7/18/2023 – 11:52am
Currently, law enforcement is responding to an active shooter situation at the building next to our state convention building. Your state convention staff is sheltering inside our building, and are all safe and secure. Please pray that the threat will be neutralized quickly, that God will preserve life, and that the Holy Spirit will comfort and encourage all of Christ’s people involved. Also, join us in praying for law enforcement and first responders. We will update on the situation when more information is available. For now, please join us in urgent prayer.

7/18/2023 – 1:20pm
Law enforcement has given the SCBC an all-clear for exiting and leaving the building. We have ceased all normal operations for the remainder of the day so our staff can go home and be with their families. Thank you for understanding, and thank you for praying. Please join us in continued prayer for law enforcement, first responders, and all involved in the incident.

7/18/2023 – 3:20pm
I could not be more thankful for our state, county, and local law enforcement officers who laid their lives on the line in response to today’s incident in our parking lot and at the building adjacent to ours. They were laser-focused on neutralizing the threat and protecting our SCBaptist staff and other residents and businesses in the area. Their response was rapid. Their organization was reassuring. Their communication was thoughtful. Their courage was heroic. Truly they are God’s servants for good (Romans 13:4).

Additionally, SCBaptists can be proud of their staff, from every ministry assistant to every executive leader. As they sheltered for safety at the building today, they prayed for one another, for our neighbors next door, for responding law enforcement, and for others who may be affected by the incident. We were in the middle of church planter training at the building, so several prospective SCBaptist church planters witnessed not only the event, but the careful and prayerful response of our staff. Many of them commented on how calm, organized, and thoughtful your SCBaptist staff was during the event. You have a state convention staff that is relentlessly focused on the mission, with complete faith in God, even when their own personal lives are distressed.

We live in a world that is deeply and desperately scarred by sin. Evil abounds. The good news of Jesus Christ is the message of hope for all who come to him by faith. This message is both why and how we endure days of great trial and moments of great distress. As Christ’s people, we press in and press on so that our neighbors and the nations might know Him, and we do so with confidence in the God who holds tomorrow in his hands. He is “my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer… my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold,” (Psalm 18:2).

Tony Wolfe,
SCBaptist Executive Director-Treasurer