Man escorted out of Prestonwood Church by security during sermon on Israel, war in Iran

Police say an overly enthusiastic churchgoer was removed by security during a Sunday morning service at a Texas megachurch.

The disruption occurred March 15 at the 11 a.m. worship service in the main sanctuary of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, a suburb north of Dallas. A man, described by one churchgoer as a possible “protester” and by others as overly excited, began “shouting” during a sermon by Pastor Jack Graham on “America, Israel and War in the Middle East.”

Linda Casey, who told The Christian Post that she has attended Prestonwood since 2000, said at one point during the service Graham began preaching on “Israel, and the Jews being God's chosen people,” when an unidentified man disrupted the sermon before he was escorted out by three members of the security team. 

“I was not sure if he was armed or not, but Pastor Jack Graham was pulled away from the podium momentarily amidst the chaos,” Casey told CP on Monday. “Before he returned to finish the sermon, I bolted out to find my son, who was in children's church.”

Casey said that uncertainty about the man’s intentions and whether he was acting alone prompted her quick exit from the sanctuary. "At this point, we didn't know if the man had an accomplice or was alone. I was not waiting around for a potential shootout or bomb threat,” she said. “The whole ordeal was scary."

A person familiar with the matter told CP on Monday that the incident occurred as Graham was sharing a report on the number of people coming to Christ in Iran. That’s when an “excited young man [who] looked Persian started to walk down the aisle” towards Graham and “asked if he could say something.” 

The young man — who was reportedly yelling out “God Bless America” and “God Bless Israel” — was “just excited to share his faith and didn’t realize that was an inappropriate manner to do such,” the source told CP. 

When Graham declined the man’s request to speak, security “pounced” and removed him from the sanctuary. 

Another churchgoer who attended the 11 a.m. service also confirmed the incident to CP, stating that the man was quickly escorted out as Graham was ordered to stand farther back on the stage until the man was outside the sanctuary. They added that, while they weren't afraid of anything bad happening, the man hadn't picked the best timing for that kind of exuberant outburst.

While one source downplayed the incident as “nothing,” Casey said that’s not how she saw it.

"When security is pulling the pastor away from the podium for his own safety, alarms went off in my head signaling danger,” she said. 

It’s not clear whether anyone else left the sanctuary during the incident, but Casey said most congregants remained calm and stayed seated. "The faithful sheep in the audience were waiting on direction from the pulpit,” said Casey, who added the police were already “outside with lights on” when she exited the church with her son.

“I was not going to be a sitting duck,” she said. 

A spokesman for Plano police told CP the unidentified man was a “non-church member” who was there with his wife and became disruptive by “agreeing loudly with what the pastor was talking about and was animated in doing so, making other churchgoers uncomfortable.”

Members of Prestonwood’s security team spoke with the man, and a “decision was made to have officers respond to issue a criminal trespass warning,” Plano Police Officer J.D. Minton said.

“There was no actual disturbance or physical altercation, but his verbal outbursts, even though supporting the pastors’ words, were deemed disruptive to other worshipers,” he added.

While Casey is relieved that no one was hurt in the incident, one thing that alarmed her was that she felt the man "was not going willingly.”

The incident occurred just days after federal prosecutors announced 30 more people had been indicted for their alleged involvement in an anti-ICE protest that disrupted a St. Paul, Minnesota, church service on Jan 18.

The official indictment, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, claimed that the protesters engaged in “a coordinated take-over style attack” on Cities Church in St. Paul, including “acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and physical obstruction.”