Parents Blocked From Their Children During Church Protest
A full breakdown of the protest inside of Cities Church in Minnesota. Learn protestors Tactics, techniques and Procedures.
The disruption at Cities Church should be understood as a model, not an anomaly. The methods used that morning were deliberate, organized, and repeatable. They are not limited to protests involving immigration or any single issue. This article documents those tactics in detail so church leaders and safety teams can understand how modern protest activity is being conducted inside houses of worship, and how to counter it lawfully and effectively before it endangers families and children.
1. The Disruption at Cities Church
On Sunday morning, January 18, 2026, Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota was holding a regular worship service. Families were present. Children were in attendance. The service was underway when a group of approximately 30 to 40 individuals entered the building and initiated a coordinated disruption from inside the sanctuary.
The group did not remain outside to protest. They entered during the service and began shouting, chanting, and blowing whistles, actions that immediately disrupted worship and caused confusion and fear among the congregation. The disturbance escalated quickly. Parishioners began leaving through multiple exits. Some fled through side doors rather than main exits. In the chaos, at least one woman fell while exiting and suffered a broken arm.
Witnesses later described children crying, young adults sobbing, and congregants unsure whether the disturbance was a protest or something more dangerous. One witness stated the experience felt like what it would be like to be in a mass shooting.
The worship service was cut short. Many parishioners left early, shaken by what had just occurred.
This was not a loud disagreement in the lobby. It was not a sidewalk protest. It was an intentional disruption of a religious service while worship was actively taking place.
2. This Was Not Spontaneous
What happened inside Cities Church was the result of planning.
Earlier that morning, the group gathered at a shopping center parking lot several minutes away from the church. This meeting functioned as a staging area and briefing. During that gathering, organizers outlined what they referred to as “Operation Pullup,” describing it as a clandestine action intended to show up at a location where they were not expected and disrupt normal operations.
Leadership was clear. Individuals led chants, issued instructions, and directed movement. Participants were told to keep details quiet and avoid giving away information about the target location.
Critically, organizers gave specific guidance about appearance and behavior once inside the church. Participants were instructed not to wear clothing or items that would identify them as activists. They were told not to sit together. Some were told to wait and enter later rather than arriving as part of the first group. The goal was to blend in and avoid detection until the disruption began.
After the briefing, the group left the parking lot in a caravan of vehicles and drove toward the church.
This established intent. This was not an emotional reaction or an unplanned demonstration. It was organized in advance, with roles, instructions, and a deliberate plan to initiate the protest from inside the sanctuary.
3. How the Protest Unfolded Inside the Church
The group entered Cities Church during the worship service. Some arrived early and sat quietly among the congregation. Others entered later. Witnesses later described the church as unusually full and noted a group of unfamiliar individuals seated toward the rear of the sanctuary.
The disruption began when a woman interrupted the pastor mid-sermon, calling out to him from within the sanctuary. That interruption served as the signal. Within seconds, multiple individuals stood up and began chanting loudly. Others blew whistles. The noise was sudden, sustained, and intentionally disorienting.
As the chanting intensified, protesters moved into the aisles. They did not remain in place. They occupied the center aisle and side aisles, restricting movement and preventing people from exiting normally. Parishioners attempting to leave found themselves blocked by individuals who refused to move.
Near the front of the sanctuary, the pastor was surrounded by multiple protesters who stood close to him, spoke over him, and prevented him from moving freely. He repeatedly attempted to address the congregation and ask the protesters to leave. Those requests were ignored.
The most disturbing conduct occurred as families attempted to protect their children.
Parents began trying to reach the children’s area located downstairs. Protesters moved to the stairwell and physically blocked access. Parents were unable to get past them. According to witness statements, protesters stood in the way and refused to allow parents through while children could be heard crying.
Inside the sanctuary, at least one male protester aggressively confronted congregants at close range. Witnesses reported this individual screaming in people’s faces, including women and young children. He shouted accusations, including calling parishioners “Nazis,” while standing inches away from them. Children were crying as he yelled. One witness described a mother holding two toddlers tightly while trying to shield them as protesters screamed nearby.
Another witness stated that when protesters shouted phrases that included the word “shoot,” it was impossible to tell whether they were chanting slogans or making threats. Multiple congregants believed they might be in an active shooter situation. People ran. Some prayed. Others froze.
