Making prayer safe

THE WORD CAME IN THE MIDDLE OF Sunday-morning worship at River Oaks Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. A gunman had stormed First Baptist Church two miles down the road. First responders raced from their pews to help their neighbors. Everyone else prayed.

But it was too late. For a congregation whose Sunday attendance averaged 50, the losses were catastrophic. “Most of our church family is gone,” said the pastor’s wife, Sherri Pomeroy,