This post follows on from my post called The simplicity of Love
Since going to that conference (and leaving) and then watching the DVD of Mother Teresa the next day, I was faced with two complete opposites (or so it seems to me). I have been challenged in two areas:
- The importance of love (and the relative un-importance of signs and wonders)
- I am again reconsidering what church really should be
Mother Teresa decides she needs to start a new "congregation" (a church), which is apart from the one she was already a member of. The new congregation she starts is entirely focussed on reaching out. Church is every day and it's all day for the attendees. Every day the people who attend this congregation go out from the building to love the people in need.
They go out to feed others, expecting Jesus to help them do it (as He said He would). Now compare that to our churches these days where we come to be fed.
When she went to the Vatican in Rome, she offered to start a congregation there too! Just imagine… she went to the vatican and offered to set up a church IN the vatican. It's like taking snow to the eskimos!! She explained her logic, she said something like: "in India the people are dying for the need of food and here (in first world Italy) they are dying for a need of love".
Love is the critical need in our western society.
These two things that are stirring inside of me are challenging me to my core.
- What should a church really look like?
- How can we love the people around us in the modern cities?
What truly bothers me to my core is… can this command of Jesus… can Christianity… really be so simple?
Faith + Hope + Love 