Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF)
On Sunday morning, November 8, a man stood on the lawn of Genesis Metro Church in Frisco, Texas, shouting and holding an AR-style rifle after a fight with a protester over a sign. The protester, a former member of the church, had been holding the sign on the public sidewalk at the church entrance before services. Members of the church safety team walked up to the man and argued with him while the rifle was in his hands. No shots were fired and no one was hurt. In an interview with Christian Warrior Training (CWT) on November 10, the protester said police arrested the man for disorderly conduct. The Frisco Police Department has not released a statement, the church has not commented, and no news outlet has reported the incident.
What Happened
This account comes from two sources. The first is a five-and-a-half-minute video the protester posted on his own Facebook page. It opens with about 15 seconds of cell phone footage of the confrontation, followed by his commentary about the church. We have a copy of that video, and what the footage shows is described below as we see it. The second is a recorded video interview CWT conducted with the protester on November 10. Everything that happened before the footage starts and after it ends comes from the protester.
Genesis Metro Church is a non-denominational church at 3330 Eldorado Parkway in Frisco, north of Dallas. The protester says he attended the church for 12 years and has a personal dispute with its leadership. Before services, he stood on the public sidewalk at the main entrance holding a sign reading “This Church SUCKS.com.” The web address on the sign forwards to his Instagram video about the church. He says the church called police that morning and had officers give him a criminal trespass warning, a written notice that he is not allowed on church property.
According to the protester, a man he did not know walked up to him cursing, grabbed the sign out of his hands, and carried it onto church property. The protester says he went after the man, grabbed him by the neck, threw him to the grass, took the sign back, and returned to the sidewalk. He says the man then went to his truck, parked in the space closest to the sidewalk, and came back with a rifle, saying “What about now?” He also says he heard the man say “I have a right to put you down like a dog,” and his captions mark those words as what he thinks he heard.
The cell phone footage picks up from there. The suspect stands on the church lawn beside a gray pickup truck, holding a black AR-style rifle by the pistol grip with the muzzle toward the ground. He is shouting and pointing at the person filming. A woman stands within arm’s reach of him, pointing and talking to him. A bearded man in a black T-shirt walks straight up to him. A person in a yellow safety vest walks toward the group. Someone off camera says “Put the gun away” several times. A uniformed police officer then walks across the lawn toward the scene, pointing and giving directions. In the interview, the protester said the people moving toward the man were members of the church safety team, and that the uniformed officer was an off-duty officer working security at the church.
The protester said the first seconds of the confrontation were not recorded because he was still getting his phone out. During those seconds, he said, the man held the rifle with both hands and his feet spread apart, ready to bring it up and fire, and the protester believed he was about to be killed. He said the man is younger than he is and trains in mixed martial arts. He said police told him they arrested the man for disorderly conduct, and that the charge was not aggravated assault because the man never raised the rifle at him. He said he came to the church unarmed and, after services ended, let the off-duty officer search his backpack.
The protester says officers later told him a detective would decide whether to charge him with criminal trespass for walking about 10 feet onto the church grass to read the man’s license plate to the 911 operator. He says the officers told him he had the right to step onto the grass to get his stolen sign back. No shots were fired and no injuries were reported.
Lessons for Church Security Teams
Protesters Have a First Amendment Right to Be There
A person holding a sign on a public sidewalk is exercising a right protected by the First Amendment, even when the sign insults your church and the person has a grudge against your pastors. Standing on the sidewalk breaks no law. There is no reason to call the police on a peaceful protester, and the safety team has no authority to move that person. Most of the time, the safety team’s job during a protest is to protect the protester from your own congregation. Church members get angry when someone attacks their church in public, and an angry member who confronts a protester can start a fight on church property, as happened here.
Tell your congregation before the service, and again at the doors, to leave the protester alone. Nobody talks to the protester, argues with the protester, takes the sign, or takes pictures in the protester’s face. People walk past and go inside. If the protester steps onto church property, the rules change. Depending on your state’s laws, the church can issue a criminal trespass warning, and if the person stays on the property or returns after the warning, you call law enforcement and have the person removed. Learn your own state’s trespass law before you need it, and decide ahead of time who in your church has the authority to issue the warning.
Every Problem Starts in the Parking Lot
Everything in this incident happened between the public sidewalk and the parking lot, before services started. In the video, the man with the rifle appears to be a member or attender of the church. He walked up to the protester, took the sign, ended up on the ground, and came back from his truck with a rifle. A parking lot team is out there to stop that sequence. A person walking toward a protester with a red face and clenched fists is easy to spot if someone is watching for it.
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When your team sees a member heading toward a protester, a team member closes the distance and gets between them before words are exchanged. Use your discernment. If the conversation is getting heated, step in, speak calmly to your own member, and walk that person away from the sidewalk and into the building. That is de-escalation, and every member of your safety team should be trained in it. We teach de-escalation for free at courses.christianwarriortraining.com. Have your whole team take it before your next service.
You Do Not Argue With a Person Holding a Gun
In the video, at least three people moved toward a man who was angry, shouting, and holding a rifle. One stood close enough to touch him, and one walked straight up to him. They were most likely trying to calm him down or get him to leave. They were within a few feet of an angry man holding a rifle, and every word directed at him was something new for him to react to. The muzzle was pointed at the ground, and that can change in less than a second.
