Responding to a Crisis

There I was at Regent University getting ready to speak to a group of Pastors and Church Workers about the benefits of "Equipping church members to care and counsel people in distress" when one of my colleagues shouted, "Come in here. You have to see this!"

Two or three of us who were waiting to go into the office of the Dean of Students rushed into the reception area and watched in shock as one of the World Trade Center Towers was on fire. I was stunned and almost unable to speak or think but one image came back to me quickly: That of a WWII airplane hitting the Empire State Building many years ago.

This had to be a terrible mistake made by an errant pilot who flew unknowingly into one of the tallest buildings on earth. Just two days ago two small aircraft had a midair collision in Cincinnati and all on board were killed. Such things happen rarely but when they do people always die. We watched mesmerized for a few minutes before we had to leave for the meeting.

The small group of men and women who gathered with us were experts in providing pastoral care and counsel but none of us was able to overcome the shock to our own emotional system on 911. Just after being introduced by the host a woman from the Dean's Office came to our room and announced that a second airplane had hit the other World Trade Center Tower. We all concluded that the USA was under attack by a foreign power.

The day before John and Rose Allman had taken me out to see the fleet assembled in the harbors around Virginia Beach where I was teaching at Kempsville Presbyterian Church. John was a retired Navy Commander and knew well the power of the biggest fleet in the world at the largest naval base in the world. He pointed out the enormous flat tops, the destroyers and battleships as well as the submarines. My confidence and feelings of safety as an American grew every time John gave me his facts about the might of the American Armed Services.

But to the Muslim extremists all that was unimportant. When they decided to attack us it was civilians who were the targets not the military bases The fleet was powerless. For over forty years Israel has fought against terrorist attacks from these same hate-filled men and women but it is the first time Americans have had to experience such an enemy so callous that infants in arms are used to hide home made bombs.

My reaction to the attack on 911 was overwhelming shock and disbelief. Most of us have heard of the Six Stages of Grief and I was definitely stuck in Stage I: DENIAL. What can a Christian leader and a Christian Church do to minister to people in shock and denial? How can we have a positive effect on our own congregation and the people around us as well as ourselves?

Kempsville Presbyterian Church did several wonderful things right after 911 to offer hope and healing. More about that later.