The Church

For those of you who thought the reformation was dead… tonight at dinner I was discussing the church and relationships between different religions here (meaning between Catholic, Evangelical, Lutheran, etc.) with Padre Horacio and Esther. Padre Horacio said that we are catholic because Christ is in the center of our church and we are apostolic because we preach only the gospel of Jesus Christ. When those two things are present there is church, he said, and when those two things are not present it is not church.

And because he and others dare to preach Christ alone, they suffer. He has received death threats, suffers from various groups spreading lies about him and the ILAG, has been asked to leave churches because he works with the poor and the indigenous instead of only with the wealthy and many others.

Yet… people keep hearing about the work of this church and coming to them for help, to hear the gospel when others have turned them away or not handed over the gospel to them… instead demanding money or other things before they can receive the sacrament, marriage, forgiveness, or burial. The church is growing.

Yep, Christ is at work in His church through the Holy Spirit and at times church is happening here in Guatemala just as it is happening at times wherever you are attending. What a gift!

So as Padre Horacio said to a woman who came to ask where she should go to church, “Which church is near your home? Go there, and if you need to you are always welcome at the Lutheran Church as well.”