Pastor Larry Wright of a Fayetteville church in North Carolina was giving a sermon on senseless deaths in the region, 20 minutes before the New Year, when an armed man walked in with a rifle and bullet clips.
Wright, 57-year-old pastor at Heal the Land Outreach Ministries, is also a City Councilman.
A congregant Allison Woods narrated her New Year's Eve experience to CNN: "It didn't seem real because it was like the scripture that our pastor was reading, it was like it came off the page. It's the next day, when you think of all that could have happened, what could have gone wrong, it sinks in how terrible it could have gone wrong."
That evening the church members had been discussing violence in churches in different parts of the country, and to their surprise they encountered a man carrying weapons in the middle of the service.
"I think that night the spirit of God was definitely in the place," Sylvester Loving, 67-year-old deacon at the church told The Fayetteville Observer.
The identity of the man, presumed to be in his 20s by the onlookers, has not yet been disclosed by the police.
When the pastor saw him approaching to the front of the church, with his rifle pointing into the air, he stepped down from the pulpit to meet him, near the front of the sanctuary.
"Can I help you?'' the pastor asked the man.
Wright said that he decided his next move would depend on the man's response.
"If he was belligerent, I was going to tackle him," said Wright, a retired veteran, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 230 pounds.
After the stranger appeared to be calm, Wright took the weapon from him, patted him, and called four bulky deacons to hug the man to make him feel welcomed and loved.
The pastor then prayed for the man, who fell on his knees and started crying.
"When I told the congregation, it's OK, he wants prayer and I began to pray for him, and the power of God hit and he fell to his knees and began to cry and weep and he had his face on the ground," Pastor Wright was quoted as saying by WNCN.
An undated photo of Larry Wright as Fayetteville City Councilman.
He was then invited to sit in the front row, as Wright continued with the service.
"I finished the message, I did the altar call and he stood right up, came up to the altar, and gave his life to Christ. I came down and prayed with him and we embraced. It was like a father embracing a son," Wright said.
The night ended peacefully, but someone had called 911 and police arrived at the scene. Pastor Wright did not want to interrupt the service, so he asked the police to wait until the service was over.
Some eyewitnesses claimed to have seen the man pacing anxiously in the parking lot before he entered the service.
The man later told the congregation that the Lord had told him to go to church before he took any step to do something wrong.
"It's so hard to describe, to explain the excitement and love of God in the room. This man came in to do harm and he has given his life to Christ," Wright told CNN.
The man was taken to a hospital for mental evaluation, and is now receiving treatment. He has not been charged.
