Put Your Gun Back in its Holster: Men's Ministry and Guns

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“Put your gun back in its holster,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the gun will die by the gun. Are you not aware that I can call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” – Jesus (My modern day paraphrase of Matthew 26:52)

“Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” -Jesus (John 18:36)

As much as I hate fishing, I have it to thank for saving my life.

While in seminary in Dallas, I lived in a poor white neighborhood in an old Victorian home that had been converted into four apartments, two on the first floor and two on the second.

I resided in one of the apartments on the second floor. Below me lived a man and his girlfriend who, for some inexplicable reason, even though I had hardly said anything more to him than “Hello,” invited me to go fishing with him.

I have never enjoyed fishing and I had nothing in common with the guy, but I went anyway. I have to admit, as an introvert, I’m really bad at small talk, so we hardly said anything during the entire outing. On the way back, I wondered why I even went.

But a few Saturdays after that his girlfriend, who had just broken up with him, asked me to help her move out. I naively said yes and started carrying the things she said were hers out to my car. What I didn’t realize, though, was that I was in reality helping her rob her boyfriend of some of his prize possessions.

I definitely heard about it the next morning. “YOU *#$@%&#!!!!” he shouted behind me as I walked to my car in the driveway to go to Church.” I turned around to see him standing on the front porch of our Victorian home with a rifle pointed right at me.

“YOU AND MY GIRLFRIEND ROBBED ME BLIND YESTERDAY!” He continued shouting at the top of his lungs as he stared at me down the barrel of his rifle. “IF I HADN’T GONE FISHING WITH YOU, I WOULD HAVE SHOT YOU IN THE BACK!”

Sadly, that experience of being threatened with a firearm was just the first of three that I’ve had.

The second one happened in the same poor white neighborhood. I took a girl out on a date and when I dropped her off her ex boyfriend, who had been stalking her, pulled up, got out of his car, and brandished a rifle. Fortunately, the girl was able to persuade him to put it back.

And finally, I had some business at a home in a wealthy neighborhood. But the sun had set and the walkway to the front door was long. When I got to the door, the owner came out with a pistol in his hand and threatened me.

Near death and actual fatal experiences with firearms extend to my family and friends. When she was a child, a relative of mine found a gun in her home and accidentally shot herself in the foot. Another relative accidentally discharged a gun in his home. An acquaintance of mine accidentally killed his son in a hunting accident. A close friend in high school got his father’s rifle out of his closet and committed suicide with it. Another friend of mine was murdered when someone shot him in the back of the head at point blank range. A pastor friend’s son was shot and killed when he was doing church visitation. And, as I have recently written, my mother and father were car jacked at gunpoint and my father was again robbed and assaulted at gunpoint.

Note that while three of these incidents definitely involved criminals, the rest involved law abiding citizens.

I say all this because a few days ago I opened my Facebook page and discovered the above picture of a pistol pointed at me. It produced an immediate visceral response in me because I know exactly what it is like in real life to be on the wrong end of a firearm.

What made it even worse was that it was posted a day after yet another mass shooting and it was obviously a preemptive strike against anyone who would dare to propose any kind of restrictive gun legislation.

But the piece de resistance was that it was posted by a national men’s ministry leader.

To him and to anyone else in men’s ministry who thinks guns have anything to do with being a follower of Jesus Christ, I say, Shame on you! Can you imagine Jesus walking around the countryside with a gun? I can’t. It goes against everything I know and love about him.

Our power does not come from the end of a gun. Our power is a spiritual and moral power, not a power of violence and force.

Our protection does not come from the end of a gun. Our protection comes from legions of angels who surround us and protect us every day just as they protected me that day forty years ago.

Our freedom does not come from the end of a gun. Our freedom comes from Jesus Christ, who has set us free from sin and death.

We do not fear guns. And we do not fear death.

We fear God and him alone.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

For the past sixteen years New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry

Learn how to mobilize your men’s ministry to meet every pressing need in your church here.

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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom

and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.

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