What comes to mind when you hear the word paradise? Maybe it’s a pristine beach, a mountain retreat, or a peaceful escape—untouched and far removed from the mess of the world. I was fortunate enough to visit a place many would call paradise: the island of Barbados. With its crystalline waters, coral reefs, lush vegetation, and the salty-sweet breeze lingering in the air, it checks all the boxes.
But my idea of paradise was changed by something unexpected.
Tucked into a quarried mountainside in Barbados is a small church called Church Village Church of Christ. Aside from its tropical setting, there’s nothing particularly idyllic about the location, especially when you learn it used to be a landfill—a literal dump. One of the common words used by Jesus for the word we translate as “hell” was Gehenna. Gehenna was a ravine on the south side of Jerusalem with a dark past (for those interested, look into 2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6). Gehenna became an unclean dump where trash continually burned. That is where we dwelled before we met Christ, and it was our final destination until we were rescued from that land and redeemed by Christ.
In that Bajian dump, Pastor Kenroy Clarke had a vision that this place of decay could become a place of life. And it has. That vision continues to grow, not just in physical structure, but in spiritual impact.
It was there, standing on once-discarded land, that I saw a more compelling version of paradise. Not a place without brokenness, but a place where brokenness has been redeemed. A sanctuary where the gospel is not only preached but embodied. It is through my experience at this church that my love for the local church has grown exponentially. Through this moment in Barbados, along with God’s promptings over the last several years, my eyes have been opened to the beautiful mission, purpose, and value of the local church.
It is in the church that people worship through song, hear the spoken Word, pray, confess sin, partake in the sacraments, encourage and serve one another, and grow in the knowledge of God and humanity. It is through the local church that people build deep, gospel-centered relationships, are impacted by the testimonies of others, and are encouraged through a brotherhood of believers to mature into the image of Christ. It is also a place where people experience major moments in their lives. They marry the person they love in front of God and a group of witnesses, they welcome a new baby into their family, they say goodbye to loved ones, they recognize the work of God in their lives as strongholds are demolished, and they publicly profess their faith in the waters of baptism.
What has encouraged me about the history behind Church Village Church of Christ is how it is a physical outworking of the gospel. Together, the church took a piece of land meant for destruction, used only for the discarded, and repurposed it for good. That is the story of the church, is it not? The church is unlike anything else in the world. The broken, the downtrodden, the losers, the failures, and those overlooked are remade and given a new purpose for God’s glory. While the places and institutions of humanity are decaying, living in subjection to darkness, the church is the place where Life can be found in the person and work of Jesus, the only giver of true, eternal Paradise.
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