BETHEL – A sign outside the Bethel Alliance Church on Route 26 counsels passers-by to keep their faith, despite the recent gruesome slayings that have anguished and disoriented the community.

“Don’t let tragedy steal your trust in God,” the black letters read.

It is during times like this when faith in God can falter, as people continue to wrestle with the fact that four people were found slain last week in Upton and Newry, Pastor Kevin Bellinger told a congregation at the Christian church Sunday morning.

But while people might question their beliefs during calamities, they also have an opportunity to explore and reinforce their faith.

“In our community we’re facing another 9/11 and it forces us to look at our faith, to examine it deeply,” he said.

“I want to ask you to examine your faith. Do you have the faith that you can show with confidence? That you know what you believe?” he asked.

Yesterday morning was the first Sunday since police discovered the dismembered bodies of Cindy Beatson, 43, Selby Bullard, 31, and Julie Bullard, 65, near the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast, and the burned remains of James Whitehurst, 50, more than 25 miles away in Upton.

A 31-year old cook, Christian C. Nielsen has been charged with four counts of murder.

Local ministers stepped forward to help heal the wounded community. Bellinger said that pastor Chuck Mason of the Church of the Nazarene called a meeting with him and Pastor Aaron McNally of the Pleasant Valley Bible Church last week to organize the candlelight vigil Saturday night that drew hundreds of people to communally mourn.

Bellinger said that in the past few days he personally counseled people struggling with questions of faith and their own heartbreak following the murders. The dark-haired minister with a quick smile is a former psychologist who worked as a school counselor for 10 years before turning to the ministry. He has been pastor at the Alliance Church for two years.

During his sermon, Bellinger brought up the most oft-repeated question in these towns lately, “When we have a tragedy like the recent one, we have to ask how, why? Why does this happen?”

“We do live in a broken world that apart from Christ has no hope,” he answered, adding later, “I know that this world is in great need of repair and that Christ provides it.”

He described the apostle Paul’s profound, unshakeable faith described in his epistles, despite undergoing many hardships.

“Paul’s faith wasn’t shaken because he knew who sent him,” Bellinger said. “He knew that he worked under the direction of God.”

Bellinger described faith as knowing you have purpose and meaning, that you walk in the direction of God’s will, that you move in grace and peace and that Christ will provide a sense of wholeness, even in the midst of a broken world.

As several churchgoers to the Alliance Church walked out of the doors into the cool September morning following the sermon, they commented on Bellinger’s words and the recent crimes.

“The pastor had a good message and that we need to examine our faith and know what we believe so that when things happen, we have something to rely on,” Lisa Fox said. Fox, who lives in Bethel and runs a day care, said she took care of Nielsen when he was little boy and that Nielsen had also attended youth groups at the Alliance Church.

“He was a typical little boy, a good little boy,” she said, describing him as shy, but playful. “I don’t know what happened.” Her face tightened in pain as she spoke.

Greg Fraser, 52, of Newry said he has been a regular churchgoer for 30 years. “The pastor did a wonderful job in letting us know that God is very important in the healing of major hurts in a time like this,” he said.

Fraser and Fox both said the community would recover over time and with a lot of prayer.

Tonya Hebert, a 17-year-old senior at Telstar Regional High School, said she goes to church regularly, and on Sunday derived comfort by being with people grappling together in the tragedy’s aftermath.

“We need to stay close and stay together as a community. We need time to heal,” she said.

Cathy Hoy, another congregant from Greenwood, said she believed that God would transform the recent tragedy into something good. “Do we know how? No. Good things will come of this. But for those families it may be a long time.”