City Church Lead Pastor Jonathan Parnell told Fox News’ Griff Jenkins that children and families were “terrorized” after anti-ICE agitators disrupted a Sunday worship service, an incident the church says might lead to legal action.
On Jan. 18, a group of anti-ICE protesters deliberately disrupted a worship service at Cities Church, a church plant in St. Paul supported by the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Send Network. It is also the church where Desiring God’s President and CEO Marshall Segal and Executive Editor David Mathis serve as pastors. Author Joel Rigney, who wrote “The Sin of Empathy,” helped plant the church and previously served as a pastor there.
Videos of the incident show protesters chanting and screaming in the faces of church members as congregants attempted to worship.
RELATED: Cities Church Calls Anti-ICE Protest That Disrupted Worship Service ‘Shameful’ and ‘Unlawful’
“Excuse me. Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! This is the house of God and we are worshiping. Shame on you. You may leave. You may leave,” were words Parnell can be heard telling protesters as they commandeered the church’s worship service.
Cities Church Is ‘Heartbroken Over What’s Happening in Our Cities Right Now,’ Says Jonathan Parnell
A week after the incident, Parnell told Jenkins, “I want to emphasize the heartbeat of our church is the worship of Jesus. We like to say that Sunday is the best day of the week. We gather on Sundays like we did Jan. 18 to worship Jesus.”
“And it was actually in the highest and holiest point of our service that someone began to approach me and began to yell at me,” the pastor said. “That was very unsettling. Several folks at that moment actually scattered, fearful it was a shooter situation. Children were obviously terrorized. Mothers were terrorized.”
“The group began to just kind of emerge and chant with anger,” Parnell continued. “They tried to incite violence among our men. Several people were taking cover. And, you know, I will say now what I said then: It was a shameful moment. It’s not the way.”
RELATED: ‘We Will Protect Our Churches’—Feds Arrest 3 People Involved in Anti-ICE Church Protest
Parnell said his message to Don Lemon, the former CNN journalist who accompanied the protesters inside the church, and to the agitators themselves is that the church is “heartbroken over what’s happening in our cities right now.”
City Church Lead Pastor Jonathan Parnell told Fox News’ Griff Jenkins that children and families were “terrorized” after anti-ICE agitators disrupted a Sunday worship service, an incident the church says might lead to legal action.Click to Post
