Originally broadcast at 1:00 p.m. ET Tuesday, August 3, 2021.

Edgar Rodriguez serves concurrently as Police Chief of Moville Police Department and lead Pastor of New Hope Evangelical church in Moville, Iowa. In both vocations he embodies the best for what can be expected and hoped.

Born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico in 1972 to Marisela and Hector Rodriguez, he and his family were brought to the US when he was a toddler by his father, who had become a citizen. Educated in US public schools, after graduation from Eagle Pass Highschool, he joined the Marine Corps, serving for four active years. While in the Marine Corps he met his beautiful wife Denise Rodriguez, and they married in 1993, subsequently being blessed with five wonderful children. The family moved to Iowa in 2010 to relaunch Moville Evangelical Church into New Hope Evangelical Church. While serving in the church he began to engage with the larger community and became Chaplain for the Woodbury County Sheriff Department in 2013, also joining the Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Reserve in the same year. He graduated from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy in 2017.

Holder of a BA in Pastoral Ministry and Theology from Vennard College, University Park Iowa, and a Master of Ministry from Pacific Evangelical School of Ministry, Portland Oregon, Reverend Rodriguez has been lead pastor of New Hope Evangelical Church for 17 years.

In 2011, upon learning about food insecurity in Iowa, he founded the Community Basket Mobile Food Pantry, which serves Moville and ten surrounding towns, a labor of love for which he has received several awards. He was recently awarded a Woodbury County Declaration of Outstanding Service, as well as the State of Iowa Governor's Award for his work with the Community Basket. While in Portland, Oregon, he had received the Phil & Keturah Pennington Award, the highest award given by the commissioner of the City of Portland.

Edgar Rodriguez’s primary claim to fame, however, is that he loves the Lord Jesus Christ and his family dearly.

This program is made possible by the Gertrude Elser Schroeder Fund.

About Chautauqua Institution: Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. CHQ Assembly is the online expression of Chautauqua Institution's mission.