As families fled through side exits, one woman slipped while running and suffered a broken arm. Others fell while trying to get out. The congregation did not exit in an orderly way. They scattered because they were afraid.
At that point, the disruption was no longer about speech. It involved intimidation, physical obstruction, confinement, and direct verbal aggression toward children. Parents were prevented from reaching their sons and daughters. Children were screamed at while crying. Worship had completely stopped.
Police were eventually called. Protesters later moved outside and continued chanting for approximately thirty minutes before leaving the area. It should be noted police did not arrive until AFTER the protestors left.
For the families inside the church, the event did not end when the protesters left. Parents had to calm terrified children. Congregants had to account for one another. The service had been destroyed, and the sense of safety inside the building was gone.
What This Incident Teaches Churches
What happened at Cities Church is instructive because it followed a pattern that is increasingly common. This was not a crowd showing up angry and reacting emotionally. It was an organized action that relied on specific tactics designed to overwhelm, confuse, and control movement inside a building that was never designed to handle hostile disruption.
The most important lesson is this: the danger did not come from shouting alone. It came from control of space and movement.
Once protesters occupied aisles, surrounded leadership, and blocked stairwells, the situation changed from disruption to physical risk. Congregants could not leave freely. Parents could not reach their children. Panic followed. Injuries occurred.
That pattern matters because it is repeatable.
Any issue can be used as justification. Immigration today. Something else tomorrow. The cause is interchangeable. The tactics are not.
The Core Tactics That Were Used
Several tactics stood out clearly during this incident. Churches should expect to see these again.
First, infiltration and blending. Protesters did not announce themselves at the door. They entered quietly, avoided identifying clothing, spread out, and waited until the service was underway.
Second, delayed activation. The disruption did not begin immediately. It began once the room was full and attention was focused forward.
Third, auditory overload. Chanting and whistles were used to create confusion and elevate stress, especially among children and families.
Fourth, crowd compression. Protesters moved into aisles and chokepoints. This limited exits and created panic when people tried to leave.
Fifth, leadership targeting. The pastor was surrounded and distracted, limiting his ability to calm the congregation or direct movement.
Sixth, and most critically, interference with access to children. Blocking parents from reaching their children escalates any incident immediately. It is a line that cannot be crossed without consequence.
Finally, documentation and narrative control. Live Streaming was used to frame the event publicly while it was happening.
None of these tactics are new. What is new is their use inside churches during worship.
Call 911 Even When Help Is Delayed
Calling 911 should still happen immediately. That call is not just a request for assistance. It is the point at which documentation begins. Dispatch recordings, timestamps, and call logs matter, even if officers arrive after the incident has ended. When possible, the line should be left open so what is happening is recorded in real time.
This is not a criticism of law enforcement. It is a recognition of reality.
Across the country, police departments are operating with fewer officers, higher call volume, and delayed response times. Minneapolis is a clear example. Fewer available units means some incidents are handled after the fact, not in progress.
Police officers are being asked to do an increasingly difficult job under challenging conditions, and many are doing it well. Communities depend on them. At the same time, churches cannot assume that outside help will arrive in time to manage the first minutes of a crisis.
Those first minutes belong to the people already inside the building.
That is why safety teams must train with the expectation that they will have to act before help arrives. Not recklessly. Not aggressively. But decisively, lawfully, and with clear roles.
In short, train like no one is coming to help you, while still doing the right thing and calling for help.
How Churches Can Counter These Tactics Before They Escalate
The goal of a safety ministry is not to confront protesters. The goal is to prevent disruption from turning into panic, injury, or harm, especially to children. That requires early recognition, clear roles, and decisive action before a situation collapses into chaos.
What follows is not theory. It is a direct response to the tactics used at Cities Church.
Detect Early and Engage Early
Every successful disruption like this relies on time and surprise. Churches can disrupt that advantage early.
Greeters and ushers are not just hospitality roles. They are the first layer of awareness. When a group enters quietly but does not behave like a normal congregation, that should be noticed. Indicators include people spreading out intentionally, avoiding conversation, scanning the room, filming discreetly, or arriving in coordinated waves.
