Last Sunday, protestors disrupted worship at St. Paul’s Church in Minneapolis. Without warning, anti-ICE activists stormed into the middle of the Sunday morning service, shouting slogans and screaming accusations, creating chaos in the sanctuary. They believed one of the church leaders was an ICE officer and were determined to vent their anger.

     What makes the incident especially unsettling are memories of recent mass shootings during worship gatherings over the past months. That reality makes any disruption in a worship service even more frightening for attendees and reminds us why laws exist against disturbing the peace and interrupting public assemblies. If intentional disruptions like this are not handled properly, they risk encouraging similar interruptions in churches across America.

     On rare occasions, we experienced disruptions when I served as senior pastor at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Those incidents prompted our leaders to discuss procedures and proper responses for church personnel if protesters entered church property or disrupted worship. In December of 1998, during our first service in a new building, a gay-rights activist stood up in the middle of my sermon and began heckling me. Our security team quickly removed him, and police took him to jail, but the disruption was unnerving. A few years later, when PETA activists learned the president of KFC was a member of our church, they staged a protest at the church entrance. Thankfully, they remained peaceful and stayed on the sidewalk, yet it was a reminder for our leadership to anticipate the potential for service disruptions.

    Here are some practical do’s and don’ts to help church leaders prepare:

Plan in advance. Don’t wait until something unexpected happens and then regret your response. Good leaders anticipate what could happen and adequately train people what to do. Just as schools have fire drills, churches should take a few minutes to prepare the congregation on what to do and say in case of an interruption.

Don’t engage in altercations with demonstrators. They will shout false accusations and scream personal insults. Do not shout back, threaten, or get into fisticuffs. Certainly, do not draw a weapon of any kind! Satan wins two victories if that happens. Activists are not there to dialogue or listen to the gospel. They are there to cause as much turmoil as possible. Wait it out.

Don’t panic and leave. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). Stay in your seat or at your post and wait for direction.

Start singing. Sing louder than they shout! Sing “Amazing Grace,” “Victory in Jesus,” or “God Is So Good.”

Take videos. When worshipers remain calm, interrupters often appear as foolish bullies rather than victims.

Use trained security. Let prepared personnel handle the situation without confrontation, which often fuels negative media attention.

Designate a spokesperson. Media questions should be answered by a pre-designated spokesperson who is capable and prepared to respond to media inquiries. Congregants should be encouraged to defer questions politely.

Prosecute the demonstrators. Some will argue that no legal action should be taken. Others will piously suggest, “Just turn the other cheek.” But Solomon reminds us that “there is a season for everything under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

The apostle Paul did not always quietly endure mistreatment. In Philippi, after being beaten and imprisoned unlawfully, Paul demanded a public apology and a police escort out of town from the magistrates who had violated his rights as a Roman citizen. He refused to slip away quietly as they suggested (Acts 16:37). His insistence on legal accountability undoubtedly served to discourage future persecution of the church in Philippi.

For the sake of future worship assemblies across the country, just punishment should be imposed on lawbreakers as a warning to others who may be tempted to interrupt a sacred assembly. Years ago, the heckler who interrupted one of our worship services was later interviewed in a gay-rights magazine and asked whether he would do it again. He replied that it wasn’t very pleasant spending the night in jail.

Praise God for the opportunity to witness for Him. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11–12).

Even in a disruption or through false accusation, God can still use such moments to strengthen His church and provide an unexpected witness to the watching world.

Above all, pray for the demonstrators. Our first instinct is righteous anger. We want to immediately respond to false accusations and such brazen disruptions in the house of God. But Jesus commanded us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. If Jesus could pray, “Father, forgive them,” for those who mocked and crucified Him, we can pray that God opens the eyes of those who disrupt worship and leads them to Christ.

www:bobrussell.org