Jean Larroux on WAAY 31
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On Sunday, there will be a new pastor in the pulpit at Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville. After a year and a half of searching, the church selected Jean F. Larroux, III to lead the congregation of about 1,700. Larroux was born in New Orleans and grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He was an assistant pastor at a large church in Memphis, when Hurricane Katrina hit five years ago. Within months, he and his family had returned to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi to help rebuild the community.
It was a big change for Larroux. His church in Memphis had about 3,000 members. In comparison, he says, “the church in Bay St. Louis, we had about 65 people. We had a dog that would regularly be in the front row of our service, a hole in the roof sometimes. I’d wear flip flops and shorts to preach in.” It was a life he and his family loved, but they left it all behind, when the call came from Southwood Presbyterian.
Of their decision, Larroux says, “God’s the one who decides where I live, and that’s not pious. It’s really self-preservation. I’ve read the book of Jonah. If God calls you to go somewhere and you don’t go, you just get vomited on the shore, so I believe, in the truest sense, God was moving my family and I up here to Huntsville, to be able to serve and be part of this city.”
Larroux believes the greatest spiritual challenge facing Huntsville may be, “how put together and well-off she is, because it’s easy when a hurricane hits to see the need and the brokenness in the community, but when your Volvo works and your house with…the garage door opens, and you can go in at night and find yourself in your fortress, what happens is you insulate yourself from everything, until all of a sudden life falls apart.”
“You lose your marriage. You lose your business. You lose your children, and you lose your friends because you filed for bankruptcy. All of a sudden that’s when it unravels, and to see the brokenness before it’s that messy and to love people that broken, is really my hope.” Larroux also hopes that by preaching grace, “people are transformed to love other people who are messy.” He believes the church is supposed to be a place where sinners are not only welcomed but embraced.
-Reposted from WAAY http://www.waaytv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12965317