Rich Villodas is a pastor in a Queens, NYC neighborhood that National Geographic calls “the most diverse zip code in the world.” As he leads others who have a variety of experiences, Rich has seen that if we lead with love and go out of our way to see every single person as beautiful, no matter their differences, we will begin to see wholeness and beauty like never before.
Quotes
“My identity is not rooted in having the right opinion about a particular issue. My identity is rooted in the love of Jesus. And if I can begin from that point, then I can live not without conviction, but I can live more open handedly with greater curiosity, with a greater capacity to ask questions.” - Rich Villodas
“Whenever disagreements, conflicts and tensions surface, which are inevitable and have happened since the very beginning of human existence, my hope is that people would see, number one, their identity is in God. But number two, because of that, one of the great acts of love is to actually step into the world as someone else. And this is the way of Jesus.” - Rich Villodas
“I think at the core of sin is a failure to love. Jesus said that the first and greatest commandment was to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors ourselves. And so if the greatest commandment is rooted in love, then sin must be failure to love, failure to love God, and failure to love our neighbor as ourselves.” - Rich Villodas
“Naming the reality and normalizing conflict is the first step to actually addressing it. A lot of people believe that to experience conflict means it's a sign of the unhealthy. I actually think that to never experience conflict is actually a sign of the unhealthy.” - Rich Villodas
“To live into goodness and beauty and kindness in our world, we need to remember that every single person is made in the image of God. Every single person is beautiful, beautifully made in the image of God. And imagine if we began to see each other in this way as people who were creations of a God who calls us lovely and lived into our lovableness in that way.” - Rich Villodas
Guest’s Links
Rich Villodas’ Website
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
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*Episode produced by Four Eyes Media*
