Bound in Love

Since the church is no longer in the heart of the broader culture, it can do little by means of the traditional methods of diplomacy, developing relationships and maintaining influential positions. We don’t have any influential positions anymore. But we can still be witnesses. Consider the witness of Mother Teresa. She spent her life treating the discarded people of Calcutta. By the power of her witness, she was invited to places of earthly power like Harvard University and the White House. And she spoke truth to power in both places. She was not interested in cultivating influence with Harvard or the president, she was only interested in serving her Lord Jesus Christ. But by her personal witness, and the witness of the ladies who join her order, that white stare with the blue stripes has become a worldwide icon of the love and mercy of God. Mother Teresa is a great example of the power of witness as the prelude to teaching.

And what will the church do in an apostolic age with those who are not her members? She will demand more from her members and apostolic time, and she will expect less from those who are not her members. Remember the instructions Jesus gave to his disciples about going into a town and only staying there if their peace rested in that town. In an apostolic age, the church cannot waste its energies on those who do not want to experience its witness. Our witness is our proposal; in a Christendom culture we could do more than propose, we could impose, but not in an apostolic age.