We're Going Through a Test

A week after tragedy, New Life Church’s Boyd asks parishioners to be honest with feelings

Hands were raised once again in praise, but it was not any given Sunday at New Life Church.

Nor should anyone have pretended it was, Senior Pastor Brady Boyd said a week after a gunman killed two young worshippers.

Boyd said he was proud of the 7,000 to 7,500 attendees of Sunday’s two morning services who rallied against fears about returning to the site of last week’s rampage, where 18-year-old Stephanie Works and her 16-year-old sister, Rachel, were killed.

“Last weekend was a test,” Boyd said. “We’re going through a test, we’re operating in a test. But we’re passing the test.”

“It is OK if you’re not doing well,” Boyd said. “I don’t want any of us to walk around with a mask or facade of strength when inside our hearts are not doing well.”

The day’s events included a brief, strange moment when one of those wounded last week was escorted from the church campus by the police, who asked him not to return.

Larry Bourbonnais, 59, left church grounds peacefully at the request of church officials, who called in Colorado Springs police for extra support.

“He cooperated, and we told him that he wasn’t welcome back on the property,” police Sgt. Lonnie Spanswick said.

Church officials told police they plan to file a restraining order against Bourbonnais, Spanswick said.

In a news conference after church, Boyd said of Bourbonnais, “We felt he was a bit volatile this morning, and we did not want any disruption to our service.” Boyd said officials will be reaching out to Bourbonnais this week to ensure an “amicable” resolution. Boyd didn’t elaborate.

Wounded slightly in the arm during the shooting, Bourbonnais has shared his story with a number of media outlets during the past week, claiming that he tried without success to persuade an armed security guard to confront the gunman, Matthew Murray; pleaded with the guard to give him a gun; then yelled at Murray to distract him before another security guard, Jeanne Assam, opened fire, wounding Murray. An autopsy concluded that Murray then shot himself.

Contacted Sunday afternoon by The Gazette, Bourbonnais declined to comment. But while leaving the parking lot Sunday morning, he told KRDO television that New Life officials don’t like his criticism of the security guard who wouldn’t confront the gunman.

“They said I denigrated the security staff and made them look bad,” Bourbonnais told KRDO.

Boyd told KRDO that Bourbonnais should have evacuated the building with the rest of the parishioners.

“His actions last weekend probably did more to harm the process than to help it,” Boyd told KRDO.

The church had more visible security Sunday, which will be the norm for the time being, Boyd said.

“We thought it was important for families and moms and dads that when they dropped their kids off in our children’s ministry or our nursery or our junior high ministry, they saw a uniformed police officer,” Boyd said.

Assam was at the 11 a.m. service on Sunday but is taking time off from her security duties at the church, Boyd said.

The Works’ extended family attended services Sunday, but Boyd said Marie Works, the victims’ mother, was at the hospital with David Works, Stephanie and Rachel’s father, who was also shot.

A memorial service for Stephanie and Rachel Works is scheduled at New Life for 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Like many church members, Daniel Ferrin, who with his family has attended New Life off and on over the past six years, said he wasn’t afraid to come to church Sunday.

“It is horrible what happened, but it is great to see that there is some good coming out of it,” Ferrin said. “As Pastor Brady was saying, let’s get rid of all of a lot of the problems with different churches with the differences in theology. We are all here for one reason, because we worship God. We’re here for Jesus because he’s our savior.”

John Phillips of Des Moines said he had traveled to New Life to share the message that the greater church community is praying for the congregation.

Good point. I have a Kukri knife mounted near my fireplace I broght back from Nepal pre 9/11. It’s a very ominous looking weapon.

Use it. Live with it. Carry it daily, and find to your amazement what a swell tool and weapon it really is.

The other day in the steak house where one of my kid's pals is a manager, we got the usual flimsy rounded-point, no-edge offerings with our meal. My kid grinned and pulled his folder out of his pocket and popped the blade open with one hand.

I pulled my kukri out, didn't have to *open* it, and had my steak nicely sliced and back in its scabbard almost as a reflex. Naw, kid, THIS is a knife....

Guess I watched too many Westerns, huh?

I think so. Some people are introverts, and don't talk. Some people are extroverts, and there is nothing more natural to them than talking about what they've been through. In fact, if they've been through a crisis and you ask them to shut up, it's like smothering their personhood.

Church leadership does not make these sort of decision without going through biblical reasoning, he must have provoked them.

Depends on the people involved.

There are many, many places, both in business and in volunteer organizations, where the rule from Dilbert applies:

"Don't step in the leadership."

Speaking of “stepping in it,” I remember Bourbonnais said the first thing he did was yell at Murray and call him a “sh—head.”

He apologized for saying something like that in church. I’m guessing he is somewhat outspoken - I know that everything I knew about the shooting was from the detailed descriptions Bourbonnais gave in interviews right afterwards.

And he unfailingly bragged on Jeanne Assam, over and over. I was quite impressed and glad that someone else witnessed it all so close by. His praise for her was quite admirable.

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