Michigan Churches, Bishop Respond After Attack on LDS Church

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Local Church

A United Methodist Insight Report | Oct. 2, 2025

About 200 people, including pastors and members of other churches, filled the pews to hear prayers, music and Scripture readings during the brief Wednesday evening service. They came to mourn the tragic deaths, injuries and destruction caused three days earlier by a gunman who drove a truck through the Mormon church’s doors, opened fire and set the building ablaze.

“As a community, we experienced an unthinkable tragedy and will continue to address the trauma that has resulted for many in the Grand Blanc and surrounding communities,” wrote the Rev. Brian West, pastor, on Grand Blanc UMC’s website. “Grand Blanc United Methodist Church stands with our neighbors from the Mormon community, lending our support, love, prayers, advocacy and generosity as we are able and as need arises.”

He also posted a special pastoral announcement Monday about the tragedy and response on the church’s YouTube page.  

The Rev. Carol Blair Bouse, pastor of Halsey UMC in Grand Blanc, joined West Tuesday in making an emergency appeal to all United Methodists and “siblings in faith” across Michigan to “join us from where you are” and to view the vigil with friends and family on Grand Blanc UMC’s YouTube channel. (Watch the prayer vigil recording.) The churches hosted a community meal before the service.

“This has rocked the Grand Blanc community,” wrote Bouse. “Multiple people have died and been injured. Over the following 12 hours, multiple bomb threats were called into churches and schools around the community; thankfully, all were false alarms.”

"Tonight was an incredible experience. It was emotional for me. I think it was emotional for just about everybody,” West told a WXYZ news reporter, who covered the service. "It was a reminder to us of the importance of community, being together, whether we know everybody or not."

Other churches across the Grand Blanc area also hosted prayer services and vigils, and local nonprofits are offering mental health crisis support and other responses to those in need.

Michigan Conference Bishop David Alan Bard responded to this latest tragedy and others by adding to his previously published blog commentary “We must speak the truth in love,” which he posted on Sept. 26.

“Speaking the truth in love asks us to speak words of deep empathy for the people of this congregation and community,” he wrote. “We express our tremendous sorrow for their loss and stand with them in their grief. We are mindful of the impact of such violence on every community of faith in Grand Blanc, including our United Methodist congregation there.”

Bard lamented that “violence, fear, resentment, and anger are always part of our social context, but their current ascendency has made our context a more fraught and fragile one in which to speak about moral issues with political dimensions.”

Yet, after stating in his earlier comments that “remaining silent is not an option, for we need to find a way forward together, and conversation is essential,” he later cautioned restraint after last Sunday’s violence:

Speaking the truth in love finally encourages restraint. In the face of such horrific incidents, misinformation often multiplies, and conspiracy theories run rampant. Speculations about this person’s motives are unhelpful. What we know is that the perpetrator was a 40-year-old white male who lived nearby. He is a military veteran who used his truck, an assault-style rifle, and incendiary devices as weapons. We currently know little of what motivated him to engage in such a terrible act of violence against a gathered worshiping community.

Sometimes speaking the truth in love invites silence.

The Rev. John W. Coleman serves as Editor-at-Large for United Methodist Insight, and also writes for UM News.