God in the Alley

Starred review from November 8, 2004
In this brief, affecting memoir, Paul chronicles his life as pastor of the evangelical Sanctuary Community in Toronto, which "make it a priority to welcome people who have, for the most part, known only rejection and abuse." As Paul tells stories about prostitutes, drug addicts and abuse victims, he shares an epiphany from early in his ministry: While helping a man with AIDS who had soiled himself, "It became clear that being Jesus to Neil... was most perfectly summed up in the odious task of gently wiping excrement from his foot." Paul goes on, "I recognized that Neil was, at that moment, a physical representation to me of a vulnerable and dying Christ." In a similar vein, Paul writes about Mutt, whose love for his prostitute girlfriend mirrors almost exactly Hosea's love for Gomer and, as such, Jesus' love for humanity. Most refreshing about Paul's book is his awareness that many at Sanctuary may never have a conventional Christian conversion experience or may fall off the wagon even after conversion. In the midst of one story he explains, "This is not a fairy tale. Nobody, in this life at least, lives happily ever after." In Paul's experience, God does not make everything better in this life, but instead allows people to connect redemptively to one another and to Him through their brokenness.