Prayer and a Packing Pastor: A Church’s Response to a Mass Shooting

Pastor Frank Pomeroy now carries a pistol to each and every church function.

The gun isn’t new; he’s had it for years. But it was not until the shooting rampage nearly four months ago that killed more than two dozen at First Baptist Church including a pregnant woman — and his own daughter — that he began wearing it regularly, in a holster on his hip.

As fresh mass shootings such as the one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which killed 17, reopen debates about gun control, members of this  Southern Baptist congregation are relying on what they hope is added safety plus  ongoing prayer as they move forward.

At this 92-year-old congregation near the town’s one blinking red light, many members believe God allowed the Nov. 5 massacre to happen as — in Pomeroy’s words — “blood’s seed for revival.”

Those beliefs couldn’t be more different from those of the Florida teenagers who believe they can reform an American political culture that has resisted curbs on the availability of weapons.

This week, those students begged President Trump to support tougher gun control legislation, including bans on assault rifles.

Here in Sutherland Springs, a few days earlier at a Sunday morning Bible study, Pomeroy told members that for Christians, prayer, not protests, is the primary Christian response.

“When I see the aftermath…