After members of CrossPointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, helped thwart a mass shooting on June 22, people from around the world reached out to offer support and prayers. As the church prepares to reopen for worship this weekend, one of its pastors shared two specific ways that people can help the congregation heal.
Jeric Thomas, pastor of Christian education and discipleship, said in a June 26 Facebook video that CrossPointe credits “the miraculous hand of God” for sparing them.
According to police, a suspect who had previously claimed to be a prophet drove into the side of the church last Sunday and began spraying it with bullets. At the time, about 150 worshipers—including more children than usual—were attending a special VBS service.
RELATED: Security Team at Michigan Church Thwarts Shooting During VBS Worship Service
After a church deacon ran over the suspect with a vehicle, members of CrossPointe’s security team shot and killed the gunman. One team member was shot in the leg, but no one inside the church was injured.
The CrossPointe Community Church family is giving God glory for protecting them, Pastor Thomas said, but he admitted that the experiencing is still traumatizing. “People are still healing, people are still trying to piece things together,” he said. “And we really do need the larger body of Christ. We know that you have been praying for us, and that is no small thing. We feel it, God is guiding us, we are healing every single day.”
How You Can Help CrossPointe Community Church
In his video, Pastor Thomas reported that since Sunday’s attack, CrossPointe has received calls from Switzerland, Hong Kong, and “all kinds of places,” with Christians “looking out for us and praising God for what he has done.”
For people who want to pour out “the love of the body of Christ” to the Detroit-area church, the pastor offered two suggestions. First, CrossPointe would like to decorate all its halls and pathways with correspondence.
Thomas explained:
As people walk through the building and come back and return to worship, we’d like to show them the love of the whole body of Christ. If you could just send us cards, letters, pictures from your little ones, words of encouragement to just lift up the people of God as we return back into the facility where this thing occurred, that we would be reminded of our larger body of Christ.
To help decorate the church walls with well wishes and encouragement from Scripture, send cards to: CrossPointe Community Church, 36125 Glenwood Rd, Wayne, MI 48184.
