MISSION: REACHING FELLOW OFFICERS

Retired policeman in Chattanooga shares love of Jesus  through ‘FCPO’   

CHATTANOOGA — The death of Paul Lee’s mother changed everything.

That was it. That was the thing that drove Lee over an emotional and spiritual cliff. The big, tough, cynical Chattanooga police officer couldn’t take any more. He thought he would hold it all together, treating it like another death — another case to manage.

“Keep your emotions out of it,” he told himself. Because that’s what he’d learned at the police academy. But that wasn’t working, not now. Being an only child, making all the arrangements, pressure from work, strain on relationships — it was all too much. It was the last straw.

“I was in the shower getting ready for the funeral, watching my life play back like a bad B movie,” he said. “And I began to cry uncontrollably. I had been under conviction for years — not minutes or days — years.”

He thought about his mother and how his parents had taken him to church as a boy. He knew the way of the Lord, but he could never bring himself to surrender, offering excuses for all the ways the Lord couldn’t use him. But that all unraveled in the shower.

“I was done,” he said. “I cried out to God three things: ‘I surrender, I give up, I throw in the towel.’ That’s exactly what I said in that shower.

“I knew what surrender was because people surrendered to me and were handcuffed. At that point you’re no longer free. You give up. I knew what it meant to throw in the towel. It’s a boxing term. I had taken punch after punch from God, and I couldn’t take another punch. I asked Him to forgive me, and He did right then, right there, that second. When I stepped out of that shower, I was a new man, and I’ve never looked back.”

Lee’s conversion changed everything about his life, and especially his job.

Lee spent nearly 28 years with the Chattanooga Police Department and eventually retired as a captain. Today he serves as executive director of the Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers-USA, a national ministry whose mission is to unite officers committed to being Christ’s ambassadors within the law enforcement community.

Or, as Lee describes it, missionaries to law enforcement officers and to the communities they serve.

“Police officers are told to check your emotions,” he said. “But you can’t do that and see human beings through the eyes of Jesus — to have compassion on the people you must deal with. You can still do the job and keep your emotions because you’re on the mission field for Christ.”

How it all began

The Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers-USA began more than 50 years ago in Los Angeles, when two Christian police officers discovered they served in the same department and began meeting together for prayer and biblical encouragement. Soon they realized other officers in nearby departments needed the same support, and local chapters began forming across the area.

Demand for chapters continued to grow. Today the organization has hundreds of chapters across the United States. The national office relocated from California to Chattanooga in 1988.

There are currently eight chapters in Tennessee, though only three are actively meeting — in Chattanooga, Cleveland, and Johnson City.

Local FCPO chapters typically meet for prayer, Bible study, and mutual encouragement among active and retired law enforcement officers. The gatherings provide a place where officers can talk openly about the spiritual and emotional challenges of the job while encouraging one another to live out their faith on duty and in their communities.

Lee would like to see that number grow significantly, especially in Tennessee. He is a member of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Hixson.

It is estimated that about 20,000 sworn law enforcement officers serve in Tennessee across local, county, state, and federal agencies.

Nationwide, there are more than 800,000 law enforcement personnel. Many of them face pressures that make spiritual connection difficult.

“I once heard a pastor tell a radio interviewer that the hardest people group to reach was police officers,” wrote Charles Urgo, a retired Chicago Police Department officer and the first president of FCPO Chicago Chapter 26. “If you are in law enforcement, you may agree (with that). There is something about the job that isolates you from the rest of society. You may go to a fine church and have family and friends, but you know you are treated differently now that you are a cop.”

Lee hopes more officers across Tennessee will step forward to start and participate in FCPO chapters so Christian law enforcement personnel can encourage one another and reach fellow officers who may never walk into a church.

“I believe the importance of being involved in FCPO is that officers can know they aren’t alone,” Lee said. “The pressure is unreal, especially now with the hostility toward law enforcement.

“You must have like-minded people. Those people will hold you accountable. They’ll minister to you, and you’ll do the same for them.

“There’s plenty of guys who call here with issues, and even though I’m no trained counselor, my advice is always, ‘What does the Bible say about it?’ We’ll go to Scripture, and we’ll talk about it. They’ll thank me, and I’ll explain they need to remember what we discussed because maybe I’ll be traumatized like they were, and I’ll need somebody to come back and help me.

“Christianity is a team sport,” Lee said. “You can’t do it alone.”

Lee said several resources are available for active and retired law enforcement officers through FCPO, including a “Blue Line Bible” and an annual read-through-the-Bible plan encouraged for members.

More information about joining FCPO or starting a chapter is available at FCPO.org or by calling 423-553-8806.

“What difference can a Christian cop make in a community?” Lee asked. “An eternal difference because cops wind up in a lot of places other people don’t go.” B&R