LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There have already been nearly 50 murders in Metro Louisville this year.
A Newburg pastor believes we can find solutions to the ongoing violence.
The senior pastor at Newburg Church of Christ says one of the solutions is teaching men in the church and out in the community how to be great again.
Tuesday, a man was shot to death in broad daylight at a corner grocery store in the Parkland neighborhood.
"A lot of men and boys don't have that godly figure as a man of that male presence in their homes," Rev. Bryan Jones said.
Wednesday, a man is found shot to death inside a car in downtown Louisville.
"I've had to do far too many funerals than I wanted to do," Jones said.
Jones is a senior pastor at Newburg Church of Christ on Indian Trail and has helped navigate a lot of families through the heartache left behind by the violence.
"And it was all young people, violence, shootings, those kinds of things certainly unfortunate," Jones said.
While police and city leaders look for solutions to the violence, Jones believes he has found at least one remedy.
"And I've been for the last five years putting together my thoughts to try to get men back to the manufacturer of humanity so that he can fix us up," Jones said.
Jones recently authored a book titled "Making a Man Great Again."
"What we've been trying to do is train boys in that dangerous age from 10 to 18," Jones said.
The senior pastor at Newburg Church of Christ, Rev. Bryan Jones, believes one of the solutions is teaching men in the church and out in the community how to be great again. (WDRB photo)
One Saturday a month, the church hosts "Impact Training."
"And we just teach them how to speak," Jones said. "Teach them how to think, teach them how to reason, and just teach them so that they can have some principles to go by when making decisions in this world."
"It used to be one shooting a week or one shooting a month. Now it's three and four day that's very concerning," Shannon Pearson, who has loved ones that are police officers, said.
Pearson is the wife, daughter and mother of police officers but she still has concerns about the ongoing violence.
"People don't think about the other side of it, the people who are protecting, they need to be protected as well sometimes," Pearson said. "So I'm concerned about the people who are protecting us."
"Actually one of our men who's going to be speaking is a warden for a youth prison," Jones said.
Meanwhile, Jones uses guest speakers to help get his message to the youth.
"And he's going to be telling them about some of the dangers of making the wrong decisions," Jones said.
The next impact training session is here at Newburg church of Christ on Saturday at 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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