Early engagement does not mean confrontation. It means polite interaction, presence, and observation. A simple greeting and brief conversation often reveals intent. When it does not, it still signals to the individual that they have been seen.
Once the service begins, at least one trained safety team member should be positioned to watch movement inside the sanctuary, not the platform. A disruption almost always starts from the floor, not the pulpit.
Control Movement Before You Control Behavior
The most dangerous element of the Cities Church incident was not shouting. It was blocked movement.
Safety teams must think in terms of space and flow.
When a disruption begins, the immediate priorities should be:
keeping aisles open
maintaining clear access to exits
protecting stairwells and child access points
This does not require force at the outset. It requires bodies in the right places. Calm, visible positioning by trained team members can prevent protesters from occupying chokepoints and buying time while leadership decides next steps.
If aisles are lost, everything else becomes harder.
Child Areas Are Non-Negotiable
Blocking parents from reaching their children is a hard line. Churches must treat child areas as protected spaces at all times, not just during high-threat seasons.
There should be a clear plan for who controls access to children’s areas if a disruption occurs. That plan should be known, practiced, and staffed every service. Parents should never have to fight through a crowd to reach their children.
If someone attempts to block access to children, that behavior must be stopped immediately. That is not political. It is not speech. It is interference with parental care and child safety.
Any response in that moment should be team-based, controlled, and proportional. The objective is access, not punishment.
This does not mean resorting to deadly force. Deadly force is only justified when there is a reasonable belief that you or another person face an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm. Churches should ensure their safety teams understand lawful use-of-force principles and train accordingly.
Protect Leadership So They Can Lead
In this incident, protesters neutralized the pastor by surrounding and distracting him. If leadership cannot speak, direct, or calm the congregation, confusion spreads. A safety plan should include protecting the space around the platform and relocating leadership if needed so communication can continue.
That may mean escorting the pastor to a secure location or placing team members between leadership and aggressors. The purpose is not to silence anyone. It is to preserve order and allow leadership to function.
Understand When Speech Becomes Interference
Church safety teams need clarity here.
Speech becomes interference when it:
physically blocks movement
prevents people from leaving
prevents parents from reaching children
creates a reasonable fear of violence
disrupts worship after being directed to leave
When those lines are crossed, intervention is no longer optional. It is required to protect people inside the building.
That intervention should always be lawful, documented, and limited to what is necessary to restore safety.
Document Everything
Calling 911 should happen early. That call creates a record. If possible, leave the line open.
Internally, churches should preserve video, note times, and identify witnesses. Documentation protects the church, the safety team, and the congregation. It also matters later, when narratives begin to form.
Do not rely on livestreamers to tell your story.
Managing the Church Livestream During a Disruption
When a disruption begins inside a church, the church’s public livestream of the service should be shut off immediately.
Continuing to broadcast a disruption in real time serves no ministry purpose. It exposes frightened congregants and children, amplifies chaos, and hands control of the narrative to whoever is causing the disturbance. A live feed meant for worship should not become a public broadcast of panic and intimidation.
However, ending the public livestream does not mean stopping recording.
All internal cameras that capture the sanctuary, entrances, aisles, and movement should continue recording without interruption. These recordings are critical evidence. They document what actually occurred, who was involved, how movement was blocked, and how children and congregants were affected.
The distinction matters:
Public livestreams are for ministry
Internal recordings are for documentation
Churches should plan ahead for who has the authority to shut down the livestream and how quickly that decision can be made. That process should be practiced, not improvised, so it happens calmly and without confusion during a real incident.
This protects the congregation in the moment and protects the church afterward.
The Responsibility of the First Minutes
The Cities Church incident reinforces a reality many churches are uncomfortable with. The first minutes of a disruption belong to the people already inside the building.
Police response may come later. That is not a failure. It is reality.
Safety ministries exist to manage those first minutes. Calmly. Professionally. With restraint and clarity.
This is why preparation matters. This is why roles matter. And this is why churches cannot assume that disruption will remain polite or external.
A Biblical Response to Disorder, Authority, and Protection
Christians are not called to be passive in the face of chaos. Scripture does not teach that order is optional, that families are expendable, or that worship should be surrendered to intimidation.
The Bible assumes that worship happens in peace and good order. From the Old Testament through the New, gatherings of God’s people were protected, structured, and overseen. Disorder that prevents worship is not neutral. It is a problem that requires response.
