Street pastor preaches love, not fear
TORONTO, ON—God really liked us when he first made us, and He still does.
That's the core truth which street pastor Greg Paul hopes readers will take away from his new book, Close Enough to Hear God Breathe: The Great Story of Divine Intimacy.
"The message that I want people to hear is this," he says, "I think it's very clear that the whole message of scripture, and the whole message of the human life, is that God is saying to you, 'You are my child. I love you and I'm pleased with you'."
Close Enough to Hear God Breathe was published by Thomas Nelson in the fall of 2011. Paul describes the book as "general theology couched in stories". Its focus is a collection of family stories including ones about Paul's four grown children, his work family at Sanctuary street mission and stories from scripture.
"The idea that reading scripture can be an intimate experience is something that's been nagging away at me for a long time," he says. "I've become more and more convinced that the whole gig—whether you're leading a church, or raising a family, or dealing with street level people—the whole thing is about intimacy with Jesus.
"When I truly believe that is what God is saying to me, it changes everything about me. It changes who I am. Yet, it's a lifetime journey of faith, and adventure of faith, to actually believe those things and actually live those things. I don't think it's anything which anyone acquires or approaches easily."
Paul says that the world we live in conditions us against believing that we are unequivocally loved by God—or in fact that we could be unconditionally loved by anyone.
"They are very strident voices and we hear them all around us: in our work places, in our families, on television. Voices who seek to define us for their own benefit. Equivocal voices who tell us 'You're good if you do this. You're bad if you do something else.' Driven by someone else's profit motive, a thirst for power, neediness. We get conditioned to think God will only love us if we do what he requires."
Paul has spent over 20 years as a pastor and member of Sanctuary, a ministry for those excluded by society, including addicts, prostitutes and the homeless. He has written two books about his experience with street-affiliated people called The Twenty-Piece Shuffle and God in the Alley. He says some of the stories collected in his first two books were quite raw, and that he wanted Close Enough to Hear God Breathe to take a gentler, but still uncompromising, look at the same issues of love, faith and belonging.
"When you're next to people who are poor and excluded," he says, "they start to pry the lid off your own stuff, and that can lead you into a more intimate relationship with God.
"The voices that my people have heard—the people who are part of my core community—are voices who say 'You were beaten or raped because you're bad, and that's all you deserve.' The last thing they need to hear is that they are a dirty, rotten sinner on their way to hell. Because whether or not they understand that theologically, they already feel it in their bones.
"What they need to hear is the same thing you or I need to hear. That God says, 'You are my child, and I love you, and I delight in you.'
"If people begin to hear that, it's an incredibly healing word to them. It's the only healing word."
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