HEARTLIGHT® Magazine: Special Feature: "How Close Are We?"


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t blocks from the other growing Wedgwood neighborhood Church of 1200, Wedgwood Baptist. Much of our membership lives in the Wedgwood section of Fort Worth. My home is in Wedgwood.

How close are we?

Our teenagers were invited, but decided not to go to last Wednesday’s See You At The Pole youth rally where Larry Gene Ashbrook killed seven, critically wounded two more, and victimized a community.

My schedule this week could easily have been filled with funerals.

How close are we?

Ashbrook might just as easily have driven another dozen blocks to our sanctuary. The night the rampage took place, our own Praise Assembly had just begun when he began his carnage. Not knowing all that had transpired, we dismissed quickly yet calmly when news of the shooting was phoned in by police. Just minutes later, news and police helicopters droned overhead.

How close are we?

News and police helicopters droned overhead.

We hosted a community wide prayer service just 24 hours after the shooting. 800 people came, including two members of the House of Representatives and many families of Wedgwood Baptist, who wept in our pews. A deacon from Wedgwood Baptist spoke. Media from all the local Fort Worth —Dallas outlets were here. A church from Littleton, Colorado sent flowers, as did the Jewish Community Centers of Los Angeles, both of whom have also been targets of recent violent crimes.

I remarked Thursday night that our community is larger than this corner of Fort Worth. We flashed across Nightline, 48 Hours, on prime time network television. Reporters called me to get a viewpoint from a nearby preacher.

How close are we?

Our Youth Ministers Raymond Schultz and Hai Cao spent much of Thursday at a local high school where one of the victims had been a student, consoling teens. Our Counselor Russ Bartee was on the radio and coordinating with the Red Cross. Small Groups Minister Scott Strother was at the hospital. Outreach Minister Wade Weaver was talking to local media. College and Singles Minister Mark Aldridge was on the phone with area churches. Our team was on call.

How close are we?

At the prayer service, our Children’s Education Minister Patty Weaver sang Amazing Grace, dedicating it to Sydney Browning, Wedgwood Children’s Choir Director. Sydney was the first one Ashbrook murdered. One of their little girls was described on television as lamenting out loud, “They killed my choir teacher! They killed my choir teacher!” I was overcome with emotion realizing, could have just as easily have been Patty. What would our little boys and girls have said?

How close are we?

My son, a first grader, came home Thursday telling us one of his tiny classmates was at the church when it happened. Our children go to school together. Members of Altamesa are neighbors of members of Wedgwood.

How close are we?

In another twist, some of our members know and long ago attended church with the Ashbrook family. In his childhood, one of our deacons knew the man who unloaded his two handguns into the crowd.

How close are we?

That may be the most important question asked in the aftermath.

How close are we to one another?

How close are we to tragedy?

How close are we to our community?

How close are we to our friends and fellow believers in other churches?

How close are we to God?

How close are we to the end?

How close are we to reaching those, like Ashbrook, who reportedly grew up in the church but regrettably not in the Lord?

How close do we even want to be?

At our Thursday evening community wide prayer service we offered folks the opportunity to write a note to the families of the martyred, the injured, or write whatever was on their heart. Scores of pages were left behind for those who grieve, poems for the injured, prayers for the families devastated by that senseless deed. Saturday I delivered the book of original copies to Associate Pastor of Wedgwood Baptist, Mike Holton. Mike was deeply moved. In appreciation he tearfully said, “Thank you. All of us here love you over at the Altamesa Church of Christ. Thanks for what you did.”

How close do we even want to be?

As we visited, a young man came in. He immediately thanked me for our prayer service, saying his parents had come. Apologizing to Mike for his unavailability at 2:00 that afternoon, he explained his plan to attend the funerals (three were held that day for victims of the shooting). Mike assured him it would all be fine. Somehow God will provide.

When I asked what was happening at 2:00, Mike explained that chairs needed to be arranged for Sunday’s service, and since most of their church was involved with the funerals, he had no one to help. Thirty members of the Altamesa Church showered Mike with supportive hearts and willing hands at two o' clock. We carried flowers and set up chairs. We quietly stepped inside the sanctuary. We prayed and sang a song. “O God, You are my God, and I will ever praise You...”

I believe God did provide, as much for us as for Wedgwood Baptist.

Then Mike asked us to help carry out several of their pews. Pews to be repaired by the manufacturer, who had traveled to be on site. Pews with cushions and fabric removed. Pews riddled with bullets. Pews heavy with sorrow. Pews where, as one of my Church Elders said, “Soldiers died.” Thursday night the Wedgwood Baptist Church had come to cry in the pews of the Altamesa Church of Christ. Saturday afternoon the Altamesa Church carried out the pews at Wedgwood Baptist. Tears and service, service and tears.

We are close enough to do for a church that’s experienced loss exactly what we do for our friends who experience loss. We were just there.

How often have we heard it said, “Just be there” for someone grieving, someone in shock. Don’t say anything. Just be there.

How close are we?

Close enough to bear one another’s burdens and practice the love commands of Christ:

Love your neighbor as yourself, By this all men will know that you are my disciples, by your love for one another.

Close enough to emphasize for a rare moment all we have in common, rather than practice the pattern of highlighting our differences.

How close are we?

Close enough to love. Close enough to care, to be there, to do something instead of talk. Close enough to do, we’re convinced, the very thing Jesus would do, and died for His Church to do. Close enough to do what Jesus lives through us, His Body, to do.

So how close are we?

How close should we be? That’s how close I want to be!