January 26, 2024

Another Postcard from your Pastor

We have returned from a brief but immersive few days in Paris. There we found ourselves at the tail-end of “Fashion Week” in Paris, encountering moments of celebrity and fanatic responses to it. We also found locations such as the Opera House and the Champs-Élysées filled with people, as well as cafés overflowing with conversation and crowds. We saw a luminated, glistening Eiffel Tower by night, giving evidence of why Paris is called the “City of Light.” And though we found many evidences of Christendom in the many churches and the saint-names streets we passed by, we saw less evidence of a living faith as the light in that city.

We returned to London to visit the Tower of London and immerse ourselves in that city’s history. A history that includes church and state interwoven from its inception and through its many centuries up to today. We also revisited England’s history of religion and politics leading to violence and executions, leaving no shortage of martyrs of all stripes of faith. We were reminded, as one guide succinctly stated, of when the “zealous evangelicals sought to establish a conservative theocracy” by civil war.

All of which brings to mind the image of a Notre Dame Cathedral being rebuilt, reminding us that the church of Christ is always and forever under construction and reconstruction; until God’s Reign is fully established on earth.

May we continue our labors on and for Christ’s Church with confidence in the Master Builder, whose patterns we strive to follow.

With audacious hope,
~ Pastor Todd