When your church is a refuge for drug addicts, prostitutes and the homeless, perfect-life theology becomes worthless. At this link, Anne Dannerolle, of the Lighthouse Project of Hull Community Church in the UK tells how real life is painful and messy but still has room for hope. She put into words my own experience upon starting Breakthrough as a ministry to street people out of a church in Chicago. Knowing people on the margins has similarly changed my reading of Scripture and my concept of theology.