When a church service is disrupted to the point that parents cannot reach their children, people cannot leave freely, and fear replaces worship, something has gone wrong. Scripture does not ask believers to ignore that reality.
Order in Worship and Care for the Vulnerable
The gathered church includes children, families, the elderly, and the weak. Scripture places a clear responsibility on leaders to care for them.
Protecting children is not optional. Parents are given responsibility for their children, and interference with that responsibility is serious. When parents are blocked from reaching their children, that is not a political disagreement. It is a violation of basic moral order.
Christian leadership has a duty to ensure that worship can take place without intimidation and that families can gather without fear. That includes taking reasonable steps to prevent disruption and restoring order when disruption occurs.
Romans 13 and the Role of Authority
Romans 13 describes governing authorities as servants of God tasked with maintaining order and restraining wrongdoing. That passage assumes authority is exercised honestly and within its proper bounds.
Respect for authority does not require pretending that false statements are true or that unlawful conduct is lawful. When public officials misstate the law or minimize harm done to worshippers, Christians are not required to accept that narrative.
Romans 13 does not demand silence in the face of disorder. It calls believers to live peaceably while recognizing that authority exists to restrain chaos, not excuse it.
When Authority Is Used to Excuse Disorder
Romans 13 assumes that governing authorities act to restrain wrongdoing and preserve order. That assumption breaks down when officials publicly excuse conduct that Scripture and the law both prohibit.
In this case, that breakdown is visible.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison publicly stated that protesters have a protected right to protest inside a Christian church. That statement is false under both Minnesota statute and federal law. Encouraging or excusing disruption of worship is not a neutral legal opinion. It is a misuse of authority that minimizes harm done to families and children.
Similarly, Minnesota State Representative Leigh Finke, who publicly identifies as a woman, made public statements encouraging people to protest Christian churches. That encouragement did not include any meaningful distinction between lawful protest outside a church and unlawful interference inside a worship service. When elected officials speak this way, they blur moral and legal lines that are already under strain.
Adding to this, one of the individuals arrested in connection with this incident was connected to the local prosecutorial office that would ordinarily handle such cases. That reality creates an obvious conflict and further erodes public confidence that the law will be applied evenly.
Scripture does not require Christians to ignore these facts.
Romans 13 does not teach that authority is above accountability. It teaches that authority exists to punish wrongdoing and praise what is good. When authority instead excuses intimidation, obstruction, and fear directed at worshippers, Christians are permitted to name that failure plainly.
This is not about attacking individuals. It is about recognizing when power is being used to invert moral order.
Acts 5 and the Limits of Compliance
The apostles’ words in Acts 5 were not a call to chaos. They were a refusal to obey commands that conflicted with obedience to God.
Christians are commanded to gather, to worship, and to care for their families. When officials suggest that churches should tolerate intimidation, obstruction, or the targeting of children in the name of activism, Christians are not obligated to comply with that framing.
Obedience to God does not require passivity in the face of disorder. It requires wisdom, restraint, and the courage to say no when wrong is presented as acceptable.
That refusal does not look like rebellion. It looks like preparedness, lawful action, and the protection of those entrusted to our care.
A Christian Posture Going Forward
Christians should not seek conflict, but they should not be surprised by it either. Preparedness is not fear. It is stewardship.
Churches that plan, train, and establish clear roles are not abandoning trust in God. They are exercising wisdom. Scripture consistently praises foresight and responsibility.
The goal is simple. Churches should remain places where worship can continue, children can be protected, and order can be restored without panic or violence.
That is not a political position. It is a biblical one.
This is an incredibly detailed and therefore immensely helpful information for safety teams! Keith, my blood boiled at the thought of my young grandchildren being endangered by anyone. As our team forms, I will need to heed your advice to remain lawful! Thank you, Keith!
Keith,
Your writeup about this recent incident during a church service is the most comprehensive with details/facts I've not read in any other article I've come across. Thank you as a Brother in Christ and as a member of a Team at my church for sharing this writeup with sage advice and recommendations that all congregations should give heed to!
It gives vital input to when we train in 'What If..' scenarios. For example, we hadn't thought about continuing to record the incident as evidence later, even as we cut the live-stream broadcast.
Blessings!