As Sunday approached in the aftermath of the savage killings in Alger, pastors throughout the Skagit Valley were laboring over what they might say to their congregations.

“I’m thinking about what to say, because what do you say?” said Jim Cannon, pastor at the Bethel Assembly of God in Sedro-Woolley. “Words at a time like this can sometimes really mean nothing.”

Pastors face the challenge of helping their congregation use faith to explain and heal from an unfathomable twist of events, and answer the difficult question of where to find God in traumatic times.

The Rev. Dave Browning of Burlington Christ The King said the debate is called “theodicy,” (cq) which questions why can terrible things happen if God is ultimately good and loving. It’s a question many local pastors see as the ultimate or billion-dollar question in a time of crisis and trauma.

“It’s a simple, straightforward question, but the answer is not simple,” Browning said.

The question will echo loudest at Alger Community Christian Reformed Church, the closest religious community to the beginning of Tuesday’s violence.

The church that sits on Old Highway 99 in Alger will welcome members of the community where four of the six deaths occurred. It is also the home church of Dennise Zamora, the suspect’s mother.

The church’s pastor, Rich DeRuiter (cq) said philosophizing about the question is challenging and may distract people in grief from their pain.

“The philosophical answer is, it would be a greater evil for God to wipe out the free choice of individuals, and if you have free choice, people are going to do evil things,” DeRuiter said. “I don’t know that that’s very personally satisfying.”

DeRuiter plans to offer five possible answers to the question Sunday morning. DeRuiter said three of the possible answers are discouraging: God does not exist, God exists but is not good or all-powerful or God exists but simply does not care.

DeRuiter offers two other answers that he thinks are more hopeful and more personal: God is suffering as well and God is “preparing a new reality,” one without violence or sadness.

“That’s the ultimate hope,” DeRuiter said.

DeRuiter said Zamora’s courtroom statement Friday, in which he said “I kill for God,” simply “underscores that he is in need of mental help.”

At some area churches, the violence hit close to home, with members who were victims of Tuesday’s violence or were close to the events.

At the Mount Vernon Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ministerial Intern Bill Graves said the church will discuss Tuesday’s violence, but most importantly, his congregation will pray for fellow parishioner Richard Treston, 61, of Alger, who was stabbed twice Tuesday.

Graves said using “God’s plan” as an explanation for trauma is difficult.

“We would not in our theology get into saying things like, ‘God must have had a special plan for Richard,’ because that implies that God didn’t have a plan for the other people,” Graves said.

At Mount Vernon First Baptist Church, the Rev. Ronald Deegan plans to preach on the issue, but not as much on the why.

“I would simply say that this is part of our human condition,” Deegan said. “Faith does not guarantee that we don’t have to deal with all of life’s struggles.”

For him, the question is what to do next.

“This is going to be a process that’s going to go on for months and years,” he said.

Deegan said the community will need healing, which comes through talking and sharing the trauma in a healthy environment. He said violent events can cause “an almost post-traumatic stress syndrome experience.” He wants those suffering to find safe, healthy people and “talk, talk, talk, share, share, share.”

“I believe in prayer; I believe in faith,” Deegan said. “I also believe that there’s a deeper process of sharing and caring in safe, appropriate places.”

Many of the churches plan to hold prayer times for the victims and families affected by the violence. Friday night the Alger Community Christian Reformed Church held a prayer service, and several others have opened their doors for people who want to sit in a sanctuary and reflect.

DeRuiter said this is just the beginning for his community.

“I see that as just a first step,” DeRuiter said. “I don’t even know what step two is.”

• Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .