and carrying an AR-15-style rifle and a semiautomatic handgun opened fire on a Michigan church last Sunday. CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, about twenty-five miles west of Detroit, was filled with children attending Vacation Bible School at the time.

The gunman exited his vehicle, began shouting, and started firing at the church building. A parishioner then struck him with a pickup truck as the gunman fired repeatedly at it. Two church employees then opened fire on the man, killing him.

The chief of police said, “We are grateful for the heroic actions of the church’s staff members, who undoubtedly saved many lives and prevented a large-scale mass shooting.” According to police, the shooter’s mother is a member of the church; he had attended church services two or three times in the last year.

Why our church hired security

For the first fifteen years I served as a pastor, worship centers were thought to be “sanctuaries.” Then came the 1999 shooting at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, when a gunman entered the church during a concert and killed seven people, wounding seven others before committing suicide.

Most of the victims were teenagers. If they had lived, presumably, they would be parents today. As it is, their parents have grieved their loss every day from that day to today.

One result of the shooting for many of us was an immediate pivot to heighten security on our campuses. The church I pastored engaged off-duty police officers to stand at the entrances to our sanctuary and patrol our campus during events. Their presence, while offering a significant measure of comfort and security, also reminded us that no place in this fallen world is truly safe.

The shooting in Wayne brings all of that back for me today. And it causes me to wonder if I sat beside someone in church last Sunday who could endanger us all next Sunday. The question is as relevant to you as it is to me.

The most persecuted religion in the world

On one level, we can understand why church gatherings would be targets for terrorism. A group of people in a building with multiple entrances will obviously be vulnerable.

On another level, however, we might presume that no place should be safer than a church where people gather to worship and serve the living Lord of the universe. We are clearly in his will in doing so (cf. Hebrews 10:25). And, as pastors often say, “The safest place in all the world to be is the will of God.”

But the Bible nowhere makes this promise, at least in the way it is often understood.

Of Jesus’ twelve apostles, only John avoided martyrdom, and he was exiled on the prison island of Patmos. Christianity remains the most persecuted religion in the world.

This makes tragic but logical sense: if our enemy is a “murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), why would we not expect him to attack those who follow our Lord most closely? The deeper our commitment to Christ, the more of a threat to Satan we become.

This is why Jesus told us, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). The reason is simple: “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).

Four reasons to trust Jesus at all costs

Why, then, should we trust Jesus with our lives and our future, especially knowing that such faith could come at such a cost?

One: Faith in Christ positions us to experience his best for us. Jesus promised, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11). Our faith does not earn God’s blessing—it enables us to receive his grace.

Two: When people misuse their freedom by attacking us, our Lord sometimes intervenes to protect us (cf. Acts 12:6-11; Isaiah 54:17). The more we rely on him, the more we enable his Spirit to act in our lives (cf. Ephesians 5:18).

Three: When God does not intervene, he redeems our suffering and even our death for his glory and our ultimate good (cf. Romans 8:18). Paul testified, “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).

Four: When we place our lives in God’s hands, our circumstances cannot steal his peace. The prophet testified, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3). He therefore encouraged us, “Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock” (v. 4).

An electric chair atop a steeple

We can choose not to follow Jesus out of fear of opposition and persecution, or we can choose to follow our Savior and trust the consequences to him. What we cannot choose is a world without suffering and eventual death. That option is not available to us.

As St. Augustine noted, “God had one Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.”

It is worth noting that while other religions are represented by symbols such as a star, a crescent, and a wheel, ours is represented by an actual instrument used to execute its victims. Imagine erecting an electric chair atop a steeple or wearing as jewelry a needle used for lethal injections.

But I would rather suffer for an eternal purpose than serve a transitory purpose without suffering.

Wouldn’t you?