pat loughery

Another quote from Elizabeth O’Connor’s Call to Commitment, p. 129-130:

“We have had members in a mission group who felt that the group existed for them and for the strength it could give to them and for the feeling of togetherness it would produce for them. These are the ones who in low moments say, ‘I almost didn’t come tonight. I felt it would do me more good to rest.’ This is to miss out entirely on the evangelistic function of the mission group. The group does meet for the nurture of its own members, but it also meets in order that God may have an instrument through which God’s power may come and through which God’s life may break in new ways for the world. If the person has not grasped this concept also, that person does not yet know that discipleship is discipleship beneath a cross. We have seen miracles in our community, but we have seen no miracle that did not come out of sacrificial giving“.

(emphasis mine)