I’ve been waiting to hear from God. Waiting on some divine wisdom, some words to say about the terrible shootings at Faith Bible Church in Arvada, Colorado and New Life Church here in the Springs. Weeks later, I’m still stalled, words escaping me. There’s just not much I can say about the incidents that hasn’t already been said. It’s just terribly, terribly sad. Our prayers go forth for the nine victims of the shootings (three fatal), and I can only speculate, in the most abstract and clueless fashion, about the terrible sadness, loneliness and instability of the man driven to commit such terrible acts.

While I don’t believe we need to (or should) transform our churches into armed camps, I believe this tragedy should leave us with a heightened sense of obligation to one another. Most black churches here have absolutely no security whatsoever, security not being much of a concern to anyone. While service is in progress, children tend to wander these buildings where anyone could wander in off the street and find them. Over the years, I’ve spoken to several pastors about the importance of vigilance and stewardship over our families and have been repeatedly dismissed. As I write these words, I am unaware of any material changes in that position as we continue to carry on in our way, with loud, raucous worship and celebration, while being all but completely ignorant of who is in our parking lot or who is wandering our halls.

Being one of the most successful churches in the country also makes New Life one of the biggest targets in the country. It would deeply disappoint me to see churches installing metal detectors at the door and/or frisking suspicious worshippers, profiling strangers and so forth. As we’ve seen, most recently with the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, doing so won’t guarantee our security. Our security can only be totally guaranteed by an unwavering faith in Jesus Christ and the promise of His soon coming. Between now and then, however, our task is to be vigilant, to be prayerful, to be watchful.

Our most sincere condolences to our brothers and sisters who have lost so much.