Once a gun is out, de-escalation is over for the safety team. Evacuate your people. Move everyone in view away from the man and into the building, away from the doors and windows facing that part of the lot. One person calls 911 and gives the dispatcher the location, the description of the person and the weapon, the vehicle and plate, and the direction of travel. Nobody approaches him and nobody argues with him. Let the police handle it.
Radio Calls Must Describe the Person With the Gun
The protester said in the interview that he believes the safety team heard something like “gun over by Mike” on the radio. Every member of that team knew the protester by name, so a radio call that puts the word gun next to his name sends responders toward the wrong man. Team members arriving from inside the building have no way to know who is holding the rifle.
Train your team to put the person with the weapon first in every radio call, followed by the weapon and the location. A call should sound like this: “Gun. White male, striped shirt, rifle in his hands, north lot by the gray pickup.” Leave names out of the call unless the named person is the one holding the weapon. Practice this at your next team meeting by having each team member make the call out loud from a description you give them.
Read What a Protester Has Posted
Since August, this protester has posted dozens of videos attacking the church and its pastors. In one, posted September 2, he tells the lead pastor by name, “Don’t plan any vacations anytime soon. I want you there when I get back to Texas. I’ll be seeing you soon, coward.” When we asked him about it in the interview, he said the words were “supposed to be intimidating and aggressive, but it doesn’t mean it’s violent.” He said he knows where the pastor lives and would never go to his house to hurt him. He also said he will keep protesting the church.
When a protester or a former member with a grievance shows up at your church, someone on your team reads that person’s public social media. Save every post that names your church or your staff, with the date and the link. Give that file to your local police, and give your team a photo of the person and a description of the vehicle. Assign one team member to watch that person every time they are on or near your property.
How the Officer Handled It
Texas allows people to openly carry a rifle in public. That changes when the display becomes threatening. Texas Penal Code section 42.01(a)(8) makes it a crime to display a firearm in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm. The man in this video is shouting and pointing at people a few feet away while holding an AR-style rifle, and his demeanor is aggressive. That is brandishing a firearm, and it is a crime. If the words the protester reported are accurate, a threat of bodily injury made while exhibiting a rifle can also be charged as aggravated assault with a deadly weapon under Penal Code section 22.02, a felony.
The protester says police arrested the man for disorderly conduct. Displaying a firearm in a manner calculated to alarm falls under the disorderly conduct statute, so that charge fits. The protester also told us he felt threatened, and the video shows the man’s stance with the rifle. That is probable cause for aggravated assault. An officer makes the arrest on probable cause, and the prosecutor decides what to file.
The off-duty officer in the video approaches the scene without his gun drawn. An officer responding to an aggressive man brandishing a rifle should have his gun drawn, order the man to put the rifle down, and order him face down on the ground until he is handcuffed and the rifle is secured. Police call that proning him out. It is the safe way to handle an armed man who has just threatened people, for the officer and for everyone standing on that lawn.
Drill for Your Team
Run this before your next service with no equipment. One person plays a protester holding a sign on the public sidewalk at your entrance. A second person plays an angry member who walks toward the protester. Your team must spot the member, close the distance, get between the two, and walk the member inside without raising their voices. Run it a second time where the member comes back from a car holding an object in place of a rifle, and your team evacuates everyone in view and makes the 911 call.
What the Bible Says
Proverbs 26:17 (ESV): “Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.”
Solomon wrote about a man who grabs a stray dog by the ears. Once he has hold, he cannot let go without being bitten, and holding on does not make the dog any calmer. The man who walked up to the protester and took his sign stepped into a quarrel that was not his. The protester’s dispute was with the church leadership, and the church had already handled it by calling police and issuing a trespass warning. The man grabbed the dog by the ears anyway, and a few minutes later a rifle was on a church lawn. The people who later walked up to him while he held the rifle did the same thing a second time.
Romans 12:14, 17-18 (ESV): “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ... Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”
Paul wrote this to a church that faced real persecution, far worse than a man with an insulting sign. He told them to bless the people who came against them. A protester on the sidewalk is a small test of that command. The man who took the sign did the opposite. Paul also told the church to give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all. The families pulling into that parking lot saw a man from their own church shouting with a rifle in his hands. The protester has it on video, and he has posted it with the church’s name on it.
“So far as it depends on you” puts the responsibility on each believer, regardless of what the other person does. A church cannot control a protester. It can control how its own people respond to one. When your safety team keeps members away from a protester, and walks an angry member inside before the argument starts, the team is helping the church live out Romans 12 in front of a community that is watching.
Final Assessment
This incident started with a lawful protest on a public sidewalk. It became dangerous when a man from the church confronted the protester, and it became a possible deadly force situation when he came back with a rifle. The protester had a right to stand on that sidewalk. Displaying a rifle at him was a crime.
Your safety team has two jobs when a protester shows up. Keep your own people away from the protester, and watch the parking lot for the member who is getting angry. If a weapon comes out, evacuate your people and let the police handle it.
Leave a comment and tell us how your team handles protesters at your entrance. Share this article with your pastor and your team leader. Paid subscribers get the Analyst’s Notes, a tabletop scenario, and a walk-through scenario for this incident below.
