Driveby Shooting

As I pulled into the parking lot of my church today, I immediately noticed that vehicles of one of my trustees and one of my board members sitting in the parking lot. This struck me as odd and I knew something was up. As I pulled into my usual parking spot just outside the window of my office I noticed the reason for their being at the church. The front doors of our church were riddled with bullet holes and had been reduced to shattered glass. We had been the victims of a driveby shooting.

As I got out of my car and entered the doors of our place of worship, I felt sick. The first thing I noticed was that the letters form our message board were strewn across our foyer floor as were shards of broken glass. My first thought was that we had been broken into and vandalized. My men reassured me that the church had not been broken into -- the letters had been scattered when one of the bullets hit the message board after going through the glass. They also quickly informed me that no one had been injured in the shooting, which brought a great deal of relief.

One of the first things we did was to call the police, and then we called our insurance company. As we waited for the police investigator to arrive we made our own survey of the damage, taking pictures and documenting the damage for the insurance company. We were able to locate several of the spent bullets which we pointed out to the investigating officer when he arrived so that he could retrieve them.

As we surveyed the damage, I felt so sick... so violated! Why would anyone do such a thing? Why would anyone do such a thing to a church! Why would they do this to our church? What had we done to anyone that they would be so angry as do such a thing? Isn't there any respect for the church anymore in our soceity? Isn't there any fear of God? The more I thought about it, the worse I felt.

I'll admit that I am glad I was not alone. It was such an strange and awful feeling seeing the church I love so much with bullets embedded in her walls. I am glad that I did not have to bear the sight alone. I suspect the others must have felt the same way, because while they never said anything we all chose to sit outside and wait rather than remain inside where we had to view more of the damage.

There is a part of me, that part that feels violated, that dreads having to go back and sit in my office. That part of me that says, "I don't want to be in a building that people have been shooting at."

But as I think about it more, this shooting reinforces how important our church is to our community. What community needs the church more than the one where people driveby and randomly fire 9mm's? Who is there that needs to hear the good news of God more than the miserable person who pulled that trigger? This shooting serves as a reminder of the great spiritual needs that are around us, everyday in our own community.

I am still sick at the thought of what was done to my church, but I am undaunted! I am going to continue to preach the love of Christ to this community. Our church will repair and we will go on. I will not let fear motivate me! I will not back down; I will not be intimidated! This community, and these people need the message of the living God and God has placed me in this community as his ambassador. I will be faithful in delivering his message until we have so captured the hearts of our community with the Gospel that such things as this driveby shooting no longer occur. Our community needs us, may we not shrink back in fear. Instead, let us sound the trumpets and adance on in the power of God!