INDIANAPOLIS — A new campaign started this weekend in more than a dozen Indianapolis churches. It's preaching a simple message of nonviolence to young people: "don't lose your cool."
On a violent holiday weekend, with two people killed and 11 injured in shootings and stabbings in Indianapolis, the call for calm began.
"It doesn't surprise us but it does demonstrate the importance of the work that we're doing," said Senior Pastor at New Direction Church, Ken Sullivan, Jr.
His church is one of 15 that launched a new campaign aimed at teens and young adults.
"Don't Lose Your Cool" was organized through the Indianapolis Urban Pastor's Coalition.
It was the focus of sermons on Sunday. And, through programs planned all summer, it will teach young people how to deescalate conflict and safely deal with anger.
"We'll have kickbacks on Fridays for young people to teach them how to really resolve conflict. We have barbershop talks that are going to take place starting here in the month of July," Sullivan explained.
When temperatures rise, tempers tend to flare.
Pastor Sullivan said it has been made worse by increased access to guns and post-pandemic trauma.
"A lot of people have lost the ability to interact with other people socially because for several years we had to deal with social distancing," he said, "and so we're having to relearn how to engage with each other and I think that we have to really make sure we control our emotions and not let them control us."
Pastor Sullivan sees the cost of it all.
He's had to bury 30 young victims of gun violence. Kids as young as 11.
Their pictures, and their faces, are in an ever-growing folder in his office.
"I began to keep the obituaries and so I have a collection of obituaries just to remind me of the importance of what we do," Sullivan said.
So the sign outside his church right now is more than a slogan.
"Don't Lose Your Cool," he says, is a mission encouraging young people to make better choices, to keep them safe.