Ministers, seminaries, and denominational entities across the nation poured out prayers for Covenant Presbyterian Church and its senior minister, Chad Scruggs, after he lost his nine-year-old daughter in the Monday shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.
A 28-year-old woman who identified as a man killed three 9-year-old children and three adults at the school, a ministry of the conservative evangelical congregation affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America. Police revealed that the shooter, whom The Daily Wire will not name in accordance with company policy, executed a “targeted attack” on the school.
In the wake of the incident, the nearby Woodmont Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation, unexpectedly became a hub for parents who waited to be reunited with their children. Staff members, including senior minister Nathan Parker, rose to the occasion.
“As pastors, we are supposed to have the words,” Parker said in an interview. “Today was one of those days that words didn’t come easy. If they came, they came from the Spirit.”
The students killed in the shooting were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs, the daughter of Chad Scruggs.
“We are heartbroken,” Scruggs said in a statement. “Through tears we trust that she is in the arms of Jesus who will raise her to life once again.”
Thousands of Christians took to social media in the wake of the massacre and lifted the Scruggs family in prayer, noting that Scruggs would be faced with comforting a mourning congregation even as he lamented the death of his own daughter.
Zachary Groff, a pastor at Antioch Presbyterian Church in Woodruff, South Carolina, said in a call to prayer that he was able to hold his own nine-year-old daughter’s hand on Monday evening as they read books on the back porch. “She sweetly asked to sit with me, completely unaware that a PCA pastor in Nashville was robbed today of the joy of doing so with his daughter,” he remarked. “Pray for our brother Chad Scruggs.”
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Jon Payne, the senior minister at Christ Church Presbyterian in Charleston, South Carolina, asked for his friends to “pray earnestly for God’s grace to be poured out on this dear family in this time of unspeakable grief.”
Dr. Katherine Koonce, the school’s 60-year-old principal, was also killed, as were 61-year-old employees Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill.
Nashville Presbytery said in a statement that “God Himself will help us to pray in our weakness” on behalf of Scruggs and the mourning congregation. “Beloved, it is a time for us to lament in the face of unbearable grief and trial and to intercede and plead on behalf of our sister congregation, her families, ministers, staff, and school,” the entity said. “Words fail us in speaking of this tragedy even to one another, but our prayers will not fail us in lifting our pleas to God for mercy and the grace that is needed.”
Covenant Seminary, the alma mater of Scruggs and the flagship school of the PCA, called for prayers on behalf of “the families affected by yesterday’s acts of evil, and for the ministry of the churches in Nashville.” Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia likewise urged for prayer on behalf of those impacted by the tragedy. “Blessed is your name. You are the source of all goodness, blessing, and grace,” the prayer said. “We ask that our dear brothers and sisters, who have been cast low into the darkness of the valley, may be, by your grace, enabled to look upon the mount, seeing the light of Christ shine into this great valley of darkness.”
The Covenant School said on its website that it exists to help children “become who God intends them to be” and educate them “to impact their culture and think in accordance with timeless Truth.”
“Our graduates attend the finest schools in the Nashville area, where they not only excel academically, but also act with character that comes from authentic faith in Jesus,” the website added.