My hangout in the days before the Rally,  The Potter’s House,  was one of those church ministries that The Church of the Saviour (COS) pioneered,  way back in the late 50’s. My youth minister,  in the early 70’s,  opened a coffeehouse in the basement of one of the church’s “annex” buildings across the street in downtown Owensboro , KY.  By then,  the coffeehouse was a staple in the youth culture,  but COS had provided much of the inspiration for many churches to expand their youth ministries “to the streets”. 

Gordon and Mary Cosby had conceived the idea in D.C. after they realized that they had felt more alive and engaged in a small restaurant they had just visited than they often had in many churches.  There was something about the atmosphere ,  and the encouragement to conversation that struck them,  and they thought about how church should be more like this.

I visit Potter’s House every time I come to D.C.,  often to meet someone with whom I wish to speak about some aspect of ministry.  On a couple of occasions,  I have arranged to meet Gordon Cosby himself. 

I parked my car along the street parking in front of The Potter’s House

and had my morning coffee nearby (I wanted to take a little walk each morning,  so I went down a couple of blocks to a McDonald’s one day,  and to Starbucks the next day.  Had a good breakfast on Friday at Potter’s House.

I saw Gordon Cosby coming out of a meeting upstairs here on Thursday,  and this was the first time I had discovered that he was in a wheelchair.  He has recently (over the last 2-3 months)  moved into Christ House,  which is a ministry COS started back in the mid 80’s to help the sick in the neighborhood (a doctor and his family from Minnesota left his practice to come and be the resident physician).  I tried on Thursday to see if there was an opportunity to talk to Gordon about his move there,  but that was an idea that came too late.  Wish I had thought of that when my friend Bob told me a week ago that Gordon and his wife Mary had sold their house and moved to Christ House. 

COS  remains for me a model;  THE model in my experience,  for what church SHOULD be about.  I have more on them under my “Church of the Saviour” tab at  the top of my blog page here.

Here I am talking(above) with Gordon Cosby at the Potter’s House in March 2006.  (Blog post from March 31, 2006 with my reflections after that trip)

I hope to someday get back and  devote some time to putting together a documentary on what this church has done over the 63 years of its existence (and all of that time began with the founding in 1947 by Gordon and Mary and a few others).   The church as a whole,  of whatever denomination,  needs to keep hearing about this journey of The Church of the Saviour.