A Tennessee church is grieving following the deaths of four church members in a plane crash in Texas on Jan. 17.
The four men killed — Bill Garner, Steve Tucker, Tyler Patterson and Tyler Springer — were members of Harvest Church in Germantown, near Memphis. The church’s pastor, Kennon Vaughan, was also on the plane and is in stable condition in a Texas hospital, according to a statement posted to the Harvest Church website. This news comes less than a week after Clint Clifton, a North American Mission Board staff member and church planter, died tragically in a plane crash late in the evening of Jan. 12.
‘Beloved members’
Garner served as the church’s executive pastor. Tucker, Patterson and Springer served as elders, according to the Tennessee Baptist and Reflector.
“All were beloved members of Harvest Church, and their loss currently leaves us without the proper words to articulate our grief,” the church statement said.
The single-engine Piper PA-46 went down south of the Yoakum Municipal Airport, according to a local news outlet in Yoakum.
The cause of the crash is unknown, and federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are expected to be on-site today.
The church opened for a time of prayer and mourning the evening of the crash, and church elders requested “space” for family and church members following the tragedy.
“We ask for your prayers and kindly request that the families of all involved are given the proper space to grieve at this time. We will provide more information as it is received. We covet your prayers.”
One of the grand marks of maturity for a Christian is durability, to walk by faith. It is hard to walk by faith. … We can’t understand the things that are unfolding in our own lives … but we must trust in the sovereignty of God, who is overseeing all that is happening in our life and in our community and in our world.
We trust His promises, that even through tragedy and hardship and struggle and suffering and persecution, He will work all things for the good of those who love Him and for His own glory.
– Pastor Kennon Vaughan
Jan. 15 sermon, Harvest Church
