People / Projects

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In ministry, we must intentionally try to interact with others like people, not projects. We must see them as more than as a sick person, as poor, as disenfranchised, as an immigrant, as whatever.

We name their suffering, but not label them by that name. Individuals are not defined by their ailments.

At the most basic level, this means learning their names, where they are from, their family, etc.

Like a certain story in John: There was not just a sick man—his name was Lazarus. He had two sisters, Mary and Martha. He lived in a small stop-along-the-way-to-somewhere-bigger town called Bethany, where Jesus happened to stop often enough that he developed a relationship with the whole family.

These are not inconsequential details—they humanize Lazarus. They make him a real person with a real life in the midst of real suffering worthy of real compassion.

Rodger Otero

I'm a husband-father-musician-pastor trying to make a decent contribution to the world. California is the Motherland, North Carolina has my heart, Georgia is Home. These are mostly my riffs on formation, leadership, and being fully human.

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