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Punches Thrown in Front Row During Pastor’s Sermon; Church Commits to Walking Alongside Assailant

Adams expressed that the church has committed to seeing Williams through his struggles and walking alongside him through the process of getting him better.

“Pastor Sands is a real champ,” Adams said, sharing that Sands feels horrible about what transpired.

The pastor then used the incident to tell the church that God was testing them.

“Today was a major test for us. I want to thank God for the mature saints of OBC. An altercation like that broke out and we didn’t have one member lead [or] one member act out of character—all the members started praying,” Adams said. “All the men jumped up on cue to contain the situation. I was standing at the pulpit spellbound [asking myself], ‘What do I do,’ cause my heart was going out for Marcus. My heart was going out for Chris. I wanted to go back there and love on both of them, [and] the next thing I know, here is the congregation I have to take care of.”

Adams shared that following the incident, he returned to the sanctuary to find church members taking it upon themselves to hold an altar call. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Adams said, adding that the Holy Spirit led the church members to form a prayer ring around the pulpit. The pastor said he witnessed the Word of God become flesh right before his eyes.

The prayer ring then gave way to a time of church members encouraging one another. One member told everyone that what happened “is a spiritual thing,” and “we know that the enemy is going to attack,” because pastor Adams had been preaching about spiritual warfare. They then asked Adams to resume preaching his sermon.

Williams’ mother told Adams she believes God will deliver her son from the things of this world, Adams shared, adding that the mothers of the two men involved in the altercation were praying together. The pastor said there is nothing like “the power of a praying mother.”

Adams concluded his Facebook live video by thanking everyone that has been praying for their church and for Williams, and commending Sands for standing tall as a Christian by forgiving Williams and showing him compassion.

“I thank God for the test. I thank God for the trial and I know that we will overcome and continue to go higher and higher and higher,” Adams said.

Williams was arrested and charged with assault.

Watch the footage of the incident below.