Where Dignity is Conferred

Dear Crosswalkers,

Greetings from Paraguay! Thank you so much for your prayers, as this week we have had triple digit heat this week while teaching in a decidedly non air conditioned prison. To put in politely, Angel and I were perspiring profusely. In more colloquial terms, we were sweating like stuck pigs! Cameras are no longer allowed in Tacumbu prison, except possibly on Fridays. Hopefully I can get some photos then. Above is a photo of REMAR director Pepe with Angel, and Tacumbu prison is in the background. In addition to two teaching sessions, we also tested the water in the prison and provided two clean water filters. We also had some wonderful meetings with the Christian leadership within the prison. The teaching sessions have all been on Spiritual leadership, Servant leadership, and on Friday we will look at Transforming leadership. Tomorrow we will visit another prison that has opened up to Angel's ministry.

I promised a second book review in this week's posting, so here are some nuggets from a book that may be of primary interest to only people like me. The book is Eugene Peterson's spiritual autobiography entitled The Pastor: A Memoir. Of course I was blessed by his thoughts of what it means to be a pastor, but more pertinent were his thoughts on what it means to be a congregation, a church, a family of God. Here are some quotes from the author's nearly 30 years of experience pastoring the same church:

Before anything else, church is a place where a person is named and greeted, whether implicitly or explicitly, in Jesus's name. A place where dignity is conferred... If the life of David that comprised prayer and adultery and murder could be written and told as a gospel story, no one in my congregation would be written off.  For me, my congregation would become a work-in-progress - a novel in which everyone and everything is connected in a salvation story in which Jesus has the last word!

Isn't that a great description of church! It is my prayer that at Crosswalk Church would be a place where dignity is conferred, and where for each of our life stories, Jesus has the last word!

Blessings,

Pastor John