The Weight of Mercy: A Novice Pastor on the City Streets

How a nice, 50-something lady quit a good career to pastor a church in a tough neighbourhood. Full of colour and incident, this is a testament to messy grace and the presence of the Spirit in the hard places of the world. For 27 years Deb was a journalist in Greenville, South Carolina. Then she retrained as a Baptist pastor, and accepted a post at Triune Mercy Center, a run-down inner-city church. It proved a shock. All preconceived notions had to be set aside as Deb spent long hours working with the cranky staff to dispense food, clothes, medicines and respect to the street people of Greenville. Gradually she started to learn whom she could trust. Sometimes the best person to handle a situation might themselves be a drug addict. Sometimes Jesus had the face of a black girl who worked the streets. Then the street people started to trust her too …