By PASTOR BRANDON YOUNG

This past Sunday’s tragedy is still on my heart and mind, and I am sure you feel the same. This senseless loss of life is difficult to understand, and has shook me to my core. As a pastor, I could not begin to imagine the suffering and distress the pastor of First Baptist of Sutherland Springs feels, and I pray I never know. I ask each of you to continue praying for the Sutherland Springs community.
I also want to put legs on my prayers, and begin to seek ways to prevent another tragedy.
A mass shooting of any kind creates a fear and panic in us all, but for church going Christians, this particular shooting makes us feel vulnerable in a place that has always seemed like a place of refuge and shelter from the evils of this world: the church! The church has always been a place we felt safe, but after this tragedy, our feelings are changing. This change can be great if we use the feelings to create safety plans for our churches, and be proactive and preventative in nature, but if we allow Satan to instill a fear that causes us not to enjoy worship because of the fear then Satan has won.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” It is not God that gives us the spirit of fear. Fear comes from Satan, and if we allow Satan to make us afraid to worship in the church due to the threat of violence then he is accomplishing his goal. Satan came to steal, kill, and destroy while creating chaos and confusion. Fear immobilizes individuals, but I pray what happened last Sunday will cause us to do something productive to stop future attacks rather than us shaking idle with fear!
I know as a pastor that this event has created a much needed dialogue between church leaders, church members, and the community. As church leaders, we have a duty and an obligation to do our part in protecting our church family. I know the Lord protects his children, and we can trust him with our lives. At the same time, I do believe the Lord wants us to use knowledge, wisdom, and the resources that we have been given to do our part in creating a safe environment of worship. My grandmother would always say, “We must use good common sense!” We cannot sit back and wait for another tragedy to occur before we begin to make changes in our church. You may not know where to begin, and you may feel that preventing such a tragedy is hopeless, but there are small measures that we can take to help in big ways.
Pastors Randy Johnson and Mark Potter of Valley Forge Free Will Baptist would like to invite everyone to Valley Forge Free Will Baptist Church on Monday, Nov. 13, at 6 p.m. for a presentation given by Jerry Stout from the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security on church safety. All church leaders and lay people are encouraged to attend as we hear methods of how can make our churches safer. This meeting will give measures that can be put in place for churches of all sizes.
It is not God’s will for any of us to live in fear or to run and hide, but I believe God would want each of us to protect our flocks to the best of our abilities. I would hate to think that I could have helped to stop such a terrible thing from happening, but instead I chose to do nothing. We need to pray, trust the Lord while being a good watchman. Let’s come together as a community, and put plans in place to keep our churches safe. We need men and women of God filled with the Spirit of God and courage to take a stand against the tactics of Satan.
(The Solution Column is provided by Pastor Brandon Young of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton, and his associate, Hunter Greene.)