I thought you’d like to see my favourite picture of Oscar, my dog. Despite his prognosis, he’s still alive and very much active. He’s obviously a real fighter with a great love for life. Some days his belly is very hard with the tumour and occasionally he has a bad day. Sometimes he’s a little wobbly on his feet, but he still demands to go for a walk! All in all, it’s a pleasure to have him still around.
Yesterday, Carla and I read through the two Thessalonian letters written by Paul, the apostle, in the Message version of the Bible. We were both overwhelmed by the love, concern and encouragement that Paul had for the church in Thessalonica. I think there are many modern ‘apostles’ and church planting specialists who need to take a good hard look at these letters. There were no recriminations or unrealistic demands made upon this church plant – just solid, loving and supportive encouragement.
We were also stuck by the reputation the church had for it’s love for one another – a reputation that was noticed far and wide. Our thoughts were, “We want to belong to a church like that and have loving leadership like Paul’s”.
Lord, let there be a rediscovery of the ‘Pastoral Gift’ in the leaders of our day.