A man who survived the deadly shooting at a Texas church on Sunday says his "heart goes out" to the gunman's family and that he is praying for them "because they have to live with this".

Two people were killed when the gunman opened fire during a service at West Freeway Church in White Settlement before being shot dead by a member of the congregation. 

West Freeway Church member John Richardson and his wife hit the ground when the shots were fired, with Mr Richardson lying on top of his wife to protect her from harm. 

He told the WFAA news network that evil was behind the attack and that he did not hate the gunman for what he did.  

"We have to understand that evil is everywhere and that no matter preaching or teaching, if evil's going to try to do something horrible, evil's going to do something horrible," he said. 

"All you can do is do your best to stop evil from happening to more people." 

Turning his thoughts to the attacker, he said that despite his actions, he was still "a creature of God" and that the events of Sunday were "sad".

"I don't know what his mental state was but my heart goes out to his family because they have to live with this," he said. 

"And I know he took some lives but we have to remember that he is a creature of God also just like we are.  And it's a sad thing that he had to come into the congregation and hurt people, and it's a sad thing that we had to hurt him, but I don't have any hate for this person."

He went on to encourage others to respond to the attack not with hatred but by loving others more.

"We can't have hate for these people, we can't have hate for anybody that does hate for us," he said. 

"We have to live out the life of Christ that wants us to teach and preach and be that example of His on earth to every person we can meet. 

"And that's all we can do.  We just have to pick up the pieces and go on and take care of who we can take care of, and appreciate every moment you have, and love everybody with the love of Christ."