Posted on 07/25/2015 6:15:33 AM PDT by Gamecock
On Sunday mornings, you’ll find Pastor Brenda Stevenson preaching from the tattered pages of her Bible to a congregation clinging to her every word.
But the pastor of New Outreach Christian Center will soon be armed with something other than the word of God.
“Like I tell everybody – just welcome two new members, Smith and Wesson,” Stevenson said.
Next month, Stevenson will take the pulpit with a gun by her side for the first time, a need realized after the Charleston shooting, something she believes may have been stopped if someone inside could have fired back.
“I do not believe nine people would have gotten shot or killed; I talked with my husband and I said, honey, we need to get a gun,” Stevenson said.
For Stevenson, this decision is about protecting the people who sit in her pews every week.
“If someone walked through the door and had a gun, because you don’t know where people’s minds are. They’re losing their jobs, they don’t have food to eat and they’re looking to take it out on somebody,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson will be taking a concealed handgun course in the coming weeks before she brings her new addition to church.
“The gun is in layaway as I speak with a case, ammunition, the cleaning. And I’ll be ready to carry a concealed weapon as soon as I take the class in August,” she said.
Stevenson insists no one will be able to notice the accessory she hopes she never has to use. “They’re going to think it’s my Bible case, because I sit back here,” Stevenson said.
But if the time ever comes, Stevenson wants her congregation to know, she’ll be ready.
“When it starts hitting home, it’s time for you to protect your own,” Stevenson said.
New Outreach Christian Center has been targeted before. In the mid ’90s the church was burned by an arsonist who was never apprehended.
I think many already do. They just don’t advertise it.
Pastor Brenda? (rolls eyes). Well, at least she is taking appropriate action to protect ‘her flock’...ALL pastors and such should follow her lead.
Certainly not opposed to this ...
the time is coming for ALL Christians to gird up their loins.
She is right, but she has ruined OPSEC by telling bad guys that she will have a gun.
It needs to be put out that the church has members with guns, then the bad guy doesn’t now who to take out first
NICE HAT!!!
Yep.
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
>>It needs to be put out that the church has members with guns, then the bad guy doesn’t now who to take out first
I agree. A woman with a brand new gun that she just got off layaway is not really much of a deterrent if I’m just coming in to kill a bunch of people.
Knowing that the deacons may be packing is a deterrent.
“Black Robe Regiment” is NOT a racial slur. I’m a fan of fighting preachers that founded this great nation. General Peter Muhlenberg, James “Give ‘em Watts boys” Caldwell and even the congregation that confronted the regulars at Lexington and Concord are the first ones that come to mind.
Indeed. The office of the Deacon was created to take care of the needs and protection of the most vulnerable among them. In the case of the early church it was the widows who needed protection and sustenance.
However, Stephen, one of the first Deacons, was bold, courageous, and filled with the Holy Spirit. He went to his death with the Name of the Lord on his lips and was Christianity’s first Martyr.
Being a Deacon means a lot more than “waiting tables”.
You are rolling your because...? Good for her.
I know that my preacher already does and has done so for several years.
My 5th great grandfather was a member: Mathias Burnet. Brave souls they.
LOL, roger that.
I am rolling my eyes at the ‘female pastor’...it has NOTHING to do with the gun. In fact, I wish everyone in the church had one on their person.
Agree and agree.
Again agree and agree.
Well, there are men in my church who pack to church.
The only clue will be that it’s a church in Upstate NY.
To the bad guys who are thinking about shooting up a church:
You guess which church and who it is.
And then there’s:
I got guns. You got guns. All God’s Children got guns!
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