I’ve probably put this quote up before, but today I saw it again on Fitch’s blog, and I love it so much I thought I’d just post it here, too. It’s from Gerhard Lohfink’s book Does God Need the Church?:
“It can only be that God begins in a small way, at one single place in the world. There must be a place, visible, tangible, where the salvation of the world can begin: that is, where the world becomes what it is supposed to be according to God’s plan. Beginning at that place, the new thing can spread abroad, but not through persuasion, not through indoctrination, not through violence. Everyone must have the opportunity to come and see. All must have the chance to behold and test this new thing. Then, if they want to, they can allow themselves to be drawn into the history of salvation that God is creating. Only in that way can their freedom be preserved. What drives them to the new thing cannot be force, not even moral pressure, but only the fascination of a world that is changed.”
The fascination of the world that is changed… communities becoming an embodied witness of the reality of the in-breaking kingdom… beautiful stuff.
Beautiful, indeed! I think the challenge is to help existing communities (i.e. the local church), particularly typically evangelical communities, to understand, embrace and become this kind of place.