Pastor: Fear Shouldn’t Keep People From Church

The lead pastor at Trinity Algood says his church has security measures in place to hopefully prevent an incident like the one that took place at a church in Texas last weekend.

A gunman entered a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs Texas, killing more than two dozen people.

Campbell said events like last weekend’s shouldn’t put people in fear of going to church.

“I don’t think we should have fear about doing anything in life. The word says God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind,” Campbell said. “I think we need to keep our minds thinking in the right direction, keep moving forward in life, and not be locked up by things like this.”

Campbell said in recent years his church has installed a number of security cameras and automatic locking doors. There’s also a lot of resources that are being published and put out on how to better prepare for such incidents, he said.

“We have procedures that we have practiced with our ushers and different security teams so we are ready to go in the event that something occurs,” Campbell said. “We have these people coordinated and ready to move forward and we’ve been moving in this direction for a while.”

Campbell said 10 to 15 years ago he never would have thought security measures would need to be taken at churches, but now we live in different day.

“We had things that we had talked through and practiced, but not to the point where you would consider putting an off-duty police officer on your property,” Campbell said. “The church is an open and accepting place. Unfortunately, now it appears to be an easier place for people to take out their frustrations and evil thoughts.”