Bladen Union Baptist Church pastor Gary Lucas is sending a message to his congregation, one they’ll get loud and clear before they ever enter the small church in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Last Friday, the church raised the Christian flag above the American flag on the pole outside of the building, a move Lucas said was inspired by an article in the Biblical Recorder, which featured a Bible distributed to American soldiers during World War II, the Fayetteville Observer reports.

“On one of the inside pages was a message from President Franklin Roosevelt which also included the instruction that it was appropriate to fly a Christian pennant above the American flag,” according to the news site.

“According to the U.S. Flag Code, which serves as a guideline but does not have the power of law behind it, Christian flags or pennants are allowed above the American flag when chaplains are conducting services at sea for naval personnel.”

The story convinced Lucas to discuss the issue with church leadership at a conference last week during a session about “taking a stand for God” and they resolved to change their flagpole protocol.

“We’re just taking a stand that God is before government,” Lucas said. “We’re not doing it to see the reaction from the community.”

Regardless, the responses the church has received so far, mostly from church members, has been positive, he said.

It’s not the first time a church has raised God above America.

Churches in North Carolina’s Cleveland County sent the same message with their flag poles last year, with the hope it would inspire locals and other congregations to reconsider their priorities.

“As I was changing the rope on day, the Lord just laid on me that he is first and when he told me that, I switched the flags around,” Focus Missionary Baptist Church pastor Walter Wilson told WBTV last summer.

Wilson raised the Christian flag above the American flag for the first time last spring, a message that God is above all, and the move prompted Elizabeth Baptist Church down the road to follow suit around the Fourth of July.

“Our typical flag etiquette is to have the American flag above the Christian flag,” Elizabeth Baptist pastor Rit Varriale told the news site. “But when you stop and think about it, it should be our commitment to God first, then our commitment to country.”

Varriale, a former Army Ranger, said the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage is the result of LGBT activists standing up for what they believe in, and he thinks more Christians should do the same.

“The reality is, they have been willing to sacrifice more and be more bold for their cause than the church of Jesus Christ for serving God, and that’s got to change,” he told WBTV.

He also disregarded critics who question whether it’s the right move.

“I really don’t need a lecture on patriotism, I’m willing to give my life for my country,” Varriable said. “When you think of the military motto, for example, God and country, God first and then country.”

“We know that not everyone is going to agree with that,” Wilson added. “But that’s not going to make us sit down and stop talking about what’s important.”

Information about the flag movement can be found at GodbeforeGovernment.org.