A pastor is being hailed as a hero after he tackled a man who got up on a church's stage and began waving and pointing a gun on Sunday.

The incident took place at Nashville Light Mission Pentecostal Church in central Tennessee, Metro Nashville Police said in a statement according to the Associated Press. A 26-year-old man pulled a gun while the pastor was praying with several people.

“He wanted to kill, that’s what first came to my mind,” Pastor Ezekiel Ndikumana tells news station WKRN.

Ndikumana was able to sneak onto the stage while the gunman waived his weapon. Taking advantage of a moment of distraction, security camera footage from the church building shows the pastor tackling the man from behind.

Congregants then helped disarm him and hold him until police arrived.

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Police say that the suspect stated that he was Jesus and all churches and schooled "needed to be shot up." Officers are calling the pastor a hero and say his actions "saved a church from further violence."

“I would say that God used me,” Ndikumana says, telling his congregation that their lives were always in God’s hands. “I felt the feeling that I would go and grab him, and that’s what happened … God wanted to show that he’s a powerful God.” 

The suspect has been charged with 15 counts of felony aggravated assault, police say.