OTTUMWA —
I moved from southern Minnesota to Ottumwa six months ago to serve as the pastor of St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran and Munterville Lutheran Churches. Since moving here, I’ve had many positive interactions with individuals who live and work here.
In September, I had the opportunity to meet other pastors in Ottumwa when I was told of an upcoming Christian men’s breakfast. I attended the breakfast and met men and pastors from the community. A week later, I attended a “COMMUNITY OF UNITY” worship service sponsored by these same pastors. The following Wednesday, I joined the pastors for lunch at a local restaurant. The next week I again met them for lunch, however, something seemed to have changed. I was told that I was not welcome to join them for lunch, prayer or worship in the future because my Lutheran understanding of God’s love and grace revealed through Jesus Christ and the Scripture was different than their understanding.
Prior to the lunch, the owner of a local radio station in Ottumwa contacted me and asked if I would be willing to pray live on the radio. I said yes, and we agreed that I would come in on Oct. 23 to pray during the prayer and praise programming. That invitation was subsequently rescinded after I had lunch the second time with the pastors. I can only assume that the owner was told or did not think God would listen to my prayers.
I have met with other pastors in Ottumwa who are very open to meeting regularly. If there are pastors interested, I would be happy to share how, when and where this is happening. I suggest you may want to ask your pastor if he/she is building walls that divide or breaking down walls to unite.
Pastor Ron Barnett
Ottumwa
Letters to the Editor
October 22, 2012
Building walls or breaking them down?
- Letters to the Editor
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- Ask for salvation now Ask for salvation now Matthew, Mark and John were eyewitnesses of Jesus -- they wrote what they learned! Read Matthew 10:28. There is a hell! Pray to God! Ask for salvation! Ronald S. Davis Ottumwa Spend money on park To the city council members
- Spend some money on the park To the city council members, park director and the mayor: Where does the money go that they took in this year? They need to spend some of the money to fix up the park. Fill some of the holes in the park. Also, they need to cut some limbs from the tre
- Pay attention to safety concerns Time to make Ottumwa a quiet zone for trains, it would make for safer crossings that cannot be driven around when the arms are down. Then they can also concentrate on that instead of changing all of the traffic flow at Evans Middle School, opening cl
- Injuries to infants, children can be prevented In the April 25 Courier, there were two stories of very young children who may have been severely harmed by a caretaker. We only know the circumstances revealed by the media, but our community has heard of these tragedies before. Only about 2 percent
- Church extends a heartfelt thanks As I sit here in my office that still smells of smoke from the fire our church suffered this past week, I remind myself how fortunate we are to be in a city where people still watch out for one another, and we, the members of the First Church of God,
- Program helps new parents In light of recent developments, I would like to increase the public's awareness of the NEST Program available through our Wapello County Extension and Outreach at 214 E. Main St. This program is available for parents of newborns through age 5, as we
- One giant mud hole to China Once upon a time, long, long ago, the neighbor kids and I used to like to dig in the ditch after a nice rain and make mud pies. We’d squat beside our hole in the ground with our long-handled spoons and take turns digging and filling our muffin pans
- Superintendent says 'thank you' May is School Board Appreciation Month. Today, the district held its Staff Appreciation and Teacher of the Year Breakfast, and last week was the Faculty Follies program organized by the Education Foundation for Fairfield Public Schools. I am full of
- Address mental health concerns for veterans Memorial Day will soon be here and we will pay tribute to our deceased loved ones. This Memorial Day, let's pay special tribute to our deceased veterans — like my dad — Don Butts, who served in World War II (Battle of the Bulge — one of the worst bat
- It's the death of a republic It's the death of a republic Our first president -- and founding father -- once said during his administration that "at best, government is a fearful master; at worst, it is a consuming fire." During the later 20th century, the number of defenseles
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