ALPHARETTA (BP) — North American Mission Board (NAMB) President Kevin Ezell released a statement earlier today (Sept. 19) commenting on a New York pastor’s “poorly worded” remarks regarding the cultural environment and its potential connection to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Pastor James Roberson of Bridge Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., “works closely with our Send Network church planting efforts there,” Ezell said in the statement released on his personal X account.

While offering “several important reminders to his church,” Ezell continued, Roberson included “a particular phrase (that) in my opinion, was poorly worded and created an impression that requires clarification.”

Prior to his sermon last Sunday, Roberson read a statement that addressed “the political tension in our country.”

In that tension, he said, “Charlie Kirk and other political activists, particularly some on the evangelical right, often see ideas and policies that claim to be Christian, but they’re fought within a carnal posture. They’re fighting for Jesus with anger and harshness and rage. And the danger of that is when you, when you fight spiritual battles in a carnal way, the world responds with that same carnality.”

The full sermon is available on the church’s Soundcloud account, with clips of that section floating around social media.

Ezell noted his personal sadness at Kirk’s assassination and continued prayers for the Kirk family, loved ones and colleagues before addressing Roberson’s statements. The pastor “denounced the assassination, called his church to grieve with the Kirk family, warned against celebrating his death, and urged his congregation to fight with spiritual weapons,” Ezell said, adding, “These truths are central to our witness, and we affirm them wholeheartedly.”

However, he pointed out, the phrasing about “carnal weapons … seemed to imply that Charlie Kirk somehow invited or provoked the violence that ended his life. In my conversations with James, he has assured me that is not at all what he intended, and in no way did he mean to imply that somehow Charlie Kirk had it coming. He has expressed regret that his words were taken that way. We also regret any pain or confusion this caused.”

Bridge Church launched in April 2014. Roberson is scheduled to be the main speaker at a NAMB training event in New York in October.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.)