Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Convo with Otto Wegner

Pastor Otto Wegner,

Pastor of highway tabernacle in Philadelphia PA, Second oldest AG church (in the world) Was a pastor of a Large successful suburban church in New Jersey. Before he arrived there the church had dropped from 750 to 100 people. Planted a church in another part of the region to establish relations with the people who had left the church and regained full membership. US missions came to him and asked him if he would be interested in helping with a church in Urban America, so after prayer and thought he left this thriving church to move into the city, which was something that had a negative connotation. A good quote from him is that “poor people are easier to reach than the rich”. Isolation is brought from money. He believes this is a huge reason why he has had success in the neighborhood of his church. While reaching the poor in his community are still reached even though his church is very effective while still reaching the affluent community. He is also the pastor of a church in north philly that is much lower along on the poverty food chain. This church is also thriving because of the churches commitment to reaching the poor. Taking this church was a massive undertaking because of the dilapidation of the church. Through much help from other churches and organizations the church was able to be restructured into a fitting church. Another quote I found great was while pastor Wegner was speaking on politics and said that “Jesus didn’t call us to lead he called us to follow”