BUTLER, Pa. (BP) – It happened for Bob Hurd and others at a wedding reception on the evening of Saturday, July 13. Phones began chiming with alerts and texts. Donald Trump had been shot.
Hurd, pastor of Whitestown Road Baptist Church, had conducted the wedding ceremony. His church is 1.5 miles from the Butler Farm Showgrounds, where Trump was minutes into a campaign speech when a bullet tore through the former president’s right ear. Less than 950 feet separates Hurd’s backyard and the roof where additional shots from the would-be assassin killed one and injured at least two more.
The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed moments after the shooting began by Secret Service snipers.
As pastors across the country on Sunday addressed the events from the previous day, Hurd had a closer recollection than most.
“When we verified that the former president had been shot, we prayed for God’s peace in the commotion,” Hurd told Baptist Press. “It took us longer to get home that night, as the intersection of Highway 68 and Whitestown Road had become a crime scene. That was a minor inconvenience, though.”
A call to prayer saturated Sunday discussion over the event.
“We weren’t there to be a spin zone or share opinions,” he said. “We prayed for God to bring us together through this and for the circumstances to not divide us.
“This isn’t about opinions or political chatter, but for God to work through it.”
Hurd added that Barry Whitworth, executive director for the Baptist Resource Network of Pennsylvania/South Jersey, has been in contact to offer any needed resources. Whitestown Road Baptist Church’s Wednesday prayer service will focus on the assassination attempt and spiritual awakening for the country.
Other Southern Baptist pastors joined with calls to prayer. SBC President Clint Pressley told others at Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte that the event “could create a tear in the fabric of our nation, if it hasn’t already.”
“It’s right for us to pray in several ways,” he said. “To pray, of course, for President Trump and his wife. To pray for healing. To pray for his soul … that there will be people close to him to share the Gospel that he would genuinely be converted. To pray for the [families] of the victims who were shot.
“… And to pray for our country, especially for Bible-believing churches that we would be part of the Gospel solution, bringing down the talk of violence, hatred and pointing people to the goodness of God that is found in Jesus.”
Brandt Lyon, pastor of the Georgetown, Ky., satellite of Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, led in a prayer for the nation.
“We’re not about politics in this church; we’re about the Gospel,” he said beforehand.
“Lord, we saw the devastating effects of sin and brokenness yesterday,” he prayed. “We just pray for healing of our nation. That the divisiveness would go away, Lord, that we would return to a standard of truth that is from You and not from our own minds and sinful hearts.”
In addition to other matters such as children at camp, Pastor Brad Graves of First Baptist in Ada, Okla., prayed over the assassination attempt’s effects on the country.
“I pray … for the hand of God to be on our nation,” he said. “The fact that this … happened just shows how unstable our country is, politically divided, polarized on many different options.”
Graves, SBC first vice president, went on to pray for God’s “spirit to our nation. Not just for the church, but for every believer and everywhere … so we can push back the evil in all its forms.”
Pastors noted how their sermons, selected months in advance, seemed to address the events from Saturday. Pressley’s was out of Mark 13:32-37, which urges the listener to “stay awake” and aware, for no one knows on what day his or her time will come. Hurd’s message was titled “In that Very Hour” out of John 4:43-54.
His wife, Lisa, took a picture from their house on Sunday of the American flag at the rally being held up between two cranes – the same flag shown in an already historic photo taken moments after the shooting.
A tragedy that included the taking of life can still be used for good, he said.
“God is larger than these circumstances,” Hurd pointed out. “There will be opportunities to share the Gospel. I’m praying for revival and God’s peace to